S-21 and Choeun Ek Killing Fields of Cambodia

The blog that follows is very long-winded and could be disturbing to some people, however it is something which had a great impact on me and interests me greatly therefore it may be more about me just needing to write stuff down as opposed to you wanting to read about it! I took no pictures as a small mark of respect (and because both phone and camera are broken). I'm in a state of complete and utter disbelief. How can a few people cause such a widespread devastation. These people killed 2million of their own, enlisted child soldiers, destroyed the whole infrastructure of a country. These people are still alive and until 2007 free. These people are the Khmer Rouge. A ruthless communist party who during the Cambodian civil war fought, with the support of the King, against the US backed Lon Nol, the government army who had overthrown the King. The US bombings in Cambodia aided the Khmer Rouge in gaining support. The US bombing campaign dropped more bombs in Cambodia than all the bombs dropped in WW2 combined. The Khmer Rouge gained support and large areas of the country until they gained control of the capital Phnom Penh and with it the government. Citizens celebrated as they thought the war was over. Celebrations were short lived as a mere 3 hours later the citizens of Phnom Penh were being evacuated out to the countryside under the pretense that the city was about to get bombed by the US. Instead it was a move by the Khmer Rouge to start again at "Year Zero" . The people moved from the city worked in the fields as slaves for 12-15hours a day. Upon taking control on April 17 1975 the first targets were the senior government and military officials who were connected to the old regime of Lon Nol. The vision of the Khmer Rouge was to "cleanse" Cambodia and start again at "Year Zero". They destroyed banks, universities, religious buildings, abolished currency and closed all borders cutting Cambodia off from the rest of the world. The aim was to make Cambodia a classless communist state based on rural agrarian economy. To achieve this anyone who was "impure" was detained in prison where they were tortured, interrogated and executed. "Impure" was deemed to be anyone with a professional background or educated or of ethnic minority, so teachers, professors, doctors, nurses were all killed. The regime were paranoid, ordering that whole families be killed in order to prevent children coming back to take revenge in later years. By the later years of the.revolution ordinary Cambodian citizens were being imprisoned on accusations that they were part of the CIA or supported Lon Nol or were anti-revolutionary. When people were captured many were taken to Tuol Sleng also known by code name S-21, which was a school that the Khmer Rouge turned into a prison. Here prisoners were detained for 2-6 months while they were interrogated mainly for crimes they didn't commit. They were forced to admit to these crims to lessen the time they were tortured for. Prisoners would be detained in single 0.8x2m cells or in classrooms of 40 people lying on the floor with feet shackled together and hands tied. The only time they were allowed out was for interrogation and torture. Torture methods included continuous whipping of the back, when one guard got tired another would take over; removing finger nails and then pouring alcohol on the wound; having scorpions and centipedes sting nipples of both men and women; hanging victims upside down until they were unconscious and then dipping them in dirty water used as fertilizer so they quickly regained consciousness to continue interrogations. Victims would be tortured for hours a day. The torture wasn't intended to kill them but to force confsessions. However many died in Tuol Sleng due to torture, starvation (prisoners got approx 8mouthfulls of thin rice soup a day) or disease. The Khmer Rouge were meticulous with their documentation. Photographs were taken as prisoners entered Tuol Sleng, during their torture, careful lists of prisoners names to be transported to ChoeungEk and endless pages of confessions made by prisoners. When enough information had been extracted prisoners would be sent in trucks to a killing field at Choeung Ek. Here name lists would be double checked to ensure no-one had escaped before the blindfolded and shackled prisoners were told to kneel down at the edge of pits. Guards would hit the back of victims necks with everyday farming tools: hoes, ox-cart axles, sticks etc: to save bullets which were too expensive. Their necks were then slit, blindfolds and clothes removed and the bodies thrown into the pits. Chemicals would be thrown over the bodies to kill anyone still alive and to disguise the stench of death. The majority of the Khmer Rouge were young Cambodians who had