Tanjong Entigi, Malaysia Travel Journals & Blogs

Amie's Adventures Borneo and Indochina Adventure

Day 13

National park

October 16, 2016 in Malaysia ⋅ 🌧 10 °C

Dear travel journal,
It was another long but good day today. I skipped the sunrise today and had a couple more hours sleep. Then Kirsty and I got up and and joined everyone for breaky, who was already up because they watched the sunrise. At breaky we all said happy birthday to maria and Kirsty and Jason gave her cards from home and Callam gave her one he made that we all signed. Poor Kirsty is a bit fluey today so she kind of took her time earlier on. Then we got sorted and headed out to the boat. We were off to Tanjung datu national park. This is one of the smallest national parks in Borneo at only a couple of hundred hectares, and is bordering on the Indonesian boarder. The entrance was on the Tanjong (cape) side. At the national park entrance is a visitors center where we all had to sign in and we looked around at the information, especially about the turtle conservation project. There was also a ranger station, a small turtle hatchery and some areas just back from the sea front with covered eating areas, open sleeping areas and kitchenettes. After the visitors centre we walked through a section of the National park that was about 500m through on a forest path to a more enclosed beach on the Malaysian side of the point. The is called a Talko (bay) merlano. The water was awesome, white sandy beach and overhanging trees. We put all our stuff up under the trees and jumped in for a snorkel. We were looking for ikan badut or clownfish or nemos as Alvin was calling them. He wanted us to watch the enenomies and see how many we could count. I would have to say I saw at least 30 different ones. I also saw lots of other fish, lots of different coral and a sea snake. After snorkelling we headed back to the ranger station side of the beach to the covered areas, had a quick rinse and ate a tasty lunch the chief had brought for us from the homestay. A ginger cat came to join us for lunch who looked so much like cricket. Alvin said he has been around for at least 10 years and thinks that he is related to cricket. They are almost identical even in personality. The only difference being that this one had boofy cheeks, where as cricket has almost a Siamese face. He was very sweet and after Alvin gave him some left over chicken he had a sleep lay between Alvin and maria. After that we all had a couple of hours free time. I walked around the main area, checked out the hatchery and then walked the length of the beach. At the far end of the beach (towards Indonesia side) were lots of massive rocks were, so down I headed. On the way the tide started coming in but I saw a few holes where turtles had laid eggs and the rangers have collected them and moved them to the hatchery. The main turtle they get here are green turtles. Apparently if I had kept walking and gone behind the rocks there was a nice spot where a fresh water stream meets the ocean. After checking out the rocks a little I headed back down the beach. And then it just absolutely bucketed down. I got soaked and headed back to where we had lunch. We waited out the worst of the storm and headed back over to the other beach to the boat. The tide had completely come in and the beach was pretty much gone under the waves. Back in the Boat we headed out to telok milano village. In the village we sat at a little Cafe and ate anchovies and small nuts on what tasted kind of like corn chips, and super fishy flavoured prawn crackers. The drinks where your regular tea, coffee, coke and 100plus (isotonic drink) but we also tried an energy drink with ginsing (which apparently you can't buy in borneo) and a drink named ABC, which is crushed ice, strawberry sauce, jelly, green stuff and condensed milk - which actually didn't taste too bad. Then we went for a little walk through the village. We stopped at the Desalination plant. Which had been set up with donated money but they have none left for maintenance so they have no filters etc for the silo's. So it just sits unused. then we walked past the fanorama home stay which looks quite fancy. On the way we saw a monkey tied to a tree. Its an old tradition of the area that they have coconut picking macaques. He probably belongs to an older villager and once he passes the monkey will probably not be used anymore as its a dying out tradition. The owner of the home stay has been seen however, net fishing in the national park with Visitors, which is illegal. Hunting off the land is still allowed by people who live of the land (traditional hunters). They are allowed to do so, to get what they need to eat but they don't in specific aread for the turtles. We also visited the school, where Alvin and chief meenad have been doing loads of work for years. Part of our money is going to the school to buy a projector for conservation and alvins groups are going to help build a new undercover play area for the preschool where they are going to paint the wall and have a turtle conservation theme. We waited at the school for the rain to die down a little but it was not giving up, so back in the boat anyways and headed back to camp. First thing I did when we got back was jump in the shower and put dry cloths on. Then we sat around for afternoon tea, another type of sweet soup that I wasn't a huge fan of, so I just stuck to tea and biscuits and we all sat around chatting, and hanging balloons for Maria's birthday, while calam and Sam sat with fahmi drawing. And then maria, Kirsty and I stole the drawing book and took over a page when he was off at the smokers table. We were going to head into the village and have a look around but arrived back too late and then we were going to head back to the national park for a night walk but the weather was not great so we had a night in. After another Amazing meal (which the chief always sits with us and joins us, which is nice). We had meat and fish cooked over the open fire. After dinner we cleared up and then the chief came out with a cake for maria, which Alvin had brought while we were sorting our stuff at basaga. It was a super tasty chocolate brownie type cake with 1 candle in it. It opened lots of conversation about birthdays. Alvin's birthday is on the 25th June. We also learnt the Malay, "Bela jari jadi parmi - when is your birthday? ". After cake we sat down with the local ladies and they helped us make necklaces and a couple of people made bracelets from shells. We all sat around chatting, drinking tea and coffee while playing with the shells. Then we all got sorted for bed and said good night.Read more

