Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Hokay my darlings, its what you’ve been waiting for…
Part 1 of my malay adventure. Its currently 1:02 AM here in merry ole England, so forgive me if my typing is really screwy…


Ok, so the first thing you notice in Malaysia is that its freakin hot. And they expect you to build buildings and trek and stuff in this weather, so the first thing ya gotta do is acclimatise. We did this at Jungle camp, a nice enough place where we spent the first week. (BTW, this was all charity work, NOT A HOLIDAY! If anyone mentions the H word I will hurt them using a wooden spoon carved from Borneo Flora.)



This is my “basha” where I stayed at jungle camp. It was quite comfortable actually. You got used to the mozzie net after a while too. In fact, towards the end of the expedition, you didn’t feel safe unless you had it. ^^;;

Jungle camp basically consisted of meeting our teams for the first phase and doing some basic training, including a one day trek.



this is my team (alpha 2) doing a radio check



And this is the nice little stream we washed in. that night was hell though, sleeping in the actual jungle with nothing but a small tarpaulin over me and a hammock that was badly put up (by me) so I kept sliding down to one end. >.<

But after all that, we went to a nice hostel for the expedition opening ceremony, and then from there we were to head out to our different phases. My group were off to a remote village called Kampung Rita to build a library (or start to anyway)



This is Alpha 2 (phase 1), or my group for the first 3 weeks. Back row: Me.
Middle row (left to right): Justin, Phillipa, Sam, Martyn, Peter, Diana
Front row: (L to R) Jane, Vicky, Collin N Rosie (our project managers), Becky and Zoe.
They were a pretty cool bunch of people. ^^

You have to turn ya head sideways to look at this one…



this is pete with the lil ukulele he bought at one of the rest stops. -_-;
we were staying in a community hall and when we first got in there, it looked like this:



but after two days hard work, we transformed it into this:



luxery accommodation complete with kitchen, proper beds, dartboard and 24/7 audience…yeah…the local kids were fascinated by us, and would basically watch us every hour of the day (and a lot of the night too) it was kinda cute to begin with, but after a while (and after they always insisted on coming to wash with us in the river-did I say wash, I meant SPLASH AROUND WHILST WE’RE TRYING TO HAVE A BIT OF PRIVACY) …yeah, they were kinda annoying. But useful too…
like bringing us…



FRESH COCONUT. Seriously, ripe coconut straight off the tree is possibly one of the most refreshing things on this planet. ^^ yum.

The other part of our luxery accommodation was the bathroom facilities…



you have to understand, we thought we were gonna be squatting over a hole for 3 weeks. To actually have a proper sit down seat (albeit over a smelly hole) was sheer class. And, occasionally, when the mozzies weren’t around and it was quiet, and you had something burning (like incense or something) it was actually quite a pleasant experience to visit George. Oh yah, that’s what we named the toilet. George. Don’t ask, it’s a long story involving bodily functions. But the name stuck throughout all three phases and even after Raleigh finished the library, word on the grapevine was that the Chief of the village wanted to keep George intact! Probably cuz it was a nicer bog than the chiefs own one… ^^;;



This is the river where we washed daily, and if you got down there quick before anyone else, it was quite nice. ^^

The library we were tasked to start building was meant to be built on a paddy field…this meant we actually had to HARVEST the rice first, but once we done that, we got started on digging the foundations…



of course, that’s when it wasn’t raining…


But we made good progress despite crappy tools and materials…



Btw, that’s the chief’s shop in the background, another luxery we took full advantage of. ^^;



This was us on the last day of work, a bit stronger and a better equipped for the next 6 weeks of Raleigh.

Of course, it wasn’t all work.

We also sunbathed



did a little wildlife watching



Went to the beach



And again



And again…this was the perfect beach…utterly deserted and never before visited by western people



We also went to a waterfall (sorta)






Taught at the local school



Took on the teachers at footy…and lost…



Became the first white people to ever play Connect Four at this particular spot in the jungle halfway up a steep hill…



Went boat riding (well, that was the only way to get to the beach)



And we even took part in a little Local Cultural Dancing



yes, that is me. ^^;;

we even found time to have a silly little awards ceremony.



That’s me at the front holding my “Firemaster” award for being l337 and skilled at fire building and maintenance. Ph34r my m4d 5k1ll5.

Oh and in case you’re wondering, YES. I am wearing a bandana in every single picture you will see of me in Malaysia. That’s cuz I never took one off, other then when I was sleeping, bathing or changing it for a clean one…

I had a fantastic time in Rita, the locals were great and it was very satisfying work. But alas, I had to leave. I had 6 more weeks of other adventures awaiting me.



BUT

That is a story for another day. if you actually took the time to read all of that…thank you. Now get back to work.





(I painted that!)

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