Day 3 Watermelon Cleanse

I woke up early this morning, 5.30am! This is the first time in a while that I've woken up before the sunrise, mainly because I've had trouble sleeping so my body is out of sync with nature. I went down to the laundry machine and put my clothes in. I had tried the previous day to do washing but someone was using the machine and I decided it would be easier if I just do it first thing when the rest of civilisation is asleep! 

I opened a watermelon last night and still had over half left, so I ate that this morning. I'm not too happy about the quality of watermelon to be honest with you. The main reason I did this cleanse is because I had some awesome torpedo shaped melons and they were so sweet and delicious, but when i got to the market they only had big round ones. Nevermind. 

I've been having stomach ache again today so it must be the quality. At times I've thought I was eating floor cleaner because it has a slight soapy flavour. I'm definitely looking forward to eating something else, but I still have 7kg worth of watermelon to eat! It's a good job they don't go off quickly. They can sit there for a few days unless I really want to eat them. 

I've been going through You Can Heal Your Life again and working with the exercises in depth. I say affirmations first and last thing in the day and throughout the day I'll forgive myself or others. It's going really well. One of the affirmations is about money and a job. The other day I received an email for my recruitment agency saying they have a job and then today my friend sent an email telling me his company are looking for someone in Bangkok! Amazing that it's working immediately. I am hopeful for the future. 

I also started reading A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle and it is mind blowing already! I've been doing exercises from this book too regarding awareness of the ego. I will conquer the ego one day and I feel it will be sooner than I think! 

All in all today has been positive despite staying in for most of the day. It rained a lot, but it stopped by 5pm so I went to the park to walk and use my new found awareness. I stood watching birds flying and gliding against the lake and then I admired some dragon flies and flowers. Amazing. 

I am so grateful that I have been given two amazing books to read and that they're having such a great impact on my life. I appreciate nature and all that is created by our one mother and father. 

Day 2 Watermelon Cleanse

Well I disregarded everything I said yesterday, I stuffed myself once again despite not being hungry and I even had severe pain because of it. Will I ever learn?

I ate 2.5 watermelons totalling 7kg approximately.

I have experienced my kundalini energy flowing throughout my body since I went to bed last night. It's been wonderful, mainly staying in my stomach area but occasionally going up to my head and filling me with peace, calm and tranquility. Best day ever for that.

Day 1 Watermelon Cleanse

I had a terribly late night because I did not feel tired at all. In fact recently my sleeping patterns have been so erratic and it's possibly because I've been resting a lot during the day. 

I woke up after 8am and I drank 1.5 litres of water mixed with lime. I took myself off to the park for a brisk walk and I used some of the exercise machines. I figured I should be more active because I've been very lazy for nearly a month now. 

When I returned home it was after 10am and I wasn't hungry at all. So I waited another hour and still wasn't hungry. Strange. Perhaps it was the durian and then 100g of soaked cashews that I ate for dinner?! I started to think perhaps I wasn't ever going to get hungry so I just ate half a watermelon. 

It was probably the worst thing to do. I kept telling myself I should really wait for my body to tell me to eat but recently I've been eating for lack of something better to do (even though I could be doing so much!). Then I experienced severe stomach pain. I waited about 30 minutes before I ate the second half. Again I should have listened to my body. 

I waited around 3 hours before I started a second watermelon. I wasn't even hungry this time either but I ate it. 

I finished reading the book You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay and it was so insightful. I have used food throughout my life as comfort and I recognise it, but I still have trouble implementing a way to stop that affecting me now. However, after saying that I did decide that I would surrender my power to God whenever I got the urge to eat (but didn't actually need to eat) and I totally dismissed everything I had discussed with myself in the park!

Tomorrow is a new day and I will try harder. 

Watermelon heaven

I decided after eating around 6kg watermelon this morning and feeling clean that I would do 3 days of just watermelon. Of course today I had mangoes and durian as well but from tomorrow I'll be on just watermelon. 

What I hope to get from this is a cleaner, lighter feeling in my digestive system. I'm hoping it flushes out any food that's been in there for a few days and encourages toxins to leave my body. 

I hope that I will become more aware and conscious about my eating habits. Recently I just shove it in until it hurts (I am talking about food!). I also want to try to move more, so I will exercise before I eat even if it's just a stroll around the park. 

I want to be able to recognise when I'm full, so I hope to be aware of the signals in my body. Lately I've ignored them. 

Finally I want to try to assess my relationship with food and see where I'm having issues. 

So I guess I'll let you know how I get on over the next 3 days! I love watermelon and the seeds are also very tasty :D

Thailand Vlog :: mango mania

Wowowowowow that's how I feel about mangoes right now. 

Last year I was so unfortunate because I couldn't enjoy the mangoes, I would eat one and have diarrhea straight away. So I don't know if that means my body has adapted (which is a bad thing) or last year I had a reaction because of other issues I was having. 

I'm not going to sit and analyse it because I'm too busy enjoying the Nam Doc Mai mangoes that are in abundance here in Bangkok. I've been getting them from 20-25 baht per kilo and I've been eating them for every meal. 

