Sandakan Wednesday

"As if we don't get enough of being in the wilderness, we paid five bucks to traipse in some 'rainforest'."

At eleven in the morning -- a time where no wildlife will show up, even for goodwill. And it's not as if we haven't seen our share. Since Sunday my list now looks like this:

- proboscis monkeys

- long tailed macaques

- an out-of-porportioned crocodile (small head, big long body haha)

- hornbills

- kingfishers

- egrets

- hawks

- a good number of other birds

- a tortoise

- two snakes

- two monitor lizards (one we almost turned into roadkill)

- a bushy black scampering squirrel

- a plantation rat

- a bunch of bugs

- sapi

- kerbau

- dogs

- cats

*meow*

Wednesday was our driving back to 'halfway point' day, so since we put up a night in Sandakan the night before, Claire and I decided to take in the town a bit. I realised that our sampling dates usually coincide with some kind of event which makes accomodation a bit of a problem. Like the last month when we were in Telupid, the Deathmarch was going on, so practically all the accomodation in that small town were full (all reads TWO places to stay).

This time, Sandakan is hosting the Sabah Games, while there are some other goings-on in Sepilok. Anyway, we gave up hotel-hunting and stayed in Swiss-Inn at Sandakan's Waterfront (which still had rooms).

YuLi, when I saw this, I was reminded of you :)

I've been to Sandakan for *lost-counted* times and yet I've never actually done any sightseeing. It's always been for work, with no extra time to spare. But this time at least I drove by and saw Agnes Keith's House and the English Tea House. And we decided to go look for 'pi dan kao' for breakfast.

'pi dan kao' = century egg dumplings

It's in one of those houses in the Chinese water village area in Buli Sim-Sim.

We next drove to Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre just to realise that we were one hour late for feeding time. So I yet again did not get to see orangutans and have to make do with BuBu till my next opportunity :)

And just for some unknown reason, Claire and I thought we'd visit the Rainforest Discovery Centre (RDC) and paid 5bucks to go 'jungle trekking'. Come to think of it, that was oddly random of us. It's like fishermen paying for a boatride, or natives paying to spend a night in a longhouse, that kind of thing.

And it's not like we don't get enough sun everyday when we work haha

But yea, RDC is not too bad a place for amateurs who have never been to the jungle before. There's a Canopy Walk, observation towers, hanging bridges, the works.

We had to climb a lot of stairs to get to the walk.

But the view, as always, is good.

I love the rainforest because of the really really tall trees.

And the canopy is always wondrous. One day I hope I get to try out canopy climbing...maybe with the GCP.

This is how you walk on the hanging bridge without risking it to flip over.

And this is supposed to be some 1000-over years old tree...The Belian doesn't look that spectacular though..

I've been driving long-distance a lot and I absolutely love it! I'll blog about driving one of these days :)

x's and o's!

back...

...5 days earlier :)

Yesterday was rather unfruitful (fruitless?) as the other team ran into some engine trouble on the river and was delayed over an hour. Since we were already too late to get to either Sandakan or KK to courier the samples, practically what we did the whole day was for nothing.

Sing and I got back about more than an hour before Claire and Randy so we ended up playing with the boatman's kids, folding origami stuff and drawing pictures for them. Initially I folded a small origami jumping frog from some leftover paper for Suwanta's 2-year-old. Then since it's really difficult to make a 2cm frog jump, I folded a larger one for her. After awhile of playing, she went into the house and brought out this massive katak toy and gave it to me! That toy frog was so huge, I could stick the paper frogs into its mouth! That was really cute and funny.

Anyway, the samples Sing and I got were useless so we ended up pouring it down the drain in front of my house in KF :) Well, we wanted to pour it on Sing 'cos he missed his chance to mandi sungai...

So yea, crap happens at times..you spend over five hours in the hot hot sun and ended up not being able to do anything. But it's part and parcel of every element in Life (omg why so philosophical?). Like I've said it before, things always happen for a reason, and then it turns out not so cacat after all.

