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