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Monday 6/23

Today Andy and I were up before 7:00, getting packed and ready to leave at 8:00. Paul picked us up and we started our drive towards Sandakan, which is in the northeast part of Sabah. We stopped briefly in Ranau for a quick breakfast. I got noodles, egg, and what I thought was just chicken in a sauce with veggies, but was actually chicken hearts, and I think maybe gizzards? It was actually pretty good. We quickly got back on the road, because we still had a 4 hour drive ahead of us. As we drove east, the mountains turned into hills, and the jungle turned into Oil Palm plantations. Slowly the plantations got larger and larger until it was basically all you could see in every direction. Although Oil Palm can make some folks here rich, it is devastating for the ecosystems. In this region, there used to be Sumatran Rhinos, which are now locally extinct on Borneo, and also Borneo Elephants, which are not extinct, but endangered. It was pretty crazy to see how large these plantations are, and when you do there is no doubt in your mind that they pose serious issues for the native wildlife.

We saw Oil Palm all the way up until we got to Sepilok, which is where there is an Orangutan Sanctuary and Rehabilitation Center, as well as a Sun Bear Rehabilitation Center. We arrived around 1, and decided to start with the Sun Bear Center. We paid a small fee and entered a small little information center. We saw a taxidermy Sun Bear that Paul had actually prepared years ago, and read some info before heading out to see the bears. They are the smallest bear species, and primarily eat plants and honey. They were adorable. Walking on boardwalks and watching them for viewing platforms, some of the bears paced around, and others just sat there looking at you. One bear sat on his hind legs and looked at you, almost waving with his front paws. Apparently that specific bear had been raised by humans and really likes people. So much so that one time he injured himself, was helped by a veterinarian, then would reinjure himself because he realized that was an easy way to get human interactions. When left alone he would vocalize, and was visibly sad. Now, the worker said, all he needs are the other bears to keep him company and he is fine.

After the Sun Bears, it was time to head over to the Orangutan Sanctuary. Seeing Orangutans was one of the things at the top of my list when I heard that I was coming to Borneo. I think that they are just such cool animals, and I couldn’t wait to go check them out. The Orangutans here, although not all that wild, are not enclosed by any kind of structure. They are just mainly just brought here and taken care of, then released, but the sanctuary continues to look out for them, and feed them. When we entered the sanctuary, we walked down a boardwalk into a beautiful forest with some massive trees. The first animal encounter we had was with some pigtail macaques. Jumping around in the trees near the trail, and there was one large male, that even fake charged one group of people. We kept walking towards the nursery, I still wasn’t sure what to expect, but when we turned the corner right near the entrance of the building there was a group of people looking up into a nearby tree taking pictures. An Orangutan mother and baby were just sitting on a branch, about 20 feet off the ground, right by the trail. After 10 minutes they climbed down and cut right through the crowd. Workers made sure people stood back and gave them space, and they crossed the path and walked around the building. Once we walked into the building we went to these indoor viewing rooms to watch the Orangutans be fed outside. There were platforms and ropes for them to swing around on and there were at least 10 of them there, as well as a whole bunch of monkeys who stole food whenever they could but were also pretty funny. At one point a large Male Orangutan who was noticeably larger and had long, shaggy fur came over to eat some melon.

We stayed here for a while, and then made our way back to the walkway and to the outdoor feeding area. There were mostly monkeys, but one mother and baby Orangutan as well. A worker walked out with a basket of fruits and veggies and the mother picked her way through it, grabbing and eating the things that the two of them would like and not bothering with some things. Watching them made me think how fitting their name is. In Malay and Indonesian, orang means person, and hutan means person. So Orangutan translates to forest person. A lot of their mannerisms do seem pretty human-like, and their emotions and curiosity are pretty easy to see in their faces. Eventually they seemed to be about finished and started climbing away on a rope so the guy dumped out the rest of the basket on the platform and the monkeys all swarmed. People were watching that when another mother and baby approached from the side of the viewing platform, climbed onto the railing, and then onto the canopy of the viewing platform. I heard one worker utter that this is the most annoying Orangutan. They walked around up there for a while, occasionally laying down to look at the crowd. When they finally came down, they proceeded to walk down the boardwalk railing until they were out of sight. We listened to the workers and left in the opposite direction. This was an awesome experience and I was so glad that we were able to come and see these amazing animals.

We left around 4:30, and went to go eat some food nearby in Sandakan. After that we checked into the hotel we had booked and then took a walk through Sandakan. It feels like a pretty sleepy city, but was pretty cool. There was a nice waterfront area that we checked out, then drove to the top of a hill for a nice view. After that, Paul said he had been looking for a coconut all day, so we headed to a night market. We ordered three coconuts that were chopped open for us to drink, then when we finished drinking they were chopped again so we could scrape out the inside. After that Paul ordered us all a drink called ABC. It was a larger than usual cup with a boba straw filled with a pink liquid and crushed ice. It also contained various fruits, pieces of corn, peanuts, and different kinds of little jelly candies. It tasted sweet, and was milk based I think, but it was actually pretty good. Most of the time I didn’t know what I was drinking but I liked the taste. Eventually my stomach had enough though, and it was about time to head back to the hotel. Andy and I started working on a presentation that we will have to give to the Sabah Parks staff about our time here, and then we went to bed.

Sunday 6/22

Today was a true rest day. Andy and I had nothing to do today at all. We slept in, and moved pretty slowly in the morning, doing some reading and calling our families. Eventually we ate some lunch, then came back and took a nap. After that we started to plan our activities and book some flights for when our internship ends. We had been procrastinating on that but finally got a pretty decent start. I also had to get caught up on some writing and other random work. When evening came around, we went back to the restaurant and had a good dinner, taking our time. We met a guy outside the restaurant, waiting for a bus, who was from California and had been in Sabah for the past two weeks or so just looking for birds. We talked to him for maybe a half an hour about everything from the wildlife, to the amazing people, and the food. I think we were all a little bored and happy to just talk for a while.

