Strange signs from our trip......

We've observed a few strange signs along the way on our trip over the past year.


This was a common one on buses in Rio, where people in certain seats are encouraged to give up their seats e.g. elderly people or people with babies.  Some of the categories may be a little harder to discern than others though, so be careful when offering your seat for the first category in case you upset somebody......

We saw this on the mountain train from Curitiba. Given the number of tunnels, its probably not bad advice, even if it appears slightly obvious.





Here's one that Louis saw in the bus terminal at Sao Paolo, probably a good place to go if you need a packet of Rennies.

For those of you who wondered what happened to Smashie and Nicey, they are alive and well in Ihla do Mel, in Brazil.......

This sign, in Ubatuba, North of Sao Paolo, was a great idea to help you cross the road.  It basically had a countdown from 45 seconds every time it was the pedestrian's turn to cross the road.  Never did find out what the Fat Lab building was though, even though we walked past it a few times.......

In Argentina, on the way to the Perito Moreno Glacier, we wondered whether our little hire car would cope with the road ahead.......

In Kuala Lumpur, we were on the hunt for dinner with the Guanos, here's one of the places we avoided. 

Here's an example of one of the meals there that we DIDN'T try.

Apologies for the schoolboy humour.......but we are travelling with two schoolboys!!

A vote for kindness

As we drove towards the little coastal town of Kota Besud, the ferry point for the Perhentian Islands, you couldn’t help notice that today was an unusual day.  Bunting was everywhere, people thronged the streets waving flags.  Perhaps a visiting dignitary? a public holiday? News of Baders on Tour coming through? No, in fact it was election fever, and the flags were for the different candidates.  

Add caption

How could we refuse to 'vote' with these lovely people!

There were clearly two dominant parties, and as the traffic slowed to a crawl, we could see happy people waving their flags, we opened our windows and cheered with them, and a couple of kind ladies gave our boys some blow up flag each to wave.  We had inadvertently found ourselves supporting the “blue” party (although we did put our blue flags away when we later drove through the predominantly ‘green’ part of town!)

I’d like to say that we stopped to find out about their manifestos and policies, but alas, given the taxi driver didn’t speak a word of English, I’m afraid we made our notional decision of who to support based on the friendliness of the people we’d encountered, and their kindness with the boys.   Still, it did spawn a conversation about voting and elections at home so whilst the boys aren’t exactly counting down the days until they can vote, they do have a slightly better understanding than before we drove through that little town. 

And as we passed through the town again a week later, we saw the town was bathed in blue bunting still.  Perhaps kindness had won the day.

Not much happened in the UK today......?

I get the impression that it was a quiet day in the UK.  How do I know this? Well we are generally out of touch with things at home, but on a flight yesterday, I picked up the “Malay Times”, for a summary of the latest international news from the previous 24 hours.

Their London-based correspondent, after, no doubt, a meticulous survey of all possible newsworthy stories nationally, led with a story about how a dog in Exmouth, locked in a car on a hot day, had set off the car alarm. I think the dog was called “Sweaty.” He survived, thankfully.

Still, they sometimes say no news is good news. 

What do two million bats look like?

We enjoy an adventure, but lets be frank: sliding through claustrophobically thin, muddy gaps in caves doesn’t overly appeal to us.  Actually the sliding through isn’t so bad, it’s more the getting stuck that is the problem.  

Nevertheless, we found other reasons to make the effort of two separate flights by propellor plane to reach the caves of Mulu National Park, set deep in the vast (remaining) rainforests of Sarawak.   Firstly, it hosts access to Deer Cave, the world’s largest cave passage, and secondly, you can witness the extraordinary sight of a two million strong bat exodus at just before dusk.  

By the way - is it just me that feels a trifle uneasy when your window seat is directly by the propellors, such that, however unlikely it may seem, if one of the propellor blades DID manage to detach itself, the most likely destination would be slicing through my little window.  If I pressed my head back into my seat, I might just get a way with a shaved nose I suppose.......

