Danum Valley Environmental Project Journal

Day 1- 20/8

As I wish, I got DVCA Danum valley conservation area, well known for its undisturbed dipterocarp. It is a home for exceptional flora and fauna and has evolved into one of he foremost rainforest research centre in South East Asia. I had a 9-hours- journey in theb bus before we arrived. After register, we went to our campsite known Marshfield camp.

It looks pretty nice and Pete offered to cook tonight. I realised we had plenty of tins leftover by the previous group. Izzie is very considerate and we had a night chat.

Day 2- 21/8

Today plan was only to know more about the project better before we start working . Nelki gave us a talk through. Afternoon was spent on planning the rooster, food allocation and radio set up. 

We saw wild boar today and it went up to our bunk and got juana's socks away.

Day 3-22/8

Today is Haji. I had a really weird dream. I was in the game of Jumanji and  was given tasks such as reconstruct the component of machines and identified arrows from between the tress and f I fail I am gonna die. Wil was real funny today when he appealed with bungee tying around his pants too keep it away from leeches and they came out with the baby leech song

We saw orang utan as Yoel called us when he found one. Marjunney only get to see the small monkey because he was too slow.

I chatted with Duha and he shared about his mission to get more Sabahans involved in volunteer programme in Kindness Organisation.

The night feast with the locals was real fun, get makmur and rendang, the best FOOD since a month！

Day4- 23/8

Today is a great day, cavin as the leader. Our first day of work is to take the gravel to site B and it is a great success as we finished taking 1000 buckets up to the site. 

It is my first project on building the suspension bridge. It was pretty tiring and we had the afternoon swimming session.

I cook for tonight and I made the rice with "dumpling", brinjals and eggs. I took almost one and half hour and the rice is slight burnt, felt so bad.

Day 5- 24/8

Today is another day of getting the gravel up. we had another 961 done before it started to rain heavily and we all got so drenched.

Day 6- 25/8

Today is a rainy day and there was basically no land for gravel so instead we decided to move  the semen.

It involves getting the 150 buckets of water up to the hill and around 10 cars of gravel and 2 bags of semen to fill up the the concrete mixer for one time and in order to get the hole fully fill, we need 50 times of the repeated  filling.

One week has past and hopefully we can get all done before we leave.

An accident happened today and I knocked my knee when i fall from the deck that used to fill the mixer up.

Day 7- 26/8

Rest day, Ivy came around and brought us to the nature trail and we visited Lito’s family.

The rest of day was plenty chill, we watched the movie miracle of cell no 7

Day 8- 27/8

It is cement moving day, pretty tiring and got pretty badly bitten by insects. I got my antihistamine and recovered by then. Poor Izzie has rash all over her body and she developed difficulty in breathing for a moment. Jojo sent her home and she seems better.

Day 9- 28/8

My day as a leader nd as usual, I felt it is necessary for me to do my best and obviously, Pete was pretty confident in me and thought I can handle really well and he observed.

We did well as we achieved  1172 buckets but I felt bad that I was being forgetful. I forget to bring the snacks and rubbish bag.

I had talk with jojo during break time and talking about personal goal and plan, afraid of how things can go wrong. I realised the one thing I need to change would prolly be me not voicing out as much.

Jojo reminded me that I don’t have to be the one to take initiative to mix around as they came to our country to learn of our culture so the efforts has to come from both side, i guess we need to learn to be more acceptant.

Personally I got a little bit frustrated coz marj n cavin do not have sense of guilt even when they forget to bring along the crackers but I come to understand that we are here to learn and we all made mistakes.

Day 10- 29/8

we did concrete today and Wil as the leader

Day 11- 30/8

Juana made my day, she made pancake in the morning and she is really nice and genuine person.

Vinns and Yoel came over fr visit n we made him dinner

Day 12- 31/8

Jono as leader and today is another day of  gravel. He was called for 5 mins talk by Pete because he didn’t get us all to start working after lunch break but Duha was more supportive and said that Jono was just being considerate that all of us might be a little too tired. It made me understand how we all perceived things differently.