When Andy and I got back to the rest house we were feeling inspired to go and look for some snakes when it got dark. We went out around 8:30, and were feeling pretty optimistic. At least in wasn’t downpouring like last time though. About 20 minutes in we were talking about how bad we wanted to see a viper. Right in the middle of conversation Andy said “There’s one.” I thought he was kidding but nope, a bright green viper was sitting right up in a tree. We climbed the steep side of the road to take a look, and Andy even got it down carefully with a stick to take some good pictures. It was a Sabah Pit Viper, and it was absolutely beautiful. We spent a pretty long time checking it out before safely putting it back in a tree. We kept walking and encountered a crew who had also already seen the snake, and we talked to them for a little bit, they said they were actually doing lizard research in the park, but then we did not see anything the rest of the night. When we got back we showered and did a little packing before heading to bed pretty early.

Saturday 6/21

It felt great to sleep in this morning. We didn’t have to be anywhere until 10:00 a.m., but we had a full rest and were up by 8:30. At 10:00, Paul picked us up to head to his village for their Kaamatan celebration. At first we were a little confused, we had thought that Kaamatan ended at the end of May. It technically does, but each village has the ability to celebrate it whenever they like, and this weekend just so happens to work the best for Paul’s small village right outside of Ranau. It was about a thirty minute drive from the rest house, and we arrived just in time for things to get started.

The first place that we stopped at today was someone’s house with a tent out front with some seating. The front porch was turned into a stage and also had the food. When we first got there we said hello to some locals, and then the village leader arrived. The traditional gong music began, and children event went out in front of the tent to dance. The leader then went to a 5 foot long piece of bamboo that had been partially split. He finished splitting it with a parang, and then completely flattened it on the ground. People cheered, and now it was time to eat. I did not totally understand, but I think that splitting the bamboo represented the labor that goes into building shelter and everything else that you must do before you can feast. The food was similar to the last Kaamatan we were at in Keningau. Nasi Lemak, which is rice wrapped in a banana leaf that is a little softer than normal rice, along with various types of chicken, fish, and beef. Andy, Paul, and I ate with a woman who is from the village but now works in Kuala Lumpur as a singer and wedding MC. She was in charge of the music and events for the rest of the day. Just like last time, people brought Andy and I plenty of the local rice wines, Tapai and Tumpun. We went from sitting at our table that we ate at with a few others, to sitting with the men who played the gongs, and then to talking with the children, who had lots of questions for us. We also were consistently dragged up to the dancefloor to work on our traditional dancing as well. After a few hours, it was time to head to our next location.

We ended up just a little ways down the road at a new house with a similar set-up. We had added on some more people with this change in location as well. The food was also a little different. Here there was a kind of build your own soup type deal, with chicken broth, noodles, different sauces of different spice level, dried onions, and plenty of other vegetables. There was also fried chicken tails and roasted chicken wings. Here Andy and I talked with a girl who was just starting to go to school to be an English teacher, as well as her friends, and whoever else came over to the table to say hello. There was also this one older woman who kept coming over to pull me up to dance every time a new song started. This was easily the most I had ever danced in one day, but I was enjoying it. Eventually Andy ended up playing soccer with the kids, and I ended up talking to group of guys who were a little older than me. They were cracking me up, and there were plenty of random topics that were discussed.

Around 4:00 p.m. we left and headed to the last location for the day, the Community Center. It was a decent sized building, with chairs and a stage underneath a roof with chest high wooden walls, connected to the ceiling with a kind of metal cage. It was smaller than our Keningau Kaamatan, but had a very similar feel. There was more food and dancing, and we got to meet a whole other group of people as well. My ego was boosted a little when I was talking to one lady in Malay for about a half hour. Her son came over and she told him how she was impressed and could understand everything I was saying. It was in no way perfect Malay, but it was a lot better than where I was at in the beginning of the summer. After everyone had eaten again here, there was a competition between most of the older women at the front of the hall. They all lined up and competed for who could spit their chewing tobacco the furthest. Here, men generally smoke cigarettes, but do not chew tobacco, and women chew tobacco but do not smoke. Everyone got pretty into the competition, and the winner probably spit a good 30 feet, followed closely behind by most of the others.

Not too much longer afterwards, it was time for Paul, Andy, and I to leave. I was sad to go, but it had been another pretty long day. We talked about what a good time it was for a good part of the drive, and when we got back to the rest house, Andy and I pretty much just hung out for the next couple hours before hitting the hay.

Friday 6/20

Andy and I had plans to get up at 1:45 a.m. and go eat what they call “supper” at 2 a.m., but those plans did not align with everyone else in the hostel who got up at 1:00 a.m. to get ready, so we adjusted. As we walked down to go eat, the rain had come back, and there was a steady light rain, that looked like it had probably been going for most of the night. We quickly ate and got ready to go around 2:30 a.m., standing outside, waiting to meet our guide to get going. As we were waiting we started to here chatter the head ranger was going to come down and either give us the green light, or maybe postpone the start up. Eventually he came down along with our guide Jerry, and they gave us all the news that we would have to wait another half hour to an hour before they were to make a decision.

We waited in the restaurant, and drank some more coffee. Most people seemed nervous, and honestly morale was pretty low. I stayed positive though, in my experience these things typically have a way of working out. I still thought we would end up going up, and was feeling pretty giddy. We waited until about 3:15 a.m. before the Head Ranger and Jerry returned. They announced that there was simply too much rain and that it was not safe to try and attempt the summit. Shit. Not this time. But that’s the way that the mountains go, and there is quite literally nothing that you can do to change it. Who am I going to be mad at? The rangers? They are just doing their job and they are responsible for all 150 people who would be attempting to go to the summit in dangerous conditions. It’s just bad luck. But I wasn’t ready to go to bed. Andy and I ended up standing outside, watching the rain as if it might stop, and ended up talking to three other gentlemen doing the same thing. They were in their early thirties and used to be roommates in college at some school in Nova Scotia. The one lives in LA, working for a good company, the other one teaches at a Canadian School in Kuala Lumpur, and the other guy lives in Kenya and travels all over, working as a fly fishing guide. They were a fun group, and really interesting to talk to. Everyone was bummed about the canceled summit, but we still had some good laughs. Like I said, what can you do. We went to bed around 4:00 a.m. and woke back up around 7:00 to go eat breakfast an get ready to head down the mountain.

