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.

1st Trip:Proboscis Monkey Trip.

The Proboscis Monkey Trip is the first trip for Brunei Appreciation and Community Action Course(BEACA) and were held on last Sunday 9th August. This trip started at early morning around 8am however a friend mine Syahir said, we need to met at 'Tambing' area which is between Ideal cafe and Portview Restaurant around 7.45 because the boat were leaving at 8 am sharp. Earlier that day i manage to came at 7.15am and by the time 7.30am there are 2 boat waited for us one of the boat is big and its capacity is about 20passengers and the other boat is a bit smaller and i think its capacity about 12-15 passenger if I'm not mistaken. Before all of us off to the boat Dr Irene and Dr Hasma gave us a short briefing about the trip and after that we were given a life jacket each person for our safety but azry get a life jacket with a whistle on it which i think he got an extra safety.hehehe. All student of the BEACA were on the same boat and we were on the big boat and on the other hand the lecturers and some other student i guess were on the other boat. The journey of the trip took place along the Brunei river and the trip is really interesting for me because this is not only the first trip for the course but it's also the first trip for me myself along the Brunei river. We were accompanied by two men and they were also as the tour guide and boat driver.

zali our boat driver

Our journey starts and the first thing we saw was the 'Nakoda Ragam'. I don't really know how the story goes and as far as i concern it's only a myth story which is about a forbiden son who been disrespecful to his mother and he envoled to become a rock along with his ship.





view of Nakoda Ragam from distance and near

As we go deep into the wildlife its getting very interesting. Our boat driver is telling much info about the wildlife and i think his very experience with this kind of thing and he does really help. Zali our boat driver also told us that the monkey actually live across the river and at night they swim back and if they are lucky they survive but if not they might been eaten by crocodile or been drowned, plus he also added that the monkey always in a group and in each group there will be one leader who lead the smaller ones, So in this sense the bigger monkey is might be the leader. The proboscis monkey is really hard to be approach because they are really scared to people just only with the sound of the boat it is already hiding away from us so i don't manage to capture any picture of it. Along our way back i do manage spotted many kind of animals such as Monitor lizard or in malay 'Biawak', 'Burung kenawai', snake and syahir spotted a baby crocodile but all of us don't saw it.

As we went back we also saw many interesting sites such as rock mine site, Makam Luba which is believe to be the 17th sultan of Brunei grave yard, Istana Nurul Iman, mosque and many more.

The mangrove

Makam Luba

By the time around 9.30 i guess or 9.45 we manage get back to the boat owner house and they serve us many kind of 'kuih' and it delicious. I didn't manage to took picture of theire house because i was busy eating and chit chatting. We need to paid $10 for this trip so i think its really worth it for just only $10 and i can gain experiance with this trip so its very satisfying for me so i looking foward to have this kind of trip again this week.