The Family Reunion

The Family Reunion at the airport!

Yes I had a romantic image of  "The Family Reunion Lunch" in Borneo. Brother Chris flying in at 11 a.m. and brother Ian flying out at 3.30 pm - it would give us at least 2 hours together. I had checked out several restaurants overlooking the beach near the airport to maximise our time and I imagined us all sipping cocktails and enjoying tiger prawns. Alas it wasn't to be! We waited until the last passenger got off the flight we were expecting Chris on and there was no Chris. We did find out that he was on the next flight an hour and a half later so that would still give us enough time. No! His flight was delayed and he had an extra stop at the island of Labuan. He even got to baggage claim thinking he was in Sabah before he found out. Eventually he arrived just in time for an absolute downpour which then was the cause of a long traffic jam getting to Terminal 2 for Ian and Clare! So to cut down on all the details, Clare and Ian checked in and we had 30 minutes eating a quick lunch at the airport cafe! Oh well, there is always next time!

Chris trying to smile 50 metres  high!

Pretending to be Tarzan?!

The last time Chris and I saw each other was at our mother's funeral nearly four years before. We spent a memorable week together which was full of adventures, laughs and just a few tears. However, New Zealand is not such an easy place to visit and during those years he has retired and increased his brood of grandchildren and is now spending more time travelling and going on amazing cycling holidays. It was lovely to see him and he resembles our Uncle Graham more and more as time goes on. My brother Ian on the other hand is very like our father and I think you wouldn't guess that they were from the same family. Anyway Chris had kindly slotted me in on his busy "round the world" trip and his last leg home was interrupted by four days in Sabah to see what his baby sister was up to! We seemed to do most of the things that I'd done the previous week with Ian and Clare i.e. Poring Hot Springs, Sabah Tea Garden, The National Park and a few visits to some schools but most of the time we were catching up with family news and looking at new photos and chatting. It was lovely that Tanya was with us too and I know that Chris enjoyed meeting her as a "grown-up"!So as I close this week's entry, Chris will now on his way back to Singapore and Tanya is on the bus going to Semporna where she is starting her PADI diving certificate tomorrow. The house seems empty without them but I have many things to be doing......

Tanya and Fiona at Sabah Tea Garden

Not The Royal Visit

Brother Ian and his wife Clare

     So much to my surprise I learnt on Thursday that Sabah were being honoured with the presence of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge just as I was too expecting the perhaps not quite so royal visit from Ian and Clare. I hear from someone the the Sun newspaper were going on about the dangers and risks of "headhunting" Borneo but I'm pleased to say that Ian and Clare have been impressed by the kindness and lovely nature of all the people they have met so far on their trip and I hope Kate and Will are too. My landlady, who is also one of the head teachers of the schools and also married to one of the government ministers, was invited to the VVIP reception at the airport to meet Will and Kate and Kate greeted her with "hello" which seemed to make Nurliah's day. So despite the celebration of Malaysian Day yesterday (apparently 2 weeks ago it was Independence Day) the Malaysians are still very keen on the British Royals.

  Ian and Clare arrived on the bus from Sandakan to Ranau and we spent a nice weekend visiting Poring Hot Springs, a rafflesia, Sabah Tea Garden, the National Park and Ranau market..I think the highlight for them though was on Saturday night when we gatecrashed a wedding opposite my house. There were fireworks going off and music playing and we decided (encouraged by Emily!) to see what was happening. As soon as we approached the hall we were called in and became the guests of honour! It was a Christian wedding which meant alcohol was flowing and before long we were dancing, eating and drinking the rice wine and having our photograph taken by everyone. Everyone was charming and so welcoming about these strange people that walked in off the street. Unfortunately we didn't bring our cameras. Anyway, I can't imagine we would treat gatecrashers in the same way do you?
   Tanya arrived on Sunday evening looking her beautiful self and we drove up to Simpang Mengayau yesterday where it was very wet and windy. I returned to work leaving Ian, Clare and Tanya there for a couple of days before we meet brother Chris tomorrow.

An Unexpected Parcel!

Hari Raya celebrations this week!

Another two to go !

