and you for coming, happy new year, and hopefully a year where there is more swapping and more people spending less, less often, and dick success for you with a new business. thank you very much. —— and hopefully success you very much. —— and hopefully success for you with your business. coming up on bbc news, we travel across malaysia, venturing deep into the bornean rainforest and meeting some very special residents in the travel show. just some drizzle at times and part of the west. brighter skies are crossed north—east scotland, north—east england and north wales. it will still be quite windy because the northern and western isles. this evening and overnight we hold on to a lot of cloud was stop the wind strengthens in the west, touching gale force at times within expand arena coming our way and that rain is likely to be heavy. chilly for some of us, rural areas,

temperatures will be cooler. looking at the isobars where ever you are it will be windy. with two weather fronts coming our way, we are also looking up some rain and that rain will be heavy with a gap in between both bands. come further south, remaining fairly cloudy with some bright spells but chilly in the wind.

hello, this is bbc news with shaun ley. the headlines: at least eight people have died and hundreds of homes have been destroyed in fires that ripped through australia on new year's eve. the mother of the british teenager found guilty of lying about being raped in cyprus says she believes the resort of ayia napa is unsafe. in their new year messages, the prime minister says brexit will mark a "new chapter" for the uk, while the archbishop of canterbury urges people to reconnect with each other. celebrations around the uk have taken place to mark the start of a new decade,

with fireworks displays in london, edinburgh and other major cities. now its time for the the travel show. mike corey has been travelling across malaysia's biggest state, sarawak. he s ventured deep into the bornean rainforest. this week on the travel show, i'm in the jungles of borneo exploring malaysia's biggest state — sarawak. in the western corner of malaysian borneo, sarawak has some of the most spectacular and diverse ecosystems. but it can be overlooked by tourists drawn to the bright lights of kl and the resorts of its neighbour state sabah. so i'm going to discover for myself the sights and inhabitants of this remarkable state. along the way i will be hanging out with these guys... climbing jagged peaks... easily one of the most beautiful

and one of the most difficult hikes i have done. and getting a taste of one of the world's most remote food festivals. sucking. laughs. i have to work on my snail sucking technique. yes, i love sarawak so much. everything very unique in sarawak. we have 26 ethnic groups in sarawak. sarawak mean "surrender to you" in malay. my trip starts here in sarawak‘s biggest city, kuching. and what does the word kuching mean, it means something special, right? yes, kuching is mean cat, in english, called cat. like the city of cats? yes, cat city. we're starting here in the state capital, kuching, and we're travelling all the way up here to the kelabit highlands.

it's going to be a journey. on my first stop, i'm going to meet one of the state's most iconic residents. and here he is. the orangutan. so much soul in their eyes. 97% of their dna is shared with humans. that where they get the name — orangutan means "man of the forest." orangutans are native to only two islands in south—east asia. some live on sumatra, but the vast majority live here in borneo. i have come to the semenggoh nature reserve where the rangers are preparing for the morning feed. it looks like they eat quite well because there is a whole buffet

here, and it seems like every day there is a different meal plan. so today is saturday, so they will have 21 kg bananas, and then sweet potatoes, chicken eggs and pineapples. oh, it's heavy. maybe 15 kilos. ooh, 0k. so, where are we at? almost 20. we are ready, 21kg. so emel, tell me what is special about semenggoh nature reserve? ok, so semenggoh wildlife centre actually started off as a rehabitation centre, so we were established back in 1975, so it's more than a0 years ago. the reserve took orangutans that had been rescued from captivity or suffered from habitat loss, and taught them how to live wild in the surrounding forest. since then, the rehabilitation programme has been moved elsewhere, but the forest is still home to 33 orangutans, and tourists

have a chance to glimpse those tempted back by a free meal. it's very different to a zoo, then, there's no orangutans in cages here. yeah, totally different to a zoo. two 7 in the basket. yes. our ranger, he will... ok, so thank you very much. yeah. enjoy. he will bring the food to the main feeding area. when the tourists arrive, a ranger heads to the feeding platform to call the apes. calling. so, welcome to our centre. coming here is no guarantee you must see the orangutan. if you happen to see one, consider yourself very lucky already. in the rainy season between november and march there is an abundance

of fruit in the forest, so the orangutans often don't need this extra food. but lucky for us, we don't have to wait long for a sighting. this is edwin, one of the biggest males in the park. and like the ranger said, this is not a zoo. the orangutans can come from any direction at any time, so you have to be careful, especially around the big males like edwin here. while these orangutans are used to people, they‘ re still unpredictable, so tourists are kept at a safe distance. edwin is 23 years old, born in 1996, and he was the first male offspring born in semenggoh. now fully grown, edwin is competing to become the reserve's sole dominant male. only one orangutan dares

to approach him on the platform. seduku, rescued from captivity in the 1970s, and one of the first to be rehabilitated here. are they a thing? yeah, in a way. we call her the great old lady, because she's the oldest female, age 48 years old. and she is doing still very well. she is a8, he is 23. that is quite a big age difference there, right? yes, but love doesn't see age as a problem, though. well, feeding time is over, and there's edwin. i'm a bit nervous to see him so close. he's massive, so much hair. if you saw that from behind you wouldn't know what it was.

