Category: Places

View from a low-flying prop plane over Mulu National Park and the Mulu River. Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia.

From Hunter-Gatherers to Human Zoo

Leaving Mulu National Park on a little propeller plane, with rivers unspieling below us, a scattered handful of logging tracks carving their way across the...

Stream of bats swirl across the twilit sky. Deer Cave, Mulu National Park, Sarawak, Borneo.

Three Million Bats

Deer Cave, at Mulu National Park, Borneo, is one of the largest cave chambers in the world, and home to as many as three million...

Fiddlehead ferns and shoots of jungle plants laid out on a blue tarpaulin. Kapit, Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia.

Fighting Cocks and Jungle Ferns

We took three boats to Gunung Mulu, the serene and beautiful national park deep in the forests of Sarawak, with ancient caves carved deep into...

Illuminated fairground entrance with the legend UK Funfair, Bintulu, Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia.

The Coolest Fairground Worker Ever?

Of all the places in which to find a “UK Funfair”, complete with British registration plates on the lorries, Bintulu, Sarawak, would come pretty low...

Men from the Kayan tribal minority of Borneo carry a 32-man war canoe down to the Balui River.

The Big Race

Watching two women’s eights, one women’s sixteen, and a mighty war canoe paddled by thirty-two men powering their way up the Balui River in the...

Three platforms laden with forest timber plough their way down the Batang Rejang, Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia.

The Vanishing Forest

Some things, simply, look too big, too plentiful to ever be used up. The herds of bison that clouded the American plains; the trees of...

The City Slicker

Asun and Mimi sit in a cafe off the waterfront in Belaga, a town of 2500 souls and the major trading hub of great swathes...

Orangutan mother cradling her one year old child: Semanggoh Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre, Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia

Women of the Woods

The Malay name orang utan means “man of the forest”, and, after a visit to the Semanggoh Orang Utan Centre, it’s easy to see why....

Orangutans and Betel Juice

They say you learn something new every day. And today I learn that gambier, AKA catechu, is a common ingredient used by Asians in chewing...