Borneo2010

The final chapter of our Borneo Expedition was Mount Kinabalu. The mountain is 4094m and the phase consisted of 2 days warm up in the national park and then 2 days hardcore walking to summit the 20th highest mountain worldwide.  After our coach trip to our hotel (Rose Cabin) we unpacked and was assigned a dorm for the 15 guys and a single room for Mrs Mitchelmore.  After a good lunch in the hotel restaurant we headed out on our first warm up walk. Billy was our leader for the day and did a great job of making sure everyone was there and when walking through the forest made sure that everyone was happy with the pace and was drinking plenty of water. This walk was strenuous but not over exhausting as the next day we took the longest possible walk (that wasn’t the summit trail) around the national park. After a good nights rest we awoke for a full English courtesy of the hotel restaurant before we set off. I was the leader for the day and so followed in Billy’s footsteps as to what to do and how to keep the group pace constant and of course making sure everyone had enough to eat and drink when we took breaks. Seun and Nick were our navigators and took us on a trail that led us on 3 different set trails that gave us fantastic views of the jungle and gave numerous photo ops! It was very important that we all got a good nights sleep so after a good dinner in the restaurant we all to bed for 8.00pm. The next day was our first day on the summit trail. Nick was the leader and after a short car journey to the starting gate we started on our 6km walk uphill to the lodge where we were to stay that night. The walk was strenuous and lots of water was required considering the steep gradient for most of the 6km. After rest stops and of course lunch it took us 5 hours 30 minutes to walk 6km and climb 3272.7m! Sleep again was essential was we had a 1.00 am wake up the next day so everyone was asleep by 7.00 pm with some people napping from 2.00 (when arrived) to 5.30 (dinner) as well. A very loud alarm awoke us the next morning and at a frostbitten 1.00 am. After a filling supper/breakfast we headed off, head torches at the ready as a full group of 16 to climb the highest mountain in SE Asia. The walk was hard but a lot of fun with long ropes attached to the sheer cliff face to climb up and of course the desired signposts declaring how far we had traveled. We arrived at the summit at around 5.30 to a beautiful sunrise and loads of photos were taken, courtesy of my camera. (group camera was dying a painful death) Then, as Nick said, it was all downhill from there! The descent was hard on the upper legs and knees but we made it and had the fantastic opportunity to visit the hot springs, so most of us sat in a boiling hot spring for a good hour in half to rest our aching legs! PERFECT end to the final chapter of our trip.

By James Harris (Venimus, Vidimus, Vicimus – I came,  I saw,  I conquered)

We have returned to KK once more, having spent a week in Tambunan  engaged in voluntary work and submersed in local Malay culture. On Sunday (1st August) we travelled from Sepilok by coach whilst enjoying the gloriously cheesy delight that was the modern remake of “Karate Kid”. Contrary to the group’s expectations of local housing (many were anticipating mudhuts), we initially arrived at the house of Nelson and Sylvinia Kitingan. I will spare you an extended description here, but Tim and Billy featured in a spoof episode of MTV’s Cribs within the house, demonstrating how impressive it was.  Our homestay families were then introduced to us: I was staying at Nick’s house (not the Baker kind) with Mr. Beggs, Billy and Conor. His house was a large contrast to the mansion we had seen earlier as he had hand built two bungalows close together, allowing us four to share one bungalow and Nick, his wife and two children to live in the other. His family demonstrated a range of musical talents as well as providing us with entertainment, top quality food for every meal and a great taste of  Malay lifestyle. Given that every group felt they were the best fed and had the best accommodation, we can safely say that we were all housed with exemplary hospitality and kindness. The fantastic Malay cuisine certainly helped keep us in great spirits whilst working in the heat.

Our work was based around two sites: one group worked at a local school, whilst the other renovated buildings at a local Catholic church. At the school we replaced mosquito nets and painted the walls of  the Nun’s house. The group at the church painted the interior and exterior of  a small library used by Sunday school children. We also painted the walls of an adjacent building. Surprisingly the work did not prove tedious at all, even after 6 days. With speakers playing an excellent selection of cheesy and top-quality tunes (pronounced CHOOOOONS), time went quickly. Having to endure Mr Beggs’ pitiful attempts at humour was a constant struggle that the group coped with well, although Thoroughgood and Baker did confront the “King of poor banter” on several occasions in an heroic attempt to improve group morale. A lack of equipment led to intuitive thinking from Baker and Chandaria who created a human ladder which proved highly portable, versatile and successful. It was also deployed in the battle against the “King of poor banter”.  Despite slight mishaps  (such as initially forgetting undercoat when painting window frames) the work was largely unproblematic and we  successfully completed all the tasks on time.