The funny thing is that as we walked out of the hostel and down to the restaurant the skies were clear and there was a beautiful view of the summit. Just our luck. Unfortunately, the only time that people are allowed to summit is the early morning because the chances of thunderstorms in the afternoon are usually pretty high. So we ate our breakfast, took in the bittersweet view, and headed down. Once again, Andy and I moved quickly, getting ahead of most of the big groups, and moving along at a steady pace, along with a few others who were going the same speed. When we started heading down it was 8:20, and by the time we reached the bottom it was 10:40. From there Paul picked us up and took as back to our rest house where we showered, and finally put on some nice dry clothes. We hung out for a couple of hours and then Paul picked us up and drove us to down so we could do our laundry. We hung out with him at a restaurant next door for a while, and talked about a whole bunch of things. We picked his brain on different frogs and snakes we had seen while being here, he is known as the frog guy here, and he was able to help us identify all of the ones we had pictures of. When we got back to the Rest House, Andy and I treated ourselves to a few beers that we bought out of the vending machine by the park office (Isn’t that amazing?), and sat on our porch listening to the rain. We started watching some videos of people going out and looking for snakes and lizards in the park, and felt that with the rain it would be lazy off us not go try and find something. So we threw on our raincoats that were still wet from the mountain, and walked along the roads and trails for maybe an hour and a half. We saw no snakes, but did find a couple of frogs that we had not seen before. Nothing crazy, and not any of the endemic species to Mount Kinabalu that we were hoping to find, but it still felt good to find some species that were new to us. Eventually we got tired and headed back to the rest house where we pretty quickly fell asleep. It had been a long day.

Thursday 6/19

Today was the day we began our hike to the top of Mount Kinabalu. We went to the office and got our card that shows we are scheduled to hike the next two days. We met our guide Jerry, looked at a map, and then Paul drove us to Timpohon Gate, where we would start the hike at an elevation of 1866 meters. Today, we would hike 6 kilometers up to Panarlaban Hut at an elevation of 3,227 meters. We will stay the night here, and if all goes well, wake up at 2:00 a.m. to hike the remaining 2.7 km to the top of the mountain to watch the sunrise at an elevation of 4,095 meters. So in total, from Timpohon Gate, to the summit, the trail ascends 2,229 meters in in 8.72 kilometers, or 7,312 feet in 5.4 miles. The mountain is incredibly regulated by the parks, requiring that everybody has a guide, and can only summit of it is deemed safe by the head ranger. There are different trips that you can take, spending up to a couple nights in the hostels up high, but most people opt for the 2 days, one night trip. # meals are included at the restaurant up there in buffet style meals, and only about 150 people can be accommodated there for each summit trip.

Andy and I were able to start the hike ahead of most people, thanks to Paul driving us to the gate rather than taking a shuttle. We started at around 8:20 am, and started moving at a pretty quick clip. Our guide told us to go get started and he would meet up with us later, but we would not see him until the evening. When we started the skies were clear, and from the office we were able to get a perfect view of the whole mountain. It felt like an encouraging sign and seemed like we might have good weather for the day. But as we ascended, we pretty quickly became swallowed by clouds. We took one break a little past the halfway point, eating some chocolate and dried mango, then continued up. We had passed the few people who started before us, and at this point were only encountering porters who were taking supplies up the mountain. Some moved faster than others, based on how big of a load they were carrying, but it was crazy to see. Some were carrying cases of drinks for the restaurant, some were carrying long wooden beams, there was even one guy carrying a mattress folded in half. We kept going, sometimes passing porters, or sometimes being passed by them. The trail was sustained at a pretty steep pitch, but Andy and I felt like we were taking it at a pretty steady pace.

As we ascended the forest felt like it hanged with each kilometer. When we began we were in what felt like a normal jungle with big trees, lots of different plants. As we went up though, the vegetation became smaller and scrubbier, with moss starting to cover even more surfaces than lower down. Among the scrubby trees we even saw these large, colorful Pitcher Plants. The trail became less dirt, and more rock, with some sections being large slabs of exposed granite. With the elevation the weather also worsened. A light breeze turned into a steady wind, and the fog turned into a drizzle, which turned into a downpour. This made Andy and I hurry even more, but we were starting to run into folks who were descending from the mornings trip to the summit. The people that we encountered said that they had lucked out. The rain held off and it sounded like they had clear skies and a beautiful sunrise this morning. Eventually, we made it to Panarlaban at 11:50, and were shown to the hostel where we would stay tonight. We were the first ones to Panarlaban today, and Andy and I had the whole hostel to ourselves for the better part of the afternoon. The rain did not slow down, in fact it may have picked up. We rested and killed time, before heading down to the restaurant/shop/other fancy accommodation building around 3:00. lunch wouldn’t start being served until 4:30 but we went and sat at the tables and had a coffee while we waited. As time went on the place started to fill up more and more, and then the food was actually really good. They had some meat stews and spaghetti, along with local classics like rice, fried noodles, and fish. Andy and I ate and then went back to the hostel pretty quickly so that others could take our seat and also have some food. Around 6:30 we ended up going back for some more food, and also just to move around a little bit more before heading to bed. At this point the rain had finally subsided, and we were able to get some views of the rockfaces just above us as it got dark. Eventually we went back to the hostel to head to bed.

There were maybe 20 beds in the hostel and by the time we got back from our first meal it was maybe half full, by the time we got back to head to bed, maybe 15 people were there. By 8:00, Andy and I were both in bed attempting to get some sleep, but it was tough. Lights were on, and people were still moving around. At 9:00 another group arrived, and were making no attempt to be quiet. I was not too bothered but one guy took it upon himself to ask if the people had any manners which caused a small discussion that was pretty funny to overhear. I probably fell asleep by 10:30 or 11:00.

