Borneo

My first thoughts of Borneo come from the Rocky and Bullwinkle show. There was this old English Colonial type guy on there who would talk about “the jungles of Borneo” and Sumatra. I thought that Borneo and Sumatra must really be the ends of the earth.

Well, I wasn’t far off.


When the Boy Scouts announced last Fall that they were going to a camping trip to Borneo, I was all in. Of course, I normally go on any camping trip that I’m available for. I enjoy the time in nature in spite of the ‘inconveniences’ like no hot water, hole-in-the-ground toilets (like in Bataam last Fall), etc. And I enjoy spending time with my kids and sharing adventures with them. I honestly didn’t give it two thoughts as to what we’d be DOING on the campout. I figured, you know – sleeping in tents, having camp fires, going on hikes, visiting nature centers etc. Well, let me just say, I won’t make that mistake again!

Next time I will educate myself as to the planned activities. On the other hand, if I’d read the itinerary, I’d probably still been ignorant enough to go. Once the airline tickets were purchased, it was too late anyway. I had a little fear about checking our camping back packs with the airline. All those straps hanging down to get caught in the conveyor belts. Not to mention being crushed under the bigger bags. A. and I both managed to pack bags weighing 11 kg (23 pounds ish.). Turns out, none of us had any trouble with our bags.

So we took off from Singapore and made it safely to Kuching, Serawak, Malaysia, Borneo. Like you, I’d never heard of Kuching (population 400,000). It is the capital city of the Malaysian state of Serawak. There are two Malaysian states on Borneo. The other part of the island of Borneo is taken up by the tiny Sultanate of Brunei and part of Indonesia. Wikipedia says that Borneo is about 287,000 square miles. (For reference, Tennessee is a little more than 42,000 square miles.)

From the airport in Kuching we took the bus out to the Orangutan park. On the way, our guide told us about the history of Borneo. It’s worth looking up. He talked a little about the headhunters. Headhunting was outlawed when the British came, but still practiced in some remote areas until the 1960’s.

We arrived at the Orangutan reserve. They said that this isn’t technically a rescue park anymore, and that they try to limit the interaction with the orangutans as much as possible. But that some of the animals there had been rehabilitated as babies and still came around for food sometimes when there was no fruit in the trees. Personally, I think they put the food out so the orangutans would come close enough for the tourists to see so that the tourists will keep coming. I don’t care. I got to see orangutans up close in their natural habitat with no fence or barrier between us. It was pretty cool. Well, actually, it was hot as all get out and just walking the 2 minutes down the trail to see the orangutans had us all dripping with sweat and buying cold drinks at the snack shack.

The bus then took us to our base camp for the next two nights, the Permei Rainforest Resort. We had a nice relaxing evening settling in. The boys put up their tents down in the camping area, and the Moms and a few Dads settled in to the cabins. Nice cabins – with mini-fridge and toilet and shower. O.k., so there was no hot water or air conditioner, but there was water and ceiling fans. No complaints. Supper brought a choice of curry chicken or fish. Hmmmmm. Every time I eat curry I get sick. I like the taste, just not the after effects. You all should know by now how I feel about fish. I like it fried within an inch of its life, and dipped in enough ketchup that I can’t taste the fish part. –Which of course is NOT how normal people eat it, nor how it was fixed in Borneo. So I had some rice and some “lady fingers” aka okra (not fried). Not a big supper. ☹

The next morning I got up and went down to see how A. had slept. I couldn’t find him, and so I went looking for him and ended up twisting my bad ankle on a tree root. ☹ This encouraged me to go put my ankle brace on before the hike. (Good idea!) The plan was to do a long hike up Mount Santubong. Our guide, Aza, told us on the bus that he was willing to hike Mt. Kinabalu for recreation, but would only do Santubong if he were being paid. (Mt. Kinabalu is the 3rd highest in Southeast Asia.) He said Kinabalu is higher, but Santubong is harder. This really should have been our first clue. I tried to eat a good breakfast and ‘carb up’ for the hike. I forced myself to eat more, but it just wasn’t good. I also drank a cup of juice and a cup of hot tea. (This becomes important later.) They handed out box lunches and water bottles to take with us. I packed an additional 1.5 liters of water and off we went. The guides told us that we would start from our camp, which would add 45 min. to the hike, but we’d get to see an additional waterfall. O.k.