If we had indeed got all our samples just in time and having to rush back to KK, we wouldn't have had the time to take another shower in the inn, had a good (very) late lunch -- mi goreng basah, nasi goreng payau, and tuhau. And I wouldn't have gotten the chance to drive all the way back to KK from Telupid in the rain, mist, and darkness. oWh, and not forgetting the coffee at Bayu Kinabalu :)

Just so that nobody gets it wrong, I really love my job. It's just typical of me to be reluctant to wake up early so there's always an 'ugh' if I have to be up anytime before 6am (ugh).

x's and o's!

Lots of Love from Sukau

Since I've been going to field quite frequently I'm gonna stop the "Day 1:..." etc. entries. I mean, twice is more than enough. Besides, there's nothing new to write about apart from driving around or riding in the boat.

Just some 'updates':

Yours truly drove in an oil palm plantation yesterday, which sounds awesome but then it's Lam Soon's plantation so the roads are really well managed. In other words, it wasn't those crazy muddy rocky off-road kind of extreme stuff.

Also, the boat ride today was good. Although it's another 6-hours ride, this time the boat has a nice cushy seat, and a roof!!! Claire and I had it good :) We had so much leg space, and the villagers were so so nice. We didn't even need to carry our stuff into the boats because they did it for us. Then Hjh. Minah (the lady who's in charge of boat rentals and stuff) handed us a bag filled with canned drinks, two bottles of water, two bags of nuts, and a packet of biscuits "just in case we get peckish". She also handed us a parang, a machete. And there was this old man who was assuring us that the rivers around that area are safe.

Anyway, since I have the chance to get online out here in the field, I thought I'd update my blog just to show you guys out there that it's not that 'ulu' out here. I'm now typing this in the Pusat Jalur Lebar Komuniti (Community Broadband Center) in Sukau. The wi-fi here is good, and all I need to do is bring my lappy along and pay them RM1.50 for an hour of usage. And they have air-con :) It's really good to see that places like these are providing their community with the internet. Plus there's a guy here with an iPhone...

I don't know where I'll be next and when will I be online properly again. So till then, here's a gorgeous pic I took of Sukau at dawn.

x's and o's to everyone!

Day 3: On the road again

We completed the last five tributary headwaters today, and what was good was that everyone was really enthusiastic with the work. Measuring depth upstream is rather a challenge though.

There was me with my feet in sucky gooey mud:

and we had The Daredevil doing this:
en garde!

Yours truly slipped and fell into mud:

We stopped for a pic with this cool roadsign :)

We finished up in Sukau and Lahad Datu that day and returned to Sandakan for another night.

towel fight!

And seeing as we didn't have to get up early the next day and we've completed our work there, we spent the rest of the night being stupid :)

Q: Why was she playing cards with her backpack?

Hint: Her "baby"'s in there and we were particularly up-to-no-good that night *evil grin*

I reckon that doing field with my peeps made the whole thing a lot more enjoyable than it usually is. Thanks you guys :)

** x's and o's **

Day 2: Baked in the sun

Now at least three of my friends understand what I have to go through everytime I go to field. We took a boat from Tongod to Tangkulap and back, and the trip was about SIX HOURS. Six hours under the hot burning sun.

I don't even care that I look like one of those construction labourers anymore.

We made a stop at one of the 'islands' along the river ('cos the boatman needed to pee). River rocks are kinda cool.

