I'm in the glorious city of Miri at the moment - but only for another hour and a half, then we're off to Brunei to catch our plane home - they're a dry airline, words escape me - I fail to understand how you can go on a plane without gin. Eugh, gin, I've just remembered last night - things got rather messy at 'Cheerie Berry's', and I ended up back at our accomodation with a blow dart hanging out me butt cheek.
Our final week in Bario went really well, we managed to get the project finished, and it looked rather splendid. My signs went down a treat, although when we left the site the paint was still wet... and then there was a thunderstorm - shoddy cowboy workmanship.....
Sat and made the signs outside Nancy's house with small children clambering all over me trying to get involved. They tried to copy one of my signs onto a plank of wood - didn't have the heart to tell them that they're choice of balck lettering on a black background may not have the desired impact.
Our final day in Bario was a corker - after finishing the project we managed to reach the summit of Prayer Mountain, after our previous atempt was rained off. The top part of the climb really was a climb, straight up a narrow corridor of trees onto a small pinacle, there were the most amazing views even though I was cacking it. Had a bit of a moment looking over the rainforest that we'd tackled & the project that we'd built, hmmmmmm. After about 15 mins the wind picked up so we had to dash down, then it started pouring with rain causing a number of World Challengers to soil their shorts as they performed spectacular ass-slides down the steep slope, very funny!
Had a bit of a last night party in the Y2K - cleared the village out of Chapap Pae, and laughed on our way home as one individual tumbled into two paddy fields. He woke up the next morning still totally soggy with green shoots in his hair, I know just how that feels.
Left for Bario airport at about midday, and it was well nice, as most of the villagers came to see us off. Was kind of glad to get out of there though, being stuck out in the sticks like that gets a bit mind-bending after a while.
I'm going to end now as there's not much ink left on these here keys.
It's been an incredible month - feels like 6 cos we've done so much, I think I need a bit of time for it all to sink in! I'll sort through al my pics when I get home and send you all a batch.
I'm off for a final blow dart showdown over the road, I'll be taking scalps....
Hope to see you all soon!!!!! Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee xxxxx
Had a cracking weekend....
Following on from my remarkable performance at the Walkathon (still getting it ripped out of me for doing a head dip at the finishing post) I spent the afternoon making a 'Happy birthday Jonny' banner for Sunday's celebrations (Radley boy turning 18) Nancy's 5 little kids helped me, Nancy is a year older than me, and is clearly a swift worker. The kids insisted on drawing bees all over the banner, but I'm down with that.
That evening we went to the 'Y2K', which is a general store just over the way that stocks a host of useless and very dusty items, including a box of very dusty dusters. It has a seedy side room attached where you can sit and do kareoke with an assortment of toothless local types. They sell beer and 'Chupap pae' (sp?) that you can buy from the shop and take through with you.
Chupap pae, or 'chuck-up ay' guarentees exactly that, and has been the ruin of previous WC groups. It's rice wine, weighing in at a colosal 50% and is the rice wine boke- the most rank brew available to mankind. Locals deem you to be a low-life if you indulge in this beverage, so naturally it was for us.
On Sunday morning we were invited to go to church - which turned out to be more of a large hall really. All the tribal elders were there with their garish nylon outfits - one of our kids had to wear one that she borrowed from Nancy who had deemed her chosen outfit of a full length sarong to be too racey - the static build-up could have powered the whole village. The dangly earlobe brigade were out in force, and we saw one woman arrive on the back of a motorbike who had to hold onto her ears to stop them swinging. The service was very animated, lots of singing, dancing and stage routines, certainly the most memorable service I've ever been to. Our group did a song, we were miked up and everything, well pro. We've got several musicians in the group, so it actually sounded really good, and went down a treat with the congregation. As we neared the end of our third hour in there, things started to turn a little strange. We were invited to go up to the front to be blessed, and others crowded in behind us, and in front of us. The preacher cranked up a prayer on the mike and everyone started to do different chants which got louder and louder.... and lounder. Next thing we knew it had reached a fevered frenzy, with people putting their hands all over us, some of the kids got a bit freaked out! After about 10 mins of this we were allowed to return to our seats, and the nxt batch approached the stage, and a similar thing started to happen - only this time people started to throw themselves on the floor, and were wailing uncontrolably. We were all quite shell-shocked when we were finally out of there.
