week 14: Canopy walk in Temburong.

15^th November 2009, Sunday – our BEACA groups went to Ulu Temburong for our last trip. Basically, we went to Temburong district for Canopy walk, waterfall and visiting the Iban’s longhouse. Our trip lasted for about 10 hours. My post for that week was as an organizer; along with me were Malek and Ayie. There was a lot of thing we have to do, but luckily we managed to do the best that we can with the help of Dr Asmah and Dr Irene. We have to remind our colleagues to do their responsibilities while we as the organizer need to book a speedboat for us to go to Temburong.

Our meeting point was at Kianggeh. We were expecting to depart from Kinggeh at 6.30am, unfortunately the boat came late and we depart at 7.30am. The boat trip took us 45 minutes to arrive at Temburong. After we arrived at Temburong, Dr Amah and Dr Irene decided to take us to have a breakfast since most of us have not eaten our breakfast. I didn’t want to take a breakfast because I afraid that I will puke incase I get dizzy in the speedboat.

So we had our breakfast in the restaurant in Temburong. Dr Asmah said that it was important for us to have a breakfast because the trip required a lot of energy.

After having our breakfast, we continue our journey by bus where it took us half an hour to reach our next destination. The destination is just like Kianggeh, it’s a place where people have to use boat to reach Ulu Temburong. But the boat is different, the boat that we use over there were call ‘longboat’ it is a long boat but the width of the boat were not really wide. Before we get into the boat, we have to wear a life jacket. Honestly I was afraid at that time, keep thinking there is a crocodile in the river.

From my observation I think the velocity of the river was not so fast maybe because of so many braiding along the river, but mostly the braiding are made of rock thus it creates a lot of turbulent movement in the river. And feel so lucky to be in the boat with an experience boat driver in it. I’m sure to drive the boat is not really easy, where he has to go against the tide, he have to measure the depth of the river in certain area to prevent the boat from hitting the rock and even to manoeuvre the long boat is not an easy work to do. After maybe 15-20 minutes, we arrived at Ulu Temburong.

At first I thought that the canopy walk is just like the usual trekking that we used to do before, and I thought it would be a long walk along the canopy forest. As we arrived at the canopy walk, it was really different from what I thought. Then we have to show our determination again as we have to climb a 400metres of a stairs and a steep and sleepy ground to reach the ‘canopy walkway’. As we reach the ‘canopy walkway, I was really surprised, where we have to climb a ladder steel structure which is higher from any of the trees. To climb the canopy walkway was really challenging for me, it was really high and it is also shaky. However all the nervous feeling were gone once I reach the top, the feeling was different, I felt satisfied. I can see the green of my country, I can see Brunei Bay and it is one of the amazing views that I ever seen.

The steel structure up to 50 meters high

After that, we went to the wasai where we went for a bath in the waterfall. The waterfall was awesome; it is untouched, original and very beautiful. It is unbelievable, it was my first time to have a bath under the waterfall, the water was cold the waterfall was great I really love the waterfall.

Dr Irene, the first one getting into the wasai

Dr Asmah bullying Ms Nana

After that, we then take a break and having our lunch near the river before we continued our journey to the long house. During the visit to the Iban’s longhouse, I learned something from the Iban culture. I’m pretty sure that most Ibans live in longhouse. The Ibans were also creative and good at handcraft where I could see that they use ‘rotan’ to make ‘tikar’, ‘basket’ and etc to earn money.

Conclusion

· The environment of Temburong is really different to Brunei Muara, where we can see that the area is still original, still being preserved and not much change as in Brunei Muara.

· Under BEACA we are learning to be leaders, to work together as well as to appreciate the environment and also to improve our behavior in addition to enlarge our knowledge.

· I also get to know the way of life of the people in Temburong, where the river is their source of life. The get use the river as their transportation, as their source of job, they do fishing, washing and bathing in the river. It is a very different way of life from people in Brunei Muara.

· Lastly, I would like to thanks BEACA to give me the opportunity to go to Temburong for the first time even though I have been in Brunei for 20 years.

I feel sad that BEACA have to stop till here, I’m going to miss all my BEACA family, my colleagues, Dr Irene and Dr Asmah who gave us the opportunity to be in a great course where we enjoy doing all the activity, yet we learn a thousand of things from it, something priceless and valuable something that we cant get from the book.

Week 12: Sailing.

beaca swimming in the pelumpong island

SAILING

30th October 2009, our activity was SAILING. It is interesting and we were very excited. At 6.45am all of us assemble at the parking lot at Serasa beach and everyone prepared and get ready to sail. The sailing boat which brings us sailing is the DREAM CHARTER. The captain of the boat is Captain Peter Moeller and the crew is Aideen Henry and they are husband and wife.

