Yogyakarta - Prambanan Temple

We are now in Indonesia and our first stop was Yogyakarta. Dad visited this famous Hindu temple built in the 9th century and the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia.

Melaka

Melaka is on the South West coast of mainland Malayasia. It was settled by the Portuguese, Chinese and British so has some beautiful architecture. We wandered around the city and saw some traditional paper cutting in Chinatown.

Elephant rehabilitation park

This is two hours from KL. They rescue elephants which are being threatened because they're habitat is shrinking. We fed, rode and bathed with the elephants. We climbed on the elephants, walked into the river and the elephant fell over and dumped us in the water! Incoming poo ...

Kuala Lumpar - our city fix

KL is a big and busy city. We have filling up on all sorts of food - Malaysian, Indian, Chinese and Western - after being sick. We are staying around the corner from the Ganesh Hindu Temple where there are ceremonies day and night. We went to the movies to see Toy Story 3 in one of KL's amazing shopping malls. We went up the telecommunications tower for a 360 degree view of the city, including the Petronas towers, the tallest pair of identical buildings in the world. There was a small zoo at the bottom where I held a python snake.

Island snorkelling

We boated to islands off Semporna to snorkel. Some coral was colourful but most was dead as the water gets polluted from the island villages which are very poor. The best thing we saw was a giant turtle and I could have touched it. There also lots of colourful fish. I played catch with some local kids. They couldn't speak English but all I had to say was "hello". Games don't need a language!

Semporna

We based ourselves in Semporna where we went to some islands for snorkelling. There were lots of fishing boats and villages perched over the river bank. There were fishing huts right in the middle of the sea.

Danum Valley Rainforest Conservation area

We stayed at a beautiful retreat in a primary rainforest in Borneo. This was unique because a lot of other forests have been chopped down for palm plantations. Unfortunately I and Alys were sick with food poisoning so we missed out on treat foods. But I still managed to go on a night walk. We saw lots of insects, flying foxes and a Malay civet. Mum and Dad trekked up to a peak for a view across the tree tops. They also saw orangutans and gibbons in the wild.