Wednesday 6/18

Andy and I were up and ready to go, leaving the island at 9:00. we arrived back to the mainland office by 9:30 and waited for Paul, who arrived around 10:00. We would be heading to Kinabalu Park today, but first we were heading to the Kota Kinabalu Wetland to meet Anna Wong, President of Malaysian Nature Society and an old student of Rob Steubing. We went and ate a late breakfast with Paul before we went to the Wetland. When we arrived we sat down with Anna, and her 19 year old son Abraham, and she told us about the Malaysian Nature Society, as well as this specific wetland. The Malaysian Nature Society seems incredibly active in working to establish protected sites, as well as engage the public through memberships and events. There are different branches of the Society across all of Malaysia, and Anna seems to be rather busy working with them all, even making frequent trips to Kuala Lumpur. After we talked with her and Abraham we walked around for a while. The trails were boardwalks and the wetland was pretty much all Mangroves. I found it interesting that there were actually three different species of Mangroves. There were also Mangrove Skinks, a variety of crabs, and even some Tilapia swimming around. These are just a few examples, we didn’t see many birds because it was the middle of the day and sunny. Very hot. Throughout our walk we talked about the different flora and fauna, and also talked with Abe a lot about a variety of different things. He is going to school to be a lawyer, but seems to have many other interests, including helping his mom out with some different things in the Nature Society.

After our walk, Anna wanted to take us out to lunch. We went to a Chinese noodle shop and enjoyed some kind of chicken soup which was really good. We had good conversations about different conservation topics, and even Anna’s time in the U.S. when she worked in the Chicago Field Museum. After a while it was time for us to start heading towards Kinabalu Park. We said goodbye and drove no more than 30 minutes before it started absolutely pouring. We still had to stop for some groceries, and the rain wasn’t stopping, so we got soaked running in and out of the store. We eventually arrived to Kinabalu Park around 4:30, and went to the office to go sign some paperwork for the hike to the top of Mount Kinabalu that we would start tomorrow morning. The weather was starting to be a little bit concerning though. We had learned that the group who tried to summit today were not able to do so because there was too much rain, which can turn some sections of the trail up high into a fast flowing, knee-deep stream.

After Paul dropped us off in the rest house right near the office, Andy and I got settled and then walked across the street to an eat dinner at a small restaurant. When we got back we went to bed fairly early, crossing our fingers for good weather the next couple of days.

Tuesday 6/17

This morning Andy and I were up and ready to go by 8:00. Paul arrived shortly after and we had some coffee and biscuits on the porch with all of the other workers at Inobong. We ended up leaving with Paul around 9:00, and were heading to Kota Kinabalu. There we would head to mainland office for Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park. We dropped our things in the office, then went on a walk to find Andy a new flashlight. When we got back we packed the things we needed into our backpacks, since we would only be gone one night, and got on a boat to head to Manukan Island. Manukan Island is one of a few islands within close proximity of each other within Tunku Abdul Rahman Park. There is also Gaya Island, which is the largest, as well as Mamutik Island, Sulug Island, and Sapi Island. Andy and I were just heading to Manukan Island for the night. We took a short 15 minute boat ride and arrived around 12:30. When we arrived we talked to some workers and ended up getting settled into our room at the Manukan Lodge, which is basically like one of the Rest Houses that we’ve been staying in, except with a crazy view back on the city. Manukan Island isn’t very big, but does offer some restaurants, a resort, and activities like parasailing, and snorkeling, with a pretty big beach.

Paul had told me and Andy that we could snorkel so we ended up talking to some people who got us set up to head out. There was plenty of space within the buoy markers of the beach to head out and explore. We went over coral, sand, and steep drop-offs. We snorkeled for a couple hours and saw a whole bunch of stuff. I saw a greater variety of things here than when I went in Pulau Tiga, including clownfish, a black tipped reef, shark, a ton of stingrays, and even an eagle ray. Just when you feel like you are done seeing new species, you see something that you haven’t seen yet. Eventually Andy and I were getting a little tired and decided to head in. When we got back to shore we talked to a worker, mostly in Malay, who was interested to hear about our time so far in Sabah Parks, and then suggested we take a 2 km hike out to sunset point on the far side of the Island. Andy and I took our time and got changed and then walked around for a while before heading out on the trail. It was paved and easy, but was beautiful, there seemed to me more elevation here compared to Pulau Tiga, even though it was smaller in size. We reached the point and explored the rocky beach for a  while, but ultimately headed back just a little bit before the sun went down. We didn’t have flashlights, and wanted to get ahead of a large group that was also out at the point. On the way back we were lucky enough to see a couple of megapodes along the trail. Megapodes are birds the size of a small chicken, but will build huge mounds as nests where they will bury their eggs to incubate them. I was hoping to see them at Pulau Tiga, and I saw their mounds there, but I was never lucky enough to see the birds.

When we got back Andy and I decided to eat at the one restaurant that was still open on the island. It was pretty fancy, and very expensive compared to the other places we have eaten here in Sabah, but the meal still only ended up being about 30 USD between the two of us. I seafood fried rice which was fantastic. After dinner Andy and I headed back to our room and enjoyed the view for a while, before doing some writing and eventually heading to bed.

Monday 6/16

Today I woke up nice and early to finish packing and eat some breakfast before I met at the dock at 8:00 to head back to Kuala Penyu. I left with Jane, Imaldy, the interns, and a few others. When we made it the mainland Uncle Impui, as they call him, was waiting for me. He took care of a couple things around the station when I got there, and then we left for Inobong where I would meet back up with Andy and stay the night. On our way to Inobong we stopped at a plaza in Penampang and met up with the Warden of Pulau Tiga, Roslizan, and had a quick bite to eat. After that Impui and Roslizan had some paperwork to do next door at the Motorola Radio Office. They are the parks radio supplier. After that I ended up swapping my luggage in Roslizan’s truck and he drove me the rest of the way to Inobong, stopping at the supermarket along the way. He was super nice and helped me make sure I got everything I might need while shopping, and suggested some good canned food brands since most of the time Andy and I don’t have refrigerators. After shopping we went the rest of the way to Inobong, the place where Andy and I first started our internship. I arrived probably around 1:30.