Straying a little, you know how embarassing it is when you make a remark about some cute guy and then someone near you say they're related or they know him or something? While on the boat, we passed this young man who was washing his boat along the river and I mentioned to Vanny that he looks macho, and as always with me when on the river, I'll wave to anybody I see either on the banks or in passing boats. So I waved to this guy and he waved back. And then our boatman said "That's my brother." And then Vanny had to tell Mr Boatman that I've just remarked that his brother is cute *smacks forehead*

With another day's work done, we decided to head down to Sandakan and put up a night there. And unlike the first night, we didn't konked out at 9pm, but there wasn't anything good on telly anyway. I discovered that it's fun to receive a phone call and having the conversation in the bathroom sitting on top of a closed toilet :)

Day 1: Back in the Field

Two weeks later and I found myself heading East again to do more river profiles. This time however, it was a lot more fun (oops! we were supposed to be working) and very memorable too.
The fact that I had to plan, make arrangements, and recruit a team for the whole thing in a matter of a few days was funny, but then it's cool do submit to spontaenity.

Let me introduce the team this time:

Vanny ~ the awesomest extreme 4WD driverYuLi ~ the daredevil
MrLin ~ the Guy

and of course, yours truly.

Oh yea, and there's *ahem* "Baby Snoopy" (whom for the rest of the trip had to succumb to our bullying just to drive Vanny crazy)

He sleeps a lot.

* * *

On the first day, we travelled down from KK at 3.30am so that we'll arrive in Telupid at 7am to meet Randy and Zaime, who handed over the DO meter and myriad of maps. Oh, and the VERY VERY IMPORTANT GPS points and routes.

Digressing a little, I realised that if it weren't for me and my work, the newly obtained GPS by the EnvSc Program would be under-utilised. Being an undergrad before, I know for a fact that the GPS will be brought to field; at the sampling point, the coordinates will be jotted down, and that's about it.

WE tracked our routes and if it weren't for the GPS we would have been terribly lost.

And yea, with technology fieldwork is a lot easier :)

So anyway, back to the first day:
We had a big car, an iPod full of songs. Things didn't get crazy till after we bade the ERE team farewell and made our jolly way to Karamuak and Tongod.

Upstream Karamuak was fun as it has a tagal, weir, so the water's quite shallow to wade around.

Although the water's colour is not so appealing, it's still very tempting to jump in and play around.

Then we continued our journey to upstream Tongod River.

Silly city kids got their big car stuck in mud omg.

See, there was this huge puddle in the middle of the road and we initially thought it's deep so we headed to the (wrong) side. We got stuck.

Thank goodness we had extra rope and there were these really helpful people who stopped and gave us aid. We were towed out by a Kementerian Kesihatan 4WD. So I guess the Ministry of Health does not only help the sick, but also those who are stuck ;)

It's funny sometimes to think that we go to all these trouble to get measurements just from ONE point.

The things people do in the name of research :)

That night we put up a night in the Telupid Resthouse again. Thing is, the Deathmarchers were also there so all the 'posh' rooms were fully booked. We had to opt for the dormitory-style rooms instead which was just as good. We had a room with four single beds, with air-con. The only slight downpoint was that the bathroom were common bathrooms and the Ladies one had no shower and very dim lights. We had our showers in the Men's bathroom instead, with ChinYik keeping a watch outside :)

Being up since 2am knocks everyone out cold by 9.30pm that night.

the heatwave is until...

...AUGUST!!! :(

Ugh.


I find that sometimes some people tend to lapse into a denial-overdrive even when blatant findings are presented to them. Then they get really defensive because the data obtained contradicts with the rosy pictures they have been painting all these while.

Basically today's meeting felt a bit like a super massive viva voce: the consultant team being the student presenting and the reps from various government departments and NGOs are the examiners. The good thing is that, unlike a viva voce where one becomes the sole target of the firing squad, the team has multiple members who are experienced in their respective fields.

I reckon one of the toughest part of being in consultancy is that, in one way or another, one has to remain calm, polite, and diplomatic at all times. It is freakish when you are bombarded by all these people who request for additional stuff as if it is so simple to accomplish when in fact to obtain that additional information involves another load of time and hardwork, and hundreds of data to analyse.

And it's not like they increase the payment.

Today's experience reminded me of a viva incident whereby the examiners have to be reminded of the objectives and scope of study. And in our position today, the TOR.


