So That's That Then

Flying back tonight. It's all over! Hope you enjoyed reading, I'll be in touch after I've had a nice long kip on Wednesday.

Selemat Tinggal Xxxxx

Paradise Part 2

Yeah, we are really hating it in KK.

5 star luxury sucks.

Heartbroken!

Last night in the village spent at Hamisah's with tearful goodbyes from the world's most beautiful people who loved us so much and made us feel so welcome. Will miss them so much. Oh, my heart!

It's all over. The 3 nights at Nexus in KK just feel so blah and meaningless now. Give me a ramshackle wooden house full of love over a fancy-pants hotel any day. I just wish my last 3 days in Borneo were here now.

We have so much to learn from these people. More than you can understand unless you come here and see for yourself. A fully functioning community built on trust, respect and love. They look like they have nothing when in fact they have everything. More than us.

What looked like a shanty town to me when I first arrived is now the most beautiful place on earth.

Thank you Bateh Puteh and KOPEL, I have quite honestly had the time of my life.

Things I Will Miss Most About Sabah

Sunshine.

Hot, blazing, relentless. Causes rivers of sweat and a permanent perspiration moustache even when just sitting. But creates beautiful, uplifting mornings and warm, balmy and softly glowing evenings.

Bucket Showers.

The perfect compliment to the above. Cool, refreshing and taken numerous times a day. A pail and scoop of brown river water has never been so desired or appreciated!

The Bateh Puteh Community.

Always smiling. Amused by our garbled attempts at Malay but also encouraging and pleased that we tried. Continual waves, greetings and beeps from passers by. The friendly exclamation of ' Sama Sama!" meaning " You're Welcome!" Impressive jungle skills, whether it be knowledge of the wildlife, medicinal properties of plants and hidden supplies of water or effortlessly shimmying up trees to gather exotic fruits for us to taste. Children that are so unbelievably beautiful and friendly that you just have to pick them up and squeeze them. Men that have known each other all their lives softly singing together as they fish for prawns under the clear, starry sky. The touching of the heart after every handshake. The way that they say "Be careful, it is slipperies!" and the fact that it says "SLIPPERIES" on the signs at Eco Camp.

Sungai Kinabatangan.

Our long, meandering brown river. Daily boat rides, either speeding along with the wind whipping our faces on our way to work or cruising along slowly to inspect the monkeys, giant monitor lizards, boar, elephants and a host of other wildlife on the banks. Watching the silent lightning brighten up the night sky over the river behind the clouds. Spotting crocodile eyes gliding along soundlessly in the murky water.

Local Malaysian Food.

Sticky rice parcels wrapped in large dried leaves of grass. Never before seen vegetables so fresh and delicious. Sweet potato fritters. Pisangs, tiny sweet bananas. Garlic, chillies and subtle tasty spices. Noodles for breakfast. Tiny crumbly round cookies with a nut in the centre. Watermelon. Water spiked with limes picked that day from the garden.

Bornean Rainforest.

Hundred year old trees that have been strangled by vines and bent into shapes that resemble paintings from an old fashioned fairytale book. Elephant Grass. Fire ants with bites that burn. Crickets and grasshoppers chirping. Civet cats with glowing yellow eyes. The distinctive calls of rare exotic birds. Tiny geckos on every surface. Macaques scurrying in the trees above your head, picking at each other for bugs to eat and socializing on the banks of the river. Mosquitos. Elephant dung. Trees that provide drinking water. Parangs. Natural medicines. Tales of Ancient tribes. Orangutans. Tree frogs. Fireflies and their glowing bums. Fire Ants biting and burning. Leeches sniffing around on leaves and then magically appearing on random body parts.

Everything. Last evening in the village!! Sad Claire!

But My Pete and Jamie I love you! And all my lovely family and friends- I look forward to seeing you!

Will post from KK xxxx

Epic Jungle Adventures!

We survived! Maintainence work on the trails by Supu. Running from Fire Ants  during a night trail and feeling the burn of the ones that caught us. Catching a Firefly and staring in wonder at its little battery powered arse! Running through leaves covered in leeches and then picking the little suckers off our ankles and feet.  Wild thoughts whilst staring out into the trees and listening to the steady rhythm of the jungle whilst everyone else around you is sleeping. The ultimate bucket shower- by the river at night under the stars. Heaven.

