Monday, June 11, 2007
Sabah 5th Day - 4/6/07
And it's "Plant A Tree" Day! This was to help the reforestation efforts of the Kundasang people. You could choose to plant either a durian or rambutan tree, as those were the only shrubs available that day. I chose a durian tree. And all of us had trees to plant, and we could paint our names on boards to insert into the ground! So cool!
That's me and my little durian tree, which I pray will gorw grow grow! As I was standing there panting it and stamping the board into the ground, I must have gotten bitten / eaten / sucked alive by the horrendous mosquitoes and bloodsucking insects there! Never had they swarmed upon me in such a short span of time! Like I was their superstar! A buffet spread!
And after much negotiation and collaboration and refusing to be bullied, we managed to go for the Oxbow Lake tour - supposedly the best in Kalimantan too! Why so much trouble? Because the guide realised that we were Geographers and interested in rivers, so he confessed that it would be a good opportunity to visit it. Moreover, it could fit into our schedule! So he called the agent, but they requested that we pay RM10 each to the resort for the transport into the city later. This didn't make sense at all, because this transport was originally included in the itinerary! Not that my kids couldn't afford the RM10. But if we were to pay for anything, the guide and the local guide should get the credit! Not the resort, or anything that was already included in the itinerary! So I argued, and called the Singapore agent and it bounced to and fro, until I won the battle. So we didn't have to pay for anything, but got to go for the tour too. But we did tip the guide generously.
And the all-cool local guide! He resembles the Canoeing coach! All full of fun, bubbly, always smiling, energetic, fit and filled with local knowledge. I like. Heh. My kind of "gorilla"... =) His name is Alloy. Nice hor? Haha!
Know the pill bug or sog bug? When it is threatened, it curls into a ball. Can play gor3 li4 (marble) with it! Heh. I actually threw it into my pocket, wanting to bring it home. But after a while, I decided that if it got comfortable and starting uncurling itself and crawling in my pants, I would so totally freak out. So I took it out. Heh.
These are the mating tractor-pillars. Hmm... looks like 3 of them together hor? Well well well... Is your mind wandering?? Maybe they are just keeping warm lah. Or playing stack-me-up. =)
See the leech at his finger? We just ultimately grossed out by the leeches there lah. There were like families of them lah! And they all landed on one of my student, as she brushed against this plant which was filled with them. We got so used to them that when we saw a leech, we would just pull them off and fling them away while jumping up and down going "EWW"! Haha!
And a memory of us in the forest, posing in front of a gigantic tree.
And the peaceful Oxbow lake, flagged by the tall tropical trees. Reminded me of Camp Little Notch in the USA... sigh.
The oxbow lake. Serene right? But this is not an aerial view lah... so can't really see the oxbow shape of it.
This was the unstable platform at the oxbow lake. If you didn't hold on to it, it might just float away, as it was held by flimsy ropes. And if everyone was to stand on one corner of the platform, it would sink! Haha! How often do you get such an experience?? Not without your parents screaming and freaking out! Haha!
See the fishies in the bottle? We caught it ourselves you know? Using our bare hands... by creating disturbances in the water. Cute right? We almost brought them home.
Playing with the mud bombs... which we used to attack each other and the shelter in which the rest of the kiddos refused to get wet and dirty. Heh. Whale of a time!
Posing with mud all over our faces and hands.
Us posing in the oxbow lake, with specially designed hair and mask on our faces. Though I have to say that it was rather smelly. Like the Kallang River. Haha! But then again, how often do you get to play in the mud of an oxbow lake with your friends / students?
Yep, and then we made our way back to Bilit Adventure Hut, where we bade farewell to everyone, especially dear Alloy... =)
Now enroute to Gomantong Caves.
That's us on the bridge, on the way to visit Gomantong Caves, the world's smelliest and dirtiest cave. And you wonder why we even go there right? Well, for the experience. For your information, we saw a whole hill of bird's shit! Hahaha! And hoards and hoards of bats and cockroaches!!! Super gross! After trekking abit and taking some photos and patting bats, we made our way out.
That's us outside Gomantong Caves. Observe the left hand side of the cave... do you see a witch? With a pointed nose??
That's me in my poncho. I am the duckie! We wore a poncho to avoid the raining birds' shit and the xiao3 qiang2 (cockroaches).
And a dead swallow. Sigh. I immediately thought of dear Pengy, whom I haven't met or talked to in ages.
And this very cool insect... with a thousand legs. This was found in the cave! What the heck is it doing in the cave??
After climbing up this rather steep slope in the cave, filled with loose gravel and 'stuff' and stepping on 'noboy-knows-what-and-nobody-wants-to-know-what', we had to take this photo for memory's sake!