So when we finally arrived at the tiny airport of Mulu, anticipation levels were running high.  As if to suspend our excitement, we decided to leave the bat exodus and Deer Cave for the last day, and headed off next morning by boat up the river ahead of a hike to a couple of other caves, and later also enjoying a night walk. 

Of course I'd have volunteered my finger,
but I had to concentrate on the photograph....

Amongst our encounters were a huntsman spider which we was not quite as large as we’d imagined........until we saw another one twice the size shortly after! Somehow they don’t look quite as scarey on a tree as they do on your pillow, but nevertheless they are poisonous and you should keep well away.  We learned a useful rule of thumb for spiders: If they are bigger than your thumb, keep away! OK, here's the real rule.  If they use a web to catch their prey, they are less likely to be poisonous - their web is their weapon, whereas spiders that hunt with no web need poison as their weapon to attack their prey.  (The Australian funnel web and red-back are two exceptions, however.) 

Black-bearded gliding lizard - that glided away off Frankie's hand as if to prove this.

VERY noisy tree frog

Borneo red cricket

Wagler's pit viper. (So what's it doing in a tree?  The
'pit' refers to the characteristic dents in it's cheeks)

Another river adventure.........

Very tempting to jump on one, where better to try a real Tarzan impression?

Although we've been in many caves over the years, Jules and I had never heard of helictites. These are primarily sideways growths, where a water droplet gets to the edge of a small hole and teeters for so long that it deposits it’s microscopically small limestone crystal on the edge, and over time (a very long time) more crystals are deposited and the helictite grows outwards.  

Example of a helictite

Great white rock shark

T-Rex.....apparently

Only 2,000 years to go then......

The following day, we hiked 4 km to Deer Cave. It was absolutely vast.  The entire cave system is over 200km long.  We walked in well over a kilometre, before the cave passage began to narrow.

The cave was so tall, that unlike the other caves we’d seen, there are no stalagmites - it was explained to us that the water frequently evaporates before it reaches the bottom! This seemed at odds with the steady streams of drops that we could see in front of us everywhere.  Then we realised that this in fact was not lovely, refreshing, cool water, but warm, smelly bat pee, cascading down from the millions of little bats clinging to the roof of the cave! But to be fair, the smell of bat pee pales next to the pungent stench from the bat poo that is EVERYWHERE!  

It's much, much bigger than this meagre effort shows

The final thrill was to watch the bat exodus.  We stared at the cave in anticipation from about 300 metres away.  Strange that this massive cave now looked small, set into the side of a larger mountain. After a while, we saw this curious brown-grey flickering, it was the first tranche of the bats exiting.  They flew outwards and upwards, towards the last rays of the sun, before turning an imaginary corner and spiralling across the sky above us like some peculiar horizontal tornado. As you looked closely, you could see thousands and thousands of bats flying broadly together but each one seemingly moving in random motion within this wider whole. And after they passed, we saw wave after wave of the same thing, almost as if they had arranged to leave the cave in organised groups. It was an amazing sight, and made the lengthy trip well worth the effort.

They just kept coming and coming.......you could hear
an almost menacing buzzing sound as they passed overhead.

Louis and Frankie - jungle rangers for the day!

There is a Nature Reserve attached to the Rasa Ria Resort near Kota Belud, in Sabah, Borneo where there are four orangutans living in the semi-wild.  This means effectively that they live in the wild forest, but can come to the feeding stations if they like, where they can then be observed.  And why wouldn't they, it's a hearty meal. 

We read  that a couple of lucky kids can get up close to the orangutans by being rangers for the day.  The drawback is that you have to be resident at the hotel, which is no great hardship really, as it’s highly luxurious, providing you can afford the cost.  Well it was way beyond the budget but we figured for one night, if it helped the boys have a special and memorable experience, then we’d make the sacrifice.......

We weren’t disappointed - but that’s enough about the incredible dinner and breakfast buffet. The boys had to take a medical in order to ensure that they wouldn’t be passing any dodgy diseases onto the animals, and were delighted to be given a clean bill of health. 