Andy was already there by the time I got there. We would stay in the Rest House which is connected to the office, rather than chalet we stayed at before. I unloaded my things and said goodbye to Roslizan. Andy and I had a lot to talk about after being apart the past two weeks, and it was fun to hear about his experiences. The similarities and differences were equally as interesting, and there were plenty of funny stories we each had to tell. Around 3:00, Paul came to hang out and talk for a while. He was eager to hear about our experiences, and we enjoyed talking to him about all the different species we had seen. He was able to help us identify some species that we previously were unsure about. We talked about our plans for the rest of our two weeks here and after about an hour he left. Andy and I made a late lunch and then went out to the porch of the other office to watch the sunset over Kota Kinabalu. We spent the rest of the night just hanging out and getting ready to leave the next morning.

Sunday 6/15

Today would be my last day here on Pulau Tiga. I was up at my normal time and once again I spent a better part of the day reading. There was nothing to do in the morning, and I had asked about possibly going for a hike, but it didn’t seem to be in the cards today. For lunch I went to eat with the interns and today they had made sour and spicy stingray. They were surprised when I said I had never tried stingray. It smelled a little strange I’ll be honest but the it ended up tasting pretty good. It was more similar to fish than I thought it would be, flakey and white meat. We ate and I hung out for a while, but then I headed back to my room to start doing a little bit of packing and to read some more. The plan was to head back to Lovely Island tonight, the place I had stopped with the dive crew the other day, to spend the night there. Unfortunately, the Rangers had something come up. It sounded like they had to go on a patrol because someone might have been illegally fishing in the park. So we did not go. Instead, I got to get in one last game of volleyball with everyone. We played a little longer than usual today, and when we finished it had started to rain. So I went back to my room, finished packing, called home and ate dinner. I went to bed fairly early.

Saturday 6/14

It was a slower morning than usual for me today. I got up and walked around like usual, trying to figure out what the plan was for the day, but there really wasn’t much to do. I read for most of the morning and when it was lunch time I went to go hang out with interns again. We ate and hung out and it still sounded like there wasn’t much of plan for the day. I went back and read some more by the water and then took a quick nap. I walked around a little bit longer and talked to some different people, and the read a little bit more. The day went by kind of slow but eventually it was 5:00 and time to play volleyball. We played until dusk and then took a half hour break. Then, all of us interns, Eddie and Imaldy walked down the beach towards a point that has a lot of coral. It was low tide, and there was a lot to see.

It was probably around 2 km down to the end of the point and we took our time, looking around in the shallow water and coral. There were a bunch of fish throughout the whole walk, small and medium sizes of all different kinds of species. The first interesting thing that we saw were prawns swimming around then. Then, we were looking at a crab when out of nowhere a small octopus swims by and then burrowed beneath a rock. It turns out we would see at least 5 more octopi throughout the night. When you touch them they grab you with their suction cups and it is such a strange feeling. As we walked we got to a point where everyone turned off their flashlights. Each step that you took in the shallow water would cause bioluminescent algae to light up. It wasn’t super bright, but for a brief second the water looked like it was filled with stars. For the most part the light was yellowish-green, but sometimes it would be bright blue. We were getting pretty close to the point when someone spotted an eel. One of the interns tried to pick it up and he immediately got bit, drawing blood, but he was alright. As we walked we say starfish, some goofy looking fish, and a lot of crabs. Eventually we reached the point and these big mounds of dead coral rubble. I could see these from the basecamp, but always thought they were huge rocks. We all looked around for a little bit, then all sat down to take a second. There were so many stars to see, and for 10 minutes people just laid silent, looking.

Eventually it was time and head back, and we looked for things the whole way back too. We saw a pufferfish that did not seem to be very afraid of us, just moving around slowly as we all looked at it. We also saw a couple small black tip reef sharks, hunting in the shallows. We saw some more octopi as well, and then even found an anemone with some clownfish hanging out in there. Everyone was super excited to see the nemo fish and we all watched it for a little while. When we made it back to the basecamp I think everyone was pretty tired. I went back to by room, ate dinner, took a shower, and then went to bed.

Friday 6/13

This morning I got up and had my same morning routine. It appeared that there was not much to do today, so I walked around for a while, and then just did some reading. Around 1:00 I went and had lunch with the interns. I’m grateful they always invite me over for lunch. It is a lot better then what I would be cooking for myself. After lunch I talked to them about what we had planned for the day. They said that we would go to Pulau Ular, or Snake Island later tonight. Pulau Ular is just a small, rocky island where sea snakes, specifically Yellow Lipped Sea Kraits, go to breed. I was excited for this but also asked if maybe I could swim this afternoon before we went. They talked to Eddie, one of the main rangers, and he said yes, but he would have to look around in the water with a drone first. There have been some repeated crocodile sightings around the island nobody has really been swimming for the past couple weeks because of it. Luckily, after searching the water where I would be swimming, he saw no crocodile and said it was safe.

The other ranger, Imaldy, gave me a mask and a snorkel and told me to have fun. As I went out into the water in the back of my mind I was still a little nervous, but when I made it out to the coral I had a blast. I saw so many different things while I was swimming around. Parrotfish that were every color of the rainbow, some butterflyfish, a stingray covered in dark blue spots, and so many other fish that I do not know the names of. I also saw a lot of giant clams. I wish I had a camera that I could have taken out with me. I swam around for almost 2 hours, in shallow water, some deeper water, sand bottom, coral bottom… It was amazing. The water was maybe a little cloudy in some places, but for the most part was very clear. Eventually I was getting a little tired and made my way to the shore. This whole time it had been driving me crazy to be at such a beautiful beach and not go swimming, but I finally got my fix.

Once I was back on land I talked with some people about what I saw then went and got changed. When I came back out, Eddie and Imaldy were teaching the other interns how to fly the drone, and then I got to try as well. It was really cool. A new DJI drone with an amazing camera that was pretty easy to learn how to use. I flew it around for a little bit and went and looked around the reef with it. I even saw a small shark swimming around. I talked with the rangers about the different uses of the drone and it seems incredibly helpful, mainly for monitoring. They can look for what is in the water like they did today, and they can also monitor anyone who might be trying to fish within the park. The drone is equipped with GPS so if they see someone fishing they can go and check if they are inside or outside of the boundary. After flying the drone it was time to go play volleyball as we do most nights.