Anyhow, after some lunch we were met by our guide, and now best buddy, Johnson. We'd asked him to take us to the top of the tallest peak in the region, and all agreed to come along, except the usual girl - sometimes I wonder why she came on a trekking expedition. So we set off, calling in at Johnson's house in the next village for donuts, bananas and tea, which was served by his 18 year old bride, who he already has 3 kids with - he's 37, dirty dawg. Their dwelling was certainly humble, and a real eye-opener, one thing I've certainly realised during this trip is how incredibly easy we have it. After that we headed up to the peak, past some beautiful scenery - mainly terraced paddy fields, hut and hills.... then the thunder storm began. The mountian was extremely steep, much more so than Kinabalu, and it was really hard work - but I had my trusty pole, which was now becoming a bit of a worry, being that I was clutching to a metal rod in a lightening storm. We had to shelter in a chapel 10 mins from the summit, as it was absolutely lashing down, and we were drenched. It wasn't really much of a chapel, more of a shelter. We ended up staying there for an hour and a half,
but made the most of it by running around in the rain - some of the boys chose to do this with no clothes on, my girls were disgusted. In the end we couldn't get to the top - not having much luck with summits! as the latter bit was supposed to be even steeper, and would be impossible with the rain.
We finally made our way down, although most of it was on out backsides, and we went back to Johnson's for crackers and more tea covered in thick orange mud.
When we got back to Nancy's they had put the banner up, and had made an amazing job of the decorations. Her husband had hung tropical plants and balloons all over the place, and nancy cooked a huge feast, including bangers and mash, which soon disappeared. Much beer was drunk, and a cake and four fight followed, which was started by a bunch of local kids. The house was trashed. Started up a limbo contest which was a bit of a frenzy, with 10 kids trying to bend beneath the bar at once. All in all, a bit of a crazy day, which ended at 3 this morning, and started again with a hair of the dog at 8.
Grrr... better go, there are glaring people waiting to get on this computer.
Bye then! xx
Rather a lot has happened over the last week or so, but I'll put all my diminishing brain power into trying to remember what I've been up to....
Left the city of Miri armed with all our food supplies for the trek in Bario
- they don't sell nuffin there but rice (but it is the best rice in the world - so people keep telling us) The flight to Bario was interesting, it took took 50 mins, and was all going smoothly until we climbed to 7000 feet over the Kelabit highlands, where it became really rather lumpy. Mmmm, turbulance - one of my favourites. The view from the plane was amazing though, as we flew above the vast expanses of rainforest. There were 10 of us on this flight as it was a tiny plane, and the other 5 from our group were due to catch the next flight a few hours later. On arrival in Bario we were loaded into a truck 'cattle style', and driven to a local long house by a woman with those weird stretched earlobes. She had scary lead weights hanging from them that swung when we drove through pot holes, not really 'feeling' that particular look. The long house was great, and had a good deal of length to it. Anyway, the hours passed by, and the rest of our group had still not materialised... we were beginning to worry. To cut a long story short, our plane had left Bario, carrying a World challenge group from Wimbledon back to Miri. At the edge of the highlands the cockpit had filled with black smoke, and they had to make an emergency landing. Glad I wasn't on that bad boy return flight. Meanwhile, back in Miri, the rest of our group were becoming frantic, as no more Bario flights were allowed to leave, and flights for the next few days were booked solid. Luckily, the in-country rep for WC (Sampson) was with them, and managed to flag down a pal of his in the airport who he knew had a plane. A deal was struck, and he agreed to give them a lift to Bario - he made them wait for an hour though, while he went to the bar.
