Irony.
That was the first word that popped into my thoughts as I was typing the title of this post. Taking on a hiking trip on Malaysia Day to a village in Indonesia? Preposterous, some might say. But that is exactly what we did.
5:30 am. My phone alarm went off and after 3 hours of restless tossing and turning, I could finally and officially get out of bed to grab my bag and gear for the journey to Bangbaku, a foothill village near 10th mile on the famed Kuching-Serian Penrissen road. But breakfast and a few short stops along the way for some provisions and a pair of new RM13.90 rubber hiking shoes was in order before we finally
hit the road, in a manner of speaking. Unfortunately for me as I would later discover, the
road hit back!
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| Me, at Kampung Sapit |
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Arriving in Bangbaku about an hour later and about 10 minutes late, all the ojek (motorcycle taxi) operators were already there, as well as the rest of the hikers, including our organizers from
Bombastic Borneo, Mr Sim and his lovely sidekick, Miss Mei Er; who didn't look too happy about our tardiness and for that. should they be reading this, I truly apologize.
We each picked out the motorcycle that we wanted to go on and as I looked at all the relatively young and pretty small sized ojek operators, I couldn't help but feel a little panicky. To make matters worst, I realized then that I forgot to pack my beta blockers and anti anxiety meds. I could see the little bottles sitting on my desk at home and wished I had packed it with me. To add a little insult to injury, when I picked out the ojek that I was going on, the operators looked at each other, the one guy said a little "Oh No!" and laughed between themselves. Sigh. Being plus-sized sure is hard.
Eventually, I settled on another motorcycle and with the experience of the ojek operator, who navigated the small cliff-side trails expertly, we arrived at Kampung Sapit about 20 minutes later. It was a frightening ride for me, I was fully aware of the drops and cliffs and the fact that we didn't have any safety helmets on but I finally arrived at the house of our host, all limbs intact; though I can't say the same for the motorcycle that I was on. Every uneven part of the road that we hit, I could feel the tyres grinding up agains it's mudguard. Faulty suspensions or the heavy load that is yours truly? You decide.
Kampung Sapit is a relatively small village compared to the others that I've been to and like all the other villages, accommodation and amenities are back to the basics; which means fresh and clear water from the mountains, a comfortable home and most importantly, clean smog-free air.
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| A small marker separates Malaysia and Indonesia |
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After a short rest at our very gracious host's home and dumping everything that didn't need to be brought to the falls in his living room, we made our way to the famed twin Mureh Falls. Merely a short hike later, give or take 10 minutes, we've arrived on Indonesian soil and the only way to tell was the little marker on the ground and an Indonesian flag in the distance.
After much excitement and cliche jokes about being
illegal immigrants, we were on our way again.
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| Dirt trail on the way to Kampung Gun |
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| Our guide, our friends and sometimes, our lifelines. |
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| Crossing bamboo bridges is relatively easy, if you're not me |
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The track was relatively easy in the beginning with cement pavement and the dense jungle to give us some shade but it was nearing noon by this time and our organizer had earlier informed us that we will have to pass through two hills that have been recently cleared and burned for the cultivation of Padi. I arrived on those hills at about 11:44am, I remembered checking with a friend and to my horror, apart from the cloudless sky and the lack of trees and/or shrubbery, the trail was mostly uphill. The scene, if I had the energy, would call for a war cry; add some smoke and we have Apocalypse Now!
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| An uphill battle |
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| Some reprieve from an uphill battle |
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| Only to find more uphill battles |
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| Burnt trees and shrubs, making way for Padi | | |
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Making our way past the two very barren hills was a battle, going uphill has always been tough, but it is even harder when I have to do it under the watchful eye of the noon sun in barren hills, devoid of trees to give us that oh-so-comforting shade and with every step, I could hear my heart beat thumping in my ears. My compatriots have told me that if that were to happen, I should stop for a breather and when it has stopped and only then, should I push on. I stopped for 13.
Navigating my way to the top of the barren hills, legs tired and my tar-filled lungs and weak heart working on overtime, I was so glad to see the trail from that point onwards was downhill after that. My mistake. Downhill proved to be painful and taxing on the knees, but with my walking stick, I was able to make my way down and into Kampung Gun, about 20 minutes later, relatively unscathed. When I saw the village and the other hikers resting at one of the houses in Kampung Gun, I was so ecstatic I wanted to do a somersault; but at that point, I was so tired that I would probably just belly flop onto the chard surface of gravel and dirt.
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| Kampung Gun, finally! |
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| The terrace of the houses in Kampung Gun |
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| Another part of Kampung Gun |
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Kampung Gun had very friendly folks who offered us water to refill our bottles and more importantly, a comfortable place to rest our tired body and mind. Everyone was up for a chat, looked at us in wonder (perhaps they were wondering how this fat lady could get to their village without passing out), we were aliens in their land, city folks that probably never really went through the hardships that they do, day in and day out.
Our journey was half-way done, the waterfall that we are supposed to go to is another 1 1/2 hours away only from here on out; and I will document that in a later post.