Working on the project only took up part of our day. This left us time to see Tambunan town and experience local Malay culture. One morning during the week, we had the opportunity to plant rice. We waded into the paddy field to plant rice in the mud. The process is quite simple in theory, although getting the rice plants to stand up in the mud was less simple. An hour of rice planting was enjoyable, but we appreciated just how tough rice is for those working the fields nearly everyday. On the Thursday, the group travelled into the mountains to see the picturesque Mahau waterfall. The team snapped some great photos and celebrated Phil’s birthday with a lovely slice of cake. The group visited the local market which had a range of products for sale ranging from clothes to food.

We also got to challenge the locals to a game of football which was played under “remarkable” conditions. The pitch had a surface to match Wembley…which isn’t really saying much. The ground was a mixture of cow pat, bog and random animals including a star in the form of a chicken. Despite missing two key players in the form of Baker and Alayande who had gone with their homestay family to visit a local church, the Wilson’s boys played on taking a 2-0 lead early in the game; goals coming from Hou and the unexpected form of Mr. Beggs. Unfortunately, due to the lack of subs, our players tired quickly and conceded 3 goals in quick succession leading to a 3-2 defeat. However, this did not put us off a rematch which was played the day after. With the pitch much dryer, and buoyed by the return of Alayande and Baker, we took a 1-0 lead, but yet again we conceded a few cheap goals and ended up losing 6-2.

Finally, we had a jubilant farewell party at the local church hall. This involved all of us bringing the food we had cooked earlier in the day, to share with the rest of the families. With Nick as the MC for the evening, it all kicked off with some karaoke and traditional Malay music and dancing. We then took part in a competition between the houses for the best performance of the night on our part. Our set list included an a capella rendition of  “Stand By Me”, YMCA, a Malay song and the winning performance which was a mix between a Malay song/english rapping/bamboo dance.

Overall, the homestay has been one of the many highlights of this trip so far. Next stop: Mt Kinabalu.

Nishil (with a lot of help from Nick and Rohit)

After travelling back from the TAR islands, we repacked our bags and had a good nights sleep before a monster 6 hour coach journey to Sepilok. We awoke at 6.00 am to catch our bus. Our leader for the day was Billy who did a very good job of rallying everyone up and out of bed and Nick led us towards the bus station. The first bus was small and the bags took up at least 4 seats! but our 2nd coach that took us on a 5 hour journey was good with AC!! We arrived at our hotel, which is a beautiful resort tucked away off the main road and had………a pool!! After checking in we unpacked and headed to dinner in the resort restaurant. A good nights sleep was required after this long day of travelling. Our first full day in Sepilok was in The Orang utan Sanctuary. I was leader for this day and after a 7.30 breakfast everyone was out the gates and at the sanctuary for 9.00! The feeding time was at 10 but a leisurely walk to feeding platform gave us a good chance just to absorb the jungle that we were walking through. We would have been very lucky to see one orang utan but as we arrived slightly early (there was only us there ) a young male swung very close and provided a perfect photo opportunity. He was loving every second!

We came back for lunch and then headed to the sanctuary once again to walk around the larger trail. But on the way some macaques joined the troup and prevented us from walking along the path. But Tim plucked up the courage to just walk straight through the pack and although there were a few hisses from the alpha male he led the way to the rest of the trail.

Finally today we headed to an aerial walkway which was very good, giving us perfect canopy top views over the jungle. It was a very good chance to reflect on the past 2 weeks as today was the half way point of the trip and to be honest was one of the best days so far for me. The walks were great and we got a chance to pedalo around the lake which finished the day off nicely. We then headed back to the hotel to hit the pool and then have a great group dinner at the restaurant. Overall the last 2 weeks have been such a great experience and seeing new things and living in a strange new culture takes a lot of getting used to but apart from the heat I beileve we are all coping very very well! Tomorrow we head off to our project phase and another week in Borneo!