volunteered as in a time when there was little food they knew they would be fed and have a job. Few joined on grounds of political agreement. These young "cadres" as they were called were as young as 13 and were guards at Tuol Sleng, at the killing fields and fighting on the front line against the Vietnamese. These cadres were also victims, when they signed up they didn't think they would be killing their own people, their own families. If they didn't do as they were ordered they too would be killed for being antirevolutionary. On January 7 1979, 3 years 8 months and 20 days after the Khmer Rouge took power the Vietnamese toppled Pol Pots government. As Vietnamese troops neared Phnom Penh the Khmer Rouge fled to the jungle and mountains in the west. When the Vietnamese came across Tuol Sleng they found 7 people alive. 20,000 people had gone through Tuol Sleng, no-one ever escaped and only 7 survived. At Choeung Ek Killing Fields 129 mass graves were found containing about 17,000 bodies: men, women, children, babies, elderly, foreigners and members of the Khmer Rouge themselves. Around the country over 20,000 mass graves and hundreds of prisons have been found. Until 1999 the Khmer Rouge were still in existence, however then all the senior leaders defected to the Royal Government of Cambodia, had been arrested or had died. Up until that point, 20 years since their fall from power, they had lived as free people still with some control over the country and even until 1990 had a seat in the UN. Of the 6 main Khmer Rouge leaders only 4 are still alive. Pol Pot, the leader, was arreste in 1998 but died in 1999 before he could be put on trial. Leng Sary was arrested in 2007and was awaiting trial when he died only 4 weeks ago. Leng Sarys wife and sister-in-law of Pol Pot, leng Thirith was also arrested in 2007 but was excused in 2011 due to Alzheimers Disease. Comrade Duch is the only one so far to be trialled. He was sentenced in 2010 to 35 years imprisonment for crimes against humanity, genocide and breaches of the Geneva Convention. He is also the only leader to admit to any involvement and plead guilty to his crimes. He was the officer in charge of Tuol Sleng. The remaining 2, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan were also arrested in 2007 and await trial. Both deny any involvement despite being second in command after Pol Pot. As for all other members of the Khmer Rouge, no charges will be put against them. Most are remorseful for their actions and given the choice wouldn't have done it, but it was kill when they were told or be killed themselves. Some however support the Khmer Rouge and have no regrets about what they did. Its strange to walk the streets of Phnom Penh knowing I might be walking with people who killed tens or hundreds of their own people. These Khmer Rouge soldiers will now be as young as 50 years old. I have spent the last two days at Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek and it has been a deeply moving experience. A lot of Tuol Sleng has been left almost exactly the way the Vietnamese it in 1979. The torture beds and tools still remain, cells are the way they were left, chalkboards still hang on the walls from the school days before 1975. I'm not sure but I think some of the the blood stains still remain on classroom floors. The barbed wire on the outside of one of the four buildings is still there, put up to prevent prisoners from jumping to their death. Inside some of the rooms are the thousands of pictures that the Khmer Rouge when prisoners entered. Pictures of women, men, elderly, children, babies, foreigners and government officers. There are also pictures that the Vietnamese took when they found Tuol Sleng of the last 14 victims to be killed. They buried them in the courtyard outside. The guide that showed me around had herself experienced the ruthlessness of the regime. She had seen her father and brother taken away, she never saw them again. Her and her mother were sent to opposite sides of the country to work in the fields, 14 hours a day, fed twice a day on very thin rice soup. At the end of the revolution, aged 13 she walked across the country to the district she knew her mother to be in where they were reunited. I also met Chum Mey, one of the seven survivors of Tuol Sleng. He is now over 80 years old and survived because the Khmer Rouge found out he was a painter. He was told to paint the scenes of torture so the soldiers could prove to those above them that their orders were being carried out. He was given the privilege of sleeping in the painting room, getting the left over food from the soldiers and not getting interrogated after the first 2 months. Today he tells his story so the younger generation of Cambodia understand the mistakes made and don't allow history to repeat itself.

