At Kampung Terian

My first glimpse of human activity after 45 minutes of dirt road (or maybe more aptly called “mud trail”) and the forest tamed by the dirt road that cut across it, was padi fields. With the rain drizzling down and a sun that is trying very hard but managed only to peek through the clouds, I saw that the young padi shoots have just been re-planted – you can see them all meticulously arranged, row after row. A few yards further down the mud trail, the village school stood majestically, its Malaysian and Sabah flags drenched and hung forlornly, amidst a cluster of houses.

All was still and not a soul was in sight. As we hung around, unsure of where to go next, Joachim suddenly appeared from behind the school, waving madly welcoming us to Kampung Terian! It was as if it was his village! He revealed later that he didn’t think we’d make it to the village, not with the rain that poured down so ferociously all afternoon. We were all ushered to the village rest area where a long table and a few benches stood. Thankfully, I off-loaded my rucksack and the bag containing my sleeping bag and knick-knacks. I, desperately but without much success, tried to shake off the mud which clung stubbornly to my shoes.

I was wrong if I thought our fight against the mud is over. The trek to the village chapel was even more treacherous! Steep slopes and soggy earth resulted in a slippery walk. At the chapel, we were treated to rice and free range chicken and sweet potatoes cooked in soya sauce, stir fried forest yam (which tasted like mushrooms) and stir fried long beans. The bananas were very good – you can tell that they had been left to ripen naturally on the banana plant. Search, if you may, but I bet you’d never find such sweet and perfectly ripen pisang mas in Kuala Lumpur!

We had got to the village too late for us to visit the micro hydro pool but I was actually quite glad since it meant I had avoided the inevitable leeches and I didn’t even have to bluff my way out of it!!! So it was only the power generator room that we had time for before night fell. Adrian’s[1] brief on how the generator works was an eye opener for me – a lever to optimise the water intake, a ballast to get rid of excess power, a piece of equipment which for the life of me I cannot recall its name, to regulate the power generated prior to distribution and a miller, which uses the mechanical power of the generator!

By the time the university students have asked of Adrian all the questions to their hearts’ content, we had only the moonlight to guide us back to the chapel. None of us had remembered to bring along our torchlight! We were lucky that it was the Autumn Festival that night, the moon was as round as can be and beaming its silvery light on us. I made it back to the chapel in one piece, but not before a fall on the slushy slopes.

At the chapel I found that the other mentors (who, like me, had been assigned to spend the the night in the chapel) have had their bath in the river. It was then too dark for me to make a trip to the river. I started to dread that I may have to put off having a shower until I get back to Borneo Paradise[2] the next day! Now that was not a pleasant thought! Then, Eliza[3] informed me that there are shower cubicles behind the chapel. With no time wasted, armed with my Philips torchlight, off I went to take a much-longed for shower. The water was, oh, so refreshing.

When I returned to the chapel, all clean, I saw that some of the children had gathered in the chapel. Boys sat together while the girls were in another group. I gave the boys Twisties crisps and the girls a bag of hi-fibre snacks. As they chomped away happily, I asked one of the boys why he does not mix with the girls, he promptly answered “It is better this way as girls like to talk of everything and nothing!”.

Once everyone has made their way to the chapel, we were treated to a video presentation on the building of the micro-hydro dam. Then the children performed the Sumazau dance, while the adults played the accompaniment on the traditional gongs. The children were great dancers! The children then invited us to dance with them and we obliged though ours was a muddled kind of Sumazau dancing!

The night was over much too soon. The villagers and their guests slowly made their way back to their homes. A group of university students who missed out on the trip to the micro-hydro dam stayed back at the chapel and bombarded Adrian with questions. I fell asleep as the conversation droned on in the background. I was that tired!

Suddenly I was wide awake! A droplet of water dripped onto my face! I shifted position. After awhile, opps! Another droplet of water! I shifted position again. Let that be the last drop of water, I prayed, because if I were to shift position again I would either be squeezed onto the wall or onto Elaine[4]! My prayers worked. It was not until the time to wake up when another droplet dripped on my arm! When the morning got brighter I looked up and saw that it was not rainwater that had dripped on me but water from condensation on the zinc roof! No wonder the droplets kept changing position!

We freshened up, had breakfast which the host had graciously prepared, gathered our still-wet-yesterday’s-clothes, said our goodbyes and off we went. On the way out we were introduced to the one betel nut tree from which there is DiGi (SMS only) service, if one climbed up the tree!

All in all I had a good time the experience will stay fresh in my memory for a long time to come. But I wonder if I would have survived it had the village no electricity and no running water and if I would have enjoyed it as much had we not have to hike to and from the village.


Footnotes:
[1] Adrian Lasimbang of PACOS Trust. PACOS Trust is a community based voluntary organisation to raise the overall quality of life of indigenous communities. For more information, see http://www.sabah.net.my/PACOS/.
[2] Borneo Paradise Beach Hotel, was our base for the Challenge for Change Boot Camp, 1st to 4th October 2009
[3] Eliza Abdul Rahman, of Warisan Global, the event organizer for the Boot Camp.
[4] Elaine Lau, a writer for The Edge Malaysia.

