Osman's Homestay

25^th September

This morning we were taken on a visit to Osmans family – who all live within a few minutes boat ride. Two of the families also do homestay so we were able to meet other travellers. Had a great chat with two French tourists and a great discussion about the palm oil plantations and the Malaysian environment. Another lazy afternoon around the veranda back at Osman’s playing Yahtzee and then off to an afternoon tour up the river to a different spot to look for wildlife. We were lucky to see a banana snake, proboscis monkeys, macquaes and orang-utans. We also saw some beautiful kingsfishers. 

We were also saw four types of hornbill birds – white crown hornbill which is rare to see, rhinoceros hornbill which is very colourful and a black tail hornbill. Each day we have a hot breakfast and cooked lunch and dinner at Osmans. The meals are delicious though because they are curries it is a bit hard for the kids sometimes. Osman took Mai, Peter, Jon, Lachlan, Nick, Oscar and myself for a night time walk in the jungle out the back of his home. Mai is from china and is a photographer (as well as a magician) and he was after photos of insects. We were getting some interesting pictures – and then Oscar stood in a bunch of fire ants and they started crawling over him and biting him! Poor kid. They also got us – but only a few. Their bite burns like fire – aptly named ants. That was a quick end to the jungle exploration.