Week- 14 (Ulu- ulu Temburong)

About the trekking:

On 15th November 2009, we had our trekking at Temburong and it's our last trekking of the first semester. For this week trekking i choosed to be the trekking organizer, However there were 3 trekking organizer for this week namely Syahir, Ayie and me if im not mistaken.

The excitment started at Kianggeh area, there we waited for our speedboat to bring us to Temburong. I arrived there around 6.15 am and waited for everyone to arrived. About 7.30 am our speedboat arrived and its abit late where we were expected to leave at 7am sharp.

As the journey started by using the speedboat it was something new as this was my first time going to Temburong and my first time getting into the speedboat as a passenger. It was about 40 to 45 minutes journey from Kianggeh to Temburong. In the middle of our journey rains started but luckly we were safe arrived to Temburong around 8.15am.

By the time we arrived there we were waited by one girl i don't remember her name and she will be our tour guide for the whole trip. Firstly, she bring us to have a breakfast at an indian restaurant. All of us had our breakfast of one 'Teh-C special' and one 'roti kosong'. After we had our breakfast then we go to 'Temuai' longboat. This boat can bring 5 to 6 person per boat.

As we arrived to the canopy walk it ws really exiting place. In order to reach to the top we have must to climb up a small steep slope with a slipery condition and stairs. It was really tiring yet still interesting. When we arrived at the top there were a steel structure that rise to 50meter from the forest floor and to the most top layer of the trees. It was really high and i was abit shaky climbing up because i was afraid of height. When i reach the top the view were really different from the bottom view because there were many beautiful view i can see including mt.kinabalu but it was really far.After doing that much activities we stop having our lunch at the waterfall area. There we had our lunch and rest for awhile.

The steel structure up to 50 meters high

The waterfall!! and there was Dr.Irene the first person to dive into the water.

At the end of the trip we visited Iban's longhouse. It was my first time entering this kind of houses. It was really unique which that house there were consist of 16 families member with all the rooms and veranda were connected. At last we headed back to the speedboat area at bangar and ready to be back to Brunei Muara.

Organization of experinces:

1. It was really hard to organize this trip as this were our first time being the organizer however me and Syahir manage to organize the speedboat transportation really well.

2. Overall the organization went really well as everyone giving full support doing their part as a team. As transport organizer Azri's went well where the bus arrived on time to UBD and fetch us up on time aswell at Kianggeh after the trip, the refresment was good that Abg Irwan provided enough refresment with two bottel of water and along with 100plus.

3. Time organizing its not really good, However this is not our fault as the speedboat doesn't arrived right on time we were expected to leave.

The environment and infrastruture:

1. The environment there were really different from we had in Brunei Muara because in Temburong mostly there were forest and only small roads available there,where on the other hand in Brunei Muara mostly there were many big roads and junctions.

2. The houses there are mostly wodden houses and just in small number was a concrete house, there were also many longhouses with different kind of style for example there were wodden kind of longhouse and there were also concrete long houses but only at the veranda were the concrete but back of it were still wood.

Learning aspect:

1. As being the trek organizer this gave me much experince in organizing this such trip. Here i can learnt organizing the transport such as the speedboat where me and Syahir booked for the boat.

2. This was my firs time going to Temburong and its really interesting about this place where went to the canopy walk and its really interesting being on top of the steel structure up to 50 meters. Its my first time aswell being in the 'Temuai' longboat and also first time visiting the iban longhouse, so here i can learnt many new stuff about their culture and style of living which were different from us.

Week- 11 (Big Trees)

About the trekking:

On 25th october 2009, we had a trip to kota batu area which were known as big trees. For this week trip i choosed my position as the first-aider. For this position i need to bring along a bag of first-aid materials such as bandages,plasters and many others. Here i need to take care of my other friends safety and need to take care of injuries that might happend during our trekking. However there were no injuries reported and everyone is in good condition untill the trip is over.

In this trip i were along with Syahir group where he was our leader and Azri as our sweeper, Keem and Azmey were also in the group. For this trip it was really tiring because on the first part of the trackroute was stared by climbing up a hill and its really hard due to nothing can be hold to support us to climb up the hill so teamwork is needed.

As we enter deep into the jungle there were many other beaytiful sites such as small waterfall, huge and tall tress and there were also many giant rock. All of these big tree is probably aged about 100 years old or even more. There were also many beutiful flora and fauna such as 'sumboi-sumboi' and many others.

Small plant grow on the trunk of the tree

Tall and big tree with huge root.

