Hello Sydney, hello Mardi Gras

Sorry to have been pretty rubbish at updating blog entries for the past few weeks. Lack of Internet connection in the rain forest made things slightly difficult as you can well imagine. Will need to fill you on a few more jungle stories but will first fill you in on where in the world I am right now.

Left Matang wildlife centre in Borneo last Tuesday after a totally amazing 4 week stint there. Couldn't believe how emotional it was saying goodbye to the other volunteers I met, the keepers at the centre and of course all the animals - has been such a fascinating, fun, and educational time. I hope that at some point in the future I can return. I would highly recommend the project to anyone who has a love for animals and those beautiful orange apes.

So from Kuching flew back to Singapore where met up with Mandy and George for the evening and then a super early rise at 5am to get my flight to Sydney. Now if you've been tracking my blog you'll remember my disastrous arrival into Mumbai with the loss of my baggage....now my morning at Singapore airport was almost on par. Arrived at duty free planning to stock up on goodies and discovered that both my debit card and credit card were declined. Not too much of a panic really at this point as blocking of cards has been pretty regular occurrence. What was bizarre though was that my phone which had previously been working fine wouldn't let me call out. Weird. Decided to log onto Internet banking but the system wasn't recognising me either. Starting to panic now - felt like there was a conspiracy against me - was like I didn't exist!! I think I was still half asleep too so my ability to deal with the situation was pretty poor. Thankfully had a few coins in my purse which was 'just' enough money to speak to my saviour at Barclay's who helped me out. Was extremely happy to board my flight in the nick of time and get out.

Arrive in Sydney later that day and meet a smiling Katherine at a hotel on Wentworth St. Katherine has been travelling round Oz for past 6 weeks so had plenty to catch up on and do so until the early hours of the morning over a drink or ten. Meet a lovely guy called Jason from NZ over for the Mardi Gras weekend who becomes part of our drinking party for the next couple of days....

So obviously quite excited at prospect of Mardi Gras, have heard lots of rave reviews over the years. Head down to Liverpool St at about 5pm to get a good position at the start of the parade and end up standing on the same spot for the next 5 hours (my feet and back have never hurt so much....). Parade kicks off with about 300 scary looking dyke's on bikes before the main procession starts - lots of beautiful oiled up gay men in tiny swimming trunks dancing to disco tunes....not really a bad sight to watch. Sadly this is kind of about the extent of the parade so after a couple of hours need to get out to rest feet and back....this is where the fun really started. After heavy drinking the previous night decided not to booze, however every other soul in the crowd had been and while waiting for Jason to finish watching the parade me & Katharine witnessed some hilarious drunken activity. Mostly young kids and mainly girls brawling! Several times somehow almost ended up in the line of fire....these guys take no prisoners. Found it interesting that Mardi Gras is meant to encapsulate peace and love and equality but didn't really end up seeing much of that after the parade.....and I thought booze Britain was bad....heh!

Pictures convey more than words ever can...

AMAN DORIS



TINGSAN MAMOO

Sunny Bears

So feel I should fill you all in a bit more on the animals at the centre other than the wonderful orang-utans. Next in line for me are the Sun Bears - sadly there are only about 10,000 bears remaining in the world which makes them a hell of a lot more vulnerable even than the orang-utans. I'd never even heard of a Sun Bear before I arrived here, however am now a convert! There has been no major studies compiled about the bears which makes their rehabilitation all the more difficult, adding to this they don't breed very successfully which obviously isn't helping their numbers grow.
So the Sun Bears are fairly small and very cute - they have a dog likeness to them (albeit with 3 inch killer claws) and are brilliant climbers. One of my jobs here is to monitor the bears - there are two large enclosures each containing 4 bears - the 'hill bears' that are Gummi Bear (he has no teeth, either rotted or were pulled out before he arrived at Matang), Heather, Gabbi, and Wong - and the 'quarantine bears' who aren't actually in quarantine but the names stuck that are Bernie, Corrine, Situ, and Jo. Monitoring involves recording what the bears do every 2 minutes, half an hour for each bear - this may sound easy but keeping your eye on them when they go afar can be rather difficult. This research is probably the only of it's type happening in the world so feels pretty special to be involved with it.
A funny observation occurred while watching the quarantine bears. Every morning a coconut is hoisted 12 metres up one of the trees in the enclosure, Sun Bears in the wild are natural climbers and spend the majority of their time including sleeping time in the trees. Now all 4 bears can climb however Situ is leaps and bounds ahead of the others and can shimmy gracefully and expertly up the tree to get the coconut prize. Bernie, Jo, and Corrine can climb but not quite so elegantly or easily - saw old bear Bernie slide rather clumsily down a tree after attempting to reach a papaya fruit at about 3 metres. However Bernie is not stupid. I'm watching Situ descend down the tree with her prize and suddenly Bernie darts out of nowhere and is waiting at the bottom of the tree for Situ to come down. Just at this point my ipod shuffles onto Holsts Mars from the planets so have a perfect soundtrack for the upcoming war that is about to commence. At this time Corrine (fat bear) has also appeared at the base of the tree to welcome Situ. As she draws close on her descent she notices her greeting party and on landing tries to manoeuvre past the other bears to feast alone on her coconut. Nope sorry Situ, you've done the hard work but Bernie strikes out and grabs the coconut and runs to a feeding platform to indulge himself. Poor Situ leaves the only male to consume her prize hanging closely in the background looking really sorry for herself and not daring to intervene. The bears are solitary animals so 'sharing' is not a word that exists to them. Have to put my hands up to Bernie though as although the worst climber he's learned the best trick of letting the others do the hard work and reaping the benefits - one clever bear!!