The first part of the hike was not too terribly different from the most difficult hike I’ve done in the Smokeys. -Lots of up and down, with big rocks in the path, creeks to cross, etc. I’d classify it as ‘hard, but manageable – including the parts that we basically repelled down by walking backwards holding on to a rope (no harnesses available). We had 4 guides with us and we naturally split into groups according to walking speed. We were in the front group, but near the back. It became very clear early on that not everyone was going to finish this hike. After doing P90X and all the workouts I’ve been doing the last several months, I think it is safe to say that (other than when I was in ROTC) I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in. I thought the hike was difficult so far. Imagine how the 9 year old felt, and the (forgive me) couch potato Moms felt! There were even a couple of 12 year old boys who wanted to quit.

After a couple of hours we came to a t-junction. At that point, a large group of people had had enough and decided to hike down a short cut (45 min.) to the road and back to camp. We were told it was another 15 min. along the road back to camp. A. and I were getting tired, but we felt like we could go on, so we did. The sign said that it was 2.5 more hours to the summit. What we didn’t know then was that it wasn’t 2.5 more hours like we’d just hiked. It was 2.5 more hours STRAIGHT UP. About 15 min. later I began to try to ‘zone out’ and just keep my feet moving. I kept saying to myself, “Don’t look up! Don’t look up!” Because if I did, I’d see the feet of the person two steps in front of me level with my face, and beyond that about 100 more feet of near vertical climb before a curve. This was like climbing a giant staircase made of thousands of tree roots and rocks. – for 3 hours. I drank almost all the water, saving only one bottle to have with my lunch and for the way back down. Unknowingly, I was using my left leg a lot more than my right while climbing. -Probably to compensate for having twisted my ankle that morning. About this time, my stomach started to make comments on the juice and/or tea I’d had that morning. Uh. Oh. As a preemptive measure, I took two Immodium. (yea me for having those along!). We continued on up the trail. Eventually we came to the rope ladder section of the trail. OSHA would never approve of this arrangement! First, the rungs of the ladders were 3 ft. apart. This meant A. was putting his foot up where his armpit was and then pulling himself up with his hands. Second, the ladders moved with your weight, and since they were up against the rocks, it was easy to crush your hand between the ladder and the rock. Third, in some places there was no place to grip, and in others there was only the width of the rung to put your toe. Fourth, there were no climbing harnesses, or other ‘clip-in’ methods in use. And finally, some of the ladders were 50-60 feet high. Falling from even the smallest ladder would’ve meant serious injury or death since you’d be falling on solid rock out in the middle of absolute nowhere with zero medical facilities within 2 hours drive. Not your typical walk in the woods!!

Well, I’d almost made it up the longest rope ladder when my left quadriceps muscle seized up. This was not a cramp. It’s hard to describe, but the muscle just locked up. I managed to claw my way off the ladder onto a little landing. I was within sight of the next 50 ft. ladder. I had to have a little chat with myself. Points considered:

1. I will NOT wimp out of this! The summit is only 30 more minutes and I WILL do this!!
2. Stomach says, “roil, roil, rumble rumble”
3. Left leg says, “oh yea!? How’d you like for me to go into muscle failure on the next ladder? I CAN do worse you know.”
4. Oh by the way, the summit is only ½ way. There is no possible way to transport you out of here other than your 2 feet. The trail is way too steep to carry another person.

