Views from the summit of Mt Kinabalu(Low's Peak): down in the gloom is the infamous Low's Gully; looking south just after dawn (about 6.30). We arrived at about 5.00, and with the substantial windchill it was uncofortably cold til sun-up. It's customary, but totally unnecessary, to set off at 3 am - the sort of dispiriting hour you have to start in the Alps, but here there are no snow-bridges to collapse, no avalanches to kick-off, and no stones to fall as a result of melting snow. It's the Guides again. We were last setting off, and it was still way too soon (but we did overtake most aspirants).

The South Peak and one of the other peaks (there are about a dozen) from the summit at dawn

The last section of the path below the huts, where vegetation abruptly gives way to bare granite

Kinabalu jungle

What a pitcher!

Moss!

Mt Kinabalu, 4101 m.

Sapi Island - temporary and permanent residents.

Off we go snorkelling to Sapi Island, off KK.

Pet hawker in KK. Cute chicklets!

Achoo! I feel a little feverish - I think I'll jump on the next plane home...

Heading for River Padas white water on the old colonial railway from Beaufort to Tenom, Sabah. I haven't any pics of the exciting white water sections, for obvious reasons...

Chinese New Year, Kota Kinabalu

Kuala Lumpur

Shiva's unorthodox overarm delivery leaves even the stoutest batsmen bewildered.

He dances at every moment of life, all of which are equally critical. The cosmos is his dancehall and we are all his dance partners, apparently.

Batu Caves, Kuala Lumpur. The big gold statue was put up rcently - it's Lord Muragan, one of Shiva's sons, and it's the biggest Muragan in the world. The steps lead to a series of caverns containing shrines and sculpted scenes from Hindu legends.

Singapore airport. Whoah! Free Internet use!

Felt a bit glum this morning. Not sure if it was due to the wholesale destruction of Borneo's rain forest and loss of orang-utan habitat despite the existence of a whole useless Ministry of Wildlife in Malaysia, running out of brain food after finishing another novel, or, worse still, the news in the Borneo Post that Mariah Carey has had 8 Grammy nominations.

Prolly just a come-down after an awesome time meeting lots of good people and having a great time in Sabah. S'true that travel sometimes feels like work. As it happens I just read that the first Monday in Feb is peak sickie day in the UK. Anyways - Singapore let's go...

Sepilok, Sabah, E Malaysia.

Been raining all day here in the jungle, so much so that the walkway to the orang-utang feeding station, at a height of 3 feet above the jungle floor, was flooded by 3 pm. It's now 8 pm and it hasn't stopped wellying down. A few bedraggled 'men of the jungle' put in an appearance this afternoon, but this morning it was a no-show, much to the disgruntlement of the assembled American Tourist Hordes, who were asking for their money back after coming all this way. A guide said 'well what would you do in this rain, stay at home or come here?', which was a bit of a non-question as we were definitely not at home.

The orangs are amazingly strong dudes. Brachiation? No problem. One-arm pull-ups, a cinch. Dead hangs - how long have you got? Just goes to show what you can achieve if you start your climbing career from birth.

Tomorrow I'm heading for Singapore, just a one-night stopover before moving on to Cairns in Oz. I suspect that 'What Afterlife' may take a back-seat Down Under, while his alter-ego racks up a negative karmic balance, but hey, when in Rome and all that.

Anyways, while I was waiting for our 96.4% identical DNA cousins to show up for their bananas, I dreamed up a hot competition to a) bring us all together in a spirit of on-line communal fun and b) get you lazy-assed passive surfer wasters to join in this blog before I give it up altogether and read a book. Do you think I'm doing it for fun or something? Give me a break. So here goes with the...

Fish Brain-teaser!

The perceptive diver cannot help noticing that many types of fish are named after other animals! That's because the animals were named first and the fish kind of look a bit like them - for example the tiger shark, batfish or butterfly fish! Other fish are often named after familiar household objects - the box fish, trumpetfish and pipefish spring instantly to mind!

However, only a few land animals or household objects are named after fish. It seems a bit unfair to our aquatic cousins, but it’s true!