The beast that is Aman

Dominant male numero uno is Aman. He is one utterly fabulous beast. He's probably my favourite orangutan....but only just as they are all beautiful. He is massive. Just to give you some perspective his hand can probably fit round a bowling ball.... He's 20 (so a bit young for me) and recently had an operation to remove cataracts from his eyes which made him almost completely blind - he's a new male. He's shed 30kg and is lots more mobile and a fan of the ladies too. Although if a female orangutan is put into his enclosure he would most likely beat her around, chase after her and generally abuse her...and then have his wicked way, nice guy eh....ha! It is unlikely that Aman will ever be released from captivity due to his age and the low chance of his survival in the rain forest. He would probably climb a tree straight off oblivious to the fact it can't support his weight and crash to his death. All the keepers at Matang are brilliant and the animals are at the heart of everything they do so Aman is in a good home.

Matang Life

This is my first Borneo blog, no Internet in the rain forest... Have been here for 10 days now and am well on way to becoming a jungle women. To be honest I think I had prepared myself for the worst and everything has exceeded my expectations. Accommodation is a good sized hut set on a road with 10 huts facing each other. There are 9 volunteers in total including me - 8 girls and 1 boy (lucky Will) and 3 of us each sharing a hut. Everyone from different backgrounds but a really good team. No hot water but had kind of got used to that after India....although the water is super cold here, been a good wake up call before head to work.
So Monday - Friday my day consists of the following.

8am - 10am: Animal Husbandry
No, I'm not marrying an orangutan every morning. We have to clean out the numerous night enclosures every day. Friday was particularly bad after drinking too much vodka and rice wine the evening prior. Hosing down slushy sun bear poo trying not to retch was pretty tough, made even worse by hitting my head on a belian wood bear platform (strongest wood in the forest). Ooof.

10am - noon: Sun Bear Monitoring/Enrichment/Construction
Any one of the above. Sun bear monitoring involves watching the sun bears. They are the smallest of the bear species and the most endangered, more so than the orangutan, and unfortunately the world knows little about them. Currently no one is studying the bear's behaviour so feels pretty special to be able to contribute to research.
Enrichment is basically providing entertainment for all the animals! Tis pretty fun really. Make food parcels that the animals have to work hard to open. Doris the orangutan was given a rubix cube although broke it straight away. She was gutted. Poor Doris. The orangutans have immense strength....I would probably be mauled if ended up in one of their enclosures - especially the beast that is Aman, the dominant male number 1.
Construction. So far have built a new python cage. You can imagine my delight in this job. When the snake was moved it was measured at 12 feet long....i was standing well clear! Still walk as far away as poss from the snake cages. Just keeping fingers crossed our construction work isn't shoddy and there's not a 12 foot python on the search for dinner.... It's sodding hard work though. 35 degree heats wearing boots and work wear, carrying planks of wood into the jungle, sawing, hammering.....

noon - 2pm: Lunch
Nice.

2pm - 5pm: Sun bear Monitoring/Enrichment/Construction

So far have really enjoying every minute, I've got plenty more to blog about the animals....

Durian Fruit

Beware - stay well clear of this fruit.

During buffet dinner Mandy advises me to avoid eating anything with Durian in. It's a big fruit that grows in Asia and the Singapore people love it!! Deep fried in savoury dishes, in puddings, wherever in fact....

After dinner check out a kooky ice-cream parlour called Udders. Although I'm not about to buy any ice cream after 4 plates of food at dinner the smiley guy behind the counter is willing for us to sample his delicious ice cream.

He sells me into the Durian Deluxe ice cream - because of his beaming smile i couldn't say no.....
I have no idea what excrement of any sort tastes like but this stuff I would imagine would come close. I am retching. Quickly wash down with some Tiramisu ice cream (which is divine). Mandy finding hilarious. Sadly the durian repeats on me for the rest of the night.

Sample at your own risk - you have been warned.

Spic-and-Span

HUGE culture shock.

India equals chalk and Singapore equals cheese (and a fine one at that). I rock up in my India travelling garments which felt good and comfortable in when left Mumbai, with my Nike zooms on felt I gave my outfit a modern twist, but hello Singapore, hello developed world, hello me the traveller bum. Don't actually care but it's quite amazing how much these countries contrast.

Singapore is so clean and expensive to what I have been used to.

Hop in a taxi and arrive to a warm welcome from Mandy (little Sarah's mum). Her and her boyfriend George have lived in Singapore for a couple of years and are loving the relaxed and non-crazed life as well as the agreeable weather.

Now the food was good in India but actually Singapore is on par. Head out for dinner in one of the hundreds of hawker centres here. Super good food and super cheap prices. I'm in! Mandy takes me on a mini evening tour of Singapore, see Raffles Hotel (super colonial and gorgeous building) and look out on panoramic views of Singapore from the 70th floor of yet another nice hotel (can't remember name right now) - sip on a scrumptious blue cocktail while looking out at the neon lit night sky.

The next day I am on a mission to find a pair of boots for the jungle. Should be easy right in what is one of the shopping Mecca's of the world. Or maybe not. Rock up to the infamous Orchard Road which houses about 20 mega malls. Find it difficult to see a shop that's not Marc Jacobs, Louis Vuitton or some equally extravagant designer (and even Topshop, Gap, Zara). Finally find a sports shop hidden in the top corner of one of the malls so thankfully my only obligatory buy has been sorted...phew. Then can relax and check out Chinatown and Little India (of course I had to do this one).
For dinner Mandy takes me to one of the many buffet style restaurants here. Basically for $40 dollars you can eat as much as you like......food heaven. Oysters, Tiger Prawns, Sushi, Sashimi, Crocodile soup (possibility ate this by accident, thought it was chicken - hoping don't get any bad karma when with the crocodiles in the jungle....) and a further plethora of culinary delights. I have two full plates of mains and two of puddings. Fatso.