So the body won out over the will. I think the underlying condition was dehydration. Even though I drank 1.5 liters, I was sweating a LOT, and then my gut was pulling in a lot of water to deal with the juice/tea issue. The guides proved how good they were by leaving me alone in the jungle cramping and limping. Which was fine with me, if more than a little scary. After everyone was out of sight (including A. who did make it to the summit), I rested for 30 minutes or so and then decided that the rest of the group would be moving a lot faster than me on the way down, so maybe I should try to get a head start. I made up my mind to go slowly and rest until I got to the t-junction again. So in a fit of not thinking too clearly, I descended the 60 ft. rope ladder alone. I went on down several more ladders, pausing along the way to deal with Montezuma’s revenge (the Immodium hadn’t kicked in yet, apparently). I found a friend at one of the rest stops. She had fallen behind our group and decided that even the smallest rope ladders were too dangerous to take on alone in the jungle. She was right. We rested together and then slowly made our way down to the t-junction. My left leg was about useless by the time I turned around, so I had to lower myself each step of the way using my right leg – the one with the swelling ankle. (I shouldn’t gripe so much, I hurt that ankle so much that I’m actually used to it.)

By the time we made it to the t-junction, the first group of summit-reachers caught us with us. A. was in that group. You can NOT know how PROUD I was of him. He still claims he is afraid of heights, but I don’t know how anyone who is afraid of heights could go up all those rope ladders. He was amazing!!! About ½ of the original group made it to the top. A. was among the very youngest.

At the t-junction, we asked Aza (who, by the way had stayed at the t-junction the entire time –CHEATER!) if he would get the van to pick us up at the trail end so we didn’t have to walk back along the road. He said, “Noooo!”. Hmmphf.

So we started down to the road. The trail below the t-junction wasn’t as steep, but still very root-filled, and so not at all easy to walk. There were also a couple of sheer drop-offs of several hundred feet on the side of a narrow place in the trail. Watch your step!! If you trip in just the wrong place, you’re a goner!

A. and I made it to the road. We’d managed to be separated from the group (those excellent guides again), but caught up with one of the Dads. Together the 3 of us started out along the road. We were all on auto-pilot by then. Trudge. Trudge. Trudge. Trudge. It was not a 15 min. walk. It was at least an hour walk on asphalt in the blazing sun for seriously dehydrated people. As we finally entered the parking lot for our resort, the van pulled up and dropped off the people who were behind us. Grrrrrrrrrr! That means the van passed us in our trudging!!! What?!? Now I was seriously angry.

It was about that point that I said, “I don’t care anymore. I’m going to now ignore any and all expectations of me until I feel better.” Then I proceeded to buy A. and me and ice cream each at the front desk. I washed that down with 2 “100 plus”s (sort like Gatorade, but carbonated). Then I took an ice cold shower and laid down on my bed to read my book. Ahhhh.

In the past when I ‘drank the water’, I’ve spent 3 days feeling very very weak and having no appetite whatsoever. So in the jungle, I ignored my lunch. By the time supper came around, I still wasn’t hungry. I tried to eat some rice, but couldn’t make myself. Breakfast the next morning was the same. I did force myself to eat 2 pieces of toast.

I noticed that A. was also not eating much.

After we packed up from Permei, we were scheduled to take a boat over to Bako National Park. We heard a rumor that the bus would stop at a grocery store. A. and I started to get our hopes up…… YES! We did stop, and they did have an ATM. I told my boy, “Listen, I know you didn’t eat. They have us scheduled for 2 more 8 hour hikes. When we stop, you have carte blanche to get whatever you want from the grocery store.”
We went a little crazy in there. Sugar always sounds good to me. The food was not good at Permei. I was sick and getting weaker. So yes, I bought a bunch of junk food. It truly was comfort food at that point. ☺ As we were checking out, A. looked up at me and in his most sincere voice said, “I love you!” and gave me the biggest bear hug. That was the beginning of my recovery from Mt. Santubong.

Back on the bus, we went over to the Kuching City Hall to eat our boxed lunches. Like I said, during the hike I ignored my lunch because the thought of food was nauseating. It didn’t look so good. A. said the sandwich was covered in mayo and some other mystery substance. Very few people ate theirs. So in Kuching, I was planning to have my Snickers bar and maybe wash it down with some oreos. But it turns out the box lunch was by a different company, and was quite good. Whew!
After lunch, we toured the Kuching Cat Museum. (Kuching means ‘cat city’ in some dialect of Malay.) It really was a museum about cats. Not tigers and big cats. No. Cat-cats. Picture the crazy cat lady who died and left her cat statue collection to the city. Yeah. Like that. Kinda weird. I was wishing H. could see it though, because she really likes cats.