That night, with our group fully re-assembled, we had a big gathering in the town hall with several other WC groups and all the locals - it was by way of a thank you for all the work WC have been doing there (various building projects - more on our project later) and for bringing over loads of boxes of books from the UK for the local school.
It was a great evening, we had a massive feast, and there was lots of singing form 'The Kelabit Bad Boys', and some of the musicians from Radley did a few numbers. The highlight of the evening however, was when old droopy lobes and her droopy lobed buddies dressed up and did a dance on the stage - it was an ear-swinging spectacular. One of them was really drunk and couldn't stop laughing, ending the routine with a spectacular tumble down the stairs.
The next day was the day we'd all been waiting for - our main jungle trek through the Kelabit highlands. It absolutely poured down when we set out, just enough to stir all the leeches on the forest floor. We spent 5 days and
4 nights in dense rainforest, quite an amazing experience. The walking was really tough due to the weight of our packs, and the difficulty of the terrain. It was all up and down hill, scrambling over boulders, balancing on logs across the river, and just general sweating and getting covered in mud.
At about 4pm each day we'd stop and clear a bit of jungle with the help of our 2 armed guides, Samuel and Johnson, so that we could set up camp. We'd be next to a river each night so we could have a bit of a swim in the dark brown water - the same dark brown water that we were drinking every day....
how I'll miss the taste of iodine. I particularly enjoyed the evenings - cooking food on an open fire then talking about stupid stuff before retiring to our hammocks. On a couple of nights wild boar came into the camp and stole our hot chocolate powder. You could hear them grunting above our snores, and one lad felt one brush against the underside of his hammock. On
2 of the nights our guides went out hunting and brought back deer that they chooped up and cooked. I went for the lung and spleen, but equally enjoyed sucking on a bit of deer spine. The worst bit of it all was the leeches - they were everywhere, and they're vile. You don't feel them bite, and it's not until someone points out that your clothes are soaked in blood that you have the joy of lifting the fabric to reveal a plump blood filled parasite attatched to your stomach - or in the case of one unfortunate individual, the bum crack. The boys were obsessed with constantly checking down the fronts of their trousers for slippery blood-sucking invaders. I managed to seal myself from leech attack with leech socks and attractive tight fitting garments, and only had one close call when a particularly sly specimin launched itself from a tree and landed on my finger tip.
When we finally emerged from the jungle 2 days ago we were quite a sight to behold - totally shredded, blood-stained, and stinking. Everyone was filled with a great sense of achievement (all except the girl who didn't make it up the mountian - she dropped out on day one, and went back to join another of our groups in Bario) and we sprinted the last part back to the accomodation.
Having a shower and feeling clean again has never felt so amazing.
For the next week we're staying with a couple called Nancy and Harris and their 7 kids. Nancy is a pretty big cheese here and owns pineapple fields and a petrol station - 2 businesses that naturally go together. Her cooking is amazing, and can usually be seen walking around and within the property before it gets as far as our plates. We've been warned not to go around the back of the house as there is a ditch filled with poisonous snakes, but other than that, it's all good. Bario is as rural as an ox, nowt here but paddy fields, huts and hills - it's like the pages of the national Geographic - quite something. We're doing a project on the hill above the local school - the school used to be on that hill, but it blew off. It's our job to construct the high-tech complex that is 'The Bario Motivational centre'. Two other teams from Downe house/ Radley have started it off by making a shelter, a pond, and a trust fall, and we're constructing some other activites, some benches, and I'm painting all the signs. It will be a hard week working in the sun up on the hill, but there are incredible views, and I'm looking forward to seeing what we manage to achieve. We have however been warned that we have to lie on the ground at roughly 11:30 am each morning as a huge swarm of bees comes through at that time.
This morning (Sat) we were invited to join the school's 'Walkathon', a charity event to raise funds for a new hall. It had to be put back half an hour as we were late, but eventually we set off with 200 kids who were told 'not to run' before they sprinted off from the start line. Myself and the 2 other group leaders - Ben and Ruth, took it easy, and strolled the 6k, talking to locals on the way, making videos, and taking photos. Everyone else was so far away that we lost sight of the backmarker (surprise surprise
- our drop out girl) and we got lost for about 20 mins. We finally made it to the finish - where the rest of the school was waiting, and had already eaten and drunk all of the post-walk food and drink. They announced our long awaited arrival on the megaphone and everyone cheered as we sauntered in.
