Wandering Scotsman

Well everyone is back from their project recces and it’s great to see them all excited about their destinations for the next 10 weeks or so. Many have came back leeched, especially the boys from Danum Valley which is where I’m based for 5 days in around 6 weeks time. On the flip side they saw loads of wildlife from wild boars to bearded pigs, elephants and snakes. Imbak Canyon was some monkeys flying around the trees. Their campsite sounds fantastic as it’s close to a waterfall that’s “Straight out the Timotei advert…in fact it’s miles better than that”.
Off for a sneaky beer, so more soon.
PS : Where are my letters and emails folks!! Only had one letter so far!
PPS : I’ve got a new career…I’m off modelling on Saturday night! Not kidding, Sabah Tourism has requested a few of us to go to a pub and club (and they’ve given us a very strict dress code) for a tourism photo shoot, and we’re getting paid for it! (well the money will obviously go straight to Raleigh International).

Well the tables may be turned on me soon…a few of us have been invited to attend a Sabah Tourism photo shoot to potentially be models for posters to be distributed in tourism brochures around Asia!! Better put on my best clothes…. bit of a long blog entry tonight…
Anyway, it’s all turned very busy in the run up to the participants coming out next week. My diary is absolutely jam packed, but then so is all the other staff members!
Blog updates will definitely be few and far between from the middle of next week as we are all off to jungle camp with the participants, taking pics, training them up and doing all the briefings we have covered.
I’ve also started the internal newsletter to be handed out next week.
The following week I’m split between field base and the diving part of the adventure phase to get some pics of staff and participants on Mamutik island (can’t find a decent site, but check the Mamutik pictures here) doing their PADI qualification. I’ll leave them early so I can go for an overnight trip to a Kampong (village) close to Kota Mirudu to view a community project building a gravtiy water feed system. Then I’m back to field base doing some catch up while the team are trail building on the Crocker Range, then joining them for the trek along the Crocker Range. To end phase 1, I’ll spend a couple of days doing Mount Kinabalu which stops rising at 4095 metres. I’m really looking forward to this as you start off during the night and then get up to the summit for sunrise…I just hope it’s bloody good weather. Pictures of the mountain remind me of Skye back home in Scotland, but instead of walking through four different seasons in a day, you walk through four different ecosystems through jungles and rainforests, but still end up on the top bloody freezing.
After that I’m back to play catch up for a couple of days during changeover, then I’m deploying with another team to another community project which I think is building a kindergarten. After a few days I’ll be picked up by the loop vehicle, and go through some horrendous off-road journey hopefully to Imbak Canyon (where’s there’s only been a couple of hundred folk in), but that will depend on the height of the river, then over to Danum Valley Conservation area for five days. I may get the bus back to a town and fly back from here to get back to field base early.
Between myself and Kate, the PR Officer, we should get pretty good coverage of the projects, but it will mean a horrendous amount of work to get ready for a slideshow and photo comp, and souvenir CD and postcards!!

A couple of us managed to get out for some shopping in KK tonight…it was the usual Asian mall where you walk into some sh!thole looking building that looks like it’s a carpark full of cr@p shops…then all of a sudden the place opens up into some mega shopping mall (but still full of really cheap, but cr@p thirts!). Apparently there are 8 of these being built at the moment in the area.

Anyway, radio duty tomorrow…..bed beckons me! No time to proof read this!

My flat is rented!!!!!!!! Yaaaaaah. Yup, no more flat renting worries from today as a deposit is down, and I don’t have to keep comparing my mortgage payments to the number of ‘weeks in Asia’ it costs me!
After a hectic time post jungle camp, all project managers are now out on project recce’s double checking the site, the community, transport and medical facilities available. There was a real buzz about field base as everyone was sussing out kit orders, accommodation (even if it may be a hammock!), and transport.
My first proper photography part was played taking staff photos while helping out with other stuff. A few of us still managed to pop out for a bit later on, after having a meditation session with one of the staff members. There’s even morning yoga some days.
It’s all far quieter around field base tonight as everyone has shifted around Sabah….except the radio!! Now that everyone’s out and about, the speakers are on in field base, and listened to 24×7…unfortunately that also means getting piped into the office during the day….but it’ a lifeline if it hits the fan.

