Hotel Sentosa Kuala Belait

Our first and only switch-off day! Lazy breakfast, interrupted by the arrival of a group of macaques marauding around Vanessa's compound. They vandalise rubbish bins and anything left outside. It sounds exciting to outsiders; apparently quite frightening to some residents.<br>And then it's off to the Panaga Club for a bit of r &amp; r or slobbing to be precise. Cloudy ...

Our second and final day in the jungle. A longboat ride upriver to a new, developing tourist centre, to experience a canopy walk. The trek up the riverside was very steep and the same mixture of hundreds of short wooden steps and slippy trails. In the jungle heat though it was a bit of a challenge - great exercise and a good way to lose lots of fluid. We reached the aluminium tower eventually. A complicated structure, a bit like climbing stepped sections of scafolding with walkways in ...

A hot night in the jungle. The toilets had a unique flushing system, but at least it wasn't one of those squat thingies that need Barnes Wallis trajectory skills! A unique breakfast of fried (sort of) egg and boiled frankfurter sausage and weak tea, then into a longboat to visit another longhouse for the Penan people. The Penans used to be nomadic and still don't want to live in prefabricated settlements. A depressing visit to a people who have lost their identity ...

We said civilised farewells to most of our fellow travellers, though we missed the Twitchers. Mr Binoculars had doubtless dragged his missus off to spot something or another.<br>Tony drove us to the airport for our flight to Miri, second city of Sarawak. An uneventful 1-hour flight to Miri, and then the reality of our situation - we weren't too sure how we were going to get to the Brunei border from Miri. There are coaches, but they take an eternity and stop ...

... terminal. We were getting more and more frustrated because we were both hungry. So we ate rice in a cafe and faced the situation anew. There was supposed to be a regular local bus to the terminal but it didn't seem to be showing up and we were running out of time so we had to take a taxi. The dappy lady that we had bought our Sibu-to-Miri bus ticket from had said the journey would take four hours. We're used to not totally believing anyone except the ...

... clean" and woke up at seven and left. It wasn't very traumatic though, I slept fine which is all I'm really concerned with. We are in Miri now and our accommodation here is a lot better. It's homely and clean, the facilities are really good and it's as though you are staying in someone's flat. Very nice. On the nature front there is some exciting news. I saw a hornbill. Only very briefly, so I hope I will get another opportunity, but it was very exciting none the ...

... it, including the part where we took a wrong turn and got lost and ended up in a huge field which has turned into a big paddy field, filled with rainwater. Argi had to carry me in his arms to cross the field to reach the dirt road at the other end. Right there in the pouring rain, we embraced and kissed like two teenagers on their first camping trip!! I wish we had taken some photos of the "paddy field" but it was already ...

... asked her about Bario, which was our next destination. We were under the impression that we needed to book things well in advance and had to find a group of people making the same trek we were - if we didn't, we assumed we'd end up stranded. Joanne told me it wasn't so, and she recommended that we just book a flight and get up there. She also recommended a little homestay in Bario, that I took under advisement. With that knowledge, we decided to try and get to Bario the next ...

... Jill was waiting at Bandar airport (patiently as we were 40 minutes late) and we drove the hour and a half along the coast to her house just outside the Army garrison at Kuala Belait. We were welcomed by Rod (her husband) and Milo and Dom their children (who are now grown up teenagers and I hadn't met them before!). Milo had given up his room for us so we have a fab room with a really comfy double bed with cotton sheets and duvet and air con and we were able to fully unpack ...

... Mi Goreng before boarding the bus and getting prepared for a long(16 hour) journey to Kuching. The bus had amazing seats that we could recline almost all the way and a really loud speaker system that was playing alright (for Asian standards) music until the bloody Crazy Frog and Mai-a-hee (Numa Numa) songs came on and I wanted to smash the CD. I didn't and we had to listen to the CD 5 times on a loop! I was going crazy. Got to about 7pm and I decided it was going to be an ...