Selamat Pagi! It's time to get to know Borneo

COUNTRY: Borneo & Cambodia
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Building & Conservation
WRITTEN BY: Eva Reda

Selamat pagi Australia!
Before I begin, a message to all worried mums: EVERYONE IS OKAY!

After all these months of anticipation, it feels almost surreal to finally be here in Borneo. After a grueling 10 hour flight from Australia, we finally stepped out of Kota Kinabalu (KK) Airport and began our three-month journey. And the first thought that struck us all simultaneously was: WHY IS IT SO HOT?!


Orientation took place in Step In Lodge, a backpacker lodge in the heart of KK where we spent the day acclimatising, meeting up with staff and the UK,Dutch and Australian gappers from Camps International, and exploring Sabah's capital.

It was kind of grimy, kind of smelly, people stared openly at our ghostly white skin, but most of all it was AWESOME. There was lots to do, see, taste and smell, with heaps of cheap shopping and all the delicious food you could eat for about 4 AUD.

Most of all it was exciting to be somewhere completely new, out of our comfort-zones and experiencing how other people live. The next day was spent sight-seeing. We spent the morning at the beautiful Sapi Island, snorkeling, jet-skiing, para-sailing (and even discovering metre long monitor lizards, in the boys' case); this was followed by a bus tour where we visited Mosques, Chinese Temples, and the KK Museum.

On the third day we transferred to Tinangol Camp located in the forested hills of rural Borneo. There we were joined by the final three Leap gappers, making us twenty-one in total.

Camp Tinangol is something most of us have never before experienced. With traditional long-house accommodation and covered living and dining areas all made of bamboo, and surrounded by jungle on all sides, it's a serene and beautiful place to live. The squat toilets (and abundant wildlife found within, including spiders, geckos and creepy-crawlies) are probably the only downside.

So far so good, we'd been relaxing, sight-seeing, settling in for about four
days.

And then came the project work. It's slow, it's hot, it's hard going and sometimes it's just plain frustrating. We had two cases of severe dehydration on the very first day (after which we learnt the true importance of keeping up our fluids). We'd look longingly at the power tools the village men owned whilst we sawed, nailed, hammered, mixed cement and stripped coconut fibers by hand. But overall it feels great to go home at the end of a hard day's work feeling truly satisfied that you've worked your
hardest, and made a little progress in helping a community less fortunate than us.

It's also a great team building activity, where we laugh together, work together, and even occasionally want to cry from frustration together. As for the village itself, on first impression the structures are all fairly basic long-houses made of wood, and there seems to be a lot of unemployment, but overall the villagers are friendly, welcoming and full of life, especially the local children - the highlight of most people's trip being the 'English Teaching' at the local kindergarten, which essentially involved fifteen sugar-high lunatics playing with our cameras, wearing our glasses, pulling our hair, climbing on us, jumping on us, holding our hands and
demanding lifts and swings. In short, it was adorable chaos.

I could truly write all day about our eventful first week, but for the sake
of attempting to keep it short and sweet, I'll finish up here. The current orangutan sighting tally is still at zero, but we live in hope. Many hugs and kisses to all our family and friends back in Australia! We miss you all! Expect more news in a fortnight.

This is Eva Reda signing off for Blog no. 2, Team Borneo 2012.