Ruth and Ben upped the pace for the last 20 metres, sly beggers, and did one of those bum wiggling fast walk finishes - leaving me to come in dead last - the pride I felt at my special achievement!
Anyhow, I've nearly run out of internet credit so I'll finish up. Tomorrow we're off to church, where we're expected to perform - our number is being practised as I type, I'm sure it will be a real crowd pleaser. After that we're climbing the highest peak in the region - a straight-up scramble hauling yourself up using plant roots appararently - bring it on! After that we're having a big feast and a party for one of the boys who turns 18 tomorrow, so all in all, should be a good one.
Anyway, bye for now... Kirsten xx
I can remember where I've been over the last few days, but I don't remember what day anything was, and I have no idea what day it is today, er, OK, just been told it's now Thursday, but anyway....
Left Kota Kinabalu on 'a day', heading for Sarawak - best bus I ever went on. We re-named it 'The Venga bus' (a bit sad but there you go) due to the fact that it had a large karaoke screen at the front, and everyone sat there singing (except me of course, got my street cred to think about) You even got your lunch at a roadside shack thrown in with the bus ticket, we like a bit of that. Got to our destination 6 hours later, only to find that the recommended accomodation was full, but that was OK because we only had to walk for over 2 hours in the blistering heat with huge back packs before we found somewhere to stay. Felt fresh as a daisy on arrival. I guess it was worth it though as the place we stayed was set in fantastic grounds - tres tropicale, with big lakes and boarded walkways. The rooms were slightly on the boke side, but we had everything we needed.
So yeah, had a nice evening there, ate food, and watched a massive thunder storm from under the canopy (a word I now hate - more on that later) of the restaurant, the lightening was lighting up the tops of the trees in the rainforest, which was nice. One of the teachers in our group took his shampoo out into the rain and had a shower, as it was far more powerful than the showers in our room. After that we had some fun chucking everything we could lay our hands on into the ceiling fan in our dorm, then tired and gay we drifted off to sleep..... which was all very well until I woke up, to feel 'a presence' on the back of my head. Quick as a flash I swept my hand across my head and heard a distinct splat. I looked around the floor to see what it had been, then noticed 'a form' on the pillow by the head of one of my room mates, it was a large black frog, totally gross. I managed to wake the others up, who all screamed like girls (they were all boys) as the frog lept around the room, and was then picked up and thrown at people. One indidual was tempted to throw it into the ceiling fan. Anyway, there's a video, it's very funny.
I hate frogs.
Anyway, once I had washed frog juice out of my hair we went to the orange yootang sanctuary to watch the little blighters being fed, then we went back later in the day.... to watch the little blighters being fed - woo! They were pretty cool actually, but I didn't exactly wet myself with excitement.
The day after that we headed to Mount Kinabalu HQ to get ready to climb the mountain the following day.
We set off at 7am in the heat, and within 20 mins it began to tip down and we got soaked. It was all really good though. It was a difficult climb due to the increase in altitude, so you had to go slow, but I came alive for it.
You start off by climbing 2500 joyous steps through rainforest, then you go through about 5 different changes of terrain on the way up - there are exposed rocky parts, bits with funny twisted trees, and orange sludgey bits
- all very steep and slippy, but fun.
It took us quite a long time to get up to the lodge where we were staying before the final ascent as we have a couple of fat knackers in the group, but we made it.
That evening myself and the frog throwing/storm showering teacher had some ultra-hot Tom Yam soup; a soup that we were both to see again within the hour, twice. It was a cleansing experience.
Anyway, went to bed, and woke up at 1:30 am to begin our ascent to the summit.
It was great - all of us in single file climbing up through the mountain with our head torches, we looked like a bunch of gnomes. Then.... disaster.
