ÿþ<html> <body> <center><h1>Slops in Borneo</h1></center> <p>I set off from Heathrow (where I met up with most of the rest of the group) on the 29th of April after my Dad had got us lost and took us to arrivals instead of departures! A long flight to Brunei via Abu Dhabi (the food got worse as the flights went on) then a half hour hop to Kota Kinabalu (Capital of Sabah). We were all taken by bus to a white water rafting camp where we were to have Jungle training. This was a few days of lectures on medical procedures etc. before we went for a few days in the jungle where we learnt how to live and survive there. While still at the rafting camp we chose and were assigned our projects  there were two, one planting trees in Danum valley, and the one I chose and got, mapping in Maliau Basin.</p> <p>A camp consists of various things: admin area (cooking), eating area, basha sites (hammocks), soak away (shower), slops pits (waste food etc), piss tree, squat spot and shit pit (do you really have to ask?). Soak away and latrines have to be a reasonable distance from the river to prevent contamination, and everything else has to be close (to easily fill 20L Jerry cans and haul them around) but out of reach of flash floods! </p> <p>We went back to the white water rafting place at the end for river crossing practice and the end of training party; we even got a certificate to prove we d done the training! </p> <p>Early the morning after the night before we had to leave (a difficult operation for some!) and our group went to the Trekforce field base where we stayed for a couple of days while we were at school. Yes, we had to go to school to learn how to use the instruments. </p> <p>The plan was to map a 300m corridor (in 20m squares) alongside the river in Maliau from a place called Belian camp to Maliau falls, a spectacular 7-tiered waterfall that at present is not very accessible. To do this we had to use compasses (not your basic hand held things, the proper ones), tape measures (not much learning required there) and clinometers (more practice at using your eyes independently than anything else). We couldn t use GPS because you can t get a satellite signal under the canopy. No one knew how easy/hard it was going to be, as Trekforce had never done anything even remotely similar and they couldn t find any literature on previous attempts at similar projects in any jungle anywhere! </p> <p>On the 11th of May we set off on a 10-hour coach journey to Tawau, a town on the very South-East coast of Sabah, and the next day saw us in 4WD s heading along logging tracks into the jungle to get to Belian camp. Only 3 cars got stuck on the way, not bad considering how much it had rained earlier in the day. </p> <p>It was as we got to the camp that I got the first leech of the expedition, although I found it before it had time to bite. My buddy (we all had to have buddies who always had to know where we were and generally look out for each other) who thought that leeches had been a joke began to get a little worried at this point. The other snakes, spiders, bugs etc. also began to become a whole new prospect to us all. </p> <p>We spent the next 2 days making our camp, then started our mapping. It was easy at first (we d been allowed to do a 100m corridor instead of 300m) but we soon hit the first major problem. You can never see 20m in the jungle& If it was just foliage that was OK, it could be cut out of the way (we had rangers with us to help with that sort of thing), but you can t chop down entire trees, or indeed rocks if it comes to that! If trees/rocks got in the way we had to go round them, which added more complications to the paperwork. </p> <p>It was not long after that we came across the next problem. The 20m squares are horizontal on the map. We had a sheet of paper telling us how much to add on to 20m at whatever angle the ground is at (e.g. at 0 degrees, you add 0cm because it s flat. At 3 degreed you add 2 cm. It may not seem a lot but over 7km it can make a huge difference. Of course when we started hitting the 35 degree slopes we were adding 4.42m!) but that s no good when you can t measure the slope at 20m! We had to start using half way markers and then we came across the problem of how to add the correct amount at the end of the line to get 20m. In the end we had to use trigonometry (luckily we had scientific calculators) whenever we had to use intermediate markers. </p> <p>There were various other problems too which I hope are nicely expressed in the cartoons here: </p> <p>Food was& it depended on who was cooking! The meat options (for supper) were SPAM, corned beef or tuna& very little in the way of fresh fruit or veg. (we had a couple of resupplies), just tins of beans, sweetcorn and peas. We also had things like flour so if you felt adventurous and had some spare time on your admin day you could try and make bread, flapjacks, doughnuts and whatever else we could dream up. It wasn t long before I got the nickname Slops due to my food consumption capabilities. </p> <p>For breakfast we invariably had porridge and lunch was always crackers with jam, peanut butter, cheese or all three. </p> <p>We didn t see as much wildlife as you might think for 4 months in a large area of unexplored primary rainforest, but that s exactly why we didn t see so much, it s so big everything can hide. Things we did see though were mouse deer, civet cats, a family of wild boar that raided our slops pit, a few monkeys, a western tarsier, some snakes, loads of bugs, frogs, hornbills, samba deer, wild cows, barking deer, flying squirrels (on a night drive), rats, other squirrels, and a sun bear. The sun bear was a nightmare. It raided our camp so we had to move all of our food to the camp built about 300m from where we were and hang it all up in hessian sacks from the rafters. This meant getting up half an hour earlier if you were on admin duty to get breakfast ready! Someone (usually our leader or assistant leader) had to stay up all night to make sure it didn t go near the hammocks either. They re supposedly afraid of people and fire. This one would wander <p>into the kitchen while we were all (20 of us) sitting round our table about 10m away and start licking the woks! One night it even burnt its nose in the fire& </p> <p>We had a couple of parties while we were in the jungle, just after the resupplies so we had beer and plenty of vodka, we even had Christmas (3rd of June I think) where we had drinking games etc. on Christmas Eve and things like sack races on Christmas day. There was a queens speech given by our leader and she also became Father Christmas to give out the presents later  We had all taken names out of a tin and had to make a present for that