Another excitement today was I had my first photo shoot to do!! Not quite a professional one….and to be honest I never knew what I was taking them for…. it turned out it was the Sabah Ports revamp of Kota Kinabalu ferry terminal!! I didn’t really enjoy it a I was trying to do it in a hurry, didn’t really know what kind of shots were required, and couldn’t get decent shots of the islands due to the haze….but hey, I did get driven around by a beautiful young Malay (who trashed me at pool while the footy was on in the pub lat night) and got treated to lunch, so can’t complain!! A few lessons learned for the next time though…like don’t go out with scabby mossie bites and a trashed old tshirt when trying to look like a pro!…or was that meant to be remember how important the weather was?! To be fair I was expecting a phone call before I went out, but didn’t get any notice. I’d love to head out again when I have more time to see if I could improve them and be a bit more imaginative as to be honest, I was really hacked off how cr@p my shots were! Unfortunately the shots of the more photogenic Filipino glue sniffers and their mates who run the older boats aren’t required…..
Anyway, it’s 10pm and I’m still sitting in the field base office…desipte this real work seems a gazillion miles away!! I haven’t much joy trying to connect my laptop to the network here but will try again tomorrow to get some pics uploaded (everyone expects me to know everything about PC’s here!..luckily the ‘virus’ this morning was just a disabled network card…..).

Maybe I’m saying too much about the Raleigh International programme on this blog, but I hope it may be of help to some people considering attending, or volunteering for a staff role.
The blog’s been a bit quiet as we have been away at an adventure centre on the Kiulu River having some jungle training. We had a great couple of days there and luckily managed to avoid any rainstorms as it was already slippy enough. We spent out first day getting medical briefs, and being shown how to erect ‘bashers’ (think tarps and hammocks in trye Ray Mears style!) using bamboo, parangs (large machete type knifes) and mosquito nets. We had a bit of luxury the first night by cooking under shelter, and staying in the equivalent of Ikea bashers – they were erected already, all we had to do was put up the mossie nets.
The next day we loaded all our kit and radios per team and trekked into the jungle. I think my pack must have been about 20 kilos with the camera stuff in there as well as the radio. We set up the radios half way in then moved into camp by the river. It was quite a surreal site watching everyone set up the bashers in the jungle environment, even more surreal watching everyone once it got dark, cursing and swearing at collapsed hammocks or mossie nets under torchlight.
Just after setting up we managed to steal a few minutes to have a dip in the river before cooking up dinner on the trangia stoves, and playing some example icebreaker games. To be honest I had a far better sleep than I thought I would have, but I reckon the ear plugs helped a great deal. I could still hear the most amazing noises through them, so much so I had to check it wasn’t chucking it down with rain a few times. Once we were wrapped up under shelter I’m sure there were several folk wishing it had actually had a full on rainstorm for 30 mins to see if our shelters held up!! I did hold off having a number 2 in the long drop (toilet, a.k.a. dug out hole) though…after all I knew we’d be back at field base soon!
After a mock medical situation and radio call in on the way back we had some time for R&R where I managed to walk into Lintas, the part of Kota Kinabalu we are based in.
To get an alternative take on Malay culture we headed for a night of Karaoke….apparently government ministers even sing this to chill out a bit after meetings!

Today the projects were allocated which was exciting to watch as people found out their destiny for the next three months. Although field base is in a city, there are amazing projects to take part in. Projects such as Imbak Canyon are only about 1.5hrs helicopter flying time away from KK, but its a 15 hours road journey to get there, and river crossing are regularly too high for days on end. It sounds amazing in there with untouched rainforest and amazing wildlife. The community and adventure projects are superb for this programme as well ranging from building kindergartens to trekking up Mt Kinabalu to building a water storage facility.
Time to disappear for the night. Over.