After volleyball, we had about an hour to rest before we went to snake island. There were about 10 of us that went out to snake island, it is about a 15 minute boat ride. We went east around the island and then north. It was low tide, and the crew had to be careful while docking the boat. We arrived on the island and within 5 minutes we saw our first snake, up in some dense branches in a bush. Everyone saw it and immediately moved on. I was confused why people didn’t stay and look longer, but before I moved on Someone already saw another one. These Sea Kraits are incredibly venomous, but are also super docile and do not really bite humans. We walked around on the rocky shoreline and saw snake after snake. They were beautiful to look at. Blue with black wrings all the way down the body with yellow above the mouth, and a tale that is shaped like a paddle. We were on the island for roughly 30 minutes and we saw about 20 snakes. The only bad part was at one point a bird pooped on my head. Oh well, what are you gonna do. I washed it off in the water and kept looking around. We didn’t stay long, but we saw so much. The boat ride home was peaceful, and I got back and immediately went and showered. After that I went to hang out with Rex, who was back on the island, as well as a whole crew of others for a better part of the night. I went to bed late, and was really satisfied with the day that I had.

Thursday 6/12

This morning I got up and ate some breakfast on my porch that overlooks the ocean. The weather was significantly calmer than the day before. It was sunny and the air was still, just small, rolling waves crashing ashore at a high tide. I finished my breakfast and decided to take a walk around. I walked over to the channel where water was flooding into the lagoon. I stood there and watched for a while. I saw some small fish swimming around and stayed just long enough to see a couple of very small sharks dart around and then disappear back into the ocean.

After my walk I ran into Jane and Imaldy. They talked briefly then I followed Imaldy to office, and then to the hostel where a group was staying. The group was an NGO called Malaysia Reef Check. They partner with Sabah Parks to monitor the health of coral reefs around Sabah. They were here at Pulau Tiga for the week but the bad weather yesterday had kept them from going out and today was their last day of diving. They told me that I could go out with them, although I would have to stay on the boat. I would have been able to dive with them if I was certified, and normally they would let me snorkel, however there have been some crocodile sightings recently and they said that snorkeling is the most dangerous thing that you can do. I still agreed to head out with them, and within 20 minutes we were on the boat, shoving off from the dock. We drove around the east side of the island, and headed north. As soon as we made that turn north you were able to see a view of Mount Kinabalu in the distance, still looking massive from this far away. The waves were not too bad, but got a little bigger as we got further away from the island.

 Throughout the ride I was talking to a young guy named Ahmeer. He was a Sabah Parks staff from the research division, usually stationed in Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, but does all of the diving with Malysia Reef Check. The owner of the company, Calvin, was also there. Ahmeer spoke really good English, and explained to me the things that they do when they dive. Two divers will go down first and make a 100m long transect line on the bottom. Then, the next two divers will go and follow the transect line, observing what they see. They look at the different types of coral, the state of the coral, the different types of marine life, as well as the overall impact and health. They try and do the same sights every year so that they can compare results on a yearly basis. It sounded like last year was not a good year. The water temperature was much higher than usual, and in Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, over half of the coral they observed was bleached and dead. That was the worst results that they had seen, but not all places were harmed as much. We eventually got to the dive location, and divers did their thing. There were 4 others besides myself who stayed on the boat while they did their thing. We talked the whole time in a mix of English and Malaysian. One of the men was another intern from a different park, and I enjoyed talking to him about his studies. After they finished their dive, they climbed back on board and we drove to a tiny island, a sandbar really, just north of Pulau Tiga. There is a little kind of resort there, with a place to swim, a couple of huts, and a pavilion with seating. I believe it was called Lovely Resort, or Lovely Island. We were brought out some a cooler of ice, some soda, and some biscuits. We all enjoyed the break from the rocking boat, and it felt like I was on vacation in paradise for a little bit honestly. The water here is super blue and clear, the sands are white, and I’m on a tropical island. It doesn’t get much better than this.

After we rested on the island for maybe 45 minutes, we went back out to their next dive location. The two divers went down and began their work, but came up shortly after. They said that the visibility in this area just wasn’t good enough, sediment still stirred up from the storm the previous day. So they climbed back in the boat and we headed back to the Pulau Tiga Parks Basecamp. When we got back I thanked the crew for letting me join them and I went back to eat lunch in my room. After that, I went back to office to meet up with the other interns, and we decided to go for a small hike with Imaldy. We walked around the woods for a while and then walked down the beach a short ways to the old abandoned resort. The resort had been open for a while, and was the place that hosted survivor back in the 90s, but shut down during COVID. For only being shut down for 5 years it has quickly been reclaimed by the jungle. We did not walk around in there too much, but it was pretty cool to see.

By the time we were done it was evening and people were all finishing up their work for the day. We all shot the slingshots for a couple minutes, then went and played volleyball for the rest of the night. We played until it got dark and then people retired to their rooms to go shower and eat. I talked to my family for a while, sitting by the beach, then went and ate dinner with the interns. We had noodles and eggs with spicy chili sauce, and then I hung out there for a while. Eventually I was getting tired and wanted to head back to shower and head to bed. I ended up talking to my grandma for a while also which was really nice. Then I read for a while, my new book has been The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver , and then went to bed.

Wednesday 6/11

I woke up this morning at 7:30 and immediately noticed some water that had come in from under my front door. I had heard rain wind and rain in the middle of the night, and it was still pretty windy, but I was surprised to see that water had made it. I have a little porch with a roof and overhangs the porch by a couple feet, so it must have been quite a storm. I mopped up the water then sat on my porch with some tea. I noticed some Pied Hornbills flying around in some trees nearby and was super excited to see them through the binoculars. I had been waiting to see hornbills and I got to see a male and female fly from tree to tree for about 20 minutes. I had some breakfast and it was time to get moving so I went and met Imaldy and we went to the office. After that we went to meet the interns and a group of works from Kinabalu Park, who had come here to identify trees. We spent the morning walking around with them. We saw a lot, including  some large Fig Trees, a tree they call the blood tree for its red sap, and some Night Wood trees, that are known for being expensive wood for furniture with dark grains. Their process included having a large, telescoping pole with a small blade for collecting leaves from up high, small pruners to cut off some bark, and a hammer for nailing in tags to each tree that they identified.

