Monkeys, monkeys everywhere

So I've not been the best at updating this lately and I could list my excuses but why bother when I can list all the things that have happened since my last post 5 weeks ago!! Now I obviously can't remember everything that has happened or very much at all but I'll try and keep it short, sweet and funny, I did say try!! I can tell you now it will be a very monkey based blog. Where to begin... we went down to Kuala Lumpur (KL), the capital. Did some shopping, dragged Libby away from some very ugly trainers, watched TED (watch it if you haven't seen it!), seen our first Poly, won a round of drinks in a pub quiz since we knew who Peter Rabbit was (nah it was all Karl's doing really) and visited Times Square!! 4 hours after our return from KL Hannah and Rianne (fellow PT'ers) arrived from Gemencheh to stay with us for the weekend! Woken up the next morning by a call from Khaliq inviting us to his house for breakfast since it was Hari Raya Haji therefore we fit 8 people in a small Toyota (Ali and Khaliq's brother in the boot)! Then on to Pangkor for a relaxing 2 days on the beach, we wish! The damn monkeys stole all our Maggi(instant noodles) from our rucksacs which were inside hammocks (seeing a monkey climb out of a hammock is kind of funny even if it is stealing stuff!) I saw one monkey with an orangey disc in its mouth and I was like what on earth is that?! Found out later it was foundation,, monkeys like to look good too apparently!! Breakfast next morning was on the beach, idillic you might think? Oh no, the monkeys attack again! So one person protecting the Milo packets another protecting bread and then me running around like a headless chicken chasing monkeys with sticks! To get back to Pangkor town we had almost no money left after buying food so were walking back but managed to get on an empty local bus for free, the perks of being a white person lar! A wander along the old fishermans jetties where the planks of wood are rotting and back to the mainland we go. Next up Halloween on Sekadeh and a pretty scary Halloween at that! No-one here actually celebrates it since its of Christian origin and everyone here is Muslim. No costumes, no trick or treating, no sweets :( One question to you all: before you get any sweets at someones door you have to tell a joke, sing or dance, right? Not where Libby comes from, they just get handed their sweets or else they egg the houses!! So in the rickety shack on the edge of the jungle we spent the night, ghost stories were told, noises were heard from the jungle, two massive thunder storms colliding overhead and raining cats and dogs!! To top it all off just as we were all falling asleep something grabbed and pulled Libby's hair and I can vouch for it not being me or Ali... The next week we spent training, giving, in my case a very bad lesson in belay intro, CPR, first aid, prussicking (I'm useless at it), rappelling rescue and other training stuff. I think it was during this week that we had the biggest storm we've witnessed so far!! We stood outside the mess in the shelter for ages watching and listening then all of a sudden BANGGGG!!! me: ducks down to floor like a shot, Ali: runs inside, Libby: bursts into fits of laughter at me and Ali!! I have honestly never got such a fright in my life, it sounded as if the lightening had struck the roof we were standing under!! Poor buggers were up doing solo in the jungle that night so some instructors were running around trying to get sorted to go and evacuate them. We asked if they needed any help but were told to stay in Ali's room and be on standby, so what did we do? Tuck in to a large Big Mac meal of course, (we asked Shuek to get it earlier) our first McDonalds since arriving in Malaysia!! I don't think I've tasted a better McDonalds! Three days off followed, one for Deepavli, one for Ali's birthday and one for something else! We had been invited to Shukri's sisters wedding up in Kedah so MJ offered to take us and we could stay in his house with his family since he stays in the same kampong as Shukri! On the way we stopped at a waterfall in Taiping, well we stopped at the right waterfall after 30mins of wandering around the wrong place before we asked for directions! MJ's family were lovely, his mother even gave me and Libby a sarong each, I'm currently wearing mine! A sarong, by the way, is like a giant tube of material (like a massive Buff) which you put over your head then bring down until the bottom is at your ankles and the top is around your waist area, then for girls take the excess over to one side then back to the middle and tuck in like you would when wrapping a towel round yourself. Guys and girls wear sarongs, girls have florally kind of patters whereas guys have chequered or tartan sarongs. Women normally only wear then around the house although