2005 - World Wide Adventure and My Dream TV Debut! - 31 December 2005
What a year! I will always remember 2005 as the year I rediscovered my passion for pool and lived the dream.
I had been in Australia for almost 5 years and I missed family and friends in England. I was also a bit burnt out from IT so I decided to take a break. The goal was simple: travel, play pool, and spend sometime back in England.
The adventure started with a couple of months of amazing travels. Ayers rock was first up, I spent an amazing few days in the middle of the Australian outback exploring the Olga's, and almost climbing the big red rock itself. A terrifying experience which I wouldn't recommend! The unexpected highlight was an evening meal in the desert where I got to see the night sky in all its glory without the effects of light pollution. We arrived at a floodlit table in the middle of the desert and I will never forget the "oo's" and "aagh's" then the lights where turned off to allow us to see the millions of stars in all their glory.
Next up was a couple of days in Darwin checking out the awesome crocs before flying into to the capital of Brunei, Bandar Seri Begawan. Brunei is probably more famous for its Richest man, the Sultan of Brunei, a former richest person of the year holder. However I had come for other reasons, to visit its famous mosque, the largest theme park in the world, the billion dollar hotel built by the sultans brother and to hop across the border into Malaysia to see the Orangutans.
I also got to speed across the fabulous canals in a long boat of this enchanting city, the venice of the east as its also known, but it wasn't long before I found myself on another boat crossing the border into Kota Kinabalu. It was from hear that I booked my flight to sandokan to see my acient cousins, flying first class (it was only £10 extra! :).
There are only two places in the world that have an Orangutan orphanage, Sumatra and Borneo. I was fortunate to visit the one in Sumatra in 1997 and it is still to this day one of the best places I have ever visited. I was excited to see these amazing animals in the wild again and to see how the Borneo sanctuary compared to my first experience.