Malaysia IS food!

Rewind two months and we come to my first time instructing a course! We went to briefing assuming we would be support as always but me and Alistair got taken into Syafris office and told we would be instructing a watch (15people) each with the help of Din and Fendy. Before instructing this course I thought I knew a lot about each activity and that instructing would be reasonably easy, how wrong I was! Its so difficult to keep the kids attention and make sure I'm one step ahead of the game. Most of the course went well, however the teachers on this particular course made life difficult for instructors by always intervening and telling the kids different meeting times to us. This also made it hard for us to gain the respect of the kids as teachers were always undermining us. My watch managed to lose their store key and a compass costing me 86ringgits! I learned a lot from this course and hope I get another opportunity like it to improve on my performance and there is a lot to improve on! The feedback forms made me laugh though, one kid commented

There should be less international instructors.

this particular kid was Indonesian and came from an international school! I had a rare free weekend and no plans so with 10minutes notice headed back to Alia's home in Ipoh. Her family are lovely, especially her mother who made me feel so welcome in her home. We visited multiple other family members who were equally nice. I got a full tour of Ipoh courtesy of Alia, her parents and her brother. We went to a couple of Buddhist temples, mostly situated in caves and have very colourful statues about (great for taking stupid pictures with!). We also went on a cave tour and visited Kellies Castle which was built by a Scot for his wife but she died before it was completed so the castle was left unfinished, still worth a visit although we were too stingy to pay the entry fee so just took pictures from outside! I'm pretty sure one day we had 5 meals, pretty standard in Malaysia, as Alistair said "Malaysia is food!" I had a great weekend getting to see another part of Malaysia, meeting Alias family and understanding more about malaysian culture. I also bought glow-in-the-dark stars so Libby and I can now stargaze before we go to sleep every night! We have Orions belt, the plough, north star, toilet star and light star among others! Back at OB and we're off on another training expedition. This time a kayak around Pangkor Island in two days. Heading up to Syawal took only 2hours, but once we got there we had to camp as participants so instead of our usual hammocks or dome tents we had to pitch a single tent made from a rope between two trees and tarpaulins over the top. Tents pitched, que the storm! Heavy rain threatened to flood our tent so mammoth trenches were dug, Libby hid under a wok and Alistair had a shower in the rain! Next day we started strong making good time, we didn't touch land for 6hours, only stopping for people to jump in the water to relieve themselves! And a mass capsize drill! The last little stint back to OB required good teamwork in each kayak to motivate those who were tired and sore but we all made it in one piece and without any fallouts! Habis for the moment! More to follow on Sunday (maybe)!

2013 begins...