it is acceptable for men to wear theirs out. For special celebrations like weddings a special single colour shorter sarong will be worn over trousers by the men. I love my sarong, its so comfy to sleep in, much better than a onsie!! Anyway the wedding: we spent say 45mins there! Malaysian weddings are very different to British ones, a lot of people are invited to come and just eat and leave again, no need to dress up or anything! Since we knew Shukri and I'm pretty sure because we are white we got to go inside and see the bride. She was wearing a beatiful red dress and wanted us to get our picture taken with her, on her bed!! So there on the bed was me, Libby, Ali, MJ, Harris and Shukri all in average clothes and then theres the bride in this wonderful red dress!! Onward we went to the next wedding! This time we had no clue who the bride and groom were, I think MJ's mother vaguely knew them! We sat and ate more food all the same, its Malaysia after all, what else are we going to do other than eat?! Next stop another party of more people we didn't know! I think it was a celebration party of the birth of a child but yet again we were offered more food! Back down the road since we were all on course the next day! Bethany Home course: 91 disabled children(most actually being adults) and 91 volunteers to look after them! I didn't see much of this course since I wasn't feeling well, don't worry I'm fine now, but what I did see was very inspiring! The stories we heard about some of the participants were so inspiring, about how they had conquered their disability and done amazing things. One guy for example can't talk but he managed to make it to the summit of Mt. Kinabalu, 4095m (like 3x Ben Nevis)!! It was great to see the commitment of the volunteers as well, they had to watch their participant 24/7. We're now coming to the end of the CAC (childrens adventure course) a 10day course with 3 exeditions and packed with activities. On this course there are CA's (course assisstants) who are people our are who have been on YAC or CAC before and come back to support the course. The CA's for CAC are Kelly and Darian who are really nice, we've just found out Darian is quite a big One Direction fan so a sing-song ensued in the jungle tonight! Earlier in the course I managed to evade the trekking somehow (yasss no leaches for me) and then got to sleep in a dome tent, luxury, at Teluk Batik for expedition number 1. Rock climbing the next morning, the first time I've been to the site, but the rock was very slippery with moss! The next expedition was to Sekadeh, boat trip no kayaking, more sleeping in a dome tent! Darian borrowed my hammock and loved it! I got left on "monkey-watch" (told you there was a lot about monkeys!) while the others went rappelling! All was good for a while, I relaxed, cleaned the dishes, replies to letters and then I heard SNAP oh crumbs what was that?! I turned round to see our speed boat whic was anchored in the bay being swept quickly away!! A boat of tourists had hit the line between the anchor and boat which had made the line between the shore and boat untie so the boat was floating free, thankfully still attched to the anchor unlike I hd thought! After retreiving the shore line and tieing it back up I go back to camp to find monkeys everywhere!!! Theiving buggers! I grabbed the parang (macchette) in one hand and a stick in the other and began running around like a nutcase scaring the monkeys back up into the trees!! I spent the rest of the time hitting sticks off the ratio drums to scare them away, one kept coming down to steal the rice laddle though! If any of you think monkeys are cute and cuddly and you want a pet one, think again! They are viscious, horrible, evil and bear their teeth at you and hiss, not so cute!! Final expedition: solo! Not quite so much solo for these guys since they are only 10-12yrs old, most of the time was spent together talking, building fire and one boy made a catapult and I made a bow and arrow!! Normally on solo you get your own rations and have to cook for yourself but these guys got packed lunch and dinner taken up to them ( so did we right enough), they even got a super of donuts! Now normally monkeys tend to stick to office hours, 8am-5pm, however these monkeys did a bit of overtime and thought they would attack at 6pm! It was OK though I had my bow and arrow to shoot at the monkeys, I'm pretty sure I heard the monkeys laughing at my ame attempts though!! My arrows weren't the best made, the bow was pretty darn good though! Oh yeah and we finally got our work visa's sorted out, 6 days before our tourist visa's expired! A shame really 'cause we would have gotten to go to Thailand if we didn't get them in time! Sorry again for the long break with no posts I'll be better this time!! So yeah thats 5 weeks of my life in a nutshell!!