Today I wanted to do an entire day on mangoes only, but after I taught I really got the taste for a salad so I went to gourmet market and got one. 

I missed eating mangoes when I left La Palma and then when I got to Bali it took me a few weeks to acquire a taste for them because they tasted like perfume. Then in Borneo they were so expensive that I never even bothered to buy them. So now I'm in Thailand in the mango season I want to make the most of them. 

However, making the most and binging are different things. But as people stated on Facebook it's not as if I'm stuffing candy bars or McDonald's down my throat! However, I still need to work on my relationship with food. I'm the one with the power, after all it's me who picks it up and puts it in my mouth. 

So tomorrow I will start and end the day with mangoes. Bliss. 

Life lessons

I learn something new everyday, whether that be a new word in a different language or I become aware of certain things I do that I had never noticed before. Life is full of lessons and I have had a few this week. 

The first lesson I have learned is that I have been excluding myself from so many social situations that it has partly fuelled those lonely times when I just needed a friend. The reason is because of my lifestyle. 

80/10/10 aka raw veganism has changed my life incredibly in the 2 years I've known about it. I changed my diet, changed my beauty routine, changed my goals, job, even friends and this is great, BUT I have also excluded friends and family from my life and missed out on events that I would normally love to attend. I have avoided situations because I thought that these people were no longer relevant in my life because they don't eat the same as me. 

What a fool! 

I don't have anyone to blame but myself. How can I follow a so called compassionate lifestyle trying to bring balance and harmony to myself through what I eat and what I practice, yet I cut myself off from the majority of the world?! Sure I need to love myself first before I can love anyone else, but I also need to love EVERYONE and not just the minority that follow my lifestyle. And let's face it, the raw food movement is full of anger, bitterness, backstabbing, jealousy, greed and hypocrisy right now so we're not "better" than anyone else. 

Love man no matter what, for most of them are still sleeping and do not know any better. One day we will no longer be animals, we will realise our potential as spiritual beings. 

The second lesson I have learned is regarding food. I am a binge eater. I am a thoughtless eater and I am greedy. It's not really a new lesson though because I've always known this, it's just recently I have become increasingly aware of what I am doing. It's as if I am deliberately trying to make myself sick and I think subconsciously I am, so that I can learn how to break my food addiction and realise that it is absolutely ridiculous to plan everything in my life around food. And yes, you can be addicted to all foods, not just cooked ones, which I broke the addiction for last year! 

This is a third lesson. I am living for food. My travels are solely planned around food and the raw food lifestyle has encouraged these bad habits. I've listened to people who say "you need to get in the calories", "carb up", "fat makes you fat", etc. Again I only have myself to blame. I eat until I am stuffed, I eat when I think I should (because of school, jobs, etc we have to eat when we're given the free time) and I eat when I desire it, not when I am hungry. Eg say I eat a fruit meal of melon and I see durian but I'm not hungry, I'll still eat the durian. 

As I cycled to yet another fruit market I questioned my sanity. Why am I cycling around Bangkok for fruit? Why am I not submerging myself in local culture or history? I haven't seen one gallery, museum or performance in Bangkok. Last year I visited 2 temples and the rest of the time was spent shopping in the malls or hunting down fruit. 

I have spent so much money in Rasayana, it's not even funny. I have used so much time eating when I'm not necessarily hungry and where does it all go?! Down the toilet. Essentially I'm flushing money away down the toilet! 

I don't believe we need to eat as much as we are told to, especially on a raw food diet, the fact that were eating nature's candy is enough for our bodies, but the more we eat the more stress we put on ourselves. Of course my aim isn't to be an athlete, but I don't want to live my life for food. Food is medicine after all. Let's use it wisely. 

To wrap this up I want to thank one particular person from my hostel. Matthew was so open, friendly, welcoming and kind to me (and everyone else) when I met him, despite our differences in lifestyle choices he's showed me there's more to life than what we eat. I have enjoyed listening to his background (and boy what a life he's had!) and have had a good laugh. It doesn't matter what you eat, it's about what you do with your life and how you interact with people. Sure watching someone eat a dead animal has its downside, but it's no fun to constantly exclude yourself because of it. At least that's what I've discovered recently. 

We may think differently about food, but life experiences are of greater value. Plus you never know who you will influence :) 

Borneo Blog :: tarap, durian, coconut milk

Today has been epic! 

I wanted to buy a cheap tarap as a last goodbye to this amazing fruit, so Des took me to Dongonggon Tamu on his motorcycle. On the way he took a detour to a different market near Cyber City apartments close to KK airport. 

This market did not have tarap, but it had an incredible coconut milking machine! I say milk, but it was thick like cream. Oh so good. I got a 500g bag but only drank half as I was already still full from breakfast (my new favourite avocado, coconut oil and soaked walnuts). 

I put the rest in the fridge when I got back but after checking it a few hours later it has turned sour! Seriously the fridge in this hostel is absolutely rubbish at keeping milk fresh! 

