Camping Adventure Part 2

After the camping trip to Hutan Kawang, I was invited by my dear colleague to another adventure, again another student project to Tambunan Village Resort Centre (TVRC). This time I'm just joining them to have some fun, not as substitute supervisor.

Our journey from KK takes about an hour and a half; maybe less if I drove a little bit faster. TVRC is quit popular among Sabahan, even though this is the first time I heard about it. Well, I'm not the 'traveler' type; even though I LOVE traveling....it just I don't have the MONEY! That's why I happily accepted my friend proposal to joined them....it CHEAP!

This place is not 5 stars, maybe not even 3 star, but if you LOVE nature and want to experience 'kampung' life, than TVRC is your choice. The chalets here are all made from bamboo, as what Tambunan is all about, bamboo district. Because this is a student project, we don't have much money to spend, so our chalet are so 'low' budget one. But we still can sleep in it(maybe not that comfortable with the sound of the bed everytime I switch position, but still sleepable) and even have a few games inside the chalet, with all 25 person inside at one time!

Oh, ya! Another interesting thing I found amusing is the fish pond. Why you say? Because the fishes there were all obese and have hypertension. This fact came from one of the employee there, coz obviously they were feed everyday! However, no one can catch or eat it. I was like imagining them in my dinner table....I'm sorry these fishes look so delicious...don't you think so???


Like my last adventure, we also have jungle tracking (or trekking???). I don't why they must include jungle tracking, maybe because this is Environmental Management (duhh!) subject...but man, I gotta said enough with the jungle tracking terminology in your tentative! Its not jungle tracking, it's HILL HIKING! A very LONG, HIGH and TIRED one! Still Kawang (post below, my 1st camping adventure) is the winner. This hiking is still a tough one, because of the 'new' trail that the guide made, and the narrow trail to the top and down. Leeches is a MUST with Malaysian jungle, so almost everyone got one. Of course I got one on my foot sucking my blood until it got ‘fat’ and two inside my shoe, thank god they didn’t ‘bite’ me. Actually, you don’t felt anything when the leech bites, so I don’t know why we all scared of them….Ehm…

After the 'hiking' and leeches...and stuff, we walk through this beautiful paddy field to go back to the resort. My tired-ness officially gone like a wind seeing this. When you rotate 360, all that you see is 'greeeeen' (hint:JPOP). The 'leeches' was soooo worth it!


The next day, we make a quick stop to Mahua Waterfall- about 30 minute from TVRC before we end our trip. I don't really see many waterfall in my life, but oh dear God...this is so HEAVEN! I don't know how to put it... but this is the best so far. My friend told me earlier that the waterfall is not that high and don't expect much, so I think it gonna be the same with Kawang's waterfall. I was dead wrong!!! At first, I thought, ehm...maybe I'm not gonna make myself wet, but it all change after seeing that. I was soaking myself in a cold water for 30 minute! Well, not that long...But I have FUN!!!!

ps: This is another post that I wrote a few weeks ago but never finish it. I finally have time after finish all the carry mark!!!Yahoo...time to play GAMES! Oh ya, you can see the rest of the pics in my flickr.

Camping Adventure

Last weekend, I was with a group of students to Hutan Lipur Kawang, Papar as part of their environment management’s project. Actually, I’m not the ‘supervisor’ (just helping my colleague who’s can’t make it) and I’d had never joined this kind of student’s project before, so its kindda ‘new’ experience for me, but a pleasant one.

First thing to do after arrived, taking picture!
But sadly, the background view is not the 'prettiest' one. My student told me later, that that part of the hills had been sold to the palm oil company, so now they 'clean-up' the hill to plant the palm trees.

This is a management office aka our 'tent' for the night... We are so lucky to get a permission to use the place, coz the toilets were very very clean! Because I'm their 'guru pemerhati' (like supervisor la...), I got to slept inside a room but still fill with students stuff, bags and all. All the students have to slept in the hallway...



Look at our kitchen...all the cooking essentials were provided! Of course, that girl is part of our 'kitchen crew'. There is a small waterfall infront of the office. Even it small, I mean it's not that high, but the sound of water dropping through the rock was AMAZING! Its so refreshing that all of us wake up early even though we were so tired from the 'hiking' (read below) and games we played the night before.

One of the activity we do there is 'jungle tracking'. I thought we just go to the jungle and walk through the trees, and see the bugs and leeches (in fact we saw a lot of them, and make all the girls screams like kindergarden kids) and visit a bat’s cave (as pix above). This 'jungle tracking' turn out to be a hike to the top of the hill. OMG! It took us 2 hours to go up, and the trail is not like what you see in the pic above, it just for the first 10 mins. The trail was so slippery from the rain last night, and causes many of us to fall on our butt several times. But once you on the top, the view were breathtakingly beautiful and silence our tiredness.

I thought (AGAIN!) that view was totally worth it. But the journey to go down is not an enjoyable experience, it took us 2 hours more! Again, the trail was very slippery, I fall many time like ‘nangka busuk’. The ‘suppose’ to be the last 30 mins from the end of the trail…rain came like cats and dogs. Plus, we have to wait for one of the student who’s suddenly got cramp leg. 30 mins turns to an hour ride down, and it was dark already during our journey + rain = NIGHTMARE!

But after all that hiking experience, I still felt happy and fun coz I know this is once in the lifetime kindda thing. Besides, the students were all AMAZING and fun to be with. I’ll treasure this experience forever. Thanks TEAM GENESIS!!!