Permisi!

0730 is too early to wake up when you've not slept more than 3 hours in the last 36, but the promise of pancakes made it ever so slightly easier. Che, the chef who seems to only be catering for us at the moment, comes to the bungalow to tell us when our meals are ready, and is very polite and sweet, just like all the staff here seem to be. The pancakes were great, but even better when covered in passionfruit that Che brought out to show us. It's different to the usual purple passionfruit; slightly more tangy and has orange skin.

After breakfast we sat in a circle in the Pendopo, where I am sat now, and introduced ourselves to about 9 or so Kaliandra staff, including Phillip, the sort of big boss (we think). He told us that the main benefactor for Kaliandra is a Malaysian guy who used to own ICI Paints among other MASSIVE corporations, but does not want a penny back from Kaliandra. I tried to tell the staff that they could call me Maz, which went down like a bomb - 'mas' apparently means 'older brother' in the local Bahasa language. We split off into groups, Will with the eco-tourism and marketing guys (he's researching cultural heritage and tourism), and Mullins and me with 3 members of the Community Development (ComDev) team (Agus, Sis and Udin). We chatted about our projects - which they think are both feasible, hurrah! - practicalities, speaking Welsh and of course football.

Lunch was the best - and warmest - meal yet: battered prawns, noodles and garlic broccoli. After lunch Udin took us on a tour of Kaliandra, introducing us to everyone we came across, showing us inside all of the accommodation and teaching us which greetings to use when. We also saw people collecting wild grasses and leaves from the local area to use as fodder - the first 'research' I have really done.

This evening has a trip to the local village, Gamoh, in store for us, which Mullins and I are slightly apprehensive about after seeing Will whizzing off on a motorbike earlier! The plan is to stay in a homestay in Gamok for 2 weeks as of Sunday, and then to move on to another homestay in a village called Tambak Sari. From these villages we'll go out individually to conduct our research, although the issue of hiring translators seems yet to be resolved!

All for now, off for some (warm?) dinner!

Monggo!