We're now in Kuching (pronounced 'ker-ching!') somewhere in Borneo. It's even hotter and more uncomfortable here than anywhere else we've been! That may have something to do with only being about 100 miles from the equator in mid may surrounded by thick tropical jungle. Anyway, it's lovely here - we've been doing the things you're supposed to do in Borneo - seeing wildlife, walking in the jungle and swimmining in the sea. Tomorrow we're off to see some local cultural stuff. I've also possibly set a new record for losing bodyweight through sweat - did I mention that it's really hot here?

Ker-ching! translates as something like "cat city". It's got a cat museum we haven't been to for obvious reasons and is so called as one of our illustrious colonial forebears asked what it was called and his local guide thought he was pointing to a cat and not the city... It's a clean pleasant place with lots of nice colonial architecture, and the majority of its citizens are Chinese so the food's excellent too with all the same night market action as on the peninsula.

On our first night in Ker-ching! we had a bit of a surprise when we completely randomly bumped into Jo and Philip from South Africa (Diplomatic Immunity Mr Riggs). We met them in Nepal on our trek.

We visited an Orang utan rehabilitation centre the other day. It's an area of rainforest that's been set aside to breed and treat orang utans prior to being released back into the wild. The 6.00am alarm to get there in time wasn't exactly welcome, but it was worth it to see the big orange fella's skinning and eating bananas in less than a second! They also move incredibly gracefully through the trees being the only tree dwelling great ape. The centre was pretty good - there were no barriers between us and the orangs and we were allowed within a few metres of them.

The last 2 days we've been in Bako National Park. This is an astoundingly beautiful and largely pristine piece of land on a peninsula just north of here, accessible only by speedboat (well maybe other kinds of boat too...). It's been protected for over 80 years, so the animals are pretty nonchalant about human activity. We saw bearded pigs, probiscus monkeys, vipers, mudskippers, loads of other less exciting stuff (maquaques yawn) and my favourite the 1.5 metre long monitor lizard.

The plant life was pretty stunning too, running the gamut of various types of jungle that I can't be bothered to list now. It was amazing to finally see real jungle, and only when you see it for real can you really understand how hard it must be to survive in it. The 95% humidity, the 35 degree heat, the density of the undergrowth, the cliffs and hills hidden within it, the clouds of mosquitos and all the plants covered with horrific spikes make it a deeply unpleasant place to be.

To escape this for a while we hiked to a beach in the park. It was easily one of the most beautiful beaches I'd ever seen, and the water was as warm as a bath - so warm we actually wished it had been a little colder. It was almost deserted but sadly time was pressing so we had a 30 minute swim and sweated back to the park HQ where our speedboat awaited.

I've also finally invested in a laptop - I bought it 2nd hand for an excellent price off Arfur Divali in Little India in Singapore - no money back no guarantee etc. Bets can be placed now as to how long it'll last... We used it to watch a pirate copy of "Hot Fuzz" the other night which was an excellent film and comes with my heartiest recommendation.