“Welcome to the jungle
It gets worse here everyday
Ya learn ta live like an animal
In the jungle where we play
If you got a hunger for what you see
You’ll take it eventually
You can have anything you want
But you better not take it from me”

At least that’s how Guns ‘n’ Roses described it. After a day of some analysing of what everyone wants or expects out of the programme, some HF radio training, and cultural awareness, we went off to a cultural evening of food and traditional tribal dances.
It’s our first really early morning tomorrow as the whole group of staff are off to the jungle for training – setting up camp, sleeping in hammocks and under tarps, etc. We’ll be back on Saturday!!
I think we have the biggest cockroach in the world in our bathroom tonight as well. I think it’s going to eat the wee lizard.

More soon……

Well I arrived at Raleigh field base today, and to some more great people. The guys here have put in a sterling effort to get the place ready, in what has been described several times as one of Raleigh’s most palatial field bases! Despite this, it’s going to be a hot kip with a few of us in each room, and the mossy nets are up already! We are in the Lintas (I think) area of Kota Kinabalu in a massive house, and have the luxury of a lovely local woman to cook some food. After getting some briefings about my role as a photographer I (admittedly very late) joined in scrubbing some pots and pans from the last programme to get them ready for this trip.

My role is looking like it’s going to be very hard work, but really rewarding, and hopefully exactly what I hoped for. As well as photo briefs from Head Office, I have to produce photo CD’s for venturers, postcards and maybe other stationary to purchase, help sort out a t-shirt design comp, arrange a slide show and photo exhibition, and cover as many of the projects as possible, including some underwater shots during at least one of the dive phases. This programme looks like it’s going to have more than the usual share of visits to projects sites from local government ministers to large name corporate sponsors (think some of the very very well known company names in the world), all of which must be covered if possible.
The usual newsletters and press releases have to be performed as well which are sent to local press and sponsors. My driving force for in this is the on site Raleigh PR Officer, a journalist from one of the big worldwide news channels, who I hope to glean a lot of info from!

Tomorrow is straight into it with the start of staff training, then Thursday until Saturday will be spent in the jungle getting trained from locals how to construct camp areas and survive in that environment.
There are some stunning projects this year in places like Danum Valley conservation area and Imbak Canyon. This article, and this article give more news on previous Raleigh trips to Imbak Canyon. These are renowned areas for conservation around the world, some parts of which are very remote and have seen no more than 200 visitors. One previous group had to camp for four days until the river went down so they could drive across it.

Anyway, I’ve waffled enough but wanted to say what I was up to. Time for kip!

Just a quick last post before I get picked up from Raleigh for the start of the 3 months. Great crowd I’ve met so far. Unfortunately I was too late to get to one of the small islands offshore like Mamutik yesterday. Only 17 Ringgits to get there and back and it was a picture of paradise.

We ate at the Filipino market in KK yesterday. Amazing freshly bbq’d fish and rice, eating with your hands. The tuna was amazing and with a drink it was only 10 Ringgits (around 1.40UKP). During the day the market was mostly fruit and veg with the most amazing array of stuff there. A great place for photos, unfortunately I left my camera at home last night.

Looks like my net access will become more limited so the updates and pics will die down. Have some good ones from the market yesterday. Got my Malaysia SIM card so I have some touch with the ‘outside’ world.

More soon, just dunno when…..
PS : There’s quite a few rats kicking around here….