One of the girls from my school started to get signs of altitude sickness, and I had to take her back down.
Gutted.
Can't believe I came all that way, and had no symptoms of altitude related illness, only to have to go back down 1km from the summit. I guess that I'm here for the kids, this ain't supposed to be my holiday, but still.....
ahhhhhh! I think that will be a regret that will stay with me for a long time.
Well, later on we stomped back down the mountain, which was actually much harder on the legs than going up, and once we had stuffed our hungry faces at the bottom we headed of to the arse end of nowhere - a place called Poring.
The main road goes into Poring, then it just stops at a dead end. Anyway, let me tell you about the accomodation that one of the girls booked for all of us...
When we arrived she went off to get the keys and to check the place out.
When she came back she handed us our key (myself and the other 2 teachers) instructing us to 'go up the stairs, and turn right at the large beetle'. So we did, and it was indeed large. The rooms were absolutely hanging, and ours came complete with a cat and a lizard ( free roaming). I wouldn't bath a dog in the washing facilities, and I didn't dare look in the toilets for fear of my skin disolving. We had it good though, as some of the boys went into their room and found a chicken, oh, and later, our group leader had a bat in her shower, splendid.
I went to sleep that night wondering what evils I was going to find nesting in my hair the following morning.
So, the next morning arrived, and a quick scalp check came out all clear, then we headed to the hot springs for the day, where I would finally find out what it is to feel clean. After wallowing around for a few hours & grabbing something to eat, we decided to do the nearby canopy walk.
This bad boy was right up among the tree tops, and them's some mean tall trees. The walkway was constructed from ladders, lashed together with rope and a plank laid on top. There were ropes to hang onto and a thin net thing, but none of it inspired any confidence whatsoever. I utterly cacked it and was shaking like an ox. I've never been so scared in all my puff, just typing this is giving me the squits. Oh well, I'm alive to tell the tale I suppose, but never, ever again. I thought the bridges on the jungle trek were bad, but this, urghhhh...
Now I'm back in Kota Kinabalu for our flight to Miri tomorrow. We're staying there until the next day, when we're getting a flight to Bario (speed
waggon) to do our 5 day/4 night jungle trek.
It's certainly been an adventure so far, loads of the kids have been sick, so that's kept me on my toes. I'm sure there's still plently to come.....
wahey!
I'd best be off, hope you're all well. Special shout goin' out to 'Granny Cheese'.
Love Kirsten xxxx
I'll cut the intro, here's what we've been doing.........
Set off from Kota Kinabalu on Wed I think it was, don't quite know where I am any more, and headed 45 mins out of town on the bus to the starting point of our trek. We set off through a couple of small villages, where people laughed and waved as we walked past in our stupid hats and massive rucksacks in the searing heat. When we got to the beginning of the actual trail I was overjoyed to see a rickety Indiana Jones style bridge crossing high above the river that we were expected to cross, there were missing planks and everything - it was like my worst nightmare come true. We were only allowed to cross it 2 at a time in case we plummeted into the fast flowing river far below. I cannot lie, I cacked it! but at least I wasn't the only one. It turns out that we crossed 5 such bridges over the duration of the trek, but the first was definately in the worst shape. Now I'm an expert and can hand-spring along them, with my eyes closed, and a machete in one hand.
Before entering the jungle we stopped to eat ramboutans with some local people staying in a hut, then we went in. It was soooooo hot, we were sweating as much as an ox, never known anything like it - although nobody really cared as we were very excited about being there. Next thing we knew the sky turned pitch black and it bucketed with rain, and we got totally drenched; was good though as it really cooled us down.
The rainforest certainly didn't disappoint, such an amazing experience. We went through some really dense bits and had to cut our way through, we also went down some very muddy slopes and wiped out in spectacular style - I had a large streak of orange mud running down the length of my side - it's a good look. Anyway, we set up camp, put up our hammocks, and headed down to a pool where we all took a dip. A fish sucked my toe, it was weird, but I think I liked it!