So after this we went to Dongonggon and I was so disappointed to find that the tarap was more expensive than what I found in KK the previous day... However, I did find a lady selling just 1 for 3 ringgit. It's not the cheapest I've paid but it was still cheap in my opinion. It isn't ripe until tomorrow. 

As the tarap has to wait until tomorrow I decided today would be my final durian in Sabah. I had only planned on getting one, but as I'm addicted I ended up buying 4... I got a tray labeled as Musang king, but if it was it was over ripe. It didn't taste as amazing as I expected based on other people's reviews... And so I bought 3 wild durian. One after the other of course, after each one I said "OK this is the last" but it is by far my favourite durian I've ever tried so I had to eat until I was 100% completely sure I couldn't eat any more. 

I feel good though, I definitely did not over do it like in Ranau. 

Then to top off the day nicely I had a chat with my Mum :) it's been a long time since we talked, mainly because she works and I'm 8 hours ahead of the UK. 

Borneo Blog :: too much durian?

If you haven't been expecting this post I'd be surprised. So if you've been following my Instagram then you'll know I eat a lot of durian every day (pretty much since I got to Ranau). Therefore, it was inevitable that this day would come that I say perhaps I've been eating too much! :P 

This morning I didn't feel all that great in my stomach. I actually burped a bit of sick during my morning coconut. I thought perhaps I didn't leave enough time between dinner and breakfast. I've read some raw vegans leave at least 16 hours between their last meal and first meal. I think I left around 10 or 11 hours between my late salad and coconut. 

Yesterday I ate 1 normal durian, 1 wild durian and 2 packets of mixed durian, which together made me so full. It was an eyes bigger than my belly moment and I just couldn't resist, which makes me question whether durian is actually an addictive fruit. 

I was going to avoid eating durian today, but I went up to Kundasang with my new friend Nelli this morning and on the way back we stopped at a durian stall just outside of Ranau town. It had so many varieties like D24, D101, kura-kura, tembaga and many others. So I tried the D24 (Nelli thinks it wasn't actually D24) and I bought a kura-kura because someone on Facebook has asked me for the seeds. 

The kura-kura was actually quite poor, tasting like it may have been a day too old and it wasn't as sweet as the D24 I had. Then the lady at the stall offered us free durian so I had a few pieces and it was creamy and semi sweet. 

Early on before going to Kundasang I bought 4 wild durian. I left them at Nelli's hotel, which is opposite the market! Unfortunately one of them was so ripe it had cracked at all seams and was calling me with its scent, so I've just polished it off... 

Nelli has worked on some durian farms, collecting them in return for free food so she's had some amazing durian. She reckons the durian here doesn't taste as good as in Kuching (Sarawak) and I'm beginning to realise just how mediocre it is in comparison to wild durian, which packs a punch of flavours. I think from now on I'm just going to eat wild durian here in Ranau unless I'm presented with something amazingly sweet smelling. 

It's not that hard to pick it up around here, so fingers crossed I can continue to get some from the market. 

I've been planning my days this evening and I am thinking about cycling to the hot springs tomorrow to see the rafflesia flower (weather permitting). I've been sat around for too long, I need to get out and take some amazing photographs. There's a butterfly farm, orchid conservation centre, canopy walk and waterfalls at Poring, so it will be a long day in nature. I will pack my basket full of fruit so I will have the energy to see it all! 

I definitely want to see Kota Belud tamu on Sunday and proceed to Kudat, so I want to round off my time here in Ranau by doing the things I had planned to do when I was in KK. I just need to figure out the logistics of buses and taking my bicycle. If it's possible to cycle for part of my journey I am definitely interested in doing that! 

So even though I've eaten too much durian, I'm still going to to eat it but just wild durian because it's the most flavourful and apparently is lower in fat! 

Borneo Blog :: wild durian

Welcome to another blog post :) if you're new here I hope you have a chance to read my previous posts and I hope you stay tuned for more! If you're a regular then thank you for your loyalty, I hope to entertain and inspire you some more! 

Shameless plug, follow me on Instagram and Subscribe on YouTube! 

Saturday is the tamu day in Ranau and as always when I visit a fruit and vegetable market I am never disappointed! I couldn't believe how busy the street was, the normal market here rarely gets busy, I always feel like I'm the only one there so it was great to see more people occupy the small space in this town! 

I had a mission of finding a coconut and getting breakfast before I got to the serious business of buying some exotic fruits, but then I saw some wild durian and decided I had to buy it in case they disappear (in KK there was a champedak seller who literally sold out as he pulled up to the market!) 

May I present my durian finds for the day... 

Top left clockwise costs: 5 ringgit for 4, 10 ringgit for 3 and 10 ringgit for 3

I ate the durian from left to right 

So right about now would be a good time to name the durian, but I'm not exactly an expert yet and although I've read the posts by Lindsay on Year of the durian I am too lazy to go over the information again to give to you guys so you'll have to excuse me and just read about how they tasted. 

The first durian was just so tiny it falls into the category of being cute. It was the most fragrant, being able to smell it from far away and had the most flavour. The spikes were sharp but it was easy to handle and open because it had pretty much burst at the seams. 