The highlight? Climbing a steep and very dangerous trail to an enormous bat cave, filled with thousands of bats. The sound of their wings flapping so loud it resonated through the huge cavern. We crept nervously through the pitch darkness and a massive monitor lizard suddenly ran in front of us provoking yelps, jumps and screams all round. Suddenly the flapping got so loud we stopped in our tracks. Fikri exclaimed
" They are coming!"and we were off, legging it out of the dark batshit covered limestone walls of the cave and emerging back into the bright emerald rainforest.

We then climbed higher and higher, visiting two other incredible caves filled with bats and ancient tribal coffins before ascending to the top to gaze at the jungle and Sungai Kinabatangan hundreds of feet below us.

Borneo!

( and for good measure, a pic of us with Cyril and Mariani, awesome and hilarious foster parents!)

Last Post for 3 days!

Very exciting times! Trail cutting in the middle of the jungle, 45 mins down river from our village! Hardcore camping ahoy! Eep!

Xxxx

Back to the Jungle

So after enjoying Cyril and Mariani's hospitality and gorgeous family for the last four nights we are off to end our adventure in the rainforest with some hardcore jungle camping at Supu Camp. No luxuries there, just hammocks and headlamps to see us through the next few nights. After that we are KK bound for a bit of civilisation and yes, alcohol,  before we come back to Blighty.

I cannot believe this is nearly over. It feels like I've been here forever but its flown by like a flash. Agh, I'm excited to get back to Pete and J but oh I'm going to miss it here. So much! There's so much to learn from these people about how life should be lived! Humanity!

The tears shall flow, my friend. But for now, I will soak up the last few days of my life changing experience and thank my lucky stars that I seized this opportunity.

"Leap, and the net shall appear."

See you on the other side of the jungle, comrades. No WiFi access from Supu! X

Selemat Hari Raya!

So the day started off with a trip to the Doc's to deal with my bloody JUNGLE ULCER on my leg. Urgh. Horrible infected sore that probably started off as a mosquito bite and now resembles a swollen hole oozing pus. I shall spare you the joys of a photograph.

Armed with antibiotics and ointment from the surprisingly fast and efficient staff at the hospital in Kota Kinabatangan (Cost- 50 Ringgit, approx a tenner)  we headed back in Cyril's (our current host dad, pronounced Sye-ril) big house to prepare for Hari Raya.

After a brief and unexpected off-road adventure ("Do not worry! I very experienced driver!") we got back to the house where Mariani, our host mum, was busily preparing delicious treats for the expected guests. We had selected our traditional clothes from the choice available in the wardrobe ( garish and hideous Haha) but as neither Cyril or any of the rest of the family had chosen to wear theirs we decided not to.

One by one family trickled through the open front door, exclaiming "Selemat Hari Raya!" and heading straight to us to shake our hands. More and more family appeared at the door until at least 30 people had arrived in a riot of colour. None of them live in the Bateh Puteh Community and had travelled from KK and Sandakan and they seemed much more modern and cosmopolitan than our sweet villagers.

As soon as they arrived they pulled out their cameras and asked the 4 of us if they could have their picture taken with us. It's considered quite a trophy to have photos of yourself with Westerners so who were we to refuse? We felt like celebrities as each of these lovely people clamoured to get into as many shots as they could and took photo after photo. It was hysterical.

They were disappointed that we hadn't dressed up so off we went to change, dancing out of our room to whoops of delight and lots more flashing cameras. We then danced to Malaysian Hari Raya songs. I can't get over how metal Malay music is, its all dual guitars and crunching riffs but the vocals are the complete opposite, its a hilarious mix. I can't remember the last time I laughed so much dancing, everyone cheering and clapping at the moves being busted to these cheesy Malay tunes!

Oh god the people are so gorgeous here. Just honest and open and friendly. The family didn't stay for long, probably about two hours, as they had other houses to visit, as is the Hari Raya tradition, and they lined up to shake our hands one by one and say goodbye. Malay people have the most charming, sweet handshake. They use their right hand to shake and then touch their heart, I just love it.

