I have officially been chewed and spat out by the Sabah rainforest. Over the past seven days I have trekked to three different rural villages and I can honestly say, these villages are very remote with no road accessibility and difficult walking terrain.
Our mini-bus which collected us from CREATE drove for about 2 hours into the heart of Sabah, The bus struggled to cope as we climbed constantly up valley walls. The drop off location just seemed like a random point at the side of the road. From the road side, the plan was to walk deep into the forest towards the first village - Kampung Longkogungan.
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| The "Sabah Parks" boundary - entering protected rainforest areas. |
The recommended footwear for the forest is the Adidas Kampung (nothing to do with Adidas), which is basically a rubber shoe which is ideal for wading through water and mud. Unfortunately there is no foot support, so my feet and toes were twisted, stubbed and bruised.
After three hours of walking, scrambling and wading across waist deep rivers we made it to Kampung Longkogungan. The village of Kg. Longkogungan currently has no electricity but Tonibung are working with the villagers to install a micro-hydro scheme. The house we were staying in was very basic with the wooden floor as a bed. I think the children in the family enjoyed my stay, a lot of fun was had shooting me with a toy gun. When it got dark, a car battery was used to provide electricity to a single light bulb in the house - which gradually got dimmer as the night went on. I was also introduced to rice wine on my first night. Rice wine, which is fermented rice is not very pleasant, especially when there's more rice than liquid. Its kind of like eating/drinking alcoholic porridge or rice pudding.
We only spent one night and a day at Kg. Longkogungan. The following day we helped the villagers clear a path through the forest for their micro-hydro piping (penstock). In the evening we set off to the next village down the river, Kampung Kalangaan. It was only an hour trek to Kg. Kalangaan, but I managed to get about four leeches and I didn't notice until I arrived at the village. Once scraping them off, my feet were a bleeding mess!
Kg. Kalangaan is another village without electricity, the micro-hydro project is on going with the dam and forebay complete. We stayed two nights in Kalangaan and it was on my first night I was introduced to tapai. Tapai is another wine like drink which is made from the root or bulb of a plant found in Borneo. It can be quite strong and the villagers love to drink it. I found the taste to be not too bad, some mixtures of it can taste like vinegar though! Everyone consumed a fair amount of tapai while in Kalangaan, the guitar was passed around and Dusan songs were played well into both nights.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner always consisted of rice and the most recent catch. The first night we ate every edible part of a pig, including a soup with the skull bobbing about in the pot. On the second night, I had what I assumed as the time was more pig, this time grilled. With the dim light from another battery power light it's quite difficult to see what exactly your eating. I did eventually realise it wasn't pig, it was the head of a small grilled bat. But to be honest, it was actually quite nice.
During the day at Kalangaan, we worked on reinforcing the dam for the micro-hydro. On the way back we ended up going spear fishing for eels. Apparently the eels hide under rocks during the day. The villagers dive into the river and dig under the rocks and shoot at them with a home-made spear gun. I gave it a few attempts but unfortunately the eels are not easy to find!
On day four in the forest, we left Kg. Kalangaan and headed to Kampung Pongobonon. On the way there we stopped to catch some lunch. The spear guns and fishing net were back out. I was determined to catch a fish using the net, I haven't quite got the technique yet, so I didn't have any luck. I'm making it an objective to catch a fish using the net and spear gun by the end of the six months!
A big blow was that I was so focused on getting a fish I didn't realise I was getting some really bad sunburn on my shoulders. Trekking with a rucksack and sunburnt shoulders is torture.
The third village we visited was Kampung Pongobonon. Pongobonon does have an installed micro-hydro, but unfortunately the AVR on the generator is broken and needs replaced.
The house we stayed in for three nights can be seen below. You can't really see from the picture, but there is a monkey in a cage outside the door. I asked why the monkey was in the cage and from the explanation it wasn't clear if it is a pet or they are fattening it up to cook and eat. It thankfully wasn't for dinner while I was there anyway!