We worked with them for a better part of the morning before going to take a rest by the beach. While sitting there we saw the big boss arrive at the dock and we went to greet him. His name is Rozlasin, and apparently mainly just works at the Kuala Penyu office on the mainland. I talked with him briefly before we went back to the office, and let him get back to the tasks he came here to do. We sat in the office with Jane for a little bit and she asked me if I had burned anything today. Very funny. After that the interns invited me for lunch with them later. I was walking back to drop my backpack off at my place and ran into Rex from the other night, who was just here with the boss for the day. I talked to him for a while before heading to eat lunch with the interns. They made rice, chicken curry, some kind of really spicy sambal, and some pieces of fried chicken. It was all delicious. After eating I fed some biscuits to the monkeys that hang out near their back door. There are also a couple large monitor lizards that patrol their back yard for leftovers as well. I watched the wildlife for a while then started walking back because it really looked like it was going to storm soon. Sure enough when I got back it had started raining pretty hard. I hung out inside while the storm was happening, then went over to the office to catch up on some random work I had to do.

After that I had gotten a text to come play slingshot with everyone. I had seen some people playing with slingshots when I was in Crocker Range Park and knew that people enjoyed it, but here at Pulau Tiga its really something else. They have a tiny little shooting range with cans set up on rails. The cans are set up 10 meters from where you shoot and pretty much the whole entire staff was there. The bullets are little dried mudballs that are bought, but reused if they’re not broken. I probably had about a 2% hit rate compared to most people’s 25%, but I got better as the night went on. Eventually it got dark and it was time to be done. I asked if we could look for snakes tonight and was told it depended on the weather. It continued to rain so we decided not to look tonight, instead I showered, read my book, and then went to bed a little early.

Tuesday 6/10

Today I woke up at my normal time of about 7:30. I had arrived last night when it was dark so the first thing that I did when I woke up was little bit of looking around. When I walked outside I was shocked to see that the ranger hut that I stayed in was only about 30 feet away from the water. There was a dock here with a couple Sabah Parks boats and a little information and ticket counter. People were already moving around and hanging out by the water. I went outside and sat with them even though I was told we most likely wouldn’t be leaving until about 11:00. I was a little disappointed to hear that because I was feeling antsy to get going. Fortunately, around 9:30 they told me to grab my things and get ready. I think everyone arrived and was ready to go a little sooner than expected. We left the jetty in Kuala Penyu at around 10:00. There were four of us on the approximately 30 foot boat that had twin 200 hp Yamaha outboards. The ride to Pulau Tiga was a quick 20 minute ride and the sea was fairly calm with long, rolling waves just a couple of feet high. We arrived at a long dock at Pulau Tiga with large letters spelling out SURVIVOR ISLAND  near where the dock meets the land. Apparently the 1996 season of the Survivor reality tv show took place here on Pulau Tiga.

We unloaded our things onto a large cart and wheeled it down the dock, while the boat driver pulled away. We were greeted by a couple of workers when we got to the land. A woman named Jane introduced herself to me and then showed me to where I will be staying this week. I have a little place to myself with a nice big comfy bed, my own kitchen, bathroom, and small living room. I feel a little bit spoiled honestly. Jane told me to get settled in and then go meet her at the Park Office where I’ll meet the other group of interns who I will be working with this week. I told her that sounded good and quickly got some of my stuff unpacked and made my way over. When I arrived I met in a conference room with the three interns named Ika, Suzanne, and Fadilah. They gave me a short presentation about Pulau Tiga and then we went and walked around the Park Basecamp.

We started by walking on a short boardwalk through a lagoon just to the east of the main part of the basecamp. Right away we saw monkeys, Long Tailed Macaques, in the trees and walking around the boardwalk. The water was crystal clear, although there was a fair amount of plastic garbage. The interns told me that it is cleaned frequently, but you could spend all day picking up trash and the next day it would look the same way. And it wasn’t super distracting, like the place still feels so serene, but it just goes to show that even in a marine park plastic pollution from outside the boundary can still have effects. Once off the boardwalk we walked around all of the buildings that include the office, staff housing, camping area, bathrooms, chalet, and a variety of pavilions. While walking around I saw some more monkeys running around as well as a couple large Monitor Lizards. We also went and walked a small loop in the woods that gets near an old resort that had been abandoned after COVID. There is also another resort still in operation on the far side of the Island called Borneo Eagle Resort.

After walking around they told me to go rest and maybe eat some lunch before continuing activities in the afternoon. I was glad to hear this because I had not eaten breakfast today, so I went back to my room to cook some ramen noodles. Determined to eat fast and blinded by hunger, I had not noticed that the kettle I was using to boil water was actually electric and had a plastic bottom until the plastic caught on fire and started melting everywhere. Perfect. I’m barely here and hour and already almost burnt my house down. These people are going to think I’m an idiot. I did my best to clean up the melted plastic and composed myself before going to tell Jane what I had done. When I told her what happened I don’t think she understood at first. But when she came and saw what I had done she smiled and told me it’s ok, just a very small problem.

After that I finally ate some food and thought about what I did, just wanting to go and get on with the day. Finally, around 3:00, it was time to walk with Ika, Suzanne, and one of the Rangers named Imaldy. We were heading to the center of the island to the one remaining active mud volcano. Originally there were three mud volcanos responsible for the formation of pulau tiga, but now there is only the one. We walked on a boardwalk for 1 km before reaching it. This mud volcano is one of the main attractions here at Pulau Tiga because people believe that bathing in the mud is really healthy for your skin. I was excited to test it out and after resting a few minutes I got right in. I was the only one but everyone was really excited for me to try it, and I had a blast. The consistency was the strangest thing. It appeared thick, but I was able to swim in it like a pool. It was also super buoyant so if you laid on your back you would float right up to the top. I went and sat in the section that would occasionally bubble up with fresh mud and was actually pretty cool in temperature. I rubbed some on my face and enjoyed it for about a half hour, then we started the walk back to the basecamp. When we got back I used an outdoor shower that took so long to rinse the mud off of me, then went back and showered at my place to get the rest of the mud off.

