Orang-utans and a cycling fibber

We found ourselves in Sandakan, Borneo in search of some Orang-utan action. Up at 6.30am (wow, Georgie had no idea what was gwanin') we grabbed a quick breakfast on the roof of a hotel before heading to the bus station. After working out who actually worked there and what bus we needed, we fended off hawkers ("I'll take you in my mini van, much better") and a cycling fibber ("No number 14 today, you need to take a mini van") to grab a rickety old party bus nailin' the latest chart hits all the way to Sepilok orang-utan sanctuary just in time for feeding time.

We watched as they swung, ate and clambered among the trees with some cheeky Macaque monkeys joining in. We then tried to go and see the Proboscis monkeys, but we would have to pay through the nose to do so (geddit?).

In the afternoon when the sanctuary reopened we saw a baby orang-utan and its mother feed alone in hushed silence before getting the last party bus of the day home. It broke down halfway and it was then, and only then, our enthusiasm to hear Avril Lavigne waned.

High tea just got a little higher

Kuala Lumpur has a size affliction. Turns out here, it matters. Did we fancy getting up before the sun to queue for hours so we could walk along the sky bridge of the Petronas Towers, the largest twin towers in the world? Or make our way up the KL Tower, one of the tallest telecom structures ever built? It being the day of our anniversary, we decided on the latter. Not only did we get a lie in, but we could book tickets in advance. Tidy.

What's more for an extra £2.50 we could have high tea in the revolving restaurant. A cheap celebratory sweetener. We enjoyed views across the city with all you can eat buffet lunch, tea and cakes for two hours. That's plenty.

After explaining how the restaurant floor revolved rather than the whole tower, Georgie got her bearings and figured out the way from the buffet back to our table (I thought she'd been gone for a while).

We then went to the observation floor to look through some telescopes and finished off by having our ears pop as we rushed down in the lift to the ground floor.

Say Wat!? A Day To-mb Remember

I was very excited about this trip as I am a big fan of Tomb Raider (mainly the Playstation game though not the film), so we waited eagerly outside our hotel for our driver and personal tour guide who was a lovely man but he had milky eye. What I didn't realise until we were there is that Angkor Wat is not the whole thing, it's just one of many temples and a lot of people go 5 times to see them all. We only had 1 day so it was a bit of a challenge Anneka but we were up to it! The day started off in true Lara Croft style when 2 wild dogs decided to use Daniel as a fighting post and he had to fend them off getting scratched in the process, he had some jabs later on so don't worry he hasn't got rabies!

The first temple we visited was Daniel's favourite and was called the Bayon Temple. It had loads of Buddha faces all around which were massive and really impressive! The next temple we went to we weren't actually allowed in well I wasn't anyway as our guide had forgotten to let me know that I needed to have my knees and shoulders covered, I had neither! It's alright for boys though but being a gentleman Daniel decided we would both miss that one out and we just walked around it instead to see the sneaky reclining Buddha that the Buddhists had built into the wall even though it was a Hindu temple!

Next was my favourite, Ta Prohm, which has been intentionally left natural with the jungle growing round and through it and a huge tree growing out the top! It was here that they got the inspiration for the Tomb Raider films and I am not surprised! I proper felt like I was in the Aztec era or something it was so cool! I felt like scaling some walls, swinging on some vines and shooting some wild dogs/ bad guys!

Last but definitely not least we went to see the impressive Angkor Wat itself. It is so big and we spent ages wandering around learning about the wall carvings and how the king had 4 massive baths to choose from (most of these temples were built by different kings and were for their use only) with rudey nudey carvings of women round the side! Unfortunately we picked the only day of the year that you can't go all the way to the top, typical, so our tour ended here. I think the day tour was enough for us but it really is a magical place and it was proper fun pretending to be a tomb raider for a day!

That evening we found ourselves at the Red Piano Bar where Angelina herself had visited and created her own Tomb Raider cocktail, every 10th one is free and every 100th you got 100 dollars so we ordered 2 and kept our fingers crossed. Next thing we know we hear a bell ringing and believe it or not we had won a free one, ding ding! Thanks Anj!

A rice surprise for Georgie

Turns out she loves rice wine. If anybody would like to buy her some at any point she would appreciate it. Thanks.