Oh yea, I realised that my book really stinks.

It has been in this irreversible disgusting condition since the day I got soaked in the rain in Batu Putih. It all boiled down to me forgetting to put my book back into the zip-lock baggie it was in...

Day 6: I am back!

Exactly what it says.

all my gear before I began my 'adventure'

I am back in KK and I found out some interesting stuff:

- there are people missing me :)

- I need to plan another trip for some time next week

- I need to recruit a team and work out the logistics

- my inbox was overflowing

- somehow, word got around that I am doing 'crocodile hunter' stuff

- I told my parents that if they ever want to do some wildlife-river-cruise-thingie, count me out

Oh, and this is rather outdated, but ohhhh...B got me an orangutan!!! Ain't he cute? We shall name him BuBu.

BuBu smiles at all of you :)

xo from me (who's really glad to be back)

Day 5: Where the @%#^ is the river?!?

We bid farewell to Syamsuddin and his family, and Sukau, today and we made our way back to the West Coast. Since our trip was supposed to end on Wednesday, we tried to locate some of the upper reaches of the tributaries we were working on the past few days.

This part of the job is honestly so much worst than the boat rides due to several reasons:

• unlike the confluence of the tributaries, not all upstream areas are easily accessible...better yet, not that easy to locate either, and not known
• generally, most of them are located in some oil palm plantation and I really dislike driving around in there
• if we do (finally) find them, doing measurements here is a hell of difficult, for instance, I couldn't use the depth sounder to measure the river's depth as sonar does not travel through air (we improvised by measuring a bamboo and tying a rock to its bottom and dropping it vertically into the river).

We left the Lower Kinabatangan area around 6pm so to avoid driving the whole crazy way in the dark, we put up another night in Telupid and luckily for us, we got the last three rooms in the same Rest House. In a way, it was grand that we ended the trip with a night in 'luxury' :)

Day 4: Mornings are for boat rides

Contrary to the sucky day we had yesterday, today was awesome. We had to get up early to take a boat ride down to Kampong Abai to get some water samples and although the ride was long, it was enjoyable. It wasn't raining, it wasn't hot. And most importantly, I was clean and dry :)


Nothing really eventful happened just that we took a loooooong boat ride down stream, I saw birds (hornbills, darters, kingfishers), saw some orangutan nests (I think), found out that one part of the river is 21.5 meters deep (!!!), drove all the way to Sandakan to courier off the samples to Tanah Melayu, and back to Sukau again to turn in for an early night.

The tourists...

...and the researcher :)

Day 3: Soaked undies is no fun

One word for today: RAIN.

Adjectives to go with it: Non-stop, Heavy, Massive, Continuous

Synonym: Storm

OMG.

It sucks when you have to bear through the whole day drenched and, worse, disgustingly smelly and soaking wet jeans, and WORST, soaked undies. YUCK.

We got onto a boat in Batu Putih to do three more tributaries today, and as luck would have it, we couldn't get a boat at MESCOT (what with it being a Sunday and all and hoardes of tourists were coming in apparently) so we looked up a villager to rent his boat -- which took rather awhile as he was in the nearby puny town 'hanging out'.

We finally got our boat and just as we set out, THE RAIN CAME. The massive torrent of water from the heavens. Like W.T.H. And it didn't stop till we completed our whole thing.

I had to walk on this to get to the boat. A klutz like me does not like planks like this.

The thing about weather in the rivers is that you get an almost-storm on the main river, but you get drizzles in the tributaries. And no, tree-cover is not one of the reasons.

We also learnt another lesson today: never NEVER EVER attempt sampling at night. Especially when it's one of those rainy times. And the fact that there are man-eating buayas in this area really freaked me out. Basically I was reminding myself that it's just gonna be like one of those night-river-cruise-thingies..but yea, it ain't that enjoyable when the ride was about 5 hours long, with no proper seats that create butt-numbing effects, in smelly-soaked clothes, and overall feeling totally disgusting.

