03 OCT 08

Hey everyone, sorry it’s been so long since you had a proper update, but the jungle still lacks broadband or a wi-fi spot… as one would expect! Most of the time this isn’t the slightest problem – I’m still contactable in an emergency by mobile phone (when standing in certain places at the field centre), but today it’s caused all manner of difficulties. Next Wednesday (08 OCT 08) we fly to Kuala Lumpur. Chloe, Dave and I are travelling to Vietnam, where we’re going to meet with Karen and Naomi from home. Vietnam is one of the few countries in South East Asia that require you to obtain your visa before arrival, so for the past couple of weeks I’ve been ringing the embassy in Kuala Lumpur to find out how we go about this when we get to Peninsular Malaysia. Helpfully, everyone at the embassy tends to be at lunch sometime between 12:00 and 14:00, and it then closes at 15:00. Having spoken to a very nice lady at the British Consulate in KL and been given a handful of other telephone numbers to try, I’ve been waving my phone about trying to find signal and get in touch with the Vietnamese embassy to no avail, until this morning. The gentleman on the other end of the phone-line started off trying his best to explain in English how to get a visa, telling me that they need three working days to process it. I explained that we only had two days, that our flights had already been booked, but that we had the details here we could give over the phone if it would help speed up the process… it wouldn’t. After a quick rendezvous with the others, Chloe gave them a call back and very patiently spoke to every English speaking person in the office, all of whom were adamant that a visa cannot be issued in less than three working days. Oh dear. Our flight leaves KL for Ho Chi Minh City on the evening of the 10th October, and I’m meeting Karen and Naomi three days later, so we really don’t have that much time (or cash) to play with! So we’ve spent the rest of the morning on the phone to a friend in KL who might be able to fill the forms for us and to the embassy who eventually informed us that we could use an express route to get our visa…which would take three working days. It’s been quite hard to stay calm. Chloe then spent twelve minutes on hold waiting to speak to Air Asia to find out if we can either change our flights to allow for an extra day, or buy another flight for me to fly ahead a day early and sort out our visas. After hearing every possible promotion on flights to Bali and Hong Kong, my phone ran out of credit. Currently we’re visa-less, credit-less, and if we’re completely honest, fairly clueless about how we’re getting into Vietnam. I’ve got no way of contacting Karen and Naomi until we go to town to fly to Kuala Lumpur, which is no doubt when this will find its way to you, so if you two are reading this – check your email when you get to Hanoi!!! Although it’s likely to be the 8th October by now, and you’ll have left on the 7th from Heathrow, so I really don’t know how we’re going to get into contact!!! I give up!


Okay, I’m going to make a cup of tea before the generator goes off for the afternoon.
This afternoon we’re doing a spot of trail maintenance before it starts raining, which should be fun. I saw an absolutely massive snake on one trail the other day. I described it to Zainal who manages the centre and he suspects it was a cobra, possibly even a King Cobra!!! That’s pretty cool isn’t it? We also saw an otter whilst walking down to the family’s house the other night, and three giant geckos in the space of five days. Wild Boar, Monkeys and Monitor Lizards are still popping up on a regular basis too, so there’s no shortage of wildlife! On the downside, ants keep invading our hot chocolate supply and mosquitoes are abundant (though a tiny bit less so with each one I remove from existence!)

Next time I write, I’ll hopefully be in Vietnam… fingers crossed!!!
Rachel x