By James Harris

So after Miki’s Jungle Survival Camp, we headed back to KK where we unpacked and spent the night in the City Park Inn. After some shocking nights in the inn we actually managed to get a nights sleep where we were not drenched in Bornean rain water. They managed to fix the roof! We then had to go get dinner and the usual day to day things. We then had to repack our bags ready for our rest and relaxation so not much point unpacking eh? Guy Morgan had organised our trip to the TAR islands just off of the Borneo Coast. The food was all readily brought. Or so we thought! The food crew had decided to buy some fish for the first night but were planning on buying it on the way to the docks…… needless to say everyone had forgotten about the fish and with 10 minutes till the boat left Ms Mitchelmore was the first to realize. This meant that the Ussain Bolt like speed from Chris Willis and Billy Thoroughgood was needed! We made it and bought tuna and some bacaruda. Racing back to the boat making it just in time. A 30 minute boat ride over to the TAR islands Mr. Begg’s (beast) boat obviously came first. After arriving the first noticeable thing was the FOOTIE FIELD filled with Malaysian Ronaldos. They looked top draw. After some time thinking we came to our conclusion and had our 8 a side team ready! Some swimming in the sea was first but Nick baker managed to get the match arranged. We led out with Guy Morgan (GK) Mr. Beggs (LB) Nishil Chandaria (RB) and Vice Captain Nick Baker (LAD) (CB). Conor Redmond (LM) Seun Alayande (RM) and CAPTAIN Billy Thoroughgood (GOD) (CM) and a strong lone striker Rohit Devesar. Wanting to redeem our country for our poor performance in the real world cup we set out to win by a landslide. Subs Consisting of Sean Mitchener, Tim Hou, Stefan Knap and Dan Hunt. After a long start at 0 – 0 we changed the team around and a long awaited SCREAMER from Seun taking it to one nil. Overall the score was England 3 – 0 Malaysia. England taking home the cup. The match was followed by a team sea swim but this was short lived as poor James Harris was unfortunate to tread on a Sea Urchin which mean he was to miss put on another 2 days of swimming. The BBQ went great and pretty much everyone greatly enjoyed the cooking and the fish! Cooks recommendation is Bacaruda it was scrumptious! The next day started slowly cereal breakfast we set out to be a lazy day. And it was much snorkeling and swimming, but soon followed another England Malaysia game, Malaysia fighting for redemption. The teams were slightly mixed though  and we mixed half Malaysia half Plymouth school graduates on a gap yah. England losing the very dirty game 6 – 5 not good. But amendments go out to Nick Baker and Billy who managed to get drenched in mud from head to toe no exaggeration by trying to run through a very sloppy bog of mud. After our dreadful performance we all rolled into the sea and lazed around some more nothing much to really blog about. The next amazing meal was from Nick who cooked us our BBQ burgers getting much appraisal from the team especially Phil. Poor James again the next morning when he woke up with a record 71 mosquito bites!!!!!! Very itchy man. Well not really much to blog on this day either much lazing done and everyone enjoyed it! Wake up early what was this morning, getting the boat back to KK, Then sorting out the very important next two weeks of the orangutan sanctuary and the home stay. I am currently hoping it is all done because it is about 10.30 pm here and if its not done then we are pretty much stuck in KK forever so im hoping that is sorted!!!!! Everyone is very much enjoying themselves and can’t wait to move onto the next week.

Ps. From an earlier blog someone managed to miss out that an old oriental woman was making kissy faces at Rohit which made us all laugh lots and he is currently seeing this woman whose name  I believe to be Jing Hi and they will be getting married soon everyone is invited!!!!

Billy Thoroughgood and Chris Willis

oblong

After Nick’s wonderful blog we have spent another day in Kota Kinabalu and then headed off to Miki’s Jungle Survival Camp. It started with the traditional Borneo cuisine of waffles as we planned the day ahead. We headed off to the Museum of Malay History where we delved into a lot of culture and began to understand what clothing, weapons and different items that the Malay people would use in daily life. It was a very detailed museum seeing things from swords to blowpipes (which we would experience later!) and after this we went to another part to experience the typical accommodation of the Malay people which were long houses. We went inside and nosed about and we even found a long house which had a bamboo trampoline in it which provided minutes of entertainment!

After the museum it was another long trek back to KK and then we had to complete all admin which was needed. Then once we were all packed for Miki’s we were able to experience Kota Kinabalu’s bowling alley! After the teachers cheated trying to get extra goes this then lead to major confusion to who was in what lane and then ended up having to shuffle about! After we were sorted the game began with clear leaders beginning to emerge. With a constant rivalry between the teachers and students, some students resorted to dirty tactics. In one moment when Mr Beggs was distracted, we took his shot, however this backfired as we accidentally got a strike, which wasn’t brilliant and was definitely not my fault *cough cough*. After the game ended and Mr Beggs had lost we went to the Fish market and tasted some of the local cuisine. After this we then retired back to our rooms as we had an early start the next day.

