My Trip to Borneo (or I Probably Watch Too Much Reality T.V.), by Garth

On March 25^th, I had the opportunity to go to a Teacher’s Conference in the city of Kota Kinabalu, which is located in the East Malaysian state of Sabah, in northern Borneo. Borneo is the third largest island in the world. The Teacher’s Conference was put on by EARCOS (East Asia Regional Council of Schools). There were 1100 teachers from international schools all over East Asia. The Conference was held at The Sutera Harbour Resort. I was very impressed with the accommodations, food, and activities at the resort. My highlight from the first day was the main plenary speaker, who had left Microsoft to start up schools in impoverished countries, and he also set up a publishing company to produce books that would be culturally appropriate for the students in those countries. My highlight from my second day was also the plenary speaker on TCK’s (Third Culture Kids). These are children from one culture that grow up in a different culture. The speaker was American, but her parents were medical missionaries in Korea. She spent most of her growing up years in Korea, graduating from the Seoul Foreign School. Her speech helped me be more sensitive to children to the TCK's at Dalat.

View from my hotel room-Pacific Sutera. Looking at the the South China Sea 

On the third day I got to preview a place that would be a possible place to host a student trip for Dalat. For Dalat, some of the overnight school trips, involve one or two days of fun and recreation, but also an additional day of service to the community. The tour was put on by Ability Expeditions. It was about an hour bus ride from Kota Kinabalu. When we arrived, we got to see the accommodations, and where the students would be eating their meals. We also got to the option of trying a ropes course, abseiling, or a climbing wall. I decided to try some wall climbing, and afterwards we all went zip lining across the Kiulu river, (For Amazing Race fans, this was the river the teams had to build a bamboo raft and go down the river to the village on Amazing Race All-Stars Season 24). To finish off the tour, we also got to see the village where the students would do service projects.

Accommodations where students would sleep

Trying to get to the top of the climbing wall You can see people on the ropes course to my left. The wall for abseiling was to my right

Kiulu River-see comment above about Amazing Race and the Kiulu River

Me zip lining across the Kiulu River

Suspension bridge to the village

Scenery in the village

Village School

Community Center in the village

Bharet, a teacher from International School Beijing playing badminton with some of the children

Service project-an international school in Kuala Lumpur built this volleyball court as a service project

After the conference ended, I spent two additional nights in Borneo. My first day, I went to the Mari Mari Cultural Village. The Cultural Village shows what the housing looks like for the 5 main aboriginal tribes from that area. My highlight was sampling food and beverages that were made by the different tribes. My other highlight was shooting a blow dart gun. After the Mari Mari Cultural Village,  I "hijacked" our tour van (there were only two other people in the van, and they agreed to the diversion); instead of going back to our hotels, I asked our driver to take us to Kiansom Falls. Kiansom Falls was only 400 meters from Mari Mari Cultural Village so it was not really an inconvience. Kiansom Falls was in the Amazing Race All Stars - Season 24 T.V. show, where they had to abseil down the waterfall to get the traveling gnome; I had to go see it as I am a big fan of the Amazing Race. The parking lot for the water falls was full. I guess I wasn’t the only Amazing Race fan that "hijacked" their tour van that day. Actually, it ended up that the parking lot was full because there were many locals going swimming at the waterfalls.The latter part of the day I was supposed to go whitewater rafting down the same Kiulu River mentioned earlier (with a regular raft not a bamboo one), but it was cancelled because the river was too low.

Entrance to Mari Mari Cultural Village

Some of the tribes were head hunters. They would display the skulls to ward off evil spirits but also a way of boasting about their strength

Chicken, chillis, and onion cooking in bamboo that was lined with banana leaf

Finished product tasted very good.

Fire making using coconut husks and bamboo.

I volunteered from our group to greet the chief of the tribe. 

Me using the blow dart gun. 

Hanging out with the natives

Kiansom Waterfalls from Amazing Race All Stars 24, in which the contestants had to abseil down to get the traveling gnome.

The next morning, I got up and caught my ride to Pulau Tiga island, also known as Survivor Island. Pulau Tiga, for those who don’t know, is where they filmed the first ever Survivor in 2000. The first Survivor series is now called Survivor: Pulau Tiga. It was originally called Survivor, then changed to Survivor: Borneo, but now it has its present name of Survivor: Pulau Tiga. I was booked to spend a night on the island. It was about a 2 hour drive from Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Penyu where I caught the boat for a 30 minute boat ride to Pulau Tiga. My highlight was going into the mud volcano. They also used the mud volcano in the Survivor series, where each contestant had to get muddy, and see who get the most weight of mud from their body. Kelly, the runner up from that season, won that competition. Here is the link to the challenge:  Mud Volcano challenge-Survivor
I could see the mud bubbling up from the bottom. After you get in the mud volcano, you are supposed to get very muddy from head to toe, and then you walk back to the water, which was about a 20 minute walk and wash all the mud off. I enjoyed how I floated on top of the mud, and you could not sink no matter how hard I tried (very similar to my experience at the Dead Sea). I had a few monkeys watching me as I was floating in the mud volcano. After about 15 minutes, I got all muddied up and was ready for my trip back down to the water. After lunch, I spent the rest of the day snorkeling. The reef was just off the shore. My highlight of snorkeling, was seeing some purple sea urchins for the first time. After supper, I watched the sunset while lying in a hammock, which was very beautiful.  After breakfast, it was time to leave after “my torch got snuffed” and head to the airport to fly back to Penang.

I knew I had the right tour van

Waiting at the jetty at Kuala Penyu for my 30 minute boat ride to Pualu Tiga

On our way with Pulau Tiga in the distance.

I made it!!!!

Enjoying my time lying in the mud volcano with a few spectators

All covered with mud, now it is time to walk back to the beach to wash off

At the beach, where I washed off the mud

Sunset at Pulau Tiga

Maybe there is a hidden immunity idol hidden in there?

I got to the airport on time with about an hour to spare. I found security at the airport to be interesting. I had bought a blow dart gun as a souvenir for the girls. I had no checked luggage, but I was hoping (part of me was expecting it to be taken away) that they would allow me to take a blow dart gun on the plane (it was disassembled). But no problem, I was able to take the blow dart gun on the plane. I also had some water, which most places are very strict about. But I also had no problem taking my bottled water through security. They did not even ask me to empty it.

I "Survived" my time in Borneo and found it truly "Amazing".