   Someone asked me about how I find things to write about in my blog and yes sometimes there is so much to tell that I find it hard to condense it and yet other times I have to think about what to write - like today! Fortunately  I had a most lovely surprise this morning. I went to school this morning, (A Saturday to make up for a day off before Hari Raya) and was given a form from the Post Office saying that I had a parcel to collect. Who from, I asked myself?  I've hardly ever used the school's address and certainly no one I know has it. I went off to the Post office and collected my parcel which I opened with great delight. It was some children's books and two lovely letters from Kim and Pete. Kim and Pete were standing at the bus stop with their large backpacks waiting for a bus in Ranau when I was just about to set off to meet Patrick in Sepliok in July. I offered them a lift and we spent the next three hours together in the car, mostly with me chatting away but I did find out about them too!! They had met at Southampton University and after finishing their degrees found jobs working in Singapore organising field trips for schools and were travelling around Sabah during their "summer" break. I dropped them off at a junction for Lahad Datu and they gave me the name of the organistaion they work for and I must have given them my school address being the only one I had.
  Anyway, what was so lovely was that they had spent the time and effort to find some great books for the pupils, then sent them to me, including really appreciative, personal, letters. I had forgotten what a lovely feeling it is getting a letter that you can touch and reread. I don't suppose we could go back to letter writing could we? I will be writing to them today as we did not exchange emails and their address is on the envelope but just in case it doesn't reach them, thank you Kim and Pete, I was very touched.

Taken from the Saturday market, Ranau

  This weekend is rather like the calm before the storm as on Monday my brother Ian and his wife Clare arrive in Sabah, (although not arriving in Ranau until Friday ) and then Tanya, my daughter arrives next Sunday. We will have a couple of days together before brother Christopher arrives and if his plane is on time we will manage to all have lunch together before Ian and Clare leave on their way to Vietnam! Did you follow all that?! No, it is complicated and if I don't find time to do my blog that is the reason. I have also embarked on an online TEFL course which has things such as reading, tasks and essay deadlines to complete. I had hoped, rather optimistically,that at my age that I might have changed  my former studying habits but alas no - I'm still falling asleep when I start to read and procrastinate when I have an assignment to finish, which is what I'm doing now!

A weekend in Brunei

The canopy walk

Somehow I thought I was going to Sarawak for the weekend with my colleague and friend Anne but as it turned out we ended up in Brunei after going through Sarawak. Fortunately she was driving and knew where she was going as we were returning to the very small state of Temburong where she had taught 20 years before in a lovely little Primary school that we were able to visit.
 My knowledge of Brunei was or in fact still is very vague. I know that the Sultanates of Brunei were very powerful and rich for many centuries and their kingdom extended throughout Sabah and Sarawak but gradually they lost much of its territory to Sarawak when " The White Rajah" became too ambitious. It then became a British Protectorate in 1888 and was occupied by the Japanese during the Second World War. Eventually in 1959 when the Malaysian Federation was in it's transitional period, the Sultanate of Brunei managed to regain control of its internal affairs although Britain was still in control of the foreign affairs and defence until 1984 when they then gained complete independence. Sultanate Bolkeia has reigned since the age of 22 and in 2004 tentatively introduced a parliament and democratic reforms . The oil fields make it a very wealthy country and the population have the highest income per capita in Asia.

A river taxi

The state Mosque

A house in the water village decorated with horse-shoe crabs

 You can wake up now! Sorry I just wanted to find out for myself the background having been there and knowing nothing! Anyway, the small area of Temburong was really pretty. There is jungle everywhere and although mostly secondary forest there has been very little touched for years as there is no financial incentive to cut down the jungle and plant palm oil. There appears to be very little construction going on and it is obvious that the people enjoy a much higher standard of living than Sabah. We were here to do trekking in the jungle and then go to the Ulu National Park to climb the amazing canopy walk, which we did. We stayed in an Eco village on the banks of the River Temburong and got the boat upstream and came down  (slightly white) water rafting which was very serene but enjoyable.

The Temburong River

 The panic came when our hostel didn't accept credit cards, there were no banks in Temburong and we didn't have enough Malaysian ringitts to change and pay for our stay. We had to go to the capital which you can only get to by boat as it is quite separate geographically. Anyway it was a lovely 45 minute ride in the boat bus winding it's way through the river, mangrove swamps, open sea and then finally arriving at Bandar Seri Begawan. We quickly got to a bank and then just had time to have a quick look round the large water village, have a mango juice and get on the last river boat back at 5 pm. 
 We would have liked to do more treks but I'm afraid the Brunei dollar is too strong for the Malaysian ringitt and everything was very expensive for us. It is definitely not for budget travellers but it was well worth a visit.