This trip was really hard but yet it is still interesting because there were many unique kind of plants, big tress and beautiful views that i never seen before. I were told that the trackroute was like a lolipop which started by moving up the stick then round along the lolipop and back to the stick. In the middle of the treckroute our group were on the wrong routeway which we were going anti-clockwise and strait to the view instead. So Syahir wanted to move back and try to go the right way because we miss alot of beutiful sites such as waterfall.

Our group do manage to cope back to the right track route however we just know that the last group were taking out the marks off so we didn't get the marks again. So this will cause us hard to get back. We get lost and i try to called Dr.Irene and she was really helping us where she at last do find us and lead us back to the right trckroute.

Learning Aspect:

1.I learnt alot of new plants such as wild Ixora, resam ferns, spike vines, tarap trees and etc 'Tongkat Ali', ixora, 'Kelamunting', orchid, and 'sumbui-sumbui'. This were something new i just learnt from the trekking.

2. Teamwork is important in a team. When the team faced a problem and all of the teammates need to face it as a team and don't be panic and just calm down and stay as a group do not break away because it will be harder for people to find us.

3. Preparation and focus is important aswell because as a leader he need to be all prepared and need to remembered all the checkpoint that were told during their recce.

4. I just know that the environtment and surrounding were different from the other trekking route we had before because for this big trees area the plant were just small shurbs and short grass could be find due to lack of sunlight that were block by those big tress and lastly i also discovered that along the trunks of those big tree there were small plant growing on it where there shared mineral of the tress. There were many steep slope.

Brunei's Polar Girl

About the motivation talk:

On Friday 23th October 2009, a talk was held in UBD at CLT room which was started at 10.00 am untill 12.00 pm. The talk were given by Dk.Najibah Eradah which she used to be call Era and now she was famous with the Polar Girl. She spent 2hour with us to gave a motivational talk and hopfully help us with this course and can be applied for our future life.





She talked and told us that she had been studied at Kingston University at United Kingdom where she took Bachelor of Science. She was also a member of the Brunei Adventure Recreation Assosiation. She also added that she does alot of practices for her trip to south pole. In addition, she was sponsered by Kaspersky Lab. She was scheduled to depart for United Kingdom on 31st October 2009 and will join her teammates from other 7 countries namely Cyprus, Ghana, India, Jamaica, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom.

She was the first bruneian female to be at south pole. She mention that she will travel on ski about 900km across the south pole. She need also to be prepared for the cold temperature there of minus 40 degrees centigrade which she indangred of 'Frostbite'. Basically Frosbite is a damage that occur on the tissues and nerves system due to over-cold temperature. The effect of it was the frossbiten area will turn discoloured, which turn black however on top of that it turn purple at the first stage.

She does also mension about the environment there where she told us that the condition over there were really cold and unsuitable for any living things to live there. She also added that ever waste should not be left there such as rubbish should bring back with us even our own waste we shud put it into a bag. Their main aims were to preserve the environment and to take care of it.The south pole is situated 9000 feet above sea level with a very cold and freezing temperature.

Learning aspects of the talk:

1. I learnt alot from her motivatinal talk where she shared alot of usefull stuff such as need to be strong in building camp and need alot of practices for the actual jorney. So here i learnt that we must be prepared enough in term of skills and physical energy.

2. I Learnt that good taste of food is not a factor in order to survive where she told us that on that adventure they just eat cereal porridge for breakfast and just eat choclate for lunch and get sources of energy. Here i just know that choclate is good food to provide energy and from now on i could eat choclate just to get extra energy.

3. She does mention about 'Janji Melayu' where she told us that she doesn't like that word because malay is bassically her own race so here she does motivated by that word and try to motivate herself by throwing away that bad attitude and try to be more punctual inorder to remove that label. I just also motivated by what she said because me, myself were also malay and i were aswell try to remove that label away by throwing that bad attitude

Week- 10 ( DIplomat Resident Jungle)

About the trekking:

On week 10 we had our trip at Diplomat Resident Jungle at Kg Sungai Akar. We as usual met at our meeting point at Shibie parking lot but this time there were a problem for the bus due to its brake was not working properly. So we change bus and used van instead. This week i were appointed as a Leader.

