Borneo!

I am very lucky that my parents are retiring to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysian Borneo in about 5 years!  They have already purchased an apartment there and are slowly doing it up whenever they can visit.  I went over this January to visit them and explore this amazing island!

Pool at apartments

Other than finding my bridesmaids fabric there for a bargain price and having some fun shopping with Mum and her friend Linda, we visited a few places near where they live in KK.  We had an absolute ball seeing the Orang-utans at Rasa Ria resort.  

They roam free in the sanctuary, it's part of an orphan rehabilitation scheme before they go on to a bigger sanctuary at Sepilok and some return to the wild.  Sometimes the Orang-utans don't come to the viewing platform but the rangers bring fruit to try and entice them in from the forest.  We were very lucky and two came down to play in the trees and get some fruit, Katie and Reggie. We were stood on the viewing platform and not allowed to feed or touch them as they want to keep the animals used to as little human contact as possible.

Katie

Reggie and Katie are both around 4 years old and seemed to be having great fun showing off, swinging from branch to branch and watching us watching them!

Reggie

Katie

We had so much fun watching them for about an hour and towards the end most people had left to go back down the forest path to the beach so we were able to see easier and they came much closer when there were less people so it was well worth staying!

We also visited a local Sunday Market selling everything from Fish to Tobacco.  The people are so friendly in Malaysia and I had a great time wandering around with my camera and the majority of people were happy for me to take their picture, only a few said no.

Me and Mum outside Market

My favourite reaction was from two shy girls who when I showed them their shy uncertain picture gave me the most beautiful smiles and an even better picture!

Beautiful Smiles!

This next guy was great!  Totally happy to pose for a few pictures and I managed to grab these shots of his smoking habit with his cigarette rest between his teeth and the smoke oozing around them!

Smokey Mouth

Cigarette Rest

There were also some very cute children like this little guy with his 'Rooney' shirt on...

Rooney

This guy was making Cane Sugar Juice using a press.

Cane Sugar Press

Making Cane Sugar Juice

I also managed to get some early morning photos of the grand mosque in KK...