Frankie getting a clean bill of health

We headed to the Nature Reserve and saw a video all about an Orangutan called Cinta who had been rescued when she was very small and nurtured there for four years before being returned to the semi-wild at Sepilok.  We realised that we had met Cinta when we'd been up at Sepilok a few weeks ago, so it made the film all the more real for us. 

We saw the boys go past with the Head Ranger, they were wearing their new green ranger t-shirts and matching caps, looking very professional indeed!  Their first task was to prepare the food for the Head Ranger to give to the orangutans.  

Jules and I walked for about 10 minutes to get to the orangutan feeding platform and noticed a little orangutan already on a distant tree making his way there, he was small and very cute and we got a much closer view than we did at Sepilok. At one point he was no more than 3 metres from us. He did lots of tricks on the ropes which included falling off a couple of times and rolling a little way down the hill!

Oops.  Now I've got to climb back up again!

We had hoped the boys would get closer than we did, but, in fact, as they arrived later than us with the food, this wasn’t the case.  They did join us on the platform though and got a very good view too.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Louis explained:  “We gave them lots of chopped up fruit and vegetables such as, carrot, lychees, aubergines, beans and lots lots more!!!!!!!!!!

Frankie added: “Greedy orangutans! I chopped up at least 75 carrots! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I thought that we would get to sit on the platform with them, but we didn’t, which was very frustrating.   But at least we saw them and it was closer than the ones we saw at Sepilok, even though there were nowhere near as many.  Afterwards I was very excited to be feeding the goats, ducks and fish too.“

We like our new outfits!

Boys with their Ranger Certificates

Our jungle camp at the tip of Borneo

We spent three nights up near the tip of Borneo, where the South China Sea meets the Sulu Sea, a windy, deserted and beautiful part of the world.  

As if to emphasise the jungle nature of the camp, we arrived in darkness, seemingly passing through dense forest to find our way to our little huts - we had two huts, one for Louis and I, one for Jules and Frankie.  There was an inner tent, with just enough room for two people to lie down, surrounded by a mozzie net, and then a small area - still under the “outer” thatched roof - to leave your bags and sandals. It was very cosy. 

There was a communal area where you could chat, get water and play with the 2 week old kittens, which the boys did at every opportunity. 

Very comfy as long as you don't stand up. 

Jules and Frankie off with the fairies

The compost loos

The camp is owned by Howard Stanton and his wife, a lovely local lady called Lorina. They also own the Tip Top restaurant by the sea some 20 minutes walk away, serving delicious food and being a relaxed and comfortable hang-out for backpackers.  He has ambitious plans to extend the camp with larger tents, as well as open a cafe there to serve Rungus (local) food. This will complement the restaurant he already own a couple of kms a way on the coast where we ate most days.   He is building a nature reserve, a museum and an education centre, all part of a wider plan to make the jungle more accessible to schoolchildren and visitors alike. 

The beach by his restaurant is wonderful.  It is so warm, you walk straight in without having to commit to “going under” to get wet.  The waves were pretty big so we didn’t need to mess around with snorkels, the wave jumping was fantastic fun and the boys loved it. At one point Louis and I went a little too far out and were nearly caught out by a sequence of half a dozen much bigger waves that towered over us as they approached - we dived under a few of these together as we hastily made our way closer to shore, but you could feel the force as they ripped across your shoulders and the back of your necks while you were under water letting them pass!  Louis to his credit didn’t panic at all, although did say quite urgently that he wanted to go back now!

Plenty of things to do at the beach

....not forgetting "Danger Jenga" at the restaurant

We rented a little motorbike for the afternoon and, just as the heavens opened, Louis and I tootled off with Jules and Frankie following us in our rented car.  We’d caught the tail end of a typhoon coming across the South China Sea and the wind and rain was fierce.  It reminded me that it was a shame I’d lost my sunglasses as the rain was stinging my eyessomewhat as we followed the coastal mud track. We were looking for a turn off that would take us to a little island, joined by a sandbar at low tide.  After a couple of blind alleys, we ran out of road in this little village. Some young boys of Louis age were there and giggled when we said Hello.  One of them said “Hello” to us, looked at Jules and added “You’re cute” before scampering off in fits of embarrassed giggles.  