sadly, despite conservation efforts, orangutans face an uncertain future. over a 16—year period, the numbers in borneo fell by more than 100,000. a decline blamed on hunting and deforestation. it is now estimated that there are just over 100,000 orangutans left on the island. and so the facility here, how does it help? by having a centre like semenggoh, people get a sense of seeing the wild orangutan, and not disturb the orangutan in their natural habitat. and i guess the more people come here, the more they learn, and that also helps as well? definitely, the feeling, the excitement of seeing wild orangutan, bring you closer to conservation efforts, and to be able to share it with people out there, it really means something.

next up i am crossing the state to reach gunung mulu national park, sarawa k‘s largest piece of protected rainforest. this place is teeming with wildlife — over 4,000 species of plants, 20,000 species of invertebrates, that means thousands of different ——hundreds, kinds of spiders, beetles and butterflies, but no orangutans, though, not here. mulu is also home to groups of penan, one of the last remaining hunter and gatherer tribes in southeast asia. a lot of their traditional tribal land has been lost to deforestation, so the vast majority now stay in settlements like this one. plucks instrument

i didn't expect you to do that. ok, with the nose... laughs so these are flutes, right? whistles blowpipe? you make these? can you show me? ah, i see, so you drill it by hand, so many times... speaks own language that would be countless hours. like that? oh, yes, there we go. mike corey, blowpipe maker. blowpipes are the penan‘s traditional hunting weapon. they are loaded with darts, tipped with strong poison extracted from the bark of the local tajem tree.

and you'd use one of these big ones? wow, it's, look, i'm about six feet tall, that would be 1.8 metres. ok, so we're here like this... and that one goes in the back. armed and dangerous. you first. safety off. sharp shooter! laughs i guarantee i will not... like this? like this. and then... 0k. he we go. hopefully there's some beginner's luck.

i hit the target?! laughs further inside the park there is a truly unique landscape. below ground there are some of the world's largest caves, formed from limestone and shaped by millions of years of ground and rainwater. this process also created a bizarre collection of stone spires above the ground. they're called the pinnacles, and i have come all the way up river to base camp 5 to see them. at almost 50 metres tall, the pinnacles are an imposing spectacle. but to get there, sightseers face a three day round trip and a long, brutal trek through the rainforest.

so the guides have some rules in place to make sure tourists are up to it. the first 60 minutes, so this is considered as a check—in point. if you make it more than 60 minutes, you are considered a slow climber. we are sorry, we have to say you are not qualified. so if i don't make the first checkpoint in 60 minutes, you turn me around and say sorry, you are going back home? yeah, this is the rule here. ok, we are just about to head to bed for the big hike tomorrow, this is bed tonight actually, underneath this mosquito net, this is a bee, by the way, that just flew away. this is coming with me tomorrow... person: shh. there are some people sleeping, ijust got shushed. i am a little bit nervous for the hike tomorrow, it is supposed to be quite hard, a lot of very, very steep inclines, so i am going to get a full eight hours tonight, i will see you in the morning and we will see if we can make it

to the top. "caution, a high degree of physical fitness is required past this point." eight hours round—trip. lead the way. let's go. i havejust 60 minutes to make it to the mini pinnacles, the first checkpoint. you weren'tjoking. what was that? how is it? steep. the checkpoint is less than a kilometre up the slope but the humidity makes it feel a lot further. panting we've only just started and i'm already exhausted.

and we're here, the pinnacles! not quite, right? mini pinnacle. that is...not a joke. having reached the checkpoint within the time limit, it's another kilometre before i reach the most treacherous stage. this is the first ladder, mike. 0k. right, larry, helmets on, right? who's first? after you. after me? ok, one down, 70 more to go. beautiful limestone cliffs are sharp but at least lots of places

to grab onto. it looks like it's rained down there. think it's going to rain? yeah, it will be heavy rain. 500 metres to go, 100 metres to go. hope we get there before the rain. what ladder‘s this? last ladder. the last ladder? this looks like the summit. isn't it? the summit, yes. we are here, guys. oh, wow, yeah. and there are so many of them.

this is beautiful. yep! just daggersjutting out of the forest canopy. really is spectacular, right? yep. the final stop in myjourney across sarawak is bario, in the kelapit highlands, home to one of the world's most remote food festivals.

it is not exactly a smooth road, it's like being a greased up piece of popcorn in the back seat, but it's a lot of fun. i'm quite an adventurous eater, i will try everything. once — at least once, it is not good, only once. but often when you come to these places will find some pretty far—out food and i'm hoping we'll find some very interesting stuff. bumped around and a little bruised from the journey, i get there to find the festival in full swing. we're catching the eye of a lot of locals, because there's not that many foreigners, surprise surprise, in this part of the world. i don't know half of the foods here today and that is quite exciting for me.

