Borneo with Douglas Academy

Just back from Borneo, well, Sabah to be exact. It is interesting that in Borneo they don't refer to it as Borneo at all. That is just a name that we, as outsiders, use. There is plenty of history that I could go into but the basic fact is that now the island is divided between other countries with both Sabah and Sarawak being states of Malaysia. Kalimantan is a state of Indonesia and Brunei is one of the smallest countries on Earth. Anyway, I digress...

So, along with 13 students from Douglas Academy in Milngavie, Scotland, a geography teacher and an assistant leader, I set off for Sabah in the afternoon of Monday 22nd June 2009 from Glasgow airport. Hmmm... I say I set off for Sabah, we actually flew from Glasgow to Heathrow. Then we sat about for a few hours. Then we flew from Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur. Then we sat about for a few hours. Then we finally flew to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, arriving in the evening of Tuesday 23rd June 2009. Jeez, I really hate travelling. It's not the flying so much, I don't mind that. Although, it has to be said, airplane seats are not the easiest to sleep in! It's more the waiting around, the queueing, the rapid temperature changes, the crying babies, the bad films - need I go on? Not the food? I hear you ask. Actually, strangely, I really like airplane food :) It's something about the neat and tidy packaging and the tiny vegetables. It appeals to my OCD side.

After a couple of days organising ourselves in KK it was off to the jungle for a couple of days of sleeping under a basic shelter, trekking through the rainforest, making things with bamboo, learning to use blowpipes and slingshots and eating frog. Oh yes, that's right, frog. But not like frogs' legs like you get in France, quite disguised and heavily seasoned. These were whole frogs, eyes, skin, little arms and legs - EVERYTHING. Actually, they were quite tasty. Well, the legs were. I didn't go any further than that. Trying to get the meat from the legs was quite a feat though. One of my students couldn't be bothered and just crunched through the whole thing. Nice one.

From the jungle we headed off to our project phase - living and working in a small village near Tambunan called Kampong Monsok. It was a great opportunity for the students (and the leaders!) to learn about Sabah culture, living with host families and attempting to learn some Malay and the local language Dusun. We were the first group to ever stay in the village so it was not only a great experience for us, but also for the villagers themselves. We were treated with amazing hospitality and certainly never went hungry - I have never eaten so much rice and noodles in my life!! But I'd just like to say a huge terima kasih to everyone there :) I had the good fortune of living with the head of the village, Helena, who had a lovely house opposite the school, a hot shower (think this might have been the only one in the village), three dogs and four hilarious cats, two of which bore an uncanny resemblance to an unpopular German leader...













Unfortunately the project work itself was a bit wishy washy but then I have come to expect this with expedition projects. The main problem is the locals not understanding just how much work a group of 16 people can complete in a short amount of time! And, that as a group we were more than happy to work all day. This is a concept that they don't really understand. Having said that, we did break for second breakfast, then again for lunch and then finish by 4.00 so that football could be played. And in the two whole days that we managed to work the students (I just hung around with my camera) manged to paint the outside of the community centre, build and paint 4 shelving units and design and paint 4 murals for the primary school. We were originally supposed to be working in the school but because of the threat of H1N1 (???!!!) this was scuppered. Still, it all worked out well in the end and I hope that the students will keep in touch with their host families and perhaps, one day, return the favour.

So with our jungle experience in the bag and our project phase over, it was off to conquer the mountain. Oh, and what a mountain. It just looks so unclimbable with it's jagid granite peaks and steep sides, looming over the country from wherever you are. It was going to be a challenge, that was for sure.

Mount Kinabalu, at 4095m, is the highest mountain between the Himalayas and New Guinea. It is a tough climb, uphill all the way, up ridiculously large steps, tree roots and piled rocks. Some sections of the summit climb involve hauling yourself up steep granite slopes using a thick rope. Going up was the easy part it has to be said. When you've got knees like mine just the thought of going back down was painful! Unfortunately only 10 of the 13 students made it to the summit, 1 having to drop out on the first day due to illness and 2 being stopped 700m from the summit suffering from the altitude. This meant that both my assistant and teacher also were unable to make it to the summit meaning there were only 11 of us at the summit when we finally arrived, puffing and panting, at 7am on Thursday 9th July 2009.

So, with all the hard work of the expedition done, it was off to Sandakan to visit the orangutans and macaques at the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary, head down the Kinabatangan River to see the wild probiscous monkeys, then back to KK to go white water rafting on the Padas River. We then spent three nights camped on Mamutik Island, part of the Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park, enjoying some sun, sea, sand, serious sandcastles, snorkelling and just general rest and relaxation to finish off an excellent four weeks. Thanks to everyone in the team for making it a thoroughly enjoyable experience :)