Amsterdam December 2019

Sunday 22 December
We flew to Amsterdam from Norwich -  a smooth 35 minute flight. A good thing about Norwich Airport: You can park near the entrance. A terrible thing about Norwich Airport: Hidden somewhere in the very tiny small print is something about charging you £10 to go through departures. Rip off! This should be made clear when people book.

I love the Netherlands. It is easy to get from the airport into Amsterdam and there are friendly people everywhere. However, after a while  the sickly smell of dope in the air in parts of Amsterdam does become a bit tiresome. We had a pretty good hotel - the Barbizan which was a two minute walk from Centraal Station.

Our first evening meal was superb, at Daalder on Lindengracht. Ten scrumptious taster dishes and great service. Highly recommended!

Monday 23 December
After breakfast in an adjacent restaurant, we visited the Van Gogh Museum, which houses the most comprehensive collection of Vincent's work in the world. As expected the place was busy but it was not really a problem. What did baffle me though were the ubiquitous Numpty types who walked up to a painting, often blocking the views of others, give the beautiful artwork barely a glance, photograph it and then walk away. Never mind the incredible skill or the spirituality, the symbolism or the historical or religious significance, just make sure that you can show a snap to your friends on your mobile phone!

In the afternoon we visited the nearby Stedelijk Museum. It was fairly quiet and we were able to enjoy works by Picasso, Braque, Leger and a collection of Marc Chagall's dreamlike paintings.

That evening we dined at a great Italian restaurant on Geldersekade - the Piccolo Mondo.

Tuesday 24 December
We spent the morning at the Rijksmuseum, home to the world's greatest collection of 17th Century Dutch art and an absolutely wonderful place. Yes, the Rembrandts are truly impressive but the Dutch painter I admire the most is Jan Steen.

Though the weather was a bit grey in the afternoon we nevertheless enjoyed our hour-long cruise along and around the canals of the old city.

The Christmas Eve meal was at another Italian restaurant, this time it was Vasso on Rozenboomsteeg. Good food and a lovely atmosphere.

Wednesday 25 December
After two days of intermittent rain, Christmas Day dawned with a clear blue sky. After a hotel breakfast we walked the Jordaan area then had coffee outside a restaurant on Prinsengracht. As always, the streets were virtually free of motor vehicles but as pedestrians we had to be constantly on the alert for bicycles which seemed to appear from all points of the compass and rarely with the warning ringing of a bell.

Christmas dinner was at Brasserie Bleu on Prinsenstraat where we enjoyed superb French cuisine.

Thursday 26 December
A leisurely breakfast then a stroll. We spent the afternoon at the Museum Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder which is an absolute gem. The museum is basically a 17th Century house which has a church concealed in its upper floors.. After the Calvinist revolt against the Spanish Hapsburgs which began in 1568, Catholics were not allowed to worship in public but could do so in private. A number of hidden churches were built and the Ons' Lieve was used for worship from 1663 until 1887. The building has been perfectly preserved. It is located in the red light district so you can combine the Ons' Lieve with other sightseeing!

The gastronomic extravaganza was completed with our visit to Ganesha, a very good Indian restaurant run by a family from Delhi and located just around the corner from our hotel on Kampstraat.

Friday 27 December
The ladies tried and failed to spend anything in the shops but I visited one of the city's many vinyl shops and bought 4 LPs.

Australia in Autumn, May 2019

Here we are in the renowned Victoria Market in Melbourne in search of fruit, 'veggies' as the Aussies call vegetables, and treats from one of the delicatessens.

Sean likes to have a baby chino after the shopping is done.

The main purpose of the visit to Australia was to see our daughters, son-in-law, grandson Sean and new grandson Rory and all are doing exceptionally well. In order to help prevent me from going stir crazy doing domestic duties I got invited to Daylesford for a 'Rogaining' session. You have to visit as many checkpoints as you can within 6 hours, using map & compass to navigate through the forest. Our team of 3 managed 3rd in the Ultra Vet section. There may only have been 3 Ultra Vet teams...

Forget the signs, let's get off the road.

You are being watched.

Saturday May 11th and a wet trek in the clouds on the Dandenong hills. I saw a couple of lyre birds (a comparatively rare sight I believe) as well as the occasional kookaburra.

The following week we took the train up to Bendigo in bright sunshine. After lunch with long standing Aussie friends at the Five Flags Hotel in Campbell's Creek, we toured the excellent Tudors to Windsors portrait exhibition at the impressive Bendigo Museum.

Elizabeth I in case you didn't know.

More trekking and more good weather - this time in the Wombat National Forest at Blackwood, north of Melbourne - courtesy of the Melbourne Bush Walkers Club, one of whom (Jenny) I met on my Coast to Coast walk in August 2018.

After the trek, rehydration at the Blackwood Hotel, one of Australia's oldest weatherboard buildings. Blackwood looked lovely in the Autumn sunshine.

The 1000 steps once again in the Dandenong hills with the Saturday morning group. Some blue sky this time.

