day of travel

Dear travel journal,
I'm exhausted and we really didn't do a whole lot today. I didn't sleep overly well last night, I kept tossing and turning and then at 5am the roosters started going off, and did not stop for about 3 hrs! I got up and went to the loo are 5.30am and tip toed past everyone asleep on the floor. And then managed a couple more hours sleep and was woken up for breakfast. The typical eggs, noodles, and toast and today we also had cheese and meat sausages. After breaky we cleared up, got our things together, put all of our dirty laundry in one pile and packed the car. Before we left we took looks of group photos inside and out the front of chiefs house and one of the other jungle tribesman's house as well, who was right down the other end of the longhouse. On the way back up to the chiefs (a good 100 meters) Alvin had us line up in threes, an arms length between us to the side and in front. He then had Frankie stand at the front and yell out army commands in Malay (and just followed what Alvin did). We stood to attention, at ease, attention, turned left and marched the length of the hallway. The stopped, turned right, attention, reset and broken up. It was a good laugh. then we all said our goodbyes, chief told me again to come back soon as he thinks I will be a good help with the eco-university they would love to set up at the jungle long house, which i indefinitely will. And then we piled into the vans and off we went. We drove for a few hours and then stopped in sri amen. We did all of our washing and sat in a cafe and had cold drinks while it was washing, put it in the dryers and then headed over to the market to have some lunch and then walked around a bit and stopped at a pharmacy for Anne and Sam's itchy bites and then back into the van for another few hrs. We stopped once at a market place so some people could buy machetes and we had a quick walk around and then again on the side of the road for a chat and to look at our surroundings and and how they all fit together. And then onto the village we are staying in tonight to talk about how the area we are in is compiled of completely regrown fruit trees not natural forest and as we are out the back of semmengoh orangutan reserve its prime location for orangutans to move out into and that there has been some evidence that some have done just that. More so by the locals of the tribes then the authorities. There are around 18 villages around this area. And there have been 12 true traditional hunters identified in this area. Who are still known as monkey eaters, although this region has the highest number of graduates for its population in Sarawak showing that they are all educated and have jobs, moving them away from hunting for the most part. Alvin's plan is to talk his guide friend valentine and head into these villages once we leave and have chats and built positive relationships with as many of these villages as possible. To help express the importance of conservation and sustainable hunting and saving and coexisting with the orangutan population in these regions. We are the first group to come through here purely to help raise awareness for conservation and to help prove that people outside the local communities really do care and want to help. We also stopped at Alvin's house to drop off a lot of the kits and Christina. We will miss her but she will come to dinner on the last night. Got another big hug and a see you soon from Christina's mum and were back off to our home stay village. Peraya village is a decent size with lots of different homes, an education centre and a little soccer field. We are staying in the peraya homestay which is owned by a guide named valentine who is an old friend of alvins. we made it into the village and unpacked the van and walked up the river bank a little and then crossed a bamboo bridge to get to our long house. This long house has a covered and uncovered entertainment area. And 10 rooms in total where we all split off into pairs. Up behind the longhouse is a shower block with 3 cubicles with a shower and toilet in each and a couple of sinks outside. Which is awesome proper shower and somewhere to brush our teeth and wash cloths. The two are connected by a path of concrete circles. We all unpacked and had afternoon tea and had showers. The shower was very cold, but refreshing. After we got sorted It was time for dinner which was tasty as always. After dinner we sat around chatting. Valantine sat with us chatting about how he has set up this homestay to highlight the traditions of his culture, which is why there is a bamboo bridge to get in and everything is made from bamboo. He believes that it is important for us to be teaching the next generation. Alvin was saying that him and valentine have surveyed some of the primary schools in the area and most of the kids don't even know what animals are living in the jungle around their homes. They think they have gorillas and no dramas with some of the critical species because it's just not taught or talked about. Teaching these kids is the most important thing we can do to help the future of Borneo's environment and species management. Then Julie, Anne and I worked on our travel journals and then crashed.Read more