After the museum we went to get on the boats to Bako. Hmmmm. How to describe this. Uh….. We got in groups of 4, put on life jackets, and got in little rowboats. Except the rowboats had outboard motors. Our driver started up the engine and we sat back for a relaxing ride to Bako. Oh, of course not. We sped down the river ‘till it entered the South China Sea. Then we hit the waves. Since I’m a mountain girl and not a good judge of seas, I asked the experienced boaters in our crowd how high those waves were. Answer – 6 ft. That sounds about right. Yeah, in a ROWBOAT!! We found out later that many of the boat drivers refused to go because their engines weren’t big enough to handle it that day. Many times our driver had to cut the engine as we crested a wave. He did a superb job keeping us from tipping over. I still don’t know how he did it. He would hit a wave ‘head on’ and then gun the engine down the length of the wave and at the last second turn head on into the next wave. It was one crazy boat ride. I felt like I do when I ride a roller coaster – scared, but not too scared. I mean, I know how to swim, and I had on a life jacket. I figured if we tipped, all our luggage was gone forever, but we could probably survive long enough for the next boat to get us. Looking back, I’m not so sure about that – did I mention the 6 foot waves that were breaking out where we were?!? Crazy.

We landed safely at Bako National Park and made our way to the office/welcome center/canteen. The guide was shocked that we’d walked all the way (400 yards) from the jetty to the welcome center with our grocery bags (from our stop) in plain sight. He couldn’t believe the Macaques hadn’t attacked us. He said that the monkeys know exactly what comes in grocery bags and tents. He warned us to pack our food away in something else. He also told the boys that they couldn’t leave their tents up during the day or the monkeys would rip into them expecting food. The good news is that the monkeys sleep at night, so they didn’t have to worry about them coming out in the dark and ripping into the tents with the kids in them. Yea.

Check out the first picture on this web page:

http://acrossandabroad.com/2010/06/16/monkeys-monkeys-monkeys-discover-mischievous-jungle-dwellers-in-bali-indonesia/

That guy thinks they're cute. But when they show you those big teeth in a threatening way, trust me, they're not cute.

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, setting up tents, and settling in to the Mom cabins. (They called them “chalets”, but think campground bunkhouse. I think this is why several visitors left negative comments about the place. Lonely Planet has a write up about the park and people were expecting more stars.) These cabins also had running water (cold only) but no air con. Ah well. Better than a tent! What do you want for $50/night for 7 people?!? I have to say, though, that the place could use a little work. Someone could do a lot of good with a big bag of 10 penny nails. One sign said, “Please do not lean against the hand rail.” Most places the sign could probably be safely ignored. Not here. I put my hand on it gently and it wiggled like a second grader’s tooth! (15 ft. drop on the other side.) Many of the boardwalk boards were rotting out, and same goes for many of the ladder rungs.

Supper that night was much better than at Permei. We learned that the Macaques were indeed bold enough to jump on your table and grab your food. The boys started carrying sticks to ward off the monkeys. They (the monkeys) came by our cabin and trapped us inside by sitting on the windowsill and hissing at us. Not very cute. That’s why there were bars on the windows.

The Park has lots of bearded pigs wandering around. It was a little weird, because I think of wild boars when I see these pigs, but they were like any other farmyard pig – didn’t want to be too close to us. Also, the macaques were afraid of them. Yea!!! The scouts had an interesting run-in with the macaques. One morning the macaques got the trash containers in the tent area open. When the scouts tried to get into the storage shed near the trash containers, the monkeys stood their ground. The scout master is a pretty tough guy and he had 17 scouts and a few Dads with him, but they ALL ran away from the Alpha male and his troop! I don’t blame them!