Lets start at the very beginning, its a very good place to start... actually I'm going to start before the start! The last couple of days of December and 2012 were spent catching up with Libby, eating as much cheap and tasty Indian and Chinese food as our stomachs could handle and going to the cinema multiple times. We saw in the bells at the Rooftop Bar of Reggae Mansion with a view of the Petronas Towers. Drinks were drunk, party hats were decorated, games were played and Auld Lang Syne was sung. A very merry and cheery start to 2013! Until we were shown the pictures the boys had taken on the street, some admittedly hilarious others gruesome! The next few days were filled with films, food, films and food! Back at OB we were told there was going to be a staff cycling trip to the Cameron Highlands. 3am start! Going there is almost exclusively uphill on a road winding its way up through the jungle and tea and strawberry plantations! There were only a few extra bikes for PT'ers, practicals and those without a bike to use so we didn't cycle all 80km, some of the instructors did though! I think me and Libby did around 30km each and Alistair 40km! Up in the highlands though it is cold! Like camping out in Scotland in the Spring! But we were in hammocks, without sleeping bags. I literally wore all the clothes I had each night including my jacket, sarong and woolly hat, but was still cold! Aliff had the right idea, he had a thick, fluffy Reindeer suit! Libby had the wrong idea, she wore 3 sarongs, a woolly hat and a sleeping bag liner...during the day! We wandered round Brinchang and Tanah Rata and ate plenty of strawberries and ice cream and drunk some tea, all of which the Cameron Highlands are famous for. We didn't get to cycle back down (downhill all the way) because of "safety reasons" but hey ho we got to go to a tea plantation and run around between all the tea bushes! The rest a January was nice, I turned 18, did some training :O , had a staff training expedition doing Final Trek, seen Thaipuasm and my uncle and instructed my first course! My 18th wasn't quite as crazy as many others but I got birthday donuts, balloons and had a nice relaxing day, on a course! The Final Trek, also known as Hell trek, is a two day one night affair. It has steep, muddy hills, giant mosquitoes, leeches galore and no certain track for some of it! Day 1 wasn't too bad other than a disagreement about whether or not to follow a path that we found and the fact that most of the discussion was in Malay didn't help us, but hey we got over it and found the campsite! Day 2 was a lot more physically demanding, the hills were muddier and steeper, we had to cross a bog and we had 2 hills instead of one to climb. The worst part by far was the leeches though. The fact the hill is nicknamed Bukit Pacat, Leech Hill is bad enough. I'm not joking when I say that at one point I lifted the bottom of my trouser to find 15ish leeches on the one spot on my ankle!! Leeches are not my friend, apart from Liam (the Leech) he was cool. We rested in Pasir Bogak for a good while and then headed off up the last hill South Summit or 905. Easier than Leech Hill but finding the path is quite difficult. At one point the path leads through an abandoned hotel in the middle of the jungle, quite eerie! On the way down from the summit we accidentally disturbed a hornets nest so Alia, Shuek and Khairul all got stung. We three mat salleh couldn't help but be mat sallehs and go straight for a swim fully clothed when we reached Teluk Sekadeh! So refreshing! We headed down to KL the next weekend for Thaipuasm and so I could meet my uncle Edward. It was great seeing someone that I actually know and doing the touristy bits of KL! Went to KLCC to see the towers, tried to get Edward to eat proper Malay food but he's too chicken so stuck to western! We went up the Menara KL which is like 200m high and gives spectacular views of KL. Had a few drinks at Harrods and then Reggae Bar where we met Ali Hannah and Rianne again. Thaipuasm is probably the strangest thing I have ever witnessed. Its a Hindu festival celebrated on the full moon in the month Thai on the Tamil calendar. It is to commemorate when Parvati gave Murugan a spear to vanquish an evil demon. We went to Batu Caves to see devotees arriving after walking 15km with their kavadi (burden, so either carrying a small pot or carrying a big thing on their shoulders or some who pierce a spear through their tongue or cheeks, or have hooks in their body with weights hanging off). All devotees are in a trance like state as they have been fasting for 48days eating only Satvik food once a day. This was the scary part, they look straight through you as if there is nothing there and don't speak for the whole 15km. The final part is to walk up the 272 steps to the Cave Temple where they remove their burdens and pray. This felt like the hottest day we've had, there are over a million people visit the caves in one day so it was very crowded! Okay long enough post for now! I'll be back with the end of January and February happenings shortly :)but for now How I Met Your Mother must be watched!

Christmas in 'Nam

Our first trip alone. No-one else to take the responsibility. What's the first thing that happens? We miss the bus. Almost. Well we did but MJ being a legend drove like a bat-out-of-hell and caught up with it! Turns out I bought bus tickets to the wrong airport. Our plan: sit quietly and hope the driver doesn't know that we're supposed to get off at KLIA and not LCCT where the bus stops next. The plan worked!