a local farmer called dayang offers to show me around. would you like to try our dure... i don't know what dure is... one of the local exotic vegetable found here in bario. it is a plant that lives in the jungle? yes. i can eat that all day. that's delicious! but it's got, like, i was thinking it would taste like spinach, but it doesn't taste like spinach at all. 0k... it has like a heartier than spinach would. would you like to try the akep? yeah, we can try akep. so akep looks like to be boiled snails. yeah, found in the paddy field here. it smells like boiled snails too. this is how we do it. this lives in the jungle, you suck it out? sucking there you are. just like that. you bit it first?

yeah, just a bit. it's stuck on my teeth. and you suck it? 0k. once. sucking there we go. laughs how do you find it? the taste must be fantastic? i wouldn't use that word, but it's not bad, it's very chewy. this is classic traditional kelabit food, sourced from the surrounding area. welcome to bario. dayang takes me to herfarm, where she grows one very important ingredient. it's cool, cause each plant has one pineapple? yes, but it will take about one year to ripen. but this one looks ripe. this yellow one. look at the colour, it's golden yellow.

how do we... how do we pick one? you can just pluck it. i'm going to have puncture wounds after this but it's ok. yes. that was easy. yes, because it's golden, ripe pineapple, it's very sweet. look at this, my first pineapple. back at the festival, locally—grown pineapples have been made into jams, juices and even pineapple cider. down the hatch. it's a little chunky, how many do you have to drink to have a really good day? i'm not sure. shall we find out? i'm joking! since it started in 2006, the festival has celebrated both the cuisine and the culture of the highlands. up top there are some bags

with soda pop, cookies, the point is to climb up to the top, grab your prize and climb down. it's my turn. ok, you can go. give him a big clap! so... slowly from the bottom. freestyle ? as the games continue, my form doesn't really improve. it was by a feather that we lost. applause. a game that i'm not bad at,

i think it's my height advantage. everyone gets a shot or...? hang on, let's watch. that's way farther than mine. i guess you might think that coming so far away, you wouldn't be able to make friends, or that it might be a strange tourist experience. but i always find it's some of the best ones, when you come to these remote places, there's not many foreign tourists, so people are so accepting and grateful that you are here, and will share everything with you.

hello, again. we are starting off on a misty, murky note today. there is even some frost around first thing in the morning but that will tend to lift but we'll hang on to a lot of cloud through the day. most of us getting away with a dry day. you can tell from the isobars that it will be fairly windy across the north and the west. hardly a breeze as we push further south so the cloud isn't really breaking up but we will see some brighter breaks across parts of north wales, north—east england and also north—east scotland. for a time, we could see some sunny spells across east anglia and also the south east. now, not much wind as i mentioned except across the northern and the western isles where it will be windy and the cloud also in parts of the west thick enough for some drizzle at times. stepping out for a new year's day walk? well, it's going to feel chilly, particularly on the east coast. this evening and overnight we continue with all this cloud, still quite windy.

wind strengthening by the end of the night across western scotland, touching gale forces at times with the gusts and a moving weather front coming our way introducing some rain at the end of the night but it does mean that for tomorrow we still are bathed in this mild air represented by the yellows and also the ambers but it is not going to last. so on thursday, just one look at the isobars tells you that wherever you are it is going to be windy and the strongest winds will be once again in the north and the west. we've got two where the front coming our way, both bringing rain. so, it is a cloudy start, cloud thick enough again at for some spots of drizzle. the first band goes through, this rain weakening as it gets into england and wales, a brief lull behind it before more heavy rain comes our way and you can see the gusts of wind represented there in the black circles. so, although temperatures might look on the mild side at this stage injanuary, between ten and 12, it will be tempered by the wind. then, as we move in through thursday to friday, our weatherfront sinks steadily southwards taking

the mild air with them. it is replaced by colder conditions represented there by blue so we see the cloud and the patchy rain move away from the south—east, many of us having a dry and sunny dayjust a few showers in the north and the west but in shetland, we are looking at gusts, gale force even severe gales. and for a few the showers will be heavy at times and wintry and for some, even at lower levels will see some snow. that leads us into a mild but mainly dry weekend. very special residents in the travel show.

this is bbc news, i'm shaun ley. the headlines at 12: at least eight people are killed by bushfires in australia, in the deadliest day since the wildfire crisis began. hundreds of homes are destroyed and some communities cut off. there are a couple of isolated communities where we have reports of injuries and burn injuries to members of the public. we haven't been able to get access via roads or via aircraft. it's tough. it was scary. you don't really know what to do, even if you've thought about it, it's hard to know what you'd do or feel at that moment, for sure. the mother of the british teenager found guilty of lying about being raped in cyprus says she believes the resort of ayia napa is unsafe. in their new year messages, the prime minister says brexit