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THE KID’S SIDE OF THE STORY
My son has his very own blog. Go check out Kidventurer.com for his side of the story.Archives
Malaysia Archive
How Hard Is It To Get A Chinese Visa in Kuala Lumpur?
Posted on September 3, 2011 | 14 CommentsWhen you’re travelling long term, visas — visa applications, visa runs, visa extensions — loom quite hideously large on your horizon. And, as we want to spend almost three months...
What Happens When Your Kid Takes The Lead?
Posted on September 1, 2011 | 8 CommentsOver the last couple of weeks, since Z returned from his overseas trip, I’ve largely been letting him choose what we do. Well, with the exception of hunting for a...
Will Madam Be Having Lard With That?
Posted on August 29, 2011 | 33 CommentsI really think I must have a food intolerance. After ten days in Singapore and a couple of weeks in Malaysia, I’m mysteriously bloated. My stomach’s the same size it...
Mr. Confidence
Posted on August 15, 2010 | 11 CommentsSometimes, something happens which makes you look at your child with new eyes. This morning, Z and I were at Poring Hot Springs, the sulphurous waters which seethe out of...
Climbing Mount Kinabalu
Posted on August 14, 2010 | 25 CommentsDali would have loved the summit of Mount Kinabalu, the highest peak between the Himalayas and New Guinea. Granite towers, horns and cowslicks protrude improbably from a landscape of fractured...
Ulp. It’s an Alp.
Posted on August 10, 2010 | No CommentsWhen a mountain makes it onto the state flag, you know it’s a big old mountain. And Mount Kinabalu, which stands over 4000m above Sabah in Malaysian Borneo, is certainly...
Of Canopies and Caves
Posted on August 9, 2010 | No CommentsThis is the view down over the lower storey of the rainforest canopy, in Mulu National Park, Sarawak, from the longest canopy skywalk in the world. Nigh-on 500m of suspension...
From Hunter-Gatherers to Human Zoo
Posted on August 8, 2010 | No CommentsLeaving Mulu National Park on a little propeller plane, with rivers unspieling below us, a scattered handful of logging tracks carving their way across the hilltops, and merciful expanses of...
Three Million Bats
Posted on August 6, 2010 | 8 CommentsDeer Cave, at Mulu National Park, Borneo, is one of the largest cave chambers in the world, and home to as many as three million bats. Towards twilight, on evenings...
So Long and Thanks to (All) the Fish
Posted on August 5, 2010 | 6 CommentsYesterday was a rite of passage for the nine year old. And one that I can, with hand on heart, say that I am glad to have missed. He caught…...
Fighting Cocks and Jungle Ferns
Posted on August 4, 2010 | No CommentsWe took three boats to Gunung Mulu, the serene and beautiful national park deep in the forests of Sarawak, with ancient caves carved deep into Borneo limestone and jagged karst...
The Coolest Fairground Worker Ever?
Posted on July 30, 2010 | 10 CommentsOf all the places in which to find a “UK Funfair”, complete with British registration plates on the lorries, Bintulu, Sarawak, would come pretty low on my list. Thailand? Quite...
The Big Race
Posted on July 29, 2010 | No CommentsWatching two women’s eights, one women’s sixteen, and a mighty war canoe paddled by thirty-two men powering their way up the Balui River in the interior of Borneo, with a...
The Vanishing Forest
Posted on July 28, 2010 | 29 CommentsSome things, simply, look too big, too plentiful to ever be used up. The herds of bison that clouded the American plains; the trees of Easter Island; the ice sheets...
The City Slicker
Posted on July 26, 2010 | 3 CommentsAsun and Mimi sit in a cafe off the waterfront in Belaga, a town of 2500 souls and the major trading hub of great swathes of Sarawak rainforest, a hundred...
Women of the Woods
Posted on July 21, 2010 | No CommentsThe Malay name orang utan means “man of the forest”, and, after a visit to the Semanggoh Orang Utan Centre, it’s easy to see why. 30-ish kilometres outside Kuching, Sarawak,...
Orangutans and Betel Juice
Posted on July 21, 2010 | No CommentsThey say you learn something new every day. And today I learn that gambier, AKA catechu, is a common ingredient used by Asians in chewing betel. Which nice for me,...
The Man who Mistook his Capital for a Cat
Posted on July 20, 2010 | 4 CommentsThis is Astana, the little place which James Brooke, the first “White Rajah” of Sarawak, built for himself in his capital, Kuching (“Cat”). A Victorian adventurer somewhat in the mould...
In Which the Family Dines in Considerable Style
Posted on July 19, 2010 | 7 CommentsIt was my Dad who said it first. “That singer,” he whispered, over the sound of a particularly special Malaysian band. “Is she actually a man?” He is, I realise,...
The Rockefeller of the East
Posted on July 16, 2010 | 2 CommentsThis is one wing of the Georgetown mansion of Cheong Fatt Tze, the last great mandarin of China, known in New York, where he did business with the original John...