After a group meeting our 2 guides - Naz and Hanry taught us tribal dances and songs around the camp fire, and we all made tits of ourselves.
Just before I retired to my hammock Naz took my arm and told me to switch my torch off. He lead me to a clearing and showed me a tree covered with fluorescent fungi - it was nuts, ain't seen owt like he before.
I could see it glowing throughout the night, as no, I didn't get much sleep due to all the howling and croaking - it was cool though. In the middle of the night there was a huge thud and a screech, everyone was quite startled, then we realised it was just this fat kid whose hammock had collapsed!
I finally got a bit of kip - resorted to my ear plugs in the end. Waking up in the rainforest was a pretty wicked experience!
The next day we trekked to our 2nd camp where I cooked everyone dinner, what a joke. They all ate it though, fools - and there were no bokers this morning, which was surprising.
At 10am today we did white water rafting, come alive!!!
I loved it. We split up into 3 boats and did lots of silly stuff like head-on bumping dodgem style - yeah! We also sat in opposite directions on each side of the boat so that when we rowed down the rapids the boat spun in circles. We did lots of jumping in, and body rafted for about 20 mins down the rapids passing herds of water buffalo. As I floated downstream feet first, a huge dragonfly landed on my shoe, which was cool. I've decided to become a professional white water rafter, can't see that being a problem in Newbury.
Anyway, we got back to Kota about an hour ago, it's horrible being back in a town again, but it's only for tonight. Tomorrow we've got bus journey to go and see those little orange blighters, then after that we're climbing Mount Kinabalu - saw it this afternoon from the bus, looks rather large!
Anyaway, it's been a brilliant couple of days, our guides were excellent and showed/taught us loads of interesting stuff. I'd better go, have to go to a meeting so that we can discuss our plans for the next couple of days. I think it's Karaoke tonight, good grief....
Byeeeeee!!!!! xxxx
This post is the first of an undisclosed number of updates from Kirsten on her trip around and about Borneo with her school.
It's a trip organised by www.worldchallenge.co.uk and will be over the space of a month.
Enjoy!
Hey everyone!! I finally made it to Borneo after all the talk.
Started on Saturday at the army barracks in Hounslow for our build up day - met my team, went through kit, got shown how to put up shelters etc. That night we slept in Heathrow as check in was at 06:30, it was a joyous experience.
Eventually got on our plane to Dubai for 6ish hours, then another to Brunei for another 8, which was followed by a 7 hour wait at the airport for our flight to Kota Kinabalu (I can't guarentee any of these spellings) Finally got here feeling absolutely hanging, but the kids made us laugh all the way, so it wasn't so bad.
All in all they're a great bunch to be away with, they've worked really well as a team, and there are no really annoying individuals.
Today we had to buy food and stuff for our first trek which starts tomorrow morning. I was put in charge of this task with 3 other incompetents, what a crock. When we were in the supermarket agonising over noodles all the lights went out and we were left in the pitch black for several minutes holding our shopping baskets like a bunch of tw@ts. Would have shop lifted, only we were in the dog food aisle, or was it the tinned dog aisle....?
Had lunch in some scabby food shack, but it tasted great, as has everything from every scabby emporium we've sampled so far. Meals with drinks are working out at roughly 2 quid per head, so nae bad.
Anyway, it's our first trek tomorrow, starting early. We're off to the Crocker range, although not doing the trek we planned - have to do a higher one due to flooding. Also been told it's monsoon season so we're prob gonna get soaked - woo! come alive! It's gonna be a leech fest, bring it on!
After that, supposing we don't all disintegrate, we're off white water rafting, so if the rainforest don't get me, then that might.
Following that it's a visit to the orange-yootang rehab centre, hoping to get to feed one of those bad boys with a bit of B-nana, then we're going to climb Kinabalu, which takes about 3 days all in I reckon.
Sooooo, that's it for now, I'll be in touch again when i've got all that under me belt (not much room left under there) and am on to the next batch.
Hope you're all good, catch you later, Love Kirsten xxxxxxx
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