Minda’s guesthouse was our first experience of Borneo – first up the staircase of shoes (gag alley) and welcomed by ‘Mr Happy’ aka Willy Kajan and the lovely Along family. We there enjoyed two days of jet lag recovery, acclimatisation (i.e. getting sun burnt) and meeting the people whose pockets we will be living in for the next few months.
With Oz quaffing nuclear strength coffee’s and working all hours, he still ensured a memorable arrival in-country by arranging a day trip to the Miri Crocodile Farm and Zoo. Our tour guide Yong – who has a spoken word count of at least 200 per minute and chronic ‘Crocrophobia’ - poked and taunted the Jurassic beasts for our amusement. An early highlight of the trip. Chinese New Year celebrations were also in full swing during our brief stay in Miri and we witnessed street parades and incredible dragon dances performed by local kids. Oz also immediately set us the mysterious task of finding the rankest food item in Miri. James thought he’d hit gold when he bought what he assumed was a ‘blended rabbit’ due a picture of the small animal on the packet. When later relaxing at Minda’s however, Willy pointed out that James’ ‘blended bunny’ was in fact sugar syrup. Something so disgusting instantly became an amazing additional to the morning porridge!
Shortly after these coastal fun and games, we flew to Bario on a plane that Dawn French would struggle to fit on. The pilot’s thumbs up signs were reassuring when bits of the plane’s interior fell into Simon’s lap! We scampered down a dusty road to what can only be described as the ‘Raja Hilton’. Despite the typically Malaysian 4 foot high shower, the beautiful wooden house gives a panoramic view of mountainous rainforest from its five star veranda. The sun soaked and breezy veranda quickly became a watering hole and hotspot for relaxing before jungle training.
Jungle training was an intense yet enjoyable and amusing week where we learned a wide range of medical, survival and jungle skills. After several days at Raja View where we focused on medical and safety skills, we embarked on our biggest challenge yet – our first jungle trek from Pa’ Umor to Hornbill Camp. Hornbill Camp was built by the previous two expedition group and forms both a perfect introduction to the rigors (continuous leech bites) and joys of the jungle (the natural Jacuzzi style river wash spot, the night time jungle electro-orchestra and the sunlight dappling through the canopy). Advanced jungle training mainly left us amazed at Rian’s incredibly accurate perang (a Malaysian machete) skills and his ability to make even the most difficult of tasks look very easy.
Jungle training culminated with a surprise ‘Simultaneous Survival Scenario’ – being individually taken to an isolated jungle spot where we had to survive 20 hours by ourselves. With thunder over head everyone rapidly erected their basha’s and only our attempts at fire’s and cooking our emergency noodles proved slightly less successful.
Once fully jungle trained we trekked all the way back to Bario to celebrate at Raja View. Our new wooden home is the perfect getaway from the extremes of the jungle – we love it.
It’s now time for some rest and repair before we set out for our conservation project – constructing Silver Leaf eco-lodge. Bring it on!