This is the tool they use to obtain the birds' nest. The nest which the poor swallows painstakingly built with their saliva. But these birdnest picking jobs are highly risky. Though people still engage in it cos they briong huge, fat profits!
That's me seated at the back of the bus, just for fun. =) Reminds me of my Lake Toba Fieldxtrip in Sec 3 when I sat at the back of the bus (literally where the window was) with Julie and Weisian. The 3 rebels. Heh.
That's the 16-seater bus we got. Pretty cosy.
And we ended that night at Sepilok Jungle Resort. No no, no more jungle... today it's a HOTEL. With cable vision, air con, big, nice cosy bed, hot shower and all. Even though a xiaoqiang peeped its feelers through the hole in the basin and gave us all a shock, and a tingle down the back. So we stuffed a ball of tissue into the hole to prevent its entry. This was akin to how we stuffed a piece of plastic bag into the hole in the Adventure Lodge the night before to prevent the mouse from entering the room! Apparently the mouse was quite cute... well, some of them didn't think so though! Haha!
That's my board. =)
And that's ALL of us with ALL our boards... and one for the Saints too.
That's me and my little durian tree, which I pray will gorw grow grow! As I was standing there panting it and stamping the board into the ground, I must have gotten bitten / eaten / sucked alive by the horrendous mosquitoes and bloodsucking insects there! Never had they swarmed upon me in such a short span of time! Like I was their superstar! A buffet spread!
And after much negotiation and collaboration and refusing to be bullied, we managed to go for the Oxbow Lake tour - supposedly the best in Kalimantan too! Why so much trouble? Because the guide realised that we were Geographers and interested in rivers, so he confessed that it would be a good opportunity to visit it. Moreover, it could fit into our schedule! So he called the agent, but they requested that we pay RM10 each to the resort for the transport into the city later. This didn't make sense at all, because this transport was originally included in the itinerary! Not that my kids couldn't afford the RM10. But if we were to pay for anything, the guide and the local guide should get the credit! Not the resort, or anything that was already included in the itinerary! So I argued, and called the Singapore agent and it bounced to and fro, until I won the battle. So we didn't have to pay for anything, but got to go for the tour too. But we did tip the guide generously.
So this was enroute the Oxbow Lake.
And the all-cool local guide! He resembles the Canoeing coach! All full of fun, bubbly, always smiling, energetic, fit and filled with local knowledge. I like. Heh. My kind of "gorilla"... =) His name is Alloy. Nice hor? Haha!
Of course we had to trek for 30min or so to the Oxbow Lake... we were one with nature! And we were kinda apprehensive because there were lots of leeches! So we made our way as fast as possible. We came upon lots of interesting lifeforms... and even discovered that butterflies are attracted to wild boars' pee! And my, did we step into lots of wild boar pee and what-have-you! We even traced mini elephant footprints! =)
An example of a student's shoe being stucked in well, we-dun-wanna-know-what. But it did make us laugh out loud! =)
Know the pill bug or sog bug? When it is threatened, it curls into a ball. Can play gor3 li4 (marble) with it! Heh. I actually threw it into my pocket, wanting to bring it home. But after a while, I decided that if it got comfortable and starting uncurling itself and crawling in my pants, I would so totally freak out. So I took it out. Heh.
And I got my student to feed me! Haha! Look at the disgusted look on my student's face at the back! *grin*
Can you see the nicely camouflaged frog / toad on the tree?? My gosh! Spend quite a hard time trying to figure it out! But I'm glad I got it on camera! Stare hard... search for its eyes! It might help! =)
Lantern Insect. Cool right? I would have never spotted it due to its camouflage! But it's such an interesting shape! Resembles a dinosaur!!
Another cool insect which I spotted, but can't identify. =)
These are the mating tractor-pillars. Hmm... looks like 3 of them together hor? Well well well... Is your mind wandering?? Maybe they are just keeping warm lah. Or playing stack-me-up. =)
See the leech at his finger? We just ultimately grossed out by the leeches there lah. There were like families of them lah! And they all landed on one of my student, as she brushed against this plant which was filled with them. We got so used to them that when we saw a leech, we would just pull them off and fling them away while jumping up and down going "EWW"! Haha!
And a memory of us in the forest, posing in front of a gigantic tree.
And the peaceful Oxbow lake, flagged by the tall tropical trees. Reminded me of Camp Little Notch in the USA... sigh.
The oxbow lake. Serene right? But this is not an aerial view lah... so can't really see the oxbow shape of it.
This was the unstable platform at the oxbow lake. If you didn't hold on to it, it might just float away, as it was held by flimsy ropes. And if everyone was to stand on one corner of the platform, it would sink! Haha! How often do you get such an experience?? Not without your parents screaming and freaking out! Haha!
