It's Christmas Eve! I'm no longer in the jungle. I was this morning, but now I'm in Sandakan once more, where we'll be spending Christmas Day. On Boxing Day we head to Kuala Lumpur on an attempt to reach the Thai border, renew our visa and get back to the city in time for New Year. Fingers crossed, eh!?
It's rather hot today, although I don't know how hot, and we were commenting this morning on how it doesn't feel all that Christmassy without the coldness of the British festive period. We then had to kick ourselves as we realised that if 'the first Christmas' was infact on December 25th (debatable, I know), then it'd probably be much closer to this sort of climate than that of Dorset or Cardiff, so really this is how Christmas feels afterall.
The most bizarre thing about our Christmas so far has been seeing THREE crocodiles on the banks of the river this morning (which are visible now that the water level's lowered a little after the easing of the rain). I mean, I don't think I've ever seen one crocodile on Christmas Eve before, lettalone three, so that was pretty cool.
I don't know how tomorrow will go - basically I'm dreading it. We have to cook a Christmas dinner for far too many people in a hostel in Sandakan and probably feed all the staff as well. I find it all very stressful and am suddenly very thankful I don't do this every year. Although maybe next year I'll be a bit more helpful when Mum's sorting it all out! I'm absolutely convinced we're going to poison the lot of them (touch wood not), as I can hardly cook super-noodles, nevermind a chicken, but maybe Chloe knows what she's doing??? If not we have a back up of a large amount of rice and a cake that we're going to make tonight. We also have the telephone number for Pizza Hut, although the last time we attempted to order to the hostel we accidentally rang Kuala Lumpur and got the new kid who had no idea where Borneo was. We did get to eat pizza in the end, but it was almost midnight by the time it had arrived, so we'd rather do the roast chicken if possible. It brings me some comfort to know that Shelley's in a similar situation at home this year! :)
Even if tomorrow is a complete disaster, at least we can look back on last night and smile. We were told by Ancu, who works at the centre, that due to a shorting in the cables at the jetty, caused by a tree falling on the wires during heavy rain, the electricity wouldn't come on when the sun goes down and we'd have to wait a little longer. We also weren't allowed to leave the house. (In Malay... must be getting better!) We thought it was all a little bit strange as the rains hadn't been that bad and an electrical problem at the jetty surely shouldn't constrict us to a dark room for several hours. Eventually Ancu came to collect us and we all walked over to the main building. Just as we were about to climb the steps to enter the building, Ancu exclaimed that there was a sleeping pig under the building. Indeed there was. Two infact. He'd obviously lost his last marbles down at the jetty, so we tried to enter once more. This time he announced that we had to sit and talk on the steps...
...Eventually we were allowed in and between Ancu and Salin, Zainal and the girls who've started working in the kitchen, they'd lighted almost 40 candles, decorated the field centre and cooked huge prawns on a BBQ!!!!! And they don't even celebrate Christmas!!!! It was such a lovely thought and we had a fantastic evening. They'd even managed to find blueberry-Cadbury's-chocolate-eclairs (very odd, but surprisingly tasty) and bought ginger beer!!! We had noodles, goat with mint sauce, vegetables, potato chips, prawn and fried chicken bits - a feast fit for a King! We listened to the 'Jive Bunny Christmas' CD Mum had sent in the post, followed by the Malay Rock CD and played 'Violent Snap' and 'Cheat' with everybody until Chloe had added so many new rules that the girls were falling asleep and everyone else was as confused as I was when first walking into Vietnam and trying to find a taxi (very).
Don't tell Chloe, but it's 1600, 24 DEC 08 and I still have to find her a Christmas Pressie so I should really go and get it now or else the shops will all be shut!
Happy Christmas everybody,
Wish you were here,
Rachel xxx
Words, Wildlife, Rock & Roll
Borneo, Wales, Infinity and Beyond...
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