How to enter
How many non-fishy animals or inanimate objects that are named after fish can you think of? Here are a few to get you started: silverfish, Ray, codpiece. And here are some also rans: plaice mat, stickleback plastic, carp ark.

List your answers in ‘comments’, taking note that answers, once listed, become invalid in subsequent postings, obviously. (postings? who am I kidding)

It’s that simple!

Why on earth should I bother?
You could win an exciting fish dinner! The reader with the most correct answers wins an exciting fresh fish of their own choice* for each correct answer, from a well-known Macclesfield fishmonger. What's more, the judging panel may cook it for you on their back garden barbeque if you're lucky, and they feel like it.

*Subject to availability. The panel reserve the right to substitute sardines (or equivalent) if the are feeling stingy or you get more than one right answer. Boring answers to do with recreational fishing (eg 'perch pole' or 'herring paternoster') will be met with the scorn they deserve. In the event of petty squabbles, the panel's decision is final.

Mabul island, Sabah, E Malaysia.

The last few days have been dive, drink tea, dive, eat, dive, eat, sleep. Add possible dive at sunset. Repeat.

Am staying on Mabul, a tiny island off the SE coast of Sabah, close to the even tinier islands of Kapalan and Sipadan. Yesterday at Sipadan, while most folk were watching a manta ray, I was confronted by a 60-foot wall of 1-metre barracuda, and found myself mouthing an awed and reliable 'fucking hell' at a depth of about 20 m while trying to keep my mouthpiece firmly in place and my bowels tightly under control. I swam closer, to within a metre or so - couldn't make myself go into the fish. Very, very real. One of those few sights in your life that really make an impression. More fun and only slightly less intense, was finding myself in the middle of a huge school of jacks, just me and about a thousand big silver fish circling round and round, with a couple of reef sharks and a huge trevally mooching about on the sea bed a few metres below. I spent a happy few minutes in the midst of this whirl of fish before some primeval urge prompted me to rejoin my school of fellow divers outside.

Sharks and turtles are all over the place here, and there are also lots of unlikely wee beasties on the Mabul reefs to investigate at a more leisurely pace. There are also some very unpredictable currents, going up-and-down as well as along the reef.

After being surrounded by things that could eat me if they felt like it, and buddying for a few dives with a gangly Swedish giant whose buoyancy skills alternated between those of a brick and a dirigible, I have been forced to adjust somewhat my appraisal of diving's Seriousness Level/Cockup Potential from Dancing In The Park/Low to Quite Exciting/Excellent.

On one dive with particularly poor visibility, we lost the Divemaster and another duo, and got swept away by a strong current. I was having great difficulty equalising (a blocked sinus in my left ear sometimes prevents me from descending quickly), and my mask was simultaneously leaking and steaming up, forcing me to clear it every minute or so. Meanwhile my buddy kept dissapearing to the surface and back like a yo-yo. Twice I was in the water on my own for several minutes, thinking 'this isn't in the manual', whose rather glib advice is to make a dive-plan and stick to it. No real danger though.

Have to leave today or I won't have time to see the orang-utangs and proboscis monkeys. 'Tis a tough choice, but it's probably best to leave on a high, plus I could use a rest!

...i-pod and pics fully functional. Internet connections are few and far between, so apols for the bloggus interruptus. Pictorius imminentus, given the chance.

South Peak of Kinabalu, with a punter on the way down from the true summit. More on that thick white rope later...

Kota Kinabalu (KK), Sabah, East Malaysia.
KK, or Jesseltown as it was then, was blown up by Our Boys in WWII to stop it falling into the hands of the Japs and being used as a base for banzai behavour.

Now it's a sort of SE Asian New Town, and everyone can join in the melting pot. Have been river rafting, beach bumming, and summiting Mt Kinabalu since my last blog. IT difficulties prevent me posting my pics (yeah yeah, I know, just try re-booting. I think my i-pod, which I've been using as a hard drive, has overdosed on Red House Painters and rolled over and died). Am a bit spent after a 3 am start on the mercilless Mt Kin, to tell the truth, and normal service will resume in a day or two...