The Mighty Kinabatangan

     It began with a car ride from Uncle Tan's hostel. 

     We had a great lunch with lots of vegetables and curry. I thanked the lady cook, she seemed very happy and smilled a great big smile. One of the mothers, I later found out was the daughter of Uncle Tan, had a very cute baby boy who liked to tease the cat who seemed equally happy to be pocked and picked up. The little boy was about two and apparantly sometimes gave people a high five, but this time he was too shy. 

     Our other companions where two girls, Sussanna and Ida, from Sweden. They were happy, like us, to be traveling with other people besides themselves. We were a little weary about entering the jungle.  Before we entered the truck, a man there reminded us that this tour was more "Spartan" than a resort, and that some see the rainforest as a "paradise" and others a "living hell". I guess we were about to find out which catagory we fell into. 

Susanna (Left) Ida (Middle) oh, and that Kevin on the right.

      So we drove and talked about school and the future with Suzanna and Ida. Their English was very good, they almost talked like native speakers. As we were driving, I tried not to think of the huge holes in the road, or how the driver had to pass so many cars and driving super fast. I kept gripping Kevin's arm when he did. But we are still alive:) 

     Then we were turning onto a dirt road and found ourself in a tiny town. The girls seemed a bit uneasy, as the town itself seemed very poor and a bit shady to our eyes. The people however did have some very nice cars. 

    We helped unload our bags and some food and fuel onto our little motor boat. People sat on the dock and watched us. I always wonder what people in poorer towns think about us. They stare, and sometimes I wonder if they feel anger towards us. For some people, sadly, travel is a luxery. I do wish they had the money to travel, as I believe everyone has the right and that it is rather a necessity to travel and to feel that you can "escape" to anywhere. Maybe they felt it was unfair. Maybe amusing as well to see us struggling about the dock, trying not to fall into the water.

     Anyhow, we boarded the boat in our neon orange lifejackets, thats what the tourist wear, and made our way up the Kinabatagan river. 

     When I saw the trees, the river and the giant sky above us, I felt tingling in my viens. The greeness of the forest and its reflexion in the muddy water seemed so majestic and grand. The sky rose above us, and the river opened up, the trees breathed and everything seemed so large and elegant. We spead through the river, following its turns that kept opening and revealing new lands. 

     Though I was disappointed to see more palm oil trees. 

     After about an hour, we reached the stair case that met the river bank and let up the hill into the trees. Children sat along the bank and waved. When we arrived they ran around us saying "hello, how are you". Some of them giggled. We walked along the boardwalk into the main eating area. The children, all boys, were playing ball. One boy walked by like a little macho man, the best macho man walk I have seen any little boy do. 

     We looked around a bit uneasily as it was just the four of us. In our minds we must have all been thinking, where is everyone? To our relief, more people did come, they had just been on their evening cruise. Apparently we had come in the low season. Sometimes this place had over 90 people. We were very fortunate to be such a small group. It was like a private tour almost.

     We served ourself  some tea and biscuts, the flies were buzzing around evrywhere, this was another thing you have to get used to in the jungle, the flies. 

     Then Remy came and sat with us. He started telling us about the camp. I asked him who was Uncle Tan? He looked a bit sad and said that he had passed away last year. "I worked with him for almost 10 years." He taught him everything about the forest. He mentioned how the children here where boys from the local village. They where tree planting during their school break.

 he said they where tring to envolve the local community with ecotourism. He wanted the boys to get used to the tourists. Later that night they invited the whole village for dinner. They are trying to make good relations with them. They hoped that in the future they will cut down less forest and do less hunting. Though they are also aware that they had to give them some alternative so that the parents could pay to put their children in school. They hoped some would see ecotourism as one of these alternatives. I hope they do to.

Our bathroom (nope, it doesn't flush)

      Teo, our river guide, later told us about how the WorldWildlifeFoundation and how they where really helping the locals. He said that for every tree that they planted they paid them 2RM. This he said was very good, because that means they could plant lots of trees and make more momey. He said that palm oil was a good fast crop for making money so they had to find sometimeng to encourage the locals to plant trees. I think the goal of Uncle Tan is to evolve the locals in EcoTourism, which is an alternative to Palm Oil. It is also so enriching because the locals get to learn about the forest, a knowledge they have been losing, and the species within it. Teo said he was from Sepilok, before he came to Uncle Tan's he didnt know very much about the wildlife in the area.

     He had books, and he seemed very proud of what he knew.

     It isn't easy work, as they work for three months strait, but they do get three weeks off, and he said that he loved working outside. He said he could never work in an office. He seemed very happy.

He also said that the WWF was encouraging the locals to plant trees by the river and leave a gap between it and the palm oil trees. This helped with soil erosion. After hearing all this good stuff about the WWF, I started to become more hopeful and confident with these non-governmental organizations. I was also so happy to see and hear that people cared and loved the rainforest as well as its people, and were working in a very productive way. They didnt protest or get angry, they worked with the people and tried to create harmony.

     This is a lesson all of us environmentalists or activists can learn.

     As for the wildlife, we saw so much. My favorite part was taking a river tributary. It was narrower and closer to the trees. They almost formed a canopy over us and I felt lost to its beauty. The muddy water, the sounds and life of the jungle could be felt all around us. We took a little trail, a new trail according to Remy. The villagers just agreed to give them permission to show it to tourists. We were very lucky. We saw the vine that locals used to make baskets and so many other things. We tasted a delicious plant that tasted almost like lime. We saw an old tree stump that used to belong to the primary forest. It must have been at least 3 meters wide, not including the roots. It must have been so majestic. He said we were walking through secondary forest that was replanted about 70 years ago. He said it was hard to find hardwood trees as they take hundreds of years to grow. I wonder if there is much, if any, primary forest left in Borneo.

    When I said that I felt a bit afraid, he said "there is nothing to be afraid of in this place". That is something I will always hear and bring with me. After that, I could allow myself to feel at peace and really appreciate the forest, despite the flies buzzing up my nose and ears, Remy said they liked our bug spray. The bugs werent bothering him. He seemed to be enjoying whatching us skriek when a bug buzzed in our ears.

    Kevin, Suzanna and I held a millipede too. Ida refused. She does not like bugs:) When you first look at it, it seems yucky, but when you hold it and really look at it, it is really quite beautiful. It felt soft and it tickled.  

    We had to walk in big rubber boots as the mud was very deep.

Our muddy boots

    Later on the trail we heard somthing that sounded like a turkey, it was apparently something like a wild chicken. It made a funny sound and it wasn't happy to hear us in the woods. Sometimes it flapped its wings and it almost sounded like a mini helicopter when it did. It was rather funny. We never really got a close look of it, but it was about the size of a turkey.

     Unfortunately our camera was out of batteries for the best part of this safari. So you will have to trust us when we say it was very beautiful. 

     My wish for Borneo is that more and more people like Remi, Eno and Uncle Tan will help protect the rainforest and care for its creatures. Thank you guys for caring and for your efforts.

That's our star Teo :)