A family of 10 live in the house which mostly consists of young kids. A big irony I found with this village, is that a lot of the kids have smart phones and will very casually sitting playing Clash of Clans or Candy Crush. Without the micro-hydro, the family are using batteries for electricity which is being used to charge up several smart phones and a stereo system. During the day, western drum and bass songs coming form the stereo were a common sound coming from the house. At night, oil lamps and torches are the only source of light in the house.
During the 2 days we had at Pongobonon, we spent a lot of the time erecting electricity pylons for other houses. We visited the micro-hydro and inspected the ELC, funnily enough it turns out there is no ELC for the micro-hydro in Pongobonon, load control is purely archived using the AVR. Voltage regulation only, no frequency regulation, which creates limitations on the system.
For lunch, returning back to the house after erecting pylons, I was shocked to see there was a bloody carcass of a wild boar on floor. That wild boar was to be breakfast, lunch and diner for the next few days.
On the final day I was ready to return back to CREATE, my sunburn was bad, I was hungover from all the tapei and my legs were a mess with scratches, leeches and mosquito bites.
From Kg. Pongobonon, the plan was to walk the 2 and half hour trek to Kampung Buayan and then from there get a lift back to CREATE. Once at Kg, Buayan, I expected the trip to be at an end, I thought we could then relax and wait for the truck to pick us up.
This was not the case. The journey from Buayan back to CREATE has enough content to have its own blog post!
The truck to pick us up from Buayan never turned up. News reached us that the truck had gotten stuck about a mile from the village. We walked out with the Buayan villagers to free the vehicle which had partly went off the the side of the road. The axial was caught on the road surface and the truck was close to toppling down a very steep embankment.
A solution for pulling the truck back on to the road was tie rope from the stuck truck to another pulling truck. Unfortunately there was only two short pieces of rope. But someone had the idea of using both pieces of rope and tying them together with a 4-way car wheel wrench. When this was attempted the truck on the road pulled, the rope snapped and acted like a slingshot hurling the 4-way spanner with serious force into the bumper of the stuck truck. Everyone dove to the ground when it happened, I just about shit myself. If the wrench had hit someone it would probable have killed them. In picture (a) below you can see the two pieces of rope and the 4-way wrench. After going back to Buayan, collecting longer and more robust rope, we tried the same again (without the wrench!) and managed to free the truck.
(a) (b)
With all of us piled in the back of the truck, we set off back to CREATE. The conditions of the roads are horrendous, with incredibly steep slopes to tackle, boulders and loose rock drive over. Riding in the back of the tuck is a case of holding tight or you'll be flung out! Picture (b) is the only clear shot I've got from the back of the truck.
On the way back we got stuck several times at very steep slopes and muddy patches on the road. In the occasion below, we were stuck for about 2 hours, resorting to trying to pull the truck up the hill ourselves with rope.
I think one of the most memorable and talked about events during the trip happened in the last hour. We were still piled in the back of the truck, standing up and holding on for dear life. I was concentrating on holding on and moving my legs with the suspension of the truck. I heard a shout from the guys behind me to look out and I quickly looked up and saw a barbed rattan vine hanging low at head height. In the split second I moved my face away but not my head. The barbed rattan caught my eat and pulled as we drove past it. I felt the pain, but it didn't feel like it was too serious. We continued on driving for a few minutes until I felt the blood down the side of my face and then the blood was down my arm, on the top the truck roof and falling everywhere. The other guys noticed and started shouting for the truck to stop. I was given a t-shirt to put over my ear and one of the guys gave me a chewed up leaf which is considered traditional medicine to help stop the bleeding.
For the last hour I sat in the front of the truck holding my bleeding ear. From the car mirrors I was able to see the damage done and it looked pretty bad. I'll save you all a picture of what it looked like. Thankfully I still have my ear and the barb didn't rip a hole in my ear. But it did rip on the surface of the ear. I ended up in the local hospital A&E where the wound was cleaned and dressed.
I suppose it gives me a nice scar and a good story to tell!