We woke up very early in the morning to then be picked up at 7 to head to Miki’s Jungle Survival Camp. We travelled there via coach through Bandar and eventually ended up on a long steep road which the minibuses struggled up! Finally reaching the end of our minibus journey we stopped and were introduced to our leaders (George, Danson, Stefanos) and then we headed off through the jungle for a 2 hour trek to Miki’s Jungle Survival Camp which is the definition for middle of nowhere! We were then shown our accommodation (which was notably better than the rooms in KK) and consisted of a open shelter which we could sleep in. We were then shown the different traps which local people used to catch many different animals which were extremely effective and ensured that we didn’t venture to far away from the camp! After this we then was introduced to the bamboo and the many different uses of it. Use #1: Flooring. We managed to help build a length of flooring to be used which was very good! Use #2: Cup! Everyone was then given the opportunity to build cups which everyone enjoyed! Then after this we ate dinner which was very enjoyable and were left to our own devices. This allowed us to play Mafia which was an extremely enjoyable and is very complicated to explain on a blog! After this it felt like midnight but was in fact around 9 so everyone slept ready for the next day which was again quite a early start.

We got up and ate breakfast which was noodles and rice (which proved that all meals in Borneo do have rice!) and then we on a trek to look at the flora and fauna of the local area and the guides showed us that they definitely knew the area well! Many people had leeches attached to them most notable  being James one which was about the size of his thumb! We then returned to the camp to then make darts for their blowpipes (Use # 3)! This provided a lot of entertainment seeing who was the better shot and then being blown away at the locals skills! After this we then waited until nightfall and headed on a night trek which showed us which different insects and animals came out at night.  We saw many different insects like crickets, spiders and most interesting of all was the frogs! The locals jumped into the river and returned with 6 frogs! They ensured us that they weren’t poisonous and then we took them back to camp to which the locals shocked us by asking if we wanted some fried frog! We accepted their offer and then ended up eating quite a lot. Billy and I ate whole ones and found out that they were very boney! After this we went to sleep ready for the trek back to KK in the morning.

We managed the trek this morning after 2 hours and then were greeted by Miki and some donuts which were very enjoyable after the frogs! We then proceeded back to KK to prepare for the TAR islands where we could relax and chill. We had to do various jobs which we completed which also lead to many non English locals to exclaim ‘we no speak Americano!’. However we managed to complete them all and now we are about to head out to the town to eat dinner!

Everyone is well and we hope to update after TAR islands! Hello to everyone back in England!

Tim (with motivation from Sean!)

Hey everyone,

We got to Borneo safely after an extensive 6976 miles of travel. 16 hours of flying were eased by the aircraft’s entertainment system with the group now well aware  of the latest dissapointing RomComs like the shocking “Valentines Day” (I would like that 90 mins of my life back). A day later we arrived in Brunei and spent a few hours there. The Sultan starred out at us from every wall which was slightly unnerving, although he did possess a fez that would make even the latest incarnation of Doctor Who green with envy. After a short (and turbulent) connecting flight, we reached Kota Kinabalu (KK) last night at about 6ish local time (we’re 7 hours ahead) .  It was raining but very humid. The group split into three, with each group staying in different accommodation in KK. We are staying in a hostel for the next couple of nights. It is basic but has a hot shower, AC and free Facebook access! Who could ask for more?

The food here is delicious, with restaurants serving Malay, Thai and some Cantonese dishes. Dinner out (eaten at a very slow speed thanks to the use, and misuse, of chopsticks) was scrumptious and very filling as well as being astoundingly good value. Breakfast today was waffles with chocolate spread – hardly Malay cuisine but undoubtedly tasty. The afternoon allowed us to walk around KK, exploring the city, buying gifts (including one infamous New Era hat) and taking photographs (from the wonderful landscapes of the TAR islands to those featuring 50 Cent-esque poses). The game “Tim or Local” has been created: using extensive persuasion, a local and Tim take a photo in the same pose and we guess who is who. We visited the Mall today in KK. Nike, Adidas and Starbucks mingled with other malay stores and a plethora of mobile phone outlets. Omitting the western stores for the malay alternatives is definitely the best method to conserve our precious Malaysian ringgit.
So far we haven’t done anything amazing, just getting used to the time difference and our surroundings, but we really like the city, it’s fairly lively and the people are very friendly. Tonight we are going to visit and eat at KK’s open-air fish market. We are in KK until Thursday when we venture into the jungle for the first time. We are having a great time, are all safe and well and will keep you updated with rest of the journey as and when we can.

Nick (with structure from Rohit)

See you soon

This blog will go live once we depart on Sunday. It is my intention to update it as and when we have internet access.

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