This durian smelt like a tropical fruit punch, wonderfully aromatic and it made my senses go crazy! I just wanted to rip it open and eat it up so fast. The flesh to seed ratio is probably one of the worst I've experienced, but the flavour is so intense that all is forgiven! The texture was so dense, moisture was minimal and it reminded me of eating a rich cake. It tasted like chocolate. This was incredible! I have found nature's rich chocolate cake in a tiny durian. The Seeds were such a deep red colour too, probably the most beautiful seeds I've ever seen for a durian. 

Tasty, fragrant and beautiful 

The best things come in smaller packages 

The second durian was disappointing in comparison to the first one. It lacked fragrance and the taste was quite off-putting. However, I loved the appearance. It's just a green ball of long spikes that curl toward the seams, which makes it easy to spot the place to open it. The texture of this durian was moist, silky and smooth. The flavour can only be described as garlicky mashed potatoes, at least that's what it reminded me of. It was definitely interesting to eat and by the time I'd had the last one I was wanting more! 

I never expected it to taste like garlic! 

I'm not actually sure if the third durian is wild or just a local durian, but the spikes were similar in appearance to the first 2 so I just decided that it was wild! This durian is pretty much summed up by the word mild. Everything about it was mild, from the aroma to the flavour. The texture was in between the first 2 durian, slightly dense and slightly moist. This was the biggest as you can see and the flesh to seed ratio varied for each piece. There were a lot more seeds in this than normal durian (in my experience). I enjoyed this one because it filled me up more and it lasted more than 30 seconds! 

Bigger but milder 

My favourite durian for flavour was the first. My favourite durian for texture was the second. My favourite durian for satisfaction was the third. My favourite durian for appearance was the second. 

Overall my favourite durian was the first. Come on, nature's own rich chocolate cake! I had the most amazing durian experiences today and I cannot imagine anything better than this! 

Have you ever tired these durian before? Let me know if you have and what you thought.

Borneo Blog :: durian orchard tour

I've relocated to Ranau, home of durian. It takes between 2-3 hours to arrive here by coach, depending on the traffic. There are many steep hills and if you get caught behind a lorry then the journey time increases! 

I'm in a homestay that has 7 rooms, but I'm the only person here! I have 3 bathrooms, a large living area and dining area, kitchen (with so many pink plates, bowls, cups! My kind of living!!) and balcony. It's awesome compared to the hostel. Also the temperature is lower due to being higher up, which is a welcome relief. I have been wearing my jumper and leggings so I appreciate having them (I've been wondering if I'd ever use them in the tropics!). 

The owner of the property also owns an orchard and when I told her daughter (Sherry) I love durian she immediately suggested taking me to see it. Unfortunately on my first day here it rained heavily, which cancelled the trip. However, I visited this afternoon. 

We took some very long battered roads. It's as if the council has forgotten that there's roads there because it hasn't been well maintained. Pot holes, bumps and huge chunks of tarmac are missing, which makes it hazardous and if you don't concentrate you could easily damage your car. 

When we arrived there were rows of papaya trees lining the entrance with huge fruit dangling from them, all green. It was muddy due to the rain so I took a stick to help my descent. I guess at this point I should mention that it was very steep, I don't envy the job of the workers because they have to navigate the orchard every day in all weathers carrying durian up these steep hills. 

The workers still use traditional baskets for carrying durian up the steep slopes

There were coffee trees, bananas, langsat, salak (snake fruit), mangosteen, coconuts, rambutan, another fruit similar to longon, some jungle fruit and of course durian. 

From top left clockwise : coffee, banana, langsat, fruit similar to longon (unknown name) and salak 

The views were incredible. It was amazing to see the durian hanging off the trees and then spotting empty branches where they've fallen to the ground set amidst a backdrop of steep mountainous landscapes. Breathtaking. 

Unfortunately I wasn't fully prepared because my camera battery plus spare ran out of power! So did my action camera. I am pretty sure I got all I could though. The weather wasn't fantastic either so the lighting was poor. 

Once we had had enough of walking around the muddy slopes of the orchard we returned to the entrance, where there is a large wooden building, and sampled some durian. My favourite part! Unfortunately Sherry forgot to call ahead of time to arrange for them to have ripe durian for me, but we did have 1 ripe durian to share (well I say we, Sherry and her daughter don't like durian, but her husband does!). 

Doesn't it just look so creamy and beautiful?! 

Apparently the people who work in the orchard don't see tourists often so they were excited that I came, that might be why they gave me a whole basket of durian to take back with me! I think it's 10 durians to be exact. I will be in durian heaven soon. It needs to ripen over 1 or 2 days. 

I have forgotten the durian variety, it's very pale, creamy and tastes like vanilla. Incredible. Sherry said the fruits are mainly round. I will update you when I eat the ones I have. 

Borneo Blog :: Tai Chi, the other woman, Ranau

I woke up to a message from Des asking me if I wanted to go to the beach with him and his son Ronald (another spooky coincidence, my dad is called Ronald...). I am pretty sure I hadn't even put my socks on and he was at my hostel already! I was feeling rather shaky this morning so I needed to eat something. It's the Sunday market on Gaya Street, right outside my accommodation so I didn't want to break my tradition of tarap for breakfast so I got a huge one! Little did I know Des was buying me durian! 