As a leader i need to lead my group and its really hard for me as lack of experienced but its my time to gain experiences. So my group were Keem, Azmey and Asri as my sweeper. Our group we the third group and along the way its really different from the last trekking, we had a hard time remembering the trek route where there were alot of falling trees, slippery condition, and there were alot of hills we need to climb and need more energy. We also face a problem of confussion of marks where at some point our group and Azri's group were not on the right track but thanks to Dr.Irene that corrected us. However we do managed to end the trekking the right way and around 9.30am we arrived at our finish point.

There are many plants and trees were found there namely Kuduk-kuduk, Tongkat Ali, Accasia Trees, Rush that were next to water and also i do see nice termites nest with different structure.



From behind its Asri, Keem and Azmey.



Learning aspect of the experience:

1. This week i choose to be Leader because i want to try something that i were never done before and it were really hard and carry big responsibilities for my group. I need to be confident and lead the right way. I also learnt not to follow the group that were infront of us but i need to follow the marker. It also taught me to be confident and brave.

2. I learnt alot about plants where Dr.Irene told us that the Rush plant that were only found next to water. Its trunk were like straw type where it has space inside it. This were new lesson for me.

3. I also learnt that leading a group is not easy than i taught because all of the team was relying on us as their leader so we as a leader need to be confident as we need to lead them back safely and control every problem calmly.

Week- 9 ( Rimba forest)

About the trip:
On week 9th we had a trip to Rimba Forest. Iwas held on 9th october 2009. For this week my responsibilities was as a Bin Manager. As a bin manager i need to provied bags for collecting of rubbish such as cans, bottles and others. So i do provied the plastic bags for the team. For this week i joint hakimah's groups where she was the leader and our sweeper were azmey and in the group were me, Syahir and Azri. For this week it was a bit harder than the last week trekking because the trek route was hard where our group were sometimes lost and need we as a team need to be teamwork to find the right track back. The second half of the trekking we choosed to pick a new route back and Dr.Irene lead our way. It was really chalanging but Dr.Irene do manage to lead us back safely.

Learning aspect of the experinced:
1. I learnt about teamwork where in a group we need to work as a team. For this week our group leader sometimes hard to find the track but we help her and does managed to find the right track.
2. I need to bring alot of water because this week trekking i just don't bring enough water and i also need to take my breakfast early so for the trekking i won't be weak like what happened at this week trekking.
3. There were an undone building that were build in the forest i don't know whats the reasons why it is undone and for me this is not good because instead of letting it abandon why don't they just clear those undone building and plant new tress and plant inorder to save our environment.

Week- 8 ( Lucky Garden)

About the Trip:
On week 8th we had a trip at Lucky Garden. It is located at Kg Sungai Tilong. We were to be meeting at our meeting point at Shibie parking lot at 6am sharp where bus was waiting for us there. We do manage come at the the location about 6.20am. For this trip i was supposed to be as a Sweeper but i didn't came for the recce due to overslept. So that day i just be a follower with our leader Diana and Dr.Irene replaced me as a sweeper. Along the way its a bid rough because the trek route was really hard and slippery however we do managed to end the trekking safely. There a certain area which were used to be as farmland but it had been left by the farmers. There were also many varieties of trees and plant but i don't know all of them however i do know some of it such as Dwarf Umbrella Palm and Tongkat Ali Tree. We were also need to pick all the rubbish that were thrown by the farmers i guess.

Learning aspects:
1. I learnt quite a lot from this trip since it is my first time experiencing trekking in the junggle such as the Lucky Garden. I learnt alot where i need to wear a boots with spike in order to be safe like not to slip during walking due to slippery pathway with all the dead leaves and damp soil. Secondly i need to wear long sleeves shirt to avoid from getting cut by those sharp plants and to get rid of those mosquitoes and other insects.
2. We also do a community work such as clearing rubbish that were found at the jungle and it also teach us that not to throw rubbish everywhere especially to the environment.
3. I learnt also about my responsibilities where i need to be organized and well disiplin. On this week i didn't managed to came for the recce however next time i won't repeat this mistake again. This really teach me alot to be well disiplin not only for this course but i would apply it to life aswell.

Survey in UBD

From the movie Mountain Patrol and the documentary "Home" we learnt that that there is a great need for all of us to conserve the environment and reduce greenhouse effects which cause climatic changes. On Monday 14th Sept 2009 we (Syahir & Malek) were asked to experience a community action at the UBD to reduce greenhouse gases through Electricity use at UBD. So our task was to survey the building and area allocated to us which is at the UBD library.