Shortly after the whole staff met at the volleyball court to play a couple games. Finally a sport that I have played before and does not require foot skills! I had a lot of fun playing with everyone until the sun went down. After playing I went and sat by the beach. Only about 50 meters away from where I sleep, and I just enjoyed the view. Later that night, the interns, Imaldy, myself, and a few others went to look around for snakes. We went to walk around in the lagoon and actually found three or four different snakes of the same species, hunting in the mud flats for little fish. I believe they were Dog Faced Water Snakes. Along with the snakes we saw lots of small fish, hermit crabs, and a normal crab. The lagoon was full of life and it was really cool to see. After searching the lagoon we went and looked in some other places around basecamp but came up empty handed. I got back, showered, and went to bed around 11:00.

Monday 6/9

Today I woke up early and packed my things. I was ready to leave at 8:00 and left shortly after. The man who was driving me was named Nickson. He has worked in Poring for a long time as well, doing some random tasks such as driving around people like me, but he mainly helps Mr. Fred do research on the Sambar Deer in the Tropical Garden. We stopped to get gas in Ranau, then proceeded towards Kota Kinabalu. Along the way we stopped for coffee and food at a restaurant at Gunung Alab, nearby where Andy and I were with Lee the week before. After our wuick meal we continued to Kota Kinabalu, where Andy and I would switch drivers. When we met up there was a quick swap of luggage and a few words shared between each other, but then we quickly got in our new vehicles and wished each other good luck for the week. I was now riding with a man named Imbui (I think). We stopped for some food in Kota Kinabalu and then ran a few errands nearby, stopping at a hardware store and  a boat motor store. Nothing was purchased but there was a lot of talking and some paperwork at the two places. I did my best to follow along but Imbui doesn’t really speak English so I was pretty much along for the ride. After those errands we went to a couple other different places all over Kota Kinabalu. I made conversation and really enjoyed speaking Malay throughout driving around. Eventually we left Kota Kinabalu and headed south towards Kuala Penyu, the mainland town where the Sabah Parks boats leave for Pulau Tiga. We made a couple more stops for groceries and another small meal along the way, hitting a surprising amount of traffic as well. I made some more small talk and practiced my Malay and eventually we arrived to Kuala Penyu at about 7:00. When I arrived I took my things inside the ranger cabin where I would stay for the night. I would be staying with a man named Rex. He was in his mid 20s and very fun to talk to. I got settled and then Rex and I both had some beverages and talked with each other and a man named JJ who does some contract work at Pulau Tiga. We enjoyed each other’s company and around 11 it was time for me to head to bed, I wasn’t sure what time I would leaving the next morning and wanted to get a good night’s sleep.

Sunday 6/8

Today was my last day in Poring and I had  nothing planned. Initially I had thought I would be leaving today, but at the last minute heard I would actually be leaving tomorrow, on Monday. So I slept in and when I got up I took a shower, ate some breakfast, and did some reading. Eventually I got bored and went for a small walk down to the stores outside the park and just kind of meandered around a while. When I got back I did some more reading and then ate lunch and took a small nap. After that I woke up, I finished the book I was reading, The Monkey Wrench Gang. I was pretty happy with myself, but still felt lazy, so Steven and I went for another walk down around the park and to look at the nearby river. We took our time walking around and when we got back to our place Deo and Hijal had just arrived too. At this point it was already the evening and we all just kinda sat around playing some card games and talking. It had been one of my first really lazy days here and I felt kind of bad about it, but what can you do. That night Deo and I talked for a while about some different things. He asked me a lot of really good questions throughout this whole week, but especially tonight. He asked me about different political topics, social topics, and some things just about American Culture. I really enjoyed giving him my best answers on things and I also asked him a lot of questions about the same kind of things here in Sabah. When discussing the two different places We had talked about how in the US people have come to the country from all over, and retain their identities but also lose a lot of identity along the way. In Sabah there are a majority of indigenous peoples, but also people from China, the Philippines, and even India. Here a lot of these different identities are preserved, and sometimes mix with each other as well. I mentioned to him that I have seen nothing but kindness between people here. He agreed that for the most part people are kind to each other, but there is still also a lot of division between groups of people as well. He talked about how there are always some political or religious extremists that spread hate and just make it difficult for everyone to get along. I enjoyed talking with Deo, and will miss all of the interns a lot. I went to bed fairly late, but I was feeling very grateful for my time in Poring this past week. Justinah was one of my favorites in the butterfly farm, and the interns were a lot of fun to live with.

I should have gotten another picture with the interns here, but this is us at the hot springs the other night.

Saturday 6/7

Today would be my last day of work here in Poring, and it was barely actually work. Today, instead of going to the butterfly office, I would go and meet a woman named Sulidza at the main Visitors Center. When I arrived she told me to look around for a little bit while she finished up a task. There was info largely about Poring, but also about all of Sabah Parks. After I looked around she said we could head to the Orchid Garden to look around. We walked a couple hundred meters up to the garden and she took me around the trails, telling me a little bit about some of the different orchids. Not a lot was currently blooming but it was cool to still see all of the plants and the set up. There were easily hundreds of species and there were even more in the nursery building as well, although I did not look in there. After the Orchid Garden, Sulidza normally said that we would go to the Tropical Garden, but unfortunately it was closed and there was not much to see. So, we walked back down the hill and into the park and then made our way to the Canopy Walk. Sulidza told me that she would let me do this on my own, but she would wait for me at the gate. I checked in at the counter and made my way 500m uphill to get the start of actual canopy walk. I didn’t really know what to expect for this canopy walk, but I was expecting a fixed platform between trees that would not be very long in length. I was completely wrong. When I arrived, I ascended a staircase of a small building and saw what the canopy walk actually was. Two cables that ran between trees and suspended a kind of metal ladder laid horizontally with just regular rope. On top of the ladder, wood was laid down for easy walking and there was netting that went up to almost my chest. The bridge swayed with each step and it was hard to walk without hanging on to the sides. At some points you were 40 meters above the forest floor and there was some fantastic views out over the hills and forest. I loved this walk, it was one of my favorite things I had done in Poring. I will say though, I don’t think that it would have met safety standards in US. