Twenty Nine Palms...

... is a place in California, not far from Palm Springs. It is, however, totally outclassed by Sarawak' s Kubah National Park, where there are alleged to be over 93 species of these leafy-fronded trees. I could clearly recognise at least three of them, even though I never listened in Botany class -I was asleep at the back. I suspect palms are angiosperms not gymnosperms, and monocotyledenous not dicotyledenous, but I really don't know. They make fruit, so they must have arrived on the planet fairly recently, after insects I suppose. Top geneticist Steve Jones says geneticists manage even to make sex boring, but it's really only insects who show any interest in plant sex. Them bees would be locked up for bestiary, or rather plantiary, if the religious Right ever get on their case.

Kubah has the usual multitude of lizards, plus other life-forms I've not seen in the wild hithertofore, icluding terrapins, long-tailed birds in trees, and tropical squirrels. Top notch. Linda noticed some butterflies and suffered in the heat. As this was never in silence, most of the wildlife had plenty of time to clear off before we saw it.

Yesterday we went to Bako NP, wher we saw big-nosed monkes and did some rather good bouldering at a splendid beach. Remote, you have to get a boat in, and it feels like an island, though that was mostly due to the price of beer.

All this was much better than the mediocre Fairy Cave we visited the day before. People come from all over the place to se the caves in Sarawak, but listen to me - don't bother with this one. There's a crag on the adjacent premises, but now it's under lock and key, so bring a crowbar if you want to go climbing.

Kuching, Sarawak is great. Of the stuff we did in Sabah, only snorkelling at Sapi Island was as much kop.

We fly tomorrow for Singapore...