See the fishies in the bottle? We caught it ourselves you know? Using our bare hands... by creating disturbances in the water. Cute right? We almost brought them home.
Playing with the mud bombs... which we used to attack each other and the shelter in which the rest of the kiddos refused to get wet and dirty. Heh. Whale of a time!
Posing with mud all over our faces and hands.
Us posing in the oxbow lake, with specially designed hair and mask on our faces. Though I have to say that it was rather smelly. Like the Kallang River. Haha! But then again, how often do you get to play in the mud of an oxbow lake with your friends / students?
Yep, and then we made our way back to Bilit Adventure Hut, where we bade farewell to everyone, especially dear Alloy... =)
Now enroute to Gomantong Caves.
That's us on the bridge, on the way to visit Gomantong Caves, the world's smelliest and dirtiest cave. And you wonder why we even go there right? Well, for the experience. For your information, we saw a whole hill of bird's shit! Hahaha! And hoards and hoards of bats and cockroaches!!! Super gross! After trekking abit and taking some photos and patting bats, we made our way out.
That's us outside Gomantong Caves. Observe the left hand side of the cave... do you see a witch? With a pointed nose??
That's me in my poncho. I am the duckie! We wore a poncho to avoid the raining birds' shit and the xiao3 qiang2 (cockroaches).
And a dead swallow. Sigh. I immediately thought of dear Pengy, whom I haven't met or talked to in ages.
And this very cool insect... with a thousand legs. This was found in the cave! What the heck is it doing in the cave??
After climbing up this rather steep slope in the cave, filled with loose gravel and 'stuff' and stepping on 'noboy-knows-what-and-nobody-wants-to-know-what', we had to take this photo for memory's sake!
This is the tool they use to obtain the birds' nest. The nest which the poor swallows painstakingly built with their saliva. But these birdnest picking jobs are highly risky. Though people still engage in it cos they briong huge, fat profits!
That's me seated at the back of the bus, just for fun. =) Reminds me of my Lake Toba Fieldxtrip in Sec 3 when I sat at the back of the bus (literally where the window was) with Julie and Weisian. The 3 rebels. Heh.
That's the 16-seater bus we got. Pretty cosy.
And we ended that night at Sepilok Jungle Resort. No no, no more jungle... today it's a HOTEL. With cable vision, air con, big, nice cosy bed, hot shower and all. Even though a xiaoqiang peeped its feelers through the hole in the basin and gave us all a shock, and a tingle down the back. So we stuffed a ball of tissue into the hole to prevent its entry. This was akin to how we stuffed a piece of plastic bag into the hole in the Adventure Lodge the night before to prevent the mouse from entering the room! Apparently the mouse was quite cute... well, some of them didn't think so though! Haha!
We were served dinner at this really huge heavy, wooden table... similar to those warlords having a feast in the castle. I was searching around for a good place to do my final debrief for the trip, but nobody would offer their room... so I negotiated with the restaurant aunty to let us use the table till late, and she even offered to leave the lights on for us! Yay!!
So debrief was gonna be a really long one... to sum up the entire trip.
For academic stuff, we talked about the oxbow lake, hotspring and volcanoes, plate tectonics, comparison between Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan through the maps, and accounting for the layout....
For academic stuff, we talked about the oxbow lake, hotspring and volcanoes, plate tectonics, comparison between Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan through the maps, and accounting for the layout....
For more fun stuff, I had them share on what they have learnt and whether their expectations of the trip were met. Then I got all of them to write their big, fat name on their journals, to be passed around to every individual... and everyone had to write something about their person. This was also to boost their ego / morale, bond more closely with each other, and say things which they will probably not say to each other in normal situations. Hmm.. declaration of love, maybe? Haha!
But it was good. Quite fun too. And I could see that they really enjoyed reading the comments! Haha! Err... so did I! Hahaha! A little cheap thrill. And I was glad that they were all glad that they came for this trip and enjoyed themselves thoroughly... even though some of them came because they were scolded by me for being irresponsible in wanting to pull out the last minute. They said that it was comfortable being with me because I did not enforce the teacher-student boundary too strictly. That's me, I hope it's not a bad thing. One said I was super enthusiastic and it's hard to not be influenced by it... always wanting to try new stuff... I guess that's what travelling is all about too, right?
All in all, it was a great way to end the day, and the last debrief. We ended by watching cable tv in bed... an exciting suspense thriller... till we dozed off and realised that no one knew the ending! Haha!
# posted by Banana Saviour @ 12:51 AM 
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swallowapple pengy in yellow poncho is still alive. cant find her japanese prince though, cant even see a japanese farmer despite the vast padi field in rural japan.
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