We drove to the beach and Des showed me some Tai Chi moves after I played in the park of course lol. Ronald was too shy to show me how strong he is on the monkey bars so I just hung upside down from them instead! Eventually he showed me, wow for 7 years old he has great upper body strength! 

Ronald was so shy! 

I met Des' wife and then his in laws, which was slightly awkward given that he just takes me on the back of his motorcycle, leaves me standing alone feeling like I'm his mistress lol awkward... 

After I packed my things Des picked me up in the car and drove me to the bus station! Seriously this man has done a lot for me considering I'm a stranger. After a few snaps he left because his wife's car couldn't start and he was attending a course at 2pm, when my bus was leaving. I waited almost 2 hours. I cannot believe how slow the first hour went but then the rest of the time flew by. 

V for vegan!
When I look at photos I wish I'd have a more stylish appearance... 

The bus took around 2.5 hours and the roads were so windy but the driver drove quite fast around the bends and I felt sick because of it plus the air freshener that he sprayed at the bus terminal in addition to the automatic ones the goes off every 10 minutes. It was so easy to find my new accommodation though. 

The guy who is in the house, Sampson, was so kind when I arrived, he drove me to the market so I didn't get wet cycling and he did a quick tour of the down. Very quick actually because this town is so small!

The durian here is so cheap. I bought one with a slightly red tint on the spikes, it was very pale inside and when I tasted it I almost died... Creamy, check, good flesh to seed ratio, check, tootie fruitie flavour, check. Wow. I was so happy because I only paid 4 ringgit for this beauty. 

And now I am here, sat writing this after munching on some iceberg lettuce, some pretty strange tasting tomatoes and a very crunchy carrot. Someone is practicing their drumming which sounds awful and I have that weird energy feeling I've had all day. As if my chakras have been activated and they're waiting for me to do some deep meditation. So I'm going to floss, brush my teeth, poop and go to bed. Perhaps tonight I will go to the astral side... One can try! 

Borneo Blog :: bicycle, proposition, chill

This morning I didn't get up until after 10am! This is the latest I've been up in a long time because I didn't get to bed until after 11pm last night after my fabulous adventure.

After being put to shame last night by a 70 year old lady who does 100 push ups, pull ups, inverted head stretches and shooting some hoops every day, I felt it necessary to go for a jog to the coconut stand (and because my bike was still getting serviced). It's no more than 3km (and that's being generous) so it was no where near the intensity of that older lady! But we must start somewhere. I do admit I am lazy and if I want to be athletic looking I need to put some effort in. 

Sport has always been my weakness. I just like to sit around all day. 

So this afternoon I picked up my bicycle from the shop. I only had 111 ringgit with me, not thinking I'd need anymore than that, it's Asia and bike stuff is normally cheap. Well it cost 113 to have my bike serviced with parts replaced, but thankfully he let me off by 3 ringgit. It's shiny again so I put a sticker on it. I'm pretty sure it's a transformers sticker, now Barney is a transformer :) 

I have pretty much chilled all day and most of my time has been spent eating. From the coconut to yellow watermelon to champedak to bananas to salad to coconut meat and finally butterfruit. Seriously as soon as I finished breakfast around 12 I started eating lunch! I am shocked by how late I got up, it's so unlike me. I went to the cinema and checked the times too. I want to watch The Wedding Ringer tomorrow. It starts at 11:50 am, a good time to be indoors. 

The highlight of my day has been a proposition I received from a man who was staying in this hostel (if you follow my Instagram he's the one who asked if I am pregnant lol). He's asked me to come to China and live in his house for free and in return teach his 2 children English for a few hours. Such an amazing offer. Right now it's cold there so I won't be going any time soon. I'm going to think about it though but it does depend on my budget. I need a visa so that has to be factored in as well as flight costs. 

Things are looking positive for my future though :) 

Borneo Blog :: coconut sprout!

Wahoo today I finally had a coconut sprout. I heard about this when I left Thailand in July 2014, I had watched a video by Sweet Natural Living on YouTube and was so amazed that you could eat a sprouted coconut (truthfully I had never even pondered the idea that coconuts sprout, but obviously they do so new trees can grow!) 

I took some video footage but that won't be up on YouTube for a few days. For now check out the pictures. Oh and I didn't take one before the guy smashed into it! 

So the story of where I got the coconut from is like this, I cycled to the wetlands centre about 5km away (up some hills and then down again with some AMAZING scenery) but it was shut. I didn't realise it's closed on Mondays. I decided instead of going back and sitting in the hostel I would stay out in the bike and try to find fruit to forage. Desperate to fulfil this goal and being surrounded by lots of different trees I thought there must be something to pick. 

I cycled around another 2km and found this large lot with coconut palms and banana plants. I looked on the ground and there they were, many coconuts. Some had massive holes in them and the land didn't look like it belonged to anyone in particular so I walked over to the sprouted coconuts, picked 2 up and took them back to my bike. I decided to only take 1 in case they were no good and I had stuff in my basket already. 