That night we went on a night hike. It wasn’t really a hike – more of a walk along an elevated boardwalk. With 36 people in our group, we made way too much noise to see any big-name creatures. Our guides did point out 3 or 4 pit vipers along the path (about 30 yards from our front door), some birds, a slow loris, some centipedes, etc. The snakes were not very scary – too skinny to believe they could really hurt you. I mean dangerous snakes are fat like copperheads or water moccasins, right? (Pit vipers are venomous, but rarely kill humans.) Other than the pit vipers and the slow loris, the hike was like being with a bunch of city people in the woods in the dark. Mmmhmmm, just like that. It got irritating because they kept shining their flashlights in my eyes.

The next morning (Wednesday) it was announced that the 8 hour hike had been changed to a 5.5 km hike instead. Everyone was grateful. It seems the scout masters had also not fully recovered from Mt. Santubong. During the night hike, I’d seen the entrance to the trail they were going to do and I decided that I’d had enough tree-root-infested hikes for a while. I thought I’d sit this one out and maybe I’d feel more like a hike on Thursday. So I went back and got my book to read. A few minutes later I heard everyone outside. I went out to see what the deal was. There was a huge proboscis monkey sitting on a fallen branch just across from our cabin. Clearly he was used to tourists. He sat there for a long time while we took pictures, then he made some fantastic leaps from tree to tree. It was quite a show!

The group left for their 5.5 km hike. A couple hours later, some other Moms returned from the hike early and we sat on the cabin porch talking. While the scouts were gone we saw 4 or 5 more proboscis monkeys come through, a large group of silvered leaf monkeys, and of course those naughty macaques. It was like we were on the major monkey highway. What a nice relaxing morning of monkey watching! As we were sitting there, the heavens opened. Uh Oh. Those poor boys! It poured rain for I’d say over an hour. We knew they were miserable out in the jungle.

We were right. A. said they had to eat their lunches in the downpour with no shelter at all. He said the trail back down was just a river and they just waded through it the best they could. I loaned him my (waterproof) camera and he took some pictures.

That night the scoutmasters thought it was too wet for tents, so they all slept in the storage shed. They were really packed in there! A. ended up next to the kid whose Dad had the flu. Yep. Next day the kid had it, and then Friday after we got home A. came down with it. Hopefully he’s the only Percell to get it. We’ll see…..

Well after that, everyone was done hiking. Thursday’s hike was cancelled altogether. Instead the boys went and cleaned up trash on one of the National Park beaches. After that they got to play on the beach for a couple of hours. They sure earned it! The Moms walked over to see how they were doing. I swam a bit with A. in the South China Sea ‘till a big wave ran me into a rock and I scratched up several toes. (This trip wasn’t exactly good for my body.) Some boats came to take us back to camp so we didn’t have to trek back through the woods (800 meters, but about an hour’s hike because of the tree roots, rocks, climbs, etc.). The water was much calmer than on Tuesday, so no adventure this time. ☺

The boys then spent the afternoon working on merit badges. We were all happy to stay around camp.

Friday morning we packed up and took boats back to Kuching. The seas were very calm. We were on the last boat of 4 people. Others in our group reported seeing cobras and crocodiles on the way back. I guess they’d been scared off by the time we got there. Once again, very glad the boats hadn’t tipped in the 6ft. waves on Tuesday!
We had a little time in Kuching before we had to be at the airport, so we stopped and did a little shopping. I bought some t-shirts and some picture books. We went to lunch at Hartz Chicken buffet. It was pretty good after all that camp food. They had a salad bar!! Woo-hoo!

We flew back in to Singapore and got home around 6 p.m. on H.’s 15th birthday. Erin didn’t get home from work ‘till late, so we weren’t a lot of fun on her birthday. She did get to open her gift from us – a Kindle fire. I’m hoping that will save me a lot of trips to the bookstore and the library. She reads so much and so fast! I can’t complain – lots of teenagers have much worse addictions! ☺ We made it up to her the next day by taking her to Hard Rock Café (her pick) and singing Happy Birthday and eating cake and ice cream.

As usual, for accompanying pictures, see my facebook page. There are no pictures of the big waves. I was too busy holding on to the boat for dear life. ☺