Mount Macedon - another beautiful little township. A higher altitude than Melbourne and a fair bit cooler. We visited the excellent Forest Glade Gardens - not the best time of year for a garden visit but fascinating and enjoyable nonetheless. Before we began we fuelled up on tea, coffee and cakes. Baby Chino once again for Sean.

Borneo: A Tour of Malaysian Borneo February 2019

Borneo is a marvellous pace to visit. The people are exceptionally friendly, the towns and cities are lively and safe, the landscapes are captivating and there is plenty of wildlife to see.

We flew to Kuching via Kuala Lumpur and settled into the Hilton which was very comfortable and close to the riverside nightlife. We are used to being in Asian cities but Kuching is different to many of them in two major respects - no litter and very calm motorists.

View from our Kuching hotel window:

It was cloudy and rainy at times in Kuching but warm and sunny as we travelled northwards. The building with the golden roof is the parliament building. We were not surprised to be told by our guide that rather than build hospitals, the local politicians decided to build themselves a fine parliament filled with Italian marble.

The Sarawak Cultural Village, about 25k out of Kuching, gives you a good insight into how the nomadic jungle people such as the Bidayuh, Iban and Penan used to live. Some still do live nomadic lives, though most seem to be settled in villages and they are not headhunters any more. Rumour has it that during WWII Aussie soldiers paid the headhunters for every Japanese head that they brought them. Nowadays, they earn money by taking tourists upriver in longboats for example.

We drove from Kuching for under an hour to reach the Sungai  River, sailed downstream and into the South China Sea to the Bako National Park. After landing on the beach we had a tricky jungle walk - tricky because of the tangles of tree roots and the spiky plants. En route we saw proboscis monkeys, scores of macaque monkeys, silver langur and the bearded pigs which were making quite a mess of the grassy area around the hostel.

After a very enjoyable time in Kuching we took a short flight to Mulu and stayed at the excellent Mulu Marriott, close to the Gunung National Park. From this point on the weather was warm.

Our plane at Mulu airstrip

 Limo to the hotel

This one can give a human a very painful bite

An afternoon walk through the jungle brought us to the Lang Cave with its spectacular display of stalactites and stalagmites. We then trekked to the Deer Cave, which is the largest cave passage in the world. It is named Deer Cave because deer enter to lick salt from the rocks. Between 2 and 3 million bats live in the cave system and they come out at dusk to feed. We were expecting to have bats flying all around us but they flew very high in long swirling ribbons to try to avoid the prowling bat hawks who were looking for their own evening meals.

We 'dined' at Larry's across the river from the Marriott. Slightly chaotic but good fun. Tasty food and drinks for two - £12.  A snip! Larry gave us all a sample of his home made hooch. I needed a Tiger Beer to take the taste away!

Next morning we had a superb journey by longboat along the Melinau River to the Clearwater Cave and the Cave of the Winds. The river was quiet, peaceful and beautifully smooth. We stopped mid morning at a Dayak settlement to meet some local people before continuing upriver to the caves. The Clearwater Cave system stretches for over 200k. We did the short version. I had a swim in the river and it is here that I may have contracted the Leptospirosis that knobbled me when I got back to the UK.

A picnic after the swim

Unusual to see a stick insect in the daytime. This one was quite large.

A green lizard spotted as we traversed the Mulu Canopy Walk, which is the longest tree based walkway in the world. Top middle in the photo.

From Mulu we flew to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah for an overnight stay and the following day took a short flight to Sandakan.

First stop in Sandakan was the Sepilok orang utan rehabilitation centre. The one below is 10 years old and supposed to have gone off to live in the wild but she hangs around the centre and entertains the tourists.

A wild orang utan. We did not see any in Sarawak but saw several in the wild on our travels in Sabah.

A sun bear, also ready for return to the wild. Conservationists capture the bears from people who have kept them as pets.

We had to walk between the waterside houses on stilts in Sandakan to get to the jetty for the ride across the Sulu Sea and into the gigantic Kinabatangan River.

Lunch stop at the beautiful Abai Jungle lodge en-route to Sukau.

We were told that the #1 proboscis monkey in each group seems to always be in a state of excitement (if you know what I mean). It definitely was not me who excited this fellow.

Or this one!

We chugged our boat in close to the river bank to watch this group of macaques having their early morning breakfast.

Below: The remains of a very large crocodile with two monitor lizards in attendance having their morning snack. The smell wasn't very uplifting!

It's not all carnage...

The Kinabatangan Riverside Lodge did not provide the best accommodation of the trip but the staff were friendly and helpful and the days spent there were amongst the best of the trip.

Back in Kota Kinabalu we were supposed to take a steam train down the coast to Papar but it was u/s and so we had the electric with a stand in driver. I don't think I did a bad job.

Excellent Chinese Meal at the Sri Melaka in Kota Kinabalu

On 24 Feb we said goodbye to KK and took the ferry to Gaya Island for a three night stay at the Gayana Eco Resort. We had a luxurious 'Palm Villa' with all mod cons. Our glass floor allowed us to see the tropical fish swimming below. I did some snorkelling and a jungle walk to the 300m top of this entirely forested island but we spent of the time having a well-earned rest.

 Our villa (left)

A cold shower after a warm swim.

Uninvited guest at our plunge pool.