When I had finished cycling and taking in the scenery I went to the coconut stand and asked them to cut it open for me. They're so friendly and kind and did it without hesitation. At this point there's a large group of people drinking coconuts and they're pretty much intrigued to see what's happening so there's a lot of attention on my coconut! 

I was sooooo happy when he revealed the spongy interior, the locals here think I'm crazy for asking if I can eat coconuts that have sprouted. If they can understand me they laugh and say "no, no, no its for planting". Well actually it's very common for raw foodists to eat coconut sprouts so I'm right and you're wrong on this one! 

Well this is how it tasted, the outer part was crispy and the inner part was very moist. It was slightly sweet and had a very subtle flavour. I was following the directions as suggested on YouTube to wipe the spongy bit on the oily meat and wow it was incredible. 

Honestly it's flavour was very subtle unlike a durian, but I'm actually appreciating that more than durian. I think I may have lost my appetite for durian because of all of the better tasting fruits like tarap, rollinia, etc and because it can be quite potent and unsettling in my stomach. I tried to Google the nutrition of coconut sprout but I've not found anything yet.  I'm mainly interested in the fat intake. I think I'd rather eat a coconut sprout than durian but I should be careful about the fat intake! 

If you've ever tried coconut sprout what did you think? Do you know the nutritional components of this tasty meal? Do you want to try one now I've (possibly) introduced you to it? 

Let me know your thoughts. 

Check out my YouTube video I posted today about ciku (so many different spellings, chiku, chikoo) 

Borneo Blog :: snoring and Sunday Market

I almost forgot that I need to blog tonight. I'm feeling a bit out of it due to a lack of sleep last night. There's a very overweight (probably classed as morbidly obese) Malay man staying here for work and for the first time he slept in the same room as me. He snored all night and it was so disturbing. I ended up getting out of bed after 1:30am and headed to the kitchen to watch videos. 

I saw that there were people setting up their stalls for the Sunday market around 2 am, that's just way too early! I went back to bed around 4:30am and I seriously hoped I'd sleep, but his snoring was so loud and consistent that I ended up listening to a smooth jazz radio station and falling in and out of sleep. 

What I (re)learned from this experience is that I dislike people who snore, I love the saxophone (it's got a really sexy sound) and I prefer my own room with no one else in it! Right now I could not see myself in a relationship with anyone sharing the same bed or the same room! I much prefer to sleep alone at all times. 

Sunday is my favourite day because of the market right outside the door! So for breakfast I just walked outside, found a coconut seller and then had a look around before deciding what to eat. 

I bought 2 huge bunches of red bananas for 5 ringgit each (under £1) both with 15 fat bananas on, a large tarap for 5 ringgit (this was my breakfast as well as 2 red bananas that broke off in transit), I got 1.5kg of rollinia (sweet heavens my favourite), 3 coconuts, jicama, cucumbers and a butter fruit. I ended up topping up my vegetables and some papaya from Central Market. I spent about 50 ringgit and I'm sorted for a few days! 

Having spoke to people in the market about where the fruit comes from the 2 main places are Ranau and Tenom so I definitely need to explore these places. 

I will keep you updated, but for now I'm leaving it here. I have to floss and brush my teeth (a chore and a bore). 

Goodnight! 

Borneo Blog :: locals, coconuts and durian

This morning I went out on my bicycle first thing to buy a coconut. It is my current routine to do 10 minutes of oil pulling, whilst I stretch and brush my teeth, drink about 1 litre of filtered water followed by a coconut water and meat and then a whole 3.5kg watermelon for breakfast. 

This sets me up to cleanse my colon, pee clear and rehydrate after a long sleep. I stopped drinking in the middle of the night because it disturbed my sleep and I was told that our mouths contain so much bacteria in the morning that we should do oil pulling without having a drink. So that's what I do. 

I love getting young coconuts that are slightly maturing inside, so the meat is a bit harder and whiter. I find the slimey meat to be just that, too slimey so I opt for the higher fat option. 

I sat in the place where I bought the coconut and drank it with my reusable glass affirmation straw. I bought this in Bali and I love it. The message says "I love who I am and all that I do". Perfect. After I finished I went to the sea front and sat down to eat my watermelon. 

As I was taking some selfies, a local young man walked past. He saw me taking pictures and decided he would come back to ask if he can have a photo too. "Sure" I said. I thought he would just take one but no he climbed over the ledge where I sat, put his arm around me and took a selfie with me. To him this meant it gave him full access to my personal life and his leading question was "so are you single? What is your name?"

There's something that's been grating on me over the last few weeks and that is that the men here all seem to assume that because I'm alone, beautiful and generally always smiling that it gives them a right to hit on me, that I want a boyfriend and that it's OK to ask really personal questions. Well it's not OK, I don't want a boyfriend and I would prefer my own privacy. 

Fair enough I am travelling in their country and yes I do appreciate friendly conversation, but as I found out in Turkey many years ago Muslim men and women cannot be friends, so if you are talking to a Muslim man they generally want something. I have been patient, I have been friendly, but when it's the first question someone asks I will not stand for it. He interrupted my peace so I told him that I would like to eat my breakfast in peace. Thankfully he respected my wishes and left. 