Day 13- 1/9

Today is half day work, I was a little upset coz no night walk for me. We spent the afternoon talking to yoel and he shows us some awesome photo of the Slow Loris aka Kongkang and tarsier. It look very much like a squirrel!

Day 14- 2/9

It is a rest day and  we went to the beach. I didn’t go for a swim but It was happy to see Juana Jono Cvin Marj enjoying themselves and I am like a recorder who record the awesome moments.

Day 15-16- 3-4 /9

I spent my last day working even the original plan was to go to rhinopool

It was an emotional day again. I don’t feel hungry at all for the day, perhaps emotional overwhelmed. Vinns and Jono kept asking me to stop taking the buckets but I just don’t feel like. Perhaps deep down I knew today is the last day and I want to do my best…

Vinns and Yoel came for the night and we had long chat. They played guitar and during briefing, I gave everyone a bracelets that I made along with a small notes but due to time limit I didn’t get to spend much time on writing that…they gave me a stone necklace indicated my hard work and efforts all these while. Is a real reluctant moments and I am gonna miss them all.

Day 17- 5/9

I am leaving today. We all watched the sunrise together, wonderful moment

I took plenty of photos with them and Izzie cried when i left. I didn’t even deep down I felt really sad.

I have been taking some time to think of the biggest challenge and what i miss the most in Danum.

I generally i enjoy the whole expedition, near to the nature, learn sabahan culture and develop my mental and physical strength

also, my biggest challenge would definitely be the physical strength.

the best team ever...

Duha, the pemikir

Wils, the most entertaining venturer

jojo, my HTHT partner...

the slow Loris

Jumper spider

Haunstsman spider

Hehe, Jono and I did the roaster together

My favorite venturer

Lito

Vinns and Yoel, the locals

morning sunrise before leaving

Pete, my trek and danum project VMs...

Raleigh Borneo Trek Adventure Journal in Sabah #15 days

Day 1- 2/8- Baraba

Today is a gloomy day and more than that I realised there are some insects that lay eggs on the jacket that I hang on the washing line.

and God knows I have tryptophobia and It freaked me out.

Thanks to Chris and Pete,  I master the art of utilising the rucksacks, never ever in my life I bothered about all the buckles on the bags and now I found it so useful.

The journey to Baraba was really hard with the heavy rucksacks of nearly half of my weight and I am not bluffing!!! I fall so many times that I nearly gave up.

It took us 3 hours to reach the campsite and set up the fire, put up the hammocks, do the radio comms as well as digging the long drop...

Day 2- 3/8

The night was long and I vomitted for at least 4 times for the night. I had migraine after the night briefing and it rained heavily for the whole night. I woke up few times for the night and tried to find my panadol but the rain was so heavy that I got myself drenched as the top above the hammock wan't enough to cover myself. I had fever after and I felt so bad. Consequently I had a few bad dream (prolly due to the side effect of the doxycyline that I took everyday). I dreamt that I was nearly dead and the helicopter was here to pick up my dead body. I am all wet when I woke up, wasn't sure if it is sweat, rain or my vomitus 

Day 3- 4/8 Giant leech

My day as a day leader and I have to wake up much earlier than the others.

6 hours trek does scared me a little.

I really like being in the jungle, sleeping on the hammock, guess I started to enjoy it.

It is just that I am so bad in expressing my opinion and it turned out to be one of the biggest issue because most of us don't speak out. Jon lost his spec stand so he was a bit annoyed this morning.

We delayed our departure time and only departed at 9am. I thought we only gonna arrived at 2pm but we arrived in only 3 hrs time. On the way we learnt on how to drink from bamboo.

We made group massage on the way and it was great.

At the campsite,  Izzie and I who supposed to fill up the jelly bean but It was pretty heavy so I got half full instead and ended up have to refill itagain.

Day 4- 5/8  Boot Sauna

Also known as river crossing day, I had one to one chat with Chris today the journey was mostly talk with Chris. I suggested on more organised fun to get everyone together and he requested if I am interested to plan it with Izzie.

We also brainstorming the idead for loop and changeover. 

I organised the games on 2 lies and 1 truth and Kent shared some spirit stories of each campsite with us. We had great time with the guides. They cooked plenty of food for us and since then we had second meeting everytime after the briefing.

