Recently we started using Blip.tv for our videos. We chose it because it shows much crisper, higher quality videos than Youtube or even Metacafe, and it doesn’t show ads after each video. Yesterday though, there was a problem uploading our video to the Blip.tv player so we couldn’t get the post up in time.

Today there were still some problems uploading it through the Blip site but I managed to upload it using their FTP upload, so you’ll be able to see Grace trying to play tribal instruments and perform a tribal dance

Holding a sword in your mouth leaves your hands free to climb, but with those feathers they probably won’t get far

In this case we are talking about the failure to launch a nut in the right direction from a slingshot. It did leave the slingshot, but far from its desired target.

This all took place in the Monsopiad Cultural Village in Borneo. Part of the attraction of the village is that you get to try your hand at what the headhunters of old had to learn as part of warrior training. They all had to learn how to walk on stilts, use a slingshot, a blowdart gun, and of course, how to dance. :)We’ll show you the dance part some other time. For now though, you can watch how I failed miserably at being a warrior! If I lived in Borneo 300 years ago I would probably have been beheaded!

Why does it seem so easy for her?

We just received our “adoption papers” for baby Sen. But unlike with a human baby, we’re not going to be taking him home! This is a baby Orangutan and its place is in the wild, so our adoption is to help him grow up in a sanctuary and adapt to living among his kind before being released to the wild.

Apart from having more hair, baby Sen looks a lot like a human baby. And like human orphans, this baby has lived a tragic life. Sen’s mother was killed by workers in a palm-oil plantation which had encroached into the Orangutans’ natural habitat (which is tropical rainforest), and if Sen hadn’t been rescued by the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary (which we visited) in Sandakan, Borneo, he most likely would have suffered the same cruel fate.

Every week, 50 Orangutans are cruelly murdered by loggers and palm oil plantation workers. They are shot, knifed, or burnt to death in most cases. There are now only 7,300 Orangutans left in Sumatra and around 45,000 in Borneo, and while this may seem like a lot, at this rate of slaughter, there will be none left by 2026.

Palm oil plantations and illegal logging are largely to blame for this genocide. Many government designated national parks are being encroached upon by illegal loggers, and due to corruption and lack of resources in much of Indonesia, little is being done to stop it!

In Sandakan, (Malaysian part of Borneo), we were told that there was no more logging going on. But if that is the case, why are these barges, which we caught on camera, leaving the port full of logs?

Both palm oil and wood are essentials and it would be ridiculous to want to stop them altogether, but what is needed is sustainable approach! Wildlife friendly palm-oil plantations that don’t encroach into the rainforest (see www.rspo.org), and sustainable logging where trees are replanted and none of the rainforest is cut down!

The world is being destroyed in front of our very eyes, and those that could do something about it, are too busy with power games and the pursuit of further wealth to do much. The only way that we can save our planet is by doing what we can as individuals.

There are many ways you can help! You can adopt an Orangutan for around US$50 (it’s only as much as what a decent meal at a restaurant would cost) at: www.orangutan-appeal.org.uk, you can write to super-market chains like Walmart, Tesco, and others and ask them to only sell environmentally friendly palm-oil products, or you could even blog about this on your own blog or forward this to a friend by email (use “Email This Post” button below)!

If you do post a blog about this and link to our site, or if you forward this to a friend, you will stand a chance to win a Sony Photo Printer!

Whatever you do, it’s better than doing nothing!

We had a great time in Borneo and got to see all kinds of wildlife including these friendly Orangutans. Now that we’re back though, we’ve been doing a bit of thinking and researching about where we should go next. We have a few commitments in Asia in November so we can’t go too far away.

Here are some places we’re considering:

Komodo Islands, Indonesia - Apart from the magnificent Komodo Dragons, there is plenty of wildlife on these Indonesian islands.

National Parks, India - Seeing a tiger up close and personal from the safety of an elephant has got to be one of the most amazing feelings!

National Parks, Sri Lanka - A friend of mine who went there got to see leopards, elephants and bears, all in their natural habitat! We just have to make sure it’s safe enough to go now.

After that we might get a round-the-world ticket and travel to all the places we’ve always wanted to see.

That of course leads to a potential problem, what if those places don’t have high-speed internet access? Well we’re looking into satellite internet technology that has a pretty much global reach so we might use that.

Here’s a big question to all our viewers, if there was one place in the world you could go to, where would it be? Let us know in the comments!