Obviously as you know this is a blog about books, and tends to stick to book related things. However in a quick book break, it’s impossible not to mention my recent holiday. Apparently most girls spend their time dreaming of their wedding day (really? Surely we can have a little more imagination in this day and age) Well it was never high on my list, I dreamt of seeing Orangutans and Sea Turtles. One of my favourite books as a child, which still makes me cry now, is called Changes in Latitudes by Will Hobbs. It’s about a family who go on holiday and the youngest brother tries to save a load of turtles. Since first reading the book I’ve always had as fascination with turtles therefore a trip to Borneo was the perfect opportunity to see them up close.
We started out in Bangkok. For me this bit was work related, which meant we got to stay in the Shangri-La hotel. 5 restaurants, 2 pools, and an outdoor bar. It was lovely, although the ten pound for a glass of wine meant that evenings were spent in Jack’s bar next door. This came complete with cheap beer, locals, wandering dogs and an open air toilet. Of course a trip to Bangkok isn’t complete without a visit to the infamous Khao San Road which was certainly an experience. However I’m not sure that a tuk tuk race through Bangkok at 3 in the morning with my boss in tow was necessarily my most career enhancing moment.
After Bangkok we had a short stopover in Kuala Lumpur. Whilst the difference in accommodation was a bit of shock, from 5 star hotel to a no windowed tiny room in the middle of Chinatown, the view from the top of the Petronas Towers made up for it.
From Kuala Lumpur we went onto Sandakan in Borneo. The town itself was a little fishing port, with only 2 bars. This was certainly a change from Bangkok where you couldn’t turn round without tripping over someone trying to sell you towers of Singha, or scorpions on sticks. Yet it was a perfect base for our trips out. We pretty much followed the plot of Paul O’Grady’s animal orphans programme. 
We went to Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre where we watched the young orangutans learn to climb. We saw sun bears lolling in trees. We even saw a wild baby orangutan spitting it’s own wee at those trying to get a photograph (Which clearly Mr F thought was the funniest thing he had ever seen
). We went on a river trip and saw Sea Eagles and Probiscus monkey’s. However the promised gibbons and pygmy elephants were clearly off on holiday themselves as they were nowhere to be seen. We also spent a night on Turtle Island, where we got to see a Green turtle lay eggs, and even got to help some hatchlings reach the sea. It was absolutely amazing.
Unfortunately as well as a large number of fridge magnets, I also managed to bring back a dodgy stomach bug, not a diet tip I’d recommend. Yet it was completely worth it. Plus the 6 different flights that we went on gave me time not only to catch up with the new version of Ghostbusters, which had me laughing out loud, but also gave me chance to catch up on some reading. Therefore normal book related service will be resumed on the blog shortly.
A crime readers blog 