Nicer and sunny before we started.......

Some big puddles after the rainstorm

I did't actually drive with him hanging off the side.....

We asked a chap about the island and he explained where we needed to go to find the island and we duly left, following his instructions. When we got there the wind was now blowing sideways.  We donned out ponchos, that had previously only once seen action, on our trek in Nepal. The wind made them look skin tight, which looked good on Jules in a ‘bedraggled chic’ kind of way, even though she didn’t admit it. 

Jules and Louis sporting a new style of rainwear  

Windswept!

The tide was low enough for the sand spit to be visible, so we crossed, but with the waves threatening to cover it, didn’t want to spend too long on the other side.  Louis and I climbed up to the top of the island and then returned lest we get cut off. 

We jumped back on the bike and set off for the actual Tip of Borneo, you can see where the seas meet in a very rough and wavy part of the ocean, and the point is guarded by a lighthouse, which is no doubt a welcome sight for sailors in these dangerous waters. 

Boys with Augustin

Next morning Howard took us for a jungle skills walk, teaching the boys all sorts of useful things like how to get rubber from a rubber tree, which leaves you can eat, how to get water from bamboo and how to make a “water still” in the ground.   Hopefully they’ll never have to survive in the jungle, but you never know.....

There were a bunch of backpackers at the restaurant and we befriended several, including Augustin, a charming French man from Strasbourg travelling with his Simon and some friends, whom we later met again in Kuching.

We slept surprisingly well in the little huts and made sure we used the eco-friendly compost loos last thing before bedtime - apparently there are centipedes out at night with very nasty bites so you don’t want to encounter these, even though Howard does apparently have the antidote.

Baders with Howard at his restaurant

The fish spa of Borneo

We’d heard about the Borneo fish spa.  Apparently the fish like to nibble dead skin and whilst it tickles somewhat, it does actually do you some good.

Duly intrigued, we paid our money, put on our swimming costumes and headed for the river where this ritual takes place.  You can choose between a foot massage - where the fish nibble your toes and ankles - and a full body massage, where you actually lie down in the water.  I thought I should lead by example (no-one else was volunteering) so I gingerly dipped my foot in the water.  The fish - and we are talking 12-18” fish here, not your average tiddler - gathered in a frenzied assault on my submerged foot, rather like piranhas did in the old Tarzan movies.   Tickle?  not exactly.  Scratch? Yes, that’s closer.  Still, having made my choice, and paid for, the full body version, there was no going back now.  

OK thats close enough!

We had bought a couple of tiny packets of special fish food pellets, and were instructed to keep these tightly in our fists.  As I slowly lay down in the river, it was as if the fish instantly sensed the food and immediately called for reinforcements.  Shoals of fish started advancing from the outer reaches of the river.  You could see the rivulets in the water as they approached from all directions.  I was torn (a not entirely inappropriate metaphor) between trying to show Jules and the boys that it was fine, and admitting that it was very scratchy  - OK painful.  I wondered if my skin may have been more sensitive because I’d just been recovering from an allergic reaction to sea lice - (a sort of invisible jellyfish that brought out a mild chicken pox like reaction all over my body). Still I figured I could put up with it for 15 minutes.  

Frankie started naming the fish......but ran out of names

Pretending they cannot feel a thing

It took a while for Jules and I to encourage the boys to come in, Frankie first, then, Louis. I reminded them to keep their fists tightly bunched, because on one occasion when I didn’t, one of the fish seemed to swallow my entire little finger!  

By the time we left, I reasoned that it had done me some good because the red spots on my arms didn’t look so prominent, although Jules pointed out that this was probably because all the flesh in between the spots was now red too!

Oops!  Maybe I stayed in a little too long!