The flight to Hanoi went pretty smoothly. But we were unprepared for the arrival: it was cold. We're not used to cold anymore. After a bit of asking and reading we found out that bus no.17 runs from round the corner of the airport to the city centre. So walking out of the airport, past heaps of taxi drivers all shouting "TAXI" we come to a dusty 4 lane road. Not going to lie we were both bricking it, so much so we pretended our rucksacs on our front(yeah thats right we went full tourist with the bag on the front!) were bulletproof vests. This bus was an old-school rickety, rusty affair, but it only cost 20,000dong (70p) for the hour to town. What an introduction to Vietnam though, the only foreigners on the bus, bouncing down a single track country road, and then the best radio ever: Jingle Bell Rock, in Malay! The first christmas song I'd heard and it was 23rd December. A bit of a wild goose chase round part of Hanoi trying to find the bus station and we run across the road to catch the bus to Haiphong as its still moving. A nice 2hr journey gave us the chance to watch some Vietnamese dramas on TV. Warning: NEVER EVER WATCH DRAMAS FROM SOUTH EAST ASIA, EXCESSIVE CRINGING WILL OCCUR!

Scam number 1 of Vietnam: throw the foreigners off the bus on a street corner. Scam number 2 of Vietnam: charge the foreigners three times normal fare for a taxi to the harbour. Arriving at the harbour we were ushered on to a hydrofoil boat before we could say "its not a mistake, its a lesson learned" (our motto for the trip!) Getting off the boat at our final destination, CatBa Island, Halong Bay, was incredible. Our room was on the harbour front with a beast view over the bay and all the limestone scenery.

Once we met and had a good catch up with the other PT'ers we decided Christmas eve would be spent on motorbikes (read scooters). I've been told vietnam is one of the worst places to learn to ride a bike, I can see why! No point using mirrors tooting the horn is how you let people know you're there! Therefore Vietnamese roads are very noisy. Please note: the best thing to do when you want to stop is not to panic and twist the accelerator more but to pull the brake, especially when in a petrol station! Once we had the hang of the bikes we were off down quiet roads, limestone cliffs covered in jungle towered over us. The beauty of the place made jaws drop further with every corner we turned. Stopping at a stall (someones house) to get some food we were entertained by local children showing off their slingshot skills. All was going well, we took the coastal road back, saw the sunset over a bay, until almost simultaneously we find out the road ahead is shut, I don't have enough petrol to get back to the town the long way and Rianne gets a puncture! Luckily we had passed the only garage we'd seen since leaving the town 100m down the road. Rianne gets the puncture fixed, I buy some petrol in a bottle and we're on our way! Slow is the aim of the game as by now its dark, I have no rear brake light, Rianne can't see well in the dark and Vietnamese roads are pretty pot-holey! I am glad this series of unfortunate events happened though, otherwise I wouldn't have seen the silhouettes of the karst, with a clear sky, full moon and hundreds of stars. Hard to keep your eyes on the road. Felt like I was standing in a picture from National Geographic. Beautiful! Of course then came Scam number 3 of Vietnam: accuse the foreigners of breaking the bike. We didn't!

The next day saw us having a "beach christmas", no it wasn't hot (I wore my woolly bobble hat) and we didn't have a BBQ however we built some sand-men, went paddling/swimming, sung christmas songs, said merry christmas to everyone we saw and had a traditional christmas dinner of pizza or cheeseburger finished off with a few drinks and games of pool! Secret santa was also pulled, gifts included starfish, ibuprofen, a bong, flip flops and a farmers hat!

Boxing day we took a Junk boat tour of Lan Ha Bay consisting of cruising, kayaking into caves and under arches into lagoons, lunch on the boat (exceedingly good considering it was cooked on one stove on the boat), and playing card games with some germans!