Day 4- 6/8- rest day in boot sauna

we woke up late for the day and Kelvin was the day leader, pretty damn day, rain non stop since I woke up.

We enjoyed our morning session by visiting the nearby village and got ourselves some " TuHao" which basically made of ginger and flower and dried chilli, prickled with the vinegar, salt and scallion. It is known as tradional Sabahan food and originated from Tambunan, Keningau, Ranau and it is best served with white rice. We spent time under bamboo hut for crafting session in the afternoon.

Day 5- 7/8 - Rogan Ghost camp

Day leader-  Sophie

One of the hardest trek for the day, all the way up ascending up the hill, pretty challenging that I hardly catch my breath. We had plenty stops but we made it in 4 hours.

We then had a chilling afternoon, another one to one talk with pete on my self development and expectation

The briefing ended with another heavy rain and again our guide cooked us Maggie as super.

Day 6- 8/8 - Haunt Frog camp

Day leader - Syafiq

Haunt Frog hasn’t been assessed for year and well known for its fire ants! There wasn’t proper fireplace and benches so we need to work it out ourselves. Today Pete wasn’t feeling well, as a mountain guide, he is pretty tough. I was given the task to make sure the fireplace and benches will all be done on time. Kuno did most of the task and we barely helped. They were really nice people and did so many things for us and knowing how little is their salary does make me feel they deserve more. 

I got bitten by the fire ants and it is killing me, had plenty of antihistamine to prevent the allergic reaction. Also all the bees just gathered around my rucksacks due to the soy sauce that I spilt.

Day 7 -9/8 Phillip camp

Day leader –Izzy Scotland

We had the loop changeover performance and I am taking the role as the juggler and I had no idea how to juggle at all. Pete left us the morning due to his leg infection and deep down i hope that he will come back.

I had Kuno helping me to set the radio and got shower, my first shower in a week and I feel so good.

Day 8-10/8 - rest day

We had survival learning practise and Henry was awesome. They literally just set up the fire using the bamboo and I tried few days but couldn’t do it

I learn to play the cheat head at night and I never play it before

so A - challenge either A,2,3,10

2- smallest or zero

3- invisible card

10 or repeat 4 cards- burn card

I forget another game with chris the other night

sound like spade Q is the exception and no card is the best.

Day 9-12/8 Kulin Tangan camp

It is the place with stories of head hunters victim whispering under hammock. After the changeover means we had more food to carry again and I was really heavy for my size. The guides were really nice and they helped me to carry some tins and reduce the weight of my bag.

Day 10-13/8 Muncit camp

Today path is pretty steep, Izzie nearly fall down the cliff but syafiq got her before she falls. Jon and Marjunney got fever last night but getting slight better. Little did I know that Jon caught malaria after.

Kuno has to carry two rucksacks coz Jon couldn't carry it due to his sickness.

Day 11- 12-14-15/8 rest day in waterfall camp

Tonight they told us they had a surprise and little did I know that it was to kill the chicken in front of us, Izzy and Shafiq couldnt take it and decided to be vegetarian for a day.

We had star gazing together and i couldnt stop laughing when shafiq kept talking about star and how to survive if we get lost at night

Day 13-15/8 bongkawas camp

I was pretty emo today, refused to go up for meeting after briefing. I guess I am just feeling sad that the trek is gonna end soon.

Day 14-  Survival camp

We had lot of fun today. We all danced together and do the dance sabahan kuih which means blossom flower.

Then, Kilon brought along shao rou, and it was real nice.

The very last night together made my heart ached.

Day 15-last day

Mixture of feeling, I really enjoy spending time with them but at the meantime I missed good food and my comfy bed and I hate leeches that bite me every single days and all the mosquitos and ants that just annoying. Kuno made all of us the bracelets and some of us ring but I lost it while going for shower. I felt sad.

the day of departure

Juana from China and Izzie from Australia

Cavin and Marjunney, the Dusun -ian

Malcolm from UK

Village near Boot Sauna

the HCV Jackson

Henry and his daughter

back to basecamp