The Journey to Kampung Terian

On the itinerary, the visit to Kampung Terian looked like an open and shut case – hop onto a van, switch to a 4-wheel drive (4WD), overnight at Kampung Terian, hop onto a 4WD, switch to a van and Bingo! Back in Borneo Paradise[1]. However, Murphy[2] had other plans for us and was in his element on the weekend of the 3rd/4th of October 2009.

Right on the dot of half past seven everyone on Trip 1 is gathered and ready to go when Adrian, of PACOS Trust[3], discovered that his stubborn 4WD refused to wake from its slumber. With a huff and a puff from the Challenge for Change (C4C) challengees (ie the university students), the 4WD groaned to life and off they went. However, a 30-minute drive turned out to be an hour’s drive as the vans do not take easily to the gravel road. And so the starting times for Trips 2 and 3 were each delayed by 30 minutes.

Dark clouds loomed as the last batch left Borneo Paradise but the rain held up. When we got to Kampung Timpangoh, the end of the road for the vans, we discovered that those on Trip 2 were still waiting for the 4WDs to make their way down from Kampung Terian. “Goodness, goodness me”, I thought to myself, “it would be dark before Trip 3 gets to go up!” You wouldn’t believe it but Adrian managed to get all 40-odd of us into 5 4WDs! I felt the first droplets of the rain As we started out from Kampung Timpangoh. Ten minutes into the journey, the skies opened and turned the dirt road into a sea of mud. Combine that with a zig-zagging route, sections of it with 45 degrees climb, potholes aplenty, fast gushing streams with no bridges, you have an out of this world roller coaster ride, without having to go to a theme park!! We were thrown left, right, centre, up and down. All 2 hours of it!!

My heart was in my mouth as the vehicle in front drifted to the left and to the right, flew over humps, with Emily and 3 C4C challengees hanging on to dear life on the back of the truck with rain pouring down on them. I was lucky as I had a passenger seat. Then all of a sudden all vehicles came to a stop. We got down and a few yards in front, we could see that disaster had struck – Adrian’s 4WD hung precariously over the ledge, its fourth wheel a useless piece of rubber! A huff and a puff did not work this time around. A tug of war against a sitting duck 4WD turned out to be a losing battle. So what do we do? No vehicles behind Adrian’s could not go forward as that section of the road allowed only one vehicle to pass at a time. So it is either to turn back or to somehow get Adrian’s 4WD off the ledge!

Suddenly Adrian spied a fallen tree branch but it was too short to be used as a lever. Before you know it, Adrian had found a parang, cut down a young tree, halved it and produced two levers! All city slickers were commanded to pull the vehicle from the front while the drivers jacked up the vehicle from behind. That was I got a mud treatment for my feet! As my feet sunk into the mud I yelped out, but quickly got over my squeamishness. “It is only mud, girl, for goodness sake! We’ve got a car to move!” But I digress. The two levers did wonders. With the vehicle being jacked up from behind and a great heave-ho from the city slickers up front, Adrian’s 4WD was back onto terra firma in no time. A cheer rung out and all of us breathed a great sigh of relief!

We drove on relentlessly through the sea of mud and gushing streams. After awhile, again the vehicles came to a standstill. The vehicles would go no further. We will have to hike to the village. I thought to myself, “At last! I got my wish – to hike to the village!” I secretly smiled! As we gathered our rucksacks, and plastic bags containing our knic-knacs, Adrian busied himself by cutting branches of young trees into sticks to help us traverse the slippery slopes. Armed with a stick each, off we went. The hike was wet, slippery and steep but it was fun! It ended all too soon – 45 minutes into the hike, I spotted padi fields and then a moment later houses! We have reached the village[4], all in one piece, but what an experience it had been!


The Itinerary (3rd and 4th October 2009)

Getting to Kampung Terian
1. Borneo Paradise to Kampung Timpangoh – by van – 30 minutes
2. Kampung Timpangoh to Kampung Terian – 4 wheel drive – 1 hour
Repeat steps 1-2 three times to get all 64 participants to Kampung Terian

At Kampung Terian
1. Visit the micro hydro dam and power generation room
2. A dip in the river
3. Settle in with the villagers
4. Dinner
5. A short education on the building and maintenance of the micro hydro dam, power generation and distribution set
6. Performance of the Sumazau dance by the children
7. Bedtime
8. Breakfast

Getting back to Borneo Paradise Beach Resort
1. Kampung Terian to Kampung Timpangoh – 4 wheel drive – 1 hour
2. Kampung Timpangoh to Borneo Paradise – by van – 30 minutes
Repeat steps 1-2 three times to get all 64 participants back to Borneo Paradise

Footnotes:
[1] Borneo Paradise Beach Hotel, was our base for the Challenge for Change Boot Camp, 1st to 4th October 2009.
[2] Murphy, of Murphy’s Law which states that “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”.
[3] PACOS Trust is a community based voluntary organisation to raise the overall quality of life of indigenous communities. http://www.sabah.net.my/PACOS/
[4] It took us nearly 5 hours to reach Kampung Terian. As the crow flies, Kampung Terian is only 25km from Kota Kinabalu.