Few things about the DREAM CHARTER

Petima is a luxury custom built boat constructed completely of wood. She is very safe boat. Petima is 11m long and 3.6m wide and can carry a maximum of 15 guests. Aideen Hendry told us that her husband Captain Peter Moeller bought the boat from a fishermen and the name of the boat came from the name of the fishermen daughter.

Jenny is constructed of steel. She is 13m long and 3.6m wide. She weighs 18t and can carry a maximum of 25 guests.

The captain and the crew

Captain Peter Moeller is a native of Germany and a very experienced skipper. Having sails all shapes and sizes of yachts. He has spent the last 10 years sailing in the Inland Waterways of Europe, Mediterranean, Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean, West Cost of America, Canada, Mississippi, through the Panama Canal, Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Australia, Western Malaysia, Thailand and finally Borneo. Aideen Hendry is a native of Ireland has been sailing over the last decade. Mostly having sailed on Multihulls where she met Peter.

Pick up point

At 7.00am sharp, the crew arrived at the Serasa beach where we wait. Captain Peter and Aideen came at the Serasa coast with their pontoon boat and came to the Serasa parking lot and they introduce them self. After their introduction Aideen ask for 10 first volunteer to go on board on their pontoon to head for The Dream Charter boat which is situated around 1/3 kilometer from the Serasa coast, a lot of my friend raised their hand so I decided to go for the next turn. There were 8 of them who volunteer to go first (Dr Asmah, Hj Irwan, Nuh, Ayiee, Nazz, Asri, Diana and Keem). Before moving, they were asked to remove their shoes, slippers or sandals before entering the pontoon. Before entering the pontoon, they were asked to put on a life jacket, but only some of them who put on the life jacket and some didn’t put on the life jacket. Then the Unexpected Incident Happen. The captain starts the engine of the pontoon, at the beginning everything went good. The pontoon moving but about half way to the sailing boat I realized that the front of the pontoon was sinking. Suddenly it took only a few seconds for the water to fill up the pontoon. The good thing was no one was panic at that time which was a very good way to react, because if they do panic it will make the situation more difficult to deal with end they could end up with someone getting injured. The way my colleagues react, it made me proud to see on how they apply their responsibility and teamwork to each others.

The sailing plan

After what has happened, we just keep our determination to restart the sailing. The sailing plan is to stop for a swim and enjoy the view and environment at Pulau Pelumpong and then go around Pulau Muara Besar and back to where we start. The Pelumpong Island a man-made Brunei island the cut-off spit from the main Muara beach, a nice sandy beach and clear water, very natural and very interesting in view, it is a very important island for our country because it protect us from big waves and also as a protection from enemies in the past. We swam in the Pulau Pelumpong beach for half an hour. The island was very special, the blue water, the sand and the view over there, it is a wonderful place to go.

On our way back to Serasa, the crew also told us some basic term use in sailing such as BOW: the front of the boat, STERN: back of the boat, PORT: left side of the boat, SAIL: help move the boat. Mainsail, head sail, storm sail, WINCH: a metal drum used to help raise and trim the sails, ANCHOR: an object that grips the ground and makes you stay in one place and many more. Aideen also thought us how to tide a rope, one called the 'King of knots', it is one of the most useful knots to sailors. It can be made quickly and easily and will never jam and the other is square knot, best known as sailors' knot, it is useful for joining small ropes together. She also gave us some activities to fill up along our journey.

Conclusion

There is a lot of things that I’ve learn from the journey, it adds to my knowledge. On our way to the Pelumpong Island we passed a fish farming area where there is a local working to breed the fish on their own farm area. THE ENERGY USE; all the farming area required electricity; I could see that every farm has their own generator as their source of electric energy. One of the farm there were own by the aunty of Dr Irene, the farm use solar energy and a little structure like windmill to get their electrical energy. THE ECONOMY ASPECT; Dr Irene also told me that the very big boat we could see hundred km from the Pulau Muara Besar is a cargo boat. What the boat doing is that they park over there, the boat come from all around the world, the use that as an alternative to reduce their cost, it is actually a good way to reduce energy waste, instead of moving far away, all the boat just park there and waiting to load their things.

Despite being unlucky in the early, we as the BEACA students still show our determination to continue the sailing. In the end we really enjoy the journey; it gave us a lot of knowledge, experience and in fact strengthens our bond as a BEACA family. And I would like to thanks Dr Irene and Dr Asmah for giving me the opportunity to go sailing.