What an amazing evening. Beautiful food and company. There are so many aspects to life here that I envy so much. We really lack this sense of community, friendship and trust in England. It's like a different world here. No paranoia, or suspicion. Just trust and acceptance. Yet they consider us trophies and envy our lives! Crazy!

And to top it all off, I met my first Malay Muslim Metal Dude. He's the guy in blue -you can't see but he has long dreadlocks and plays drums in a Death Metal band. Cyril's family rock!!!!

Hari Raya Here We Come!

Obviously we arrived at Mengaris Village during Ramadhan, a fact that contributed to our huge culture shock during the first days- the prayers and songs blasting out of the mosque for hours during the day and waking you up in the early hours of the morning and the tired and hungry villagers fasting in the blazing sun, waiting for their first sip of water at 18:25.

On the 19th Ramadhan ends and Hari Raya begins. This is the biggest celebration of the year for Muslims and involves food, food and more food as everyone celebrates the end of the month long fast, resolves old feuds or arguments and has a merry old time. All doors are open to visitors and people move from house to house to eat, chat and have a generally joyful time!

A cow is ritually sacrificed (one belonging to Fikri's grandfather) and the meat shared amongst the villagers to feast upon.

Yep, you heard me right. A sacrificial cow. Now I respect and love the people here and their culture but you ain't getting me anywhere NEAR the village while that is going on. I don't want to see, hear or smell it. I don't even want to see the cow in question in case I ruin Hari Raya by smuggling her out and setting her free in the jungle.

Ritual sacrifice aside, we are so privileged to be here for this event. Us four are the only non-villagers here and everyone is excited to involve us in the Jollies. We will be getting dressed up in traditional gear again (new outfits, Wahoo) and getting stuck in with the fun! Cannae wait!

So now to brush up on my Malay. "No thank you, I don't eat fish. Or meat. Or sacrificial cow. But terima kasih anyway!"

Will post lots and lots of pics. In the meantime, here's a few random ones xx

Argh

Wrote a massive post and it crashed and i lost it all. Exciting times ahead, will write it all again when i get a chance and post later today.

In the meantime, a puppy!

Fright Night in the Forest!

Been at Eco Camp for the past couple of nights, hence the lack of posts. Eco Camp has been built by the villagers and volunteers and is a source of income for the Orang Sungai and a forest friendly destination for a small number of adventurous tourists. It's basically a deck built by the lake in the middle of the rainforest with wooden structures to sleep in. Very basic but beautiful, monkeys scurrying around above you, hornbills nesting in the trees and scores of other wildlife all around you. After working in the afternoon we got to soak up the atmosphere in the evenings.

Last night we decided it would be fun to tell ghost stories and scare each other witless in the middle of the Forest at night with nothing but headlamps between us and the dark. Every sound is amplified in the jungle and its impossible to decipher what the Hell is making the sounds, your mind runs wild. We heard a scurrying around on the deck and swivelled our lamps towards it, hearts racing. Laura saw a pair of glowing yellow eyes in the dark and we all jumped on our chairs,much to Fikri's amusement. Standing on a chair is NOT going to save you from a clouded leopard!

It turned out to be a civet cat- most cute once you know what the little bugger is!

The rainforest is incredible at night, silent lightning continually strikes the sky, illuminating the clouds and creates a stunning scene. Brave after our encounter yesterday we decided to take a night trail through the jungle with 2 trusty guides and 2 trusty parangs (machetes). A large bat flew at us and over our heads and fire ants bit our feet and legs, strange sensation! Not bloody pleasant! Unfortunately no wild boar charged us, we didn't need to fight off a leopard or wrestle an Orangutan. Darn!

After a thorough examination of our legs and feet we lay back to watch the stars and our Malay guides as they caught giant prawns in the lake and sang quiet songs. Yep, vegan Claire not too chuffed with the death part but I've got to admit, twas peaceful and atmospheric!

It is so beautiful here. No boredom. We are constantly peeing our knickers, either through laughter or fear! Ha!!

Also included- Chris, AKA Quazimodo. This boy certainly is keeping us amused!