Level	Electricity (Light)	Electricity (Airconditioner)	Electricity (Television & Computer)
Ground Floor	Good	Good	Good
First Floor	Bad	Good	Good
Second Floor	Good	Good	Good
Third Floor	Good	Good	Good

Level	Electricity (Lift)	Electricity (Automatic Door)	E- Resources Room
Ground Floor	Bad	Bad	Good
First Floor	Bad	None	Good
Second Floor	Bad	None	None
Third Floor	Bad	None	None

Level	Ablution Room & Prayer Room (Light)	Study Room	Stair Light
Ground Floor	Good	None	Bad
First Floor	None	Good	Bad
Second Floor	None	Good	Bad
Third Floor	None	None	Bad

Level	Photocopy Machine	Self-Service Book Borrowing Machine	Toilet (Light)
Ground Floor	Good	Good	Bad
First Floor	Good	None	Bad
Second Floor	Good	None	Bad
Third Floor	Good	None	Bad

	Good	Bad
Ground Floor	Air conditioner-very comfortable. Light-very comfortable. Computer-very good access and facility. Photocopy machine, Self service book borrowing machine-a very good facility and use well by the student. Light-useful in the discussion/study room, in the toilet.	Lift-we can use stair. Entrance door-instead of using automatic door we can use manual door that can save more energy. Stair Light-still use at the stair even though a great amount of light come from the window.
1st Floor	Light-useful in the discussion/study room, in the toilet. Air conditioner-very comfortable. Light-very comfortable. Computer-very good access and facility. Photocopy machine, Self service book borrowing machine-a very good facility and use well by the student.	Lift-we can use stair. Light- some corridors with sunlight coming through a big window at the wall but still they switch on the light Stair Light-still use at the stair even though a great amount of light come from the window.
2nd Floor	Light-useful in the discussion/study room, in the toilet. Air conditioner-very comfortable. Light-very comfortable. Computer-very good access and facility. Photocopy machine, Self service book borrowing machine-a very good facility and use well by the student.	Lift-we can use stair. Stair Light-still use at the stair even though a great amount of light come from the window. Light- some corridors with sunlight coming through a big window at the wall but still they switch on the light.
3rd Floor	Light-useful in the discussion/study room, in the toilet. Air conditioner-very comfortable. Light-very comfortable. Computer-very good access and facility. Photocopy machine, Self service book borrowing machine-a very good facility and use well by the student.	Lift-we can use stair. Stair Light-still use at the stair even though a great amount of light come from the window. Light- some corridors with sunlight coming through a big window at the wall but still they switch on the light.

Kekexili mountain petrol.

Last Monday we watched a movie Kekexili mountain petrol. It was a Chinese movie and based on a true story. At first it was really hard to understand what was the story about and this make it an interesting movie. This movie was directed and written by Chuan Lu and been released on 1st October 2004. The genre of the movie was Action and Drama. The movie was about a group of voluntary Tibetan petrol which are against the poachers. This poachers are people which hunt antelope just to take their skin. They almost killed more than 10,000 antelope each year. This voluntary Tibetan petrol was joined by a journalist from Beijing to stop this poachers. At last the story ended by the main character were killed and they can't stop this poachers due to many disaster they face such as snow storm, lack of fuel and food and many more.

Environment.

The environment in this movie are mostly taken in china and it was like a desert kind of area with dry sand and hardly can be found any tress, However only small shrubs are found which are scattered. This kind of environment is different from our country environment where in Brunei mostly of our area are covered by Tropical Rainforest. Plus in our country mostly we have rivers and seas.

Infrastructure.

Mostly houses were only found there. Their houses were old kind of houses with dirty kind of surroundings and only one small hospital can be found and also small club house where as on the other hand in our country mostly in the town there were many building can be found which consist of big school, hospital, houses and many more.

Practices & Economy

Mostly the Tibetan used to work as a farmer and cattle ranching but then as the climate change become hotter and the land changed to desert area so in this sense farming and cattle ranching is no longer practiced so this factors had push the poachers to hunt the antelope and took their skin and sold it overseas. Furthermore this poachers now work as skinners and their work were being passed down to their childrens and many more. Here in Brunei different where typical Bruneian work with the government sectors and mostly people don't work as farmer and cattle ranching or even skinner which are illegal. Brunei lean on natural resources such as Oil and Gas.

In addition, after the journalist went back to beijing this situation had changed as the government put a strictly policy and illegal the selling of skin of the antelope. So with this our situation were much better than the situation that were faced by the Tibetan people in china where they struggle to live as the government doesn't really help them.