person. One of the best memories I have of the whole project was everyone standing on the benches round the table at 1:30am Christmas day, with their left feet on the table and air guitaring to Sweet Child of Mine. </p> <p>Other highlights of the trip were the football matches against the rangers on Sundays and I m glad to say we never lost a match, despite playing the full 90 mins. in the blazing sun. </p> <p>At the end of the project we went for a 5-day trek through the jungle having to carry between 25 and 30 kilos each. This was a fantastic experience, watching the sunrise from the helicopter landing site in the middle of the basin, seeing the waterfalls that we had been supposed to reach with our mapping (we got about 1/3 of the way!) and much more. We stayed in a camp called Agathis camp and we were amazed at the luxury of showers, toilets and Sky TV! We then found out it's where Raleigh International go for their jungle thing if they're operating in the area. </p> <p>End of project was followed by three days of travelling and partying. I don t remember much more than that! </p> <p>At this point many people left to go travelling or to go home but 11 out of the 40 or so who started stayed to teach for 2 months in Sarawak. This was quite a different experience, living with a family in a longhouse, teaching 10-year-old kids their 3rd language and experiencing a very different culture. </p> <p>I taught a class of 5 kids aged 10 and the intermediate (there were three of us volunteer teachers at the school I went to) group of about 14 kids in year 5 (aged 12-13). The year 3 lessons were lesson-like; i.e. I was teaching English. The older group was Extra English so it was less formal and we did things like learning how to play cricket. </p> <p>I played sports with them as well, football of course being a great favourite. I swam round the village on a rubber ring (the village was almost on an island, the river flowed in a long curve round it) with them, I played cards with the Medical Assistant and his mates and painted a huge mural at the school. </p> <p>At the weekends I went fishing (using large circular nets that are thrown out) and visited Penan settlements. They are the nomadic tribes who are being forced to settle because the Jungle is being chopped down. I got a free trip with the school to see the amazing caves at Mulu National Park. </p> <p>The food there was spectacular. Wild boar, monitor lizard, deer, monkey, jungle ferns, tapioca and of course rice along with bought in things like chicken, cabbage etc. How they make cabbage taste so good is beyond me! We had our welcome party half way through our stay for various reasons and that involved various dances (we had to copy as best we could in one of them) and the school beauty contests which were a source of great hilarity. It was how well you could dance and a little to do with humour more than anything else. The daughter of the family we were staying with won her age group due in no small part to the pair of pretence large ears (these tribes used to wear those heavy earrings that stretch the lobe) made from nylon stockings! </p> <p>The final party was similar, although no beauty contests and we had to make small speeches and do a  performance . We settled on two numbers, I did one song (I know an old lady who swallowed a fly) and we did a group song (Do Re Mi) which all went down well. </p> <p>We got various presents and bought various things like hats, perangs (big knives), bead necklaces, blow pipes (if you want to try it you ll have to visit won t you) etc. </p> <p>We didn t want to leave but it was nice to get back to showers, beds, water melons and clean clothes (the washing machine got rid of dirt, but no washing powder was involved so they gradually accumulated smell). </p> <p>With just over two weeks left in Malaysia the time had come to decide how to spend the free time. Myself and the two I was teaching with decided we wanted to fit in as much as possible while most of the others decided they wanted to relax in the 5 star resort near-by. Our decision was influenced greatly by the money factor, but we also realised that we probably wouldn t be back for a while if at all! </p> <p>After the final Trekforce party we set off into town to e-mails, clean cloths and travel arrangements. Early the next morning (bout 6ish!) we set off on a coach for Mount Kinabalu which at 4095ish meters is the highest peak in South East Asia. We got to the 6 out of 8km mark where all the rest houses were and slept in an unheated room, huddled in blankets. Up at 3am the next morning to try and reach the summit for sunrise we were greeted by clouds and we set off hoping they d clear. It was a very tough climb, especially as for the last 2 months we d been living in temperatures around the 40<sup>o</sup>C mark in the shade and I d taken my blanket from the rest house for a little extra warmth! The thin air also didn t help but we made it to the top at about 5:30. We saw a huge expanse of white as we had about 5-metre visibility! We left after taking pictures of ourselves at the top. </p> <p>We next headed to Sandakan on the North East coast where there is absolutely nothing to do except arrange tours etc. </p> <p>For the next 4 days we stayed at Uncle Tan s Jungle camp on the Kinabatangan River. Here we saw unbelievable amounts of wild life including elephants (very close up, we could have touched them), loads of birds of prey, hornbills, egrets, kingfishers, macaques, proboscis monkeys, silverleaf monkeys, crocodiles, frogs, tarantulas, wild boar, monitor lizards, and civet cats. All that (everything included) cost about £35! </p> <p>The next trip was to Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center. Here we saw Orangutans& no surprises there then. </p> <p>The two girls were leaving on the 5th of Sept for Australia and I was leaving for home on the 8th so at this point we parted company. They went to Turtle Islands to watch the turtles laying eggs for a night, and I went to Palau [Island] Sipadan to scuba dive. This was the most fantastic place. A small island with a 600m drop about 10m from the shore! I had 3 days (well, 2 if you count the half at both ends as one) and two nights there. I managed to fit in 8 dives (1 night dive), see a turtle lay eggs, have a great birthday party (they d even got me a cake!) and spend the remaining time eating, sleeping, playing volleyball or snorkeling! </p> <p>Traveled back to Kota Kinabalu on the night bus from Tawau and therefore spent most of the next day sleeping! Flight back had some good films and the food was OK until the breakfast before Heathrow: I could have made rubber bath ducks from the omelets! </p> <p>Nick/Slops</p> </body> <html>