Pulau Perkhemahan (Island Camping)

Been based at the office in Donggongon for over 2 weeks now so been using the opportunity to get to see a bit of Borneo and visit some of Borneo's main attractions. Birthday celebrations for Andy last weekend: we headed to the Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, a national park off the west cost of Borneo. We took a boat and visited 3 of the 5 islands in the park: Sapi, Mamutik and Gaya.

Deserted beach on Sapi

Monitor lizard we bumped into
en route to camp on Mamutik

Walked around Sapi, did a bit of snorkelling and chilled out on our own private beach away from the touristy bit. Late afternoon we headed to Mamutik which took us half an hour to walk all the way around, bumping into a few giant monitor lizards on the way. 

Morning view

Camp @ dusk

A special day for a special boy...

Set up camp, again away from the touristy camping area, in a small shelter just off the beach and surrounded by jungle. Strung our hammocks, poured some wine (which we had decided to splurge on and brought with us) and watched the sunset. Got the camp fire going and made a fantastic BBQ (despite having to use cut-up coke cans to cook on). Was amazing to wake up in the morning with an ocean view... any upmarket hotel would have charged a fortune for it but we paid about £1 each to camp on the island! Andy woke up to find that he was sharing his mozzy net with balloons thanks to Lauren...she stuck a load of candles in his breakfast pancakes too...thanks Lauren!!....(no problem Andy!!)

Spent Monday on Gaya which is the largest island but there was absolutely nothing to do where we were so we just lay on the beach all day. There was some monkeys around, but they were more pests than cute, raiding the bins and running off with what we thought at first was Andy's Ipod but lucky was just the case! Lauren got stung by a jellyfish down one side of her leg ... hurt like hell!!! And no, there was no golden showering! Andy ran off and got the lifeguard (small tubby man snoring away in a hammock) who brought his first aid kit (consisting of a toilet roll and a bottle of vinegar). Seemed to do the trick because she survived to tell the tale. Finished up the celebrations with a fab meal and another bottle of wine at an Italian restaurant in KK. Not a bad way to spend your birthday!

Spot of pre-dinner ring of fire on waterfront @ KK

The celebrations continued for one more night as our boss, Banie had organised a game of football and another BBQ for the occasion. Definitely have had enough red meat and beer to last a while!

Back in the confines of the office we have been finishing up a report on our inspection of Kg. Terian and Kg. Buayan and making a start on a proposal from the 3rd village we went to see, Kg. Tiku. Got another proposal underway as well for the base camp on Mount Kinabalu (highest mountain in SE Asia). We are designing a semi-permanent pico-hydro/ solar scheme to provide power and heating to the base camp accommodation. Office based on this one for now but really hoping that we will be asked to go up and check it out. We are planning to climb the mountain anyway but its pretty expensive to do... so if we have to do it as part of our job then great!!!

Weekday evenings have generally been pretty low-key whilst we've been office based. We usually spend them discovering the many restaurants and cafes of Dongongon or if we are feeling particularly energetic we head to the sports centre for a bit of badminton or swimming. However, last Thursday we met up with friends in KK and had a nice bit of barbecued stingray at the Philipino fishmarket. It was actually really nice - we'll definitely be heading back there and ordering it again!!

Indigenous Man from Sarawak playing Traditional Guitar

It was UN World Indigenous Day on Tuesday and to mark the occasion TONIBUNG was involved in organising a 4 day celebration over the weekend at the cultural village (a "display village" near the town which has 11 different houses in it: each typical of the 11 different indigenous people in Borneo.) They had lots going on there to celebrate: we watched (and took part in) traditional dances, tasted traditional food and some very potent rice wine, which was passed around the whole audience but somehow kept being sent back in our direction! We also met representatives from all over indigenous Malaysia who have worked endlessly for human rights of the indigenous communities. 

Tradtional Dancing from Sabah

Traditional Dancing involving blow darts.

Over the whole 4 days we were very kindly chauffeured back and forth from the cultural village by a colleague, Leonard. Such an interesting guy: he is a journalist who has edited for some of the biggest papers in Borneo but has chosen to work freelance in order to help with the struggles facing the indigenous people regarding human rights. He has a lot of interesting stories which he is always willing to share over a beer! 

Lauren looking happy to be meeting some indigenous people

Once we have submitted our reports we are heading off to a few more villages near the Indonesian Borneo border to see  potential sites for micro-hydro schemes and carry out some inspections of existing ones. Time has been speeding past us and there is still lots of work that we still need to do as well as things we still want to see and do around Malaysia. Realised that this weekend coming may be one of the only that we have completely free so to make the most of it we are heading off to Kuala Lumpur.