Tunnel Vision

We set off at 7am on a coach full of Vietnamese tourists for the 2 hour journey to the tunnels. I instantly fell asleep (what a great skill!) whilst Daniel made mates with the lady sitting next to him who was from Hanoi using the tour guide as an interpreter. When we arrived everyone obviously needed the toilet and as we were sitting at the back of the bus like cool kids, we were last in the queue which meant the tour group very nearly left without us, in fact they had already started moving so we ran to catch up.

I should probably start by saying that the Cu Chi tunnels were a series of tiny underground tunnels the Viet-cong used during the war with America, they actually used to live down there like Borrowers or something. The first thing we were shown was a hole which was the same size the actual tunnels would have been and a man got in it to show how small it was, it really was tiny! Even for someone of my size! Next was the traps they used against the American soldiers and these were vey sneaky and impressive if not rudimentary. They consisted of underground pits of nails covered in a spinning false top so that if you stood on one end it would tip and you would fall in the spike pit! There were various other contraptions along a similar theme, my favourite was probably the one used on a door frame which is a board full of spikes you hold up and then swing forward when someone tries to come in the door, brutal!

We also got to actually crawl through the tunnels although they were wider than the original ones and made so tourists can have a similar sort of experience. There are 3 different levels of tunnel going further underground and getting smaller so down we went all cocky like, no problem man! It was so dark down there and very hot! As we crawled along following each other, we got to the second exit and big tall Dan had had enough and wanted out, I definitely could have gone further but I didn't want to embarrass him, haha! There was only actually 2 girls who went the whole way and they were tiny but came out dripping in sweat saying they could hardly get through, I was then very glad we came out when we did! To end off our experience they gave us some yam to try, it was my turn to be a chicken then (you know I'm no good with food!) but Dan had some and couldn't get enough of it so if any of you want to buy him some he would love it!

River Crews: the Irrawaddy Dolphins

In a special series of commissioned wildlife photos, we sent Georgie and Daniel to Kratie in rural Cambodia to try and catch a glimpse of the rare Irrawaddy Dolphins which still survive in the Mekong River. Experts suggest there only 78 still alive here and these shots are a very rare glimpse of these mystical creatures.

"After bundling along on a broken tuk tuk into the depths of the rural forest we managed to get a boat to take us to the area of Kratie where the Irrawaddy Dolphins can still be found," explained Georgie. "We rowed as close as we could to them and we came away with these amazing close ups of the animals, the best shots ever taken by wildlife photographers we think."

Judge for yourself below.

Hanoi-ing traffic

Who needs traffic rules, eh?

I 'ate you Butler: 36 hours On The Buses

We've added another activity to the Never Again list: a 36-hour bus ride. We had booked a sleeper coach (no onboard toilet, sorry) from Luang Prabang in Laos to Hanoi in Vietnam for a Thursday evening, which was supposed to take 24 hours. What we hadn't been told was that there is no direct bus between the two on a Thursday, just a bus to Vinh some 330km away from our supposed destination, where we would have to catch a second bus to Hanoi.

It started ominously with a lot of hearty shouting from a lady who at first we mistook as a fellow traveller but who turned out to be the conductor, money changer and local comedian. She screamed at us for trying to get on the bus on time, of course it wasn't going to leave when it was scheduled to, it was to leave late. An hour late. Plus the coach floor had to be filled with passengers once the seats, I use that word tongue firmly in cheek, we're taken.

Aboard the coach we took up top bunks. The reclining bed-come-chairs were like large baby seats. There was a hole for your legs and a drawer beneath a cushion for your shoes with a seat that could recline almost horizontally. The problem was how uncomfortable they were. Unless you were shorter than five foot it crunched your knees into a chiropractor's dream. It was best to attempt sleep in the foetal position with the knees through a gap in the safety bars.

Not that sleep would come easily. The bus company made sure of that with Vietnamese pop blasting out through the night as we turned and twisted along country roads. We awoke, I use that word tongue firmly in cheek, at around 6am at the border which gave us a chance to use the toilet. I use that word tongue firmly in cheek too.

Once the border opened at 7.30am we went through and got back onto the coach for another 11 and a half hours. Finally, in the dark and the rain, we reached Vinh where we were instantly shuffled onto another bus - any chance of a loo break? No? - and told to lay on the back seats of the bus among the bags, bus fumes and the burning warmth of the engine.

This bus, and I'll spare you the boredom of stopping every 100 yards to pick up parcels from the side of the road, chugged along until 4.30am where we finally came to a halt on the outskirts of Hanoi. I will never moan about using National Express again.