More on island life...

So, you saw the view from the island 'bedroom' window on Mike's post below.. so just to put it into context, I thought I'd show you the 'bedroom'...




...tah dah....

Actually, it had all the mod cons, ie. 2 beds, a window lock made from old drill bits and a sporadic cold shower.


As you can see from this gem of a photo, I'm not the only one who can carry off a little something in pink. This was the cooking team for the 2nd evening on the island, of course that's Mike on the left, then one of our hosts, Asia, and Michael, one of our fellow travellers. The 2 of them paid hansomly for the opportunity to spend 3 hours slaving over a hot gas ring... creating a variety of Malay dishes which we then devoured in the evening. Whilst they were cooking, the rest of us lazed around... the better deal we thought.

Before the cooking, we'd been over to the mainland to visit a small village and then onto a waterfall. Sounds idyllic I hear you say... well it was, apart from getting to the waterfall involved a 30 minute hike through steaming leech infested jungle. But we survived. Me without a single leech, ahhh.... and Mike picked up just one.

Dinner was a formal affair, dressed in our sarongs, we were invited into the hosts house. Dinner was laid out on the floor, the Malay way, and cutlery was replaced by our right hands. The hosts serve the rice, you help yourself to everything else. There is a Malay saying that guests are always hungry but shy, so no sooner as we had started to eat, we were asked if we wanted more rice.. and yep, it's rude to refuse! The only way to get out of 4th, 5th or 6th helpings is to clear your plate without the host noticing! Mike S deliberately avoided doing this as you might expect.