It was almost torture.

And I lost count the number of buayas I saw. Well, more like their eyes 'cos that's the only thing you can see in pitch-darkness. Croc eyes' reflect like gemstones in the dark when you shine a torch at it. Was keeping myself entertained by watching the silhouttes of the trees against the sky (quite similarly like people watching clouds. What I was grateful for that night was that the boat had a roof. At least I didn't have to undergo another bout of rain.

Btw, this is the "crocodile hunter" part of my experience if you are one of those who have been told that "Li Ying's not in KK this week, she's being crocodile hunter".

And yea, everything I had in my bag was soaked. My river schematics looked absolutely dreadful, and my notebook now resembles one of those field journals that archaelogists find during one of their digs (and according to B, it's looks as if it contains codes to some mysterious conspiracy theory).

Day 2: Monkeys and crocs, oh my!

We continued our journey to Sukau from Telupid today. Buayas, aside, I am really really excited of going back there again. Instead of the B&B where we stayed the last time, we chose to stay with the boatman instead (who also runs a homestay). The room they gave me was a simple and decent room with a table and a single bed. For me, when I'm in the field, as long as everything's clean, it's fine.

We took a boat out to three of the nearby tributaries to do more measurements, and lo! I was so lucky to see a bunch of proboscis monkeys out for an early meal!

It's times like this when I wish I have an SLR camera.

Day 1: To the East we go!

As promised, this will be a "six-part-series" of what I did the past few days in the wilderness.

Okay. Wait. The Grand ol' River isn't exactly a 'wilderness' but yea.

Basically, I spent the whole day today bumping around in the backseat of the Triton with a styrofoam box, three backpacks, and three smaller bags. First I bumped all the way from KK to Telupid, and then around some oil palm estates trying to locate the headwater of Sg. Lokan. We eventually did find it (I think) and I waded around in it at dusk, getting my measurements.

On our way out of that place, I saw some fireflies (which, sadly, is quite a rare sight these days) -- solitary ones, of course.

We put up a night in the Forestry's Rest House in Telupid, which is really luxurious accomodation, considering the fact that I am in the field. I mean, come on, a big bed, hot shower, and air-con :)

Just to remind me it's still close to the hutan, I found an earwig in the toilet when I woke up the next morning. And I was really intrigued with this massive milipede (although I am still freaked out by them).

The view is really good too.

The Corridor of Life

One thing I've learnt about the challenges of my work is being in the field regardless of weather conditions. Kinabatangan River is massive, in my opinion, and teeming with wildlife, especially when you go further downstream. Thing is, we had to go on boat rides, and you never have any say on your choice of boats. And just so you know, Kinabatangan is notorious for man-eating buayas (crocodiles). That pretty much spiked the anxiety level *albeit my secret curiousity to actually catch a glimpse of them*.

You see, the boats are usually those small-outboards, not too high on the sides, and them boatmen seem to fancy going near to the banks. River banks are, like, the favoured hangouts of buayas. I always had this thought that the crocs will leap out of the water and snap at our DO-meters.

We didn't see any although we were on boats for half of our trip there. The rain was more harrowing.

Kg. Bilit, situated somewhere mid-stream of the river, is where WWF once had the HABITAT project (which is still ongoing now, but taken over by the village's corporation). You get to choose a tree in the nursery to plant (for free, tsk stingy) which is actually a conservation effort to replenish the habitat of orangutans in that area. And if you are lucky enough, this is also where you get to see elephants crossing the river.

Sukau, downstream of Kinabatangan, is where you get to see all our primate friends, especially the nasalis larvatus -- proboscis monkey. Oddly enough, we didn't see any. Not even the very common (and annoying) macaques. The closest to wildlife we had was a baby bird and a deer outside my window.


Four days of wilderness. Returning to civilisation will be great, flying home for the festive season will be AWESOME.

xo Li Ying