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Published: February 28th 2010
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Butterflies at the eco-camp (one for you Dad - their wingspans were about 15cm!)This blog could easily have been called 'shifting mud', because that's what we did for the first day after our day off in Sandakan. The flood had left a thick layer of dirt on the car park, which was hindering access to the jetty. So we cut a path for vehicles through the mess - an important job as Sabah's tourism minister was set to visit the following day. In the evening, it was time for our first English lesson with the village children. Luckily Nikki had some teaching experience and took charge, but the kids were riotous without parental control, and an offer of squash at the end nearly saw Conny losing her cool ('this is not fun!
make a line!!').
One of the regular treats for working at MESCOT was the cultural shows put on for tourists (as volunteers we obviously classed ourselves differently!) by villagers and MESCOT members. The shows featured a number of traditional dances and a demonstration of selat (a dance/martial art performed by Nosali), all backed by loud, pounding drums. The shows were good fun mainly because we knew the performers, so their constant giggles and jokes away from the 'stage' were entertaining. We
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The volunteers sit back and let the villagers get on with the hard work also got to take part, including wearing traditional Malaysian getup for our first performance.
After a few hard days at work, we were rewarded with a trip out to Eco-Camp, a basic camping resort built in the forest by MESCOT. So Conny, Nikki and I headed off the next morning to help clear up in advance of re-opening the camp for tourists. More scrubbing and moving dirt, but the camp is in such a tranquil place, set on an oxe-bow lake surrounded by forest. We were being looked after by Albert and Nosali, a talented villager who lost his hearing at the age of five, so communicates using his own sign language. Our journeys to and from camp afforded us more opportunities to spot wildlife, so we ticked off several types of hornbills, monitor lizards, plenty of long tail macaques and the bizarre proboscis monkey - endemic to Borneo. Annoyingly, I developed an allergic reaction to a number of mosquito bites on my feet, which swelled and started to itch. I also got stung by a poisonous tree, which left a nasty purple blotch on the inside of my left elbow - and burned like buggery!
After a
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Clo, me, Meg, Alex (aka Honky) and Nikki in front of Mt. Kinabalu (photo thanks to Nikki Williams) hospital trip to get anti-histomenes, I needed a break. Luckily, one was just around the corner. An influx of new volunteers (Andrew and dad Jeff from the UK, Dinon from Holland, Meg from Australia and Alex from Hong Kong) arrived, and were put straight to work shifting the mud. After two more days it was gone, but we were all knackered and fed up of yielding our spades. At the same time, a French academic working on her PhD, Clo, was staying in the village. She was soon to return home to Kota Kinabalu and asked whether anyone wanted a lift there, so Nikki, Meg, Alex and I said yes. We'd planned a little holiday to Mamutik Island just off the coast from KK, so Clo's offer of transport was a big help. The offer soon extended to accommodation as well, so the next day, the five of us headed across Sabah on our short vacation.
Our 6 hour drive turned into an 8 hour road trip, as we stopped off to sample local fruits, had lunch at the Sabah tea plantation (for tea pancakes - they were green!) and gaze across to Mount Kinabalu, which revealed itself spectacularly
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The beach at Mamutik Island to us as we reached the viewpoints. We arrived at Clo's apartment and looked down with barely concealed delight at the swimming pool below... ten minutes later we were enjoying the warm water, beneath a starry night sky. Did we feel guilty?? Not a bit! It didn't last long though, as Clo and her partner Alan, who flew in from KL that night, took us out to dinner at Little Italy. I don't think a cold beer and 12-inch pizza have ever tasted so good! We all went to bed very happy and thanking Clo and Alan repeatedly for their hospitality.
The next morning yielded yet more delight - cereal, toast, orange juice and hot croissants! Clo excelled herself again! We headed for the jetty and caught a boat out to Mamutik, one of a series of islands forming the Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park. We then spent the day snorkeling, swimming, drinking milo (Nikki even had hers in the sea, the devil) and generally lounging about on the fine, golden sand. Mamutik is tiny, and it was fairly quiet, particularly away from the beach where coral gardens provided some nice snorkeling. Feeling thoroughly relaxed (and a tad guilty),
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Life as a volunteer is tough sometimes... (photo thanks to Nikki Williams) we returned to Clo's. Our dinner was then had at a fantastic Japanese slash British restaurant run by Terence, a great guy who shouted us all a beer to wash down our apple crumble and bread and butter puddings. A great evening, during which we re-christened Alex 'Honky' (Alan's answer to our question about the collective term for the citizens of Hong Kong...). We returned to the village the next day having thanked Clo and Alan about a million times for a great little trip. If only we could have stayed longer!
We arrived back halfway through Conny's lesson with the village children, where she managed to teach them the German word for fork by mistake (henceforth, forks were referred to as gabels), but we all pitched in and spent a good half an hour chasing and carrying the kids around the jetty (is it wrong to get so much pleasure from spinning kids around until they can't stand properly??). The next day it would be back to work as usual.
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Clo
non-member comment
des croissants!
Hi Guys! We had a great time with you too! I told you to stay longer ;-) come again! Since you really like it, we'll ask you to clear a path on the hill in front of the flat and we'll find some mud to remove, then you'll have more croissants for breakfast! Your blog is really great! Bises Clo