On to the capital city Hanoi next, expecting to stay in a dingy hostel in a backstreet so it was a very pleasant surprise to be staying in SE Asia's best hostel! Full of westerners, a bar downstairs, pool and free wifi, but right in the heart of old Hanoi! Hanoi is an amazing city, huge markets of the most colourful foods and textiles you have ever seen. There appears to be a different street designated to a different item, eg one street would be filled solely by shoes (get it?!), knock-off fakes of course! Lunch one day was at a local cafe in a narrow street, we sat on hobbit sized chairs with a hobbit sized table and ordered food which for all we know could have been hobbit! There was an old bicycle sitting on the opposite wall and chickens running round our feet, again it felt like I was part of a National Geographic photo! Alistair and myself were up at 5am to catch our flight back to KL, may have been wiser to take less advantage of the cheap beers the night before but hey ho!

Chao for now! I'll be back soon with contents including: New Year, Cameron Highlands cycling trip, Final Trek staff training expedition and Thaipuasm, possibly the most bizarre religious festival out there!

CAC 77 and CAC 78

A long, long time ago in a kingdom not so far away there was a girl who worked at Outward Bound Malaysia Lumut. She had a terrible memory. I'm struggling to remember what I did last week, never mind 10 weeks ago but lets see...

Alistair and myself were on two more 10 day CAC/YAC courses. Due to OB being very busy with all instructors on-course and one instructor having to pull out of the YAC at the last minute Alistair was called upon to be Watch Instructor! A big task for an 18year old without much specific instructor training however he did well and managed to complete the course without killing any kids, or them killing him! One girl in his Watch did get bitten by a poisonous centipede! In more good luck Alistairs course assistant blew his hand up with a firecracker! Nothing we can do to avoid such incidents though.

Next course and same thing, an instructor has to pull out so Ali is asked to take his place. 5nights expedition in 10 days because there aren't enough dorms for everyone. Alistair had a bit more luck with course assistants, getting Emily who was sound and did an ace job of telling off participants!

Again I was with the CAC course who are only 9-12yr olds and are a lot of fun to tease with "impossible" riddles! How many sheep jump over the wall?! On the nightwalk the participants were asked to switch their torches off and let their eyes adjust to the dark. A few were scared but one child reassured his friends with this: "Don't worry Katie is here, she's white so glows in the dark!"

Around half way through the course all the female CA's and me get told that we have to supervise the cleaning of the girls dorm block. Why? Because someone did a shit in the shower. What on earth? That is disgusting especially for girls aged 10-18. We did some severe shouting and made sure that the whole block was spotless and they knew their responsibilities.

On the kayak expedition to Sekadeh I was woken up at 5:15am by a bright light in my eyes, the old brain is a bit slow at that time in the morning so it took me a few seconds to work out that it was a child with a torch! "I need the toilet" "go wake one of your friends up..." "but they're asleep" "so wake them up?!" "Hmmmphhh" 10minutes later she comes back and tells another instructor so I get asked to escort her to the toilet, not like I was tired or anything! Half way there she tells me she needs a poo, great what do you want me to do?! Anyway no point going back to sleep for half an hour so I went down to the beach! It was so lush, clear sky above, thousands of stars, lightning bolts hitting the horizon, glow-in-the-dark algae lapping on the shore and best of all it was quiet other than the distant claps of thunder and the waves lapping up on the beach!

Up next
CHRISTMAS IN 'NAM!

10 weeks later....

I'm sorrry!!! Yeah it's been over two months since I last wrote on here and yes there have been plenty times when I could have updated this but I didn't. I'm here now though and thats all that matters. So what has happened in the last 10 weeks I hear you ask...well in short: CAC77.CAC78.Vietnam.HalongBay.Hanoi.Christmas.NewYear.CameronHighlandsStaffCycingTrip.FinalTrekkingExpedition.Leeches.Thaipuasm.EdwardsVisit.Ipoh.Caving.Temples.Food.InstructingACourse.FinalKayakExpedition.HeloisePTVisit.ChineseNewYear.Johor.Singapore.HawParVilla.LightShow.BeingCalledAlistairsMother.... so not much really! Now I'll split it down into a few different posts so the reading doesn't get too much. I think one blog post for all this may be a bit too far!

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!!