Harder, Stronger...

A bit like the liquor... Logger Sandra, Content Director Tracy and Editor Ferdi, loud and proud at the SA shindig.

Snap!

Recipient of The Drunkest Person At The Party Award - which almost always goes to Big Daddy - and a hearty round of applause at lunch the next day, logger Terence decided it'd be advisable to go for a canoe ride at about 2am... Needless to say, he didn't get too far!

Girls...

... Just wanna have fun! Content Directors Bev and Natasha get down at the SA crew party.

Thanks to Tash for all the pics (I was clearly incapable of clicking!)

Tiki Girl

Letting her hair down... M-Net's hard-working Head of Publicity, Lani Lombard, chills out with one of the deadliest cocktails in the South China Sea region at the SA crew party.

Sting In The 'Tail

Sting in the cocktail, that is... I was fine and dandy at the SA party when ale was all that was on the menu, but I blame these sweet-tasting refreshments for the Schedule 7 hangover I had yesterday.

Of course, it didn't help that I had a 7:30am call time after stumbling home at around 4am...

World Famous

Talk about a build-up... This blogger had to live up to being billed as a "world famous" DJ. Tough to do when you're playing off two DVD players sans pitch control!

Anyway, I think I did OK, a whilst still not world famous I might now be a bit better know in Sweden (they loved the ABBA, of course), Germany and Norway.

SA Entertains

One of the posters for the party hosted along the beach at The Mirage last night... More on that (and pics) when my mother of all headaches subsides!

Getting Shirty

Certainly standing out from the crowd (and looking a lot like Magnum PI!), AD Jason in Mersing.

A case of 'so bad it's cool'. All that's missing is a moustache...

Give It Horns!

The last thing one expects to see in a shop on the Malaysian coast: a (wholly unofficial) cap for South African rugby team, the Blue Bulls.

Street Life

The 'bustling' shopping district in Mersing...

Discount City

I spent the afternoon in sleepy Mersing yesterday, getting some washing done and trawling dozens of all-purpose shops (ie. they sell everything, from tools to toys - often on the same set of shelves).

Everything is ridiculously cheap in this town, and I bagged a bundle of badges, books, snacks and gifts for family. I also indulged in a couple of DVD purchases, a bargain at R15 a pop. How legit they are is still in question (I didn't know Spiderman III was out on DVD already...)

I also spotted a range of awesome shirts and sneakers in one store, and will be back on that boat to the mainland to pick some up as soon as I get a chance.

Biting Big Daddy

Content Director Johan does something wholly unsavoury to Line Producer Chris... You don't wanna know!

Skull Cracks

Beauty and the beast... Contestant Coordinator (and party organizer - more on that soon) Wilmarie poses with an extra.

Just Being Julia

One of my favourite people in the world, Julia from Sweden, who is a Boat Elvis on set here (they co-ordinate the comings and goings of all the seafaring vessels).

Sadly she lost the Aviators yesterday...

Columbia and K-Way

Uber-cool cameraman Craig Alsop swears he wouldn't be caught dead in this get-up in his hometown of Cape Town... I tend to believe him. But in these conditions, labels like Columbia really help beat the heat.

His wife Vanessa is advised not to show this pic around!

Poolside

The view from right next to the chalet that doubles as my room and office, at the D'Coconut Resort on Palau Besar.

Having a pool within spitting distance is extremely useful, especially on days like today and yesterday, when the temperature soars to the 40-degree mark and cool breezes are at a minimum.

Having a bar serving cold Skol and ice cream right next to the pool is doubly-handy!

Monster Snack

A great looking instant noodle packet - apparently this quick fix is the staple diet for the many cats on this island. But more on those later...

Can Coconuts Kill?

According to The Straight Dope, the widely-held belief that 150 people are killed by falling coconuts every year is based on some pretty flawed (if non-existent) research.

The director of the Florida Museum of Natural History's International Shark Attack File, George Burgess, said in 2002 that, "Falling coconuts kill 150 people worldwide each year, 15 times the number of fatalities attributable to sharks." But when questioned admitted this figure came from a press release for British Club Direct, a travel insurance firm.

The Club Direct release cited an article by Dr. Peter Barss in the Journal of Trauma entitled 'Injuries Due to Falling Coconuts', a piece that received an Ig Nobel Prize, the award granted annually by Harvard's editors of the 'Annals of Improbable Research' in recognition of research that "cannot or should not be replicated."

While coconuts have fractured skulls in places like Papua New Guinea, there seems to be little hard evidence that they kill a substantial number of unaware amblers on an annual basis. Still, the paths of Palau Besar are lined with rows of coconut trees, and while I'm not gonna negotiate them replete with crash helmet, I'm ready to dodge, duck and dive at any time...

Meet Joe Pet

Seen on the street in Mersing, the sleepy, stupidly hot town on Malaysia's West coast that's the gateway to the Seribuat Archipelago.

The Devil's Triangle

Some creepy goings-ons on the island that this archipelago takes its name from, Seribuat (also known as Sri Buat) from Unexplained Mysteries:

The 'Bermuda Triangle of Johor'

Kuala Mersing fishermen may be as full of tall tales as any of their brethren around the world, but mention the waters around mysterious Pulau Sri Buat and they lapse into fearful whispers.

Here, there are stories of sea spirits, sudden storms, colleagues who never came back, and an uninhabited island nobody wants to set foot on. This 10-nautical mile stretch around Pulau Sri Buat, Kuala Mersing and Kuala Endau has been dubbed the “Bermuda Triangle of Johor”. Pulau Sri Buat has no freshwater but has a well-tended mango orchard, coconut trees planted in symmetrical rows, and a mysterious graveyard.Pulau Sri Buat has a history of danger and death. Perhaps the most baffling case of missing persons occurred in June 1995, when four people vanished mysteriously at sea.

The bodies of Customs officer Mohd Salleh Buang, 48, his son Mohd Najib, 19, his businessman brother Mohd Buang, 45, and cousin Abdul Wahid Othman, 48, were never recovered. They left Triang on a fishing trip near the island and never returned. Their fibreglass boat was found a few days later in Nenasi, Pahang, bafflingly undamaged with their fishing rods and a parang still on board.

The Wild East

I've been here for a week-and-a-half now but been wrestling with a new laptop running Vista so feel I have some catching up to do...

These signs were below the baggage compartments on the bus that transferred us from Kuala Lumpur's high-tech airport (complete with its own internal train system) to Mersing on the Malaysian coast - a six-hour journey made bearable by ample legroom and aircon.

You'd think they wouldn't have to remind passengers not to spit - what is this: the Wild West?! No: the Wild East apparently...

Reflections

The blogger on a boat.

This pic was taken by Survivor II's Line Producer, Chris Cloete aka Big Daddy, a man of many talents and with enormous personality.

He's at home at sea, having a voice that often resembles that of a walrus. Especially after a night of tough tequila-drinking...

In Paradise

It's hell... Hot as hell, that is.I don't mean to gloat - I see that y'all back home in South Africa are in the throes of a cold snap - but it's 35-degrees plus here and as humid as a wet rag.

Here is Palau Basar, in the Seribuat Archipelago, just off the West coast of the Malaysian mainland. And I'm working behind-the-scenes on a rather large reality show.

This blog will be about a TV crew's trials in paradise, and possibly a lot of other stuff. I haven't really decided yet - it's hard to think when your brain is baked...Stay warm (and fuzzy).