Now I'm not so vain to think I'm the desire of all men, but it certainly feels like it here. To them I'm classed as exotic! I haven't seen many single Western women walking around, but that doesn't mean that I am here to get a husband. I had exactly the same problem in Turkey. People in Bali left me alone for the most part and in Thailand I don't recall having this problem. That's why I enjoyed being in the cinema yesterday, I blended in because it was pitch black! The attention was no longer on me because I'm white, female, blonde and cute! 

Moving on, I decided that the durian here was actually pants, I haven't really been enjoying it, mainly because it costs more than I want to pay so I've been buying the cheaper packaged fruit. Well after my second Ionic Detox Foot Therapy I went to the guy with the cheap packaged durian. I took about 5-10 minutes just looking at the fruit because he has piles of durian stacked on the road, 3-4 fruit for 10 ringgit. This fruit looks really old so I sniff a few, no smell and decide that I don't want to get them in case they sucked! 

I then started opening his 5 ringgit packaged durian and decide it looks a bit battered, so I just asked if I could buy one from his baskets (where he's replenishing the old ones from). He also sells fresh durian too for 12 ringgit /kg but I don't want that. The one I picked was mediocre, nothing to write home about. Then one of the guys picks out a small one and it is the sweetest and creamiest durian I've had since Bali. Oh sweet heavens you answered my prayers! Then I got the taste for more and so I got another durian and it too was so creamy. I wanted it to last forever... The best thing about eating durian is the leftovers on your fingers. I licked them clean hahaha

So now I'm sat on my bed writing this blog, feeling super full from 3 durian and day dreaming about how good is tasted. So much for giving up durian... I might go back tomorrow. 

*passes out from durian coma*

Borneo Blog :: jungle durian and cinema

Yesterday it was suggested to me that if I want to really experience life here I should work for a day. I contemplated that and thought about the fruit and vegetable market. I wouldn't mind spending a day in the life of a fruit seller. Well right now I'm not looking at doing it anytime soon, but it was a great suggestion. 

What actually happened today was a day in the life of KK's entertainment. 

Firstly, I slept till 7am, longer than normal because I over did it by running and cycling yesterday. I woke up with a slight sore throat and feeling like I needed to rest, so I drank almost 1 litre of water in bed before getting up and had coconut water, flesh and then a 3.5kg watermelon for breakfast (this is my routine here). 

I did the usual upload of YouTube video, checking emails, Instagram, etc and I moved rooms in the hostel. (3rd time!) at 11:30 I went out to the market for lunch. I bought loads of bananas for 3 ringgit and then I ended up buying champedak for tomorrow and some packaged jungle durian! 

I didn't photograph the durian but it was so pale it was almost white. 

I sat along the harbour where the night market is and enjoyed the views of the islands and boats. That's when a local man (always a man) came over to interrogate me. It's always about being a single female. Thankfully he was working and got distracted by a group of people so I escaped after finishing my big bag of bananas (I gave him some too, I am friendly but I wish they'd leave me alone). 

So I was going to a new mall. It looks shiny and still being built, but I thought it must have a cinema. I walked around and it was just so empty. I don't see why they would open it up when the majority of the units are empty. Feeling like it was a waste of time I decided to go to the shops opposite. I found a place to get some t-shirt printing done and then I discovered the super mall, Central Plaza I think it's called. 

8 floors up and there's entertainment central. So this is how the locals unwind. Karaoke booths are everywhere, arcade games dominate the floor and a 20 lane bowling alley (I'm pretty sure it was 20) entices you in with special offers (for 15 ringgit I can play 3 games, that's under £1 for a game!). 

Hallelujah. A cinema! I have been wanting to watch a film in a cinema for months. I actually hadn't planned on watching a film today but it was as if the universe had planned it for me, so I ended up buying a ticket to watch Into the Woods. 

The cinema is 5 ringgit on Wednesdays and it's ladies day on Monday so that's 5 ringgit too. I sat in a swanky theatre for less than £1 and saw an amazing film! Oh and I also took my fruit in with me, so I ate the durian and stunk out the room with the champedak hahaha. The film is a must see. It's a wonderful musical and Meryl Streep is phenomenal, such a beautiful witch and her costume was to die for. If I were a witch I'd want to look like her with blue hair! Oh and Johnny Depp was a sexy fox.

So after the cinema I wanted to go home. I looked outside and it was raining like there was a flood from the sky... It's still raining and it's been over 2 hours! I think it started when I got into the film around 2:30pm and the clouds are still covering the sky now. Needless to say I got soaked, but I loved it. There's nothing better than tropical rain. It's times like this that make me feel most alive and most human. 

I prepared my salad when I got home and now I'm sat in bed writing this. All that's left to do is floss, brush teeth, compile my YouTube video for tomorrow and sleep! So on that note I'm ending this post here. 

Thanks for reading and I wish you all a good morning/afternoon/night. 