2nd Trip: Harvesting padi at Wasan

Monday 17th August which is yesterday we got our 2nd trip for this course and our trip this time is very different with the 1st trip we had last week. This week we had a trip to Wasan in Kg Masin. This time we've given a chance to do something that probably we never done before that is harvesting the padi. The aim for this trip is to gain experience being part of the Brunei heritage in harvesting the new Brunei padi brand Laila as well as do some community work with farmers in Brunei. As for me this is the first time i'm experiencing doing this kind of work because before i never get a chance to do it so i was really exited that we had this trip. Yesterday we need to came much earlier than last week where we need to be at the meeting point at SHIBIE car park in UBD exactly at 6am sharp, However i did came thirteen minutes late and at that moment most of my colleagues had not arrived but still yet the bus is leaving at 6.15am and never wait for them.hehehe. It took about half an hour for the bus to arrived at Wasan.


The sign board and its not really clear.hehehe





Dr.Asmah CAR!!!WOW...

As we arrived there we were given a warm welcome by the padi land owner named Hj.Mohd.Ali bin Bakar. Firstly before i left the bus i put on my boots and prepare myself to get wet and muddy. Dr.Asmah took photos with us and before we step on to the farm Dr.Irene gave us a short briefing about the harvesting thingy. After everyone was set with all the equipment ready such as pen knife, basket(tekiding) to put the padi on but i didn't get one so i just used plastic bags which most of us used it as well. At first i felt odd doing this kind of stuff because i guess its my first time and im abit scared of snakes or rats but neither of this animals been spotted so i felt relief. We are given 1 hour to harvest the padi and Dr.Irene said who harvested the most padi will win but i don't know who's the winner.hahaha.i hope its me!!! I'm really impress by the padi land that its has a good protection against pest which disturbed and pestering the padi such as rats, birds (burung pipit), insects (kasisang padi) and many more and i've been told that all of this pest control were mostly done by Hj Ali's son and i forgot his name actually. He told us that he used a black plastic to surrounded the padi land the reason for that is only to control the number of rats entering it but sometime it jump into the padi land. He also used dry leaf of 'pokok tarap' to scare the birds and he tie up this dry leaf in rows on a rope and when there's a group of bird came he just pull the rope and all the dry leaf moves infact he also tie up a tin filled up with rock so that it produces a sound to scare the birds. Hj.Mohd.Ali explain us that how 'kasisang padi' ate the padi. Firstly he show us how that small insect (kasisang padi) look like and it's really small and green in colour but this small insect only ate the baby padi which mean that the padi that are still in process to grow. In order to kill this insect they sprayed a pesticites around the baby padi field to kill the 'kasisang padi' and other insects.


Hj.Mohd.Ali bin Bakar padi land owner.

Dragon fly!!!!!

The man is spraying pesticides

Hj.Mohd.Ali also told us that his land is about 1.60 hecters. Before the land is used for this padi he told us that he do the slash and burn process so that it can help to make the land fertile. The padi before it is planted on this area the padi must first planted at other land which the seed is just spread out then after it grow it is transplanted to the real padi farm area and transplanted in group and 1feet spaced between each padi for path way. For this padi which is called padi Laila it took about 3 months 10 days for it to be fully matured. Hj.Mohd.Ali also added that before using this padi Laila he used padi Pusu which is smaller than padi Laila and it had a tall grass and hard to take care of it. Usually after the work of harvesting, the padi is then needed to be separated from its steam and traditionally this is done by stepping on the padi by bare footed but it is no longer practice due to invention of high-tech machines so this machine took place of this manual work and it's also help to save time. After the seed of this padi been separated then this padi need to put under the sun and left to dry for about maximum of 3 days and to check that it's already dry just bite the padi and if the padi sounds crack that's mean it's already dry and this is a traditional way. After we already done harvesting for about an hour, Hj.Mohd.Ali serve us a good breakfast kind of food and drinks such as sandwich, curry puff, 'teh tarik', mineral water, soft drinks. Before we left Hj.Mohd.Ali gave us a pack of 'beras laila' about 150kg if i'm not mistaken.

The two hansome farmer.hahaha.azri and syahir.

Padi laila after separated from its steam and leaves

Padi after being harvested and kept inside.

Yummy!!

At the end of the day i really enjoy this trip and it gave me an experience. I am proud that Brunei had left a valuable heritage which is this harvesting and many other traditional way of farming that might be different in other Asian country and might not be found in other European country..I also felt lucky as well for this trip that here i've been given the chance to do harvesting and i can experience the work of a farmer which i never felt it before.