How the bloody hell did I end up here? Only a few years ago I thought Borneo was the arse end of nowhere. Now I realise it’s huge. 5th (or is it 2nd?) biggest island in the world, and Kota Kinabalu is a similar size to friggin’ Edinburgh – 250,000 live here! Yes, sorry folks, the reality is true. Under my hostel, Trekker’s Lodge is….a bloody 7-11. It’s very built up as well, with 8 large shopping malls going up in the next year or so.
This hostel isn’t nearly as neat as the one in Singapore. Pretty basic, and no endless realms of travel books, dive magazines, and local guidebooks like before…although the owners are very friendly. “Lonely Planet-ness” came to light at the airport as I was chatting to another lodge owner who was toiling as he hadn’t hit Lonely Planet yet, and had to wait three years to hit the next one, if at all. Jeez folks, it’s the day of the internet…look up your own accommodation! (although it may well end up being the same place).
Anyway, hope to hit Mamutik Island tomorrow afternoon for some snorkelling as I met a couple of Raleigh folk in the hostel tonight. Seem a great bunch, so should be a laugh…but hard work. No free net access here, so I think this may be the start of the demise of my blog for a while.
Borneo beckons….for 3 months+! Quite sad reading the guidebook – so much to do here, but we’ll be snowed under doing the stuff for Raleigh International.

Still….I could be at work.

PS: Turns out Malaysia really is truly Asia – even says it on the ad’s here!

Well my 2nd day in Singapore didn’t amount to much as expected. By the time I had woken up for 2 hours again in the middle of the night, and counted 587 sheep before falling asleep again (just prior to ripping the throats of the girls talking on the stairs), I didn’t get up til 1030. By the time I chucked out some magazines and paper (only after ripping out some excellent guides to SE Asia and Japan in June’s Wanderlust and Travel mags) it was time for a quick snack then the bus across the causeway to Johor Bahru in Malaysia for my flight to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysian Borneo.
As those of you who know me, you can imagine the sight of me. I ‘cheated’ at both ends by getting a taxi instead of a bus, but I had to lug my rucksack (held in a thin holdall), my daypack full of ‘toys’, the laptop, and some other bag that I still didn’t manage to ditch yet (well I did get a couple of heavy books given to me before I left!). These all had to be transported from taxi to bus at Singapore’s Queen Street bus station, off the bus to Singapore immigration, back onto the next bus for 5 mins to reach Malaysian immigration, then I was meant to get back on to the bus into town.
I decided the local geezer who offered me a lift direct to the airport for 40 MYR (Malaysian Ringgit..which is under £6 for a 30 min cab ride) gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse. It saved me lugging the bags again. All that for less than a tenner. I took 2hrs, but I reckon thats about the quickest you could do it, and it could take twice as long if you get buses all the way, and its a busy time at immigration. Oh, and for those who want to know, Johor Bahru has free wifi in the classy “Deli ‘n’ Meals” cafe.
If I had followed people’s advice and took less luggage it would have all been hassle free, but to be honest, there wasn’t much I could ditch. I could have ditched the laptop, and all my camera gear, but I don’t think it would look very promising if I turned up to be a photographer for three months with 30 locally purchased disposable cameras…..In saying that I’m already looking forward to three months time when I can ditch things like mess tins etc.

Thought for the day… why don’t Asian cities just have one bus station so you don’t find out which one to get to, depending on where you are going?

Singapore tip of the day : Yaaaah, I made it through Singapore without going to Raffles and buying a Singapore Sling. And to be honest, the thought didn’t cross my mind. If I haven’t said it before, save yourself $23 (remember these are Singapore dollars readers, not US!) and being hovelled in the 3rd floor or whatever, and go to the New Asian Bar across the road – same owners, but something like the 56th floor (ok, maybe the 30th ish but I dunno), and in you’d get a cracking view of the city. Only thing is blokes need to wear long trousers, long sleeves and no sandals, and I’m on holiday.

Guess I better go and check in. I’ve also a 122 page document about group health and safety, river crossing, dangerous animals, how to dig a decent pit to sh!t in, and other marvels to read in the next day or so. (Note for Ken if you read this – I took this as a Word document so that’s a few hundred grams “shaved” 😉