Borneo Blog :: a new adventure

I arrived at Kota Kinabalu airport around 5.30pm on Saturday 10th January 2015. It took about 20 minutes to get through passport control so this meant when I got through to baggage reclaim my bike was sat waiting for me. 

Eager to eat durian I wanted to get out of the airport as soon as I could, so I rushed to find the ATM machine and waited patiently for the man to finish using it. This took at least 5 minutes and at the end of his multiple transactions the machine just shut down. He cleaned it out. 

"I have no money" was my first thought. Panic struck and I was wondering how the heck I'd get a taxi with no money! A young couple were in the same boat and then they mentioned the exchange booth (so silly of me to forget about that!) and I remembered I had £25 in my purse, so I quickly changed my money, paid for a large taxi and made my way outside. 

The taxi was pimped out to the max. It was covered in (hopefully faux) leather with diamontes and had 2 chandeliers hanging in the back. Awesome! I tried to have a conversation about durian with the driver but his English wasn't very good so most of the journey was silent with the barely audible radio playing in the background. (Animals by Maroon 5 was the song I mainly remember) 

When I arrived I left the bike in the box, put my bags in the locker and set off on my durian hunt. I found it quite easily, but was disappointed with the price. It's more than I was spending in Bali and more than what I've paid in Thailand. Still cheaper than getting it in the UK though! The seed to flesh ratio was against me and I was left day dreaming about the Bali-Bangkok durian I had in Ubud. Nowadays I daydream about Monthong. That durian has an awesome flesh to seed ratio and is so sweet and creamy. It has to be my favourite durian variety so far. 

On the way back to the hostel I found a shopping centre and bought a 7kg watermelon for 5 ringgit. Unfortunately this was a 1 time deal. Watermelon goes for 2 ringgit/kg and the girls who sold it to me were inexperienced! 

In the morning I woke up feeling awful because I ate too much and it didn't sit well in my stomach. But after half of the watermelon I felt refreshed. 

Sunday is a market day on Gaya Street, right outside my hostel so I had a brilliant morning looking at the fruits and vegetables. I had been doing some research and was able to spot tarap and champedak so I bought one each. Both are awesome fruits, tarap is less messy because there's no latex on the skin or fruit. 

Check out my YouTube videos of me eating tarap and champedak. 

Travelling Thursday - where I'm at

Hi Craig and anyone else who may be reading! 

So I am going to try to be more active in my writing and I will start by doing 1 post a week. I'm sure once I've got that down and my daily YouTube videos then I may post more. 

Right now I'm in La Palma, one of the Canary Islands. It's said to be the most green, which it is because of the banana plantations! I think this is possibly the best place for fruitarians too, but I've not spent any time on the other islands... 

During my stay I've eaten some of the best fruit in my life; papaya, mango, banana, cherimoya, persimmon, avocado, fig. So so tasty. I enjoy waking up to mangoes and I've embraced the fruitarian way of eating them, which is ripping the skin off and having the juices flow all over me! 

The cherimoyas have been hit and miss, but I think that has more to do with how I stored them. Some of the best cherimoya have been so juicy and creamy. I definitely got my fix! 

My favourite lunch has been persimmons on the beach. I never used to like the beach, but since becoming a raw vegan I have fallen in love with nature, particularly the sand and sea. The contrast of the dark sand and bright orange fruit will always be in my memory as one of the highlights of my stay on La Palma. 

Avocados on this island are seriously hit and miss, in fact I'd say 1 in every 8 avocado is a sensational one. When you find a seller with good avocados you have to bulk buy! For instance, I was buying them on Sunday from the flea market and they were the best ones here so every Sunday I'd buy more. They were creamy, heavy, tasted like no other and we're seriously moreish. I had one yesterday and I wanted more so I went to my local shops and got one from each... Both avocados were rubbish! Wet, light and slightly bland, the complete opposite. Next time I'll learn to savour the best. 

I have noticed a loss of fat here too, even though I'm consuming avocados daily (and yesterday I had 3!). I think it definitely helps being warm because it makes me want to walk, cycle or go for a jog/run. The hills are very steep so the legs are building up muscle daily. I've mainly noticed this fat loss from around my waist, inner thighs and buttocks. I'm waiting for the day I wake up with smaller breasts... It will make buying a bikini more easy.

Oh and that's how I've noticed the weight loss, my clothes have become looser. My bikini top in particular just wants to fall down to my hips so I have to keep the removable strap on all the time! 

I'm actually returning to the UK on Saturday, I have a ferry booked Friday evening to arrive in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and I will stay one night in a hotel. 

My plan is to return home, see family, distribute Christmas gifts and then fly to Bali in the coming week (I'm hoping I get a fairly cheap ticket). 

Today has ended in the most perfect way possible, on the beach with persimmons and then a salad followed by the sun setting into the sea! I asked the higher spirits on my way down in the bus if they could clear the clouds for me so I can see the sun set into the sea and it happened like magic. If you want something hard enough it will happen! 

I will leave this post here. I started it at 6am and finished at 6:45pm!

I am in love with life right now and I hope I can distribute some towards you :) 

Love 

Jennifer xx