After launching the website!

Last week was certainly an interesting one as we launched the AST: Sabah website. Thanks to many of you for sending in such positive comments and helpful suggestions. Someone said that they had found a missing fullstop and capital letter but we probably weren't interested in things like that. Not at all! I'm still trying to find them. If you know where they are, please let me know at: jude@astsabah.com.

One comment / concern that came up was that there are no costings for the tours on the website. You can, of course, get a quote by sending me a note, asking for them and, believe me, our rates are competitive. But I know how you feel: what's the point of even considering taking a tour when you have no idea how much it is going to cost? We're talking about what to do about this - so stay posted!

These orchid photos were taken at the Sabah Agriculture Park in Tenom. It's a wonderful place and has (among lots and lots of other things) two orchid gardens: one for the hybrid orchids that we know so well - lots of large blooms on a stem, incredible colours - and the other for native orchids. These are very different and can be so tiny and delicate that you can hardly see them. It's much more difficult to photograph orchids than I thought it would be, though! Any tips gratefully received.
If you have any comments you would like to have posted, please send them to me: jude@astsabah.com.

And if you have any questions about Sabah, just ask me. Same address!

Welcome to the AST Community Blog!

Helen (on the left), Ron (or Griffin, as I call him) and I are delighted to be able to design tours for people like you. I'm Jude. You can find out a bit more about us on our website - http://www.astsabah.com/.

We all love Sabah and are committed to living here and sharing some of our wonderful experiences with you.

There is so much great stuff here. The day this photo of us was taken, for example, we had just had lunch at an Indian restaurant near the waterfront in Kota Kinabalu - or KK - that is well-known for its home-style cooking. It was delicious - and I'm sorry you can't see what we ate, but it wasn't easy getting a presentable picture of all three of us!

I plan to add bits and pieces to our blog to let you know some of what I've been up to for the last few months as I have been putting our first two tours together. It's been a time of meeting very interesting people, going to lovely places and finding out where KK people really like going to eat. Food is quite a passion here! One of the lovely places I have visited is the aviary at Lok Kawi Wildlife Park - where you can see some amazing birds. The egret in this picture is quite typical of KK - they migrate here from places like China and then some seem to stay on! I can understand why.

After you've visited Sabah, we'd love you to send us your comments and photos so that they can be put on the blog as well.

If you have any questions about KK or Sabah, please ask me at: Jude@astsabah.com