Amie's Adventures Borneo and Indochina Adventure

Day 12

camp commando

October 15, 2016 in Malaysia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

Dear travel journal,
Today was a long day. Good but long. A few alarms went off at 5.30am for people to get up and watch the sunrise on the beach. After sitting up till midnight chatting I was pretty tired but couldn't get back to sleep. So I got up and joined jason, the boys, and Julie on the beach. Unfortunately it was super cloudy, so although it was getting sunnier we couldn't actually see the sunrise. So Jason and I just walked down the beach and looked around for a bit. Back at camp we had some tea and got sorted for the day, then I found the cat and we had big cuddles. He is such a cuddle tart, rolls over and loves his belly scratched and under his chin scratched. He doesn't have a name, so I have nicknamed him 'cricket' because he is constantly curling and vocal. Apparently there used to be a mum and bub who lived at camp but cricket chased them and everything else creppy crawly out of camp. Then everyone else slowly woke up, we had breaky and got sorted for the day. Once we had our hats and water we jumped in the speed boat and headed over to camp commando. Eventually camp commando will be known as the check in port, where people who come to the beach will have to sign in and it will be explained that they are in a national park and hunting is prohibited. The eventual plan will be that volunteers and zoology and ecology students will man the hut at the camp year round so that there is a constant volunteer presence. It was Low tied when we were heading over to the end of the beach and mangroves so we had to jump over board and we walked the last couple of kms up the beach and into the mangrove camp which you can't see at all from the Beach. Up in the mangrove and back in a clearing there is the start of a hut, the frame is up but thats about it. The plans are pretty cool. It will sleep 10, have a kitchen out the back and a toilet block a little ways away. There is also a natural well at the site which has been there for 3 generations. There is a father son team building the site. Eddie the dad is 30 and his son romi is 16 (yep do that math). They are just using a chainsaw and bolts and cutting everything they need from their environment around them. Romi went to school until he was 12 And now he is his dads apprentice. The locals here have a saying 'If you don't work you don't eat'. So from a young age they go to work. After morning tea we headed down to the mangrove river entrance and helped put in the stumps of the new jetty. Which were seriously just tree trunks with a point, chain sawed into one end that were lifted and swung backwards and forward which makes the hole bigger and the pole sink further. At one point to add extra weight We tied two poles together and callam stood on the pole tied at angle to the post and we rocked it to help sink it. Once the poles where in the tied had come right in and the chief got the boat and brought it down the start of the 'jetty' and we headed back to camp. Back at camp the tied was right in and we jumped out and unpacked the boats. We put all our stuff down and had lunch and then went down to the beach and swam for like 4 hours. We swam around and played catch with a small coconut for ages, all 10 of us playing around which was awesome. We even saw white belly sea eagles fighting over and little fishes and crabs swiming/skittering around. After we got out of the water we headed back into camp and ate some Bubor kachang (sweet pea and lentil soup) which was like a sweet pea and ham soup. And then we had some down time. I did some washing and had a shower and got my bag organised and fixed the hole in my mossie net. In a lot of down time Sam and callam have been playing with fahmi one of the locals children. He is 6 years old and very energetic, its quite cute and entertaining to watch. We all sat around chatting for a bit, drinking tea and Milo while chatting. There is a cement path that runs parallel to the beach the length of the village, down past our camp and to the other Houses. People have been going up and down all day both walking and on mopeds and bikes. A few people in the morning and afternoon where coming and going to work, mostly surveyors. And some people have gone past with rifles to go hunting. Sam and callam went walking this arvo and ran into some hunters who invited them to sit and they drank vodka and ate deer meat. They asked the boys why we were here and they said conservation and turtle awareness to which they responded that they eat turtle eggs but usually leave 60% of the eggs. Both turtle eggs and deer are not meant to be hunted in the national park. Changing the views and habits of the locals is going to be the hardest bit of everything. Alvin had received a text from the jungle chief after we left, which he got us all together and read out, it said - "I was right to organise the washing of the feet ceremony for these people and I can't remember in my life time anyone doing this ceremony. I hope they will come again, I miss them very very much." Its very humbling and a big thing for these people to show emotion like that. It really is amazing. Then we had dinner, cleaned up and headed out for a night walk in the shallows at 9pm cause that's when low tied was. Alvin wasn't feeling great so he went to bed early. Before he went to bed we filmed Alvin talking in malay telling our guide to walk slowly, point out things, name them in English if he can and come back in an hour. Our tour guides name was pak (uncle) zuki (he was always on the boat and around helping the cheif as our guide). We saw lots of crabs, a little jelly fish squishy thing, little fishes and Stingray holes. Apparently a few weeks ago the chief got a stingray barb in his foot but thankfully his wet shoes took the brunt of it so its healing up well. The moon was full which was pretty. It did however mean it was super bright. When its dark apparently you can see helps of bioluminescent Dino flagella in the water when your playing in it. The movement you make in the water moves the dino flagella making them glow. And when its dark but the sky is super clear you can see the milky way really well. Both would have been amazing. We also saw some guys way out in the shallows with torches, who were apparently searching for sand crabs. The tide levels here are amazing. The high tide comes right up the vegetation about 100 meters from our long houses and when its low tide its right down about an extra 500meters + out. The water is soon warm its like being in a warm bath tub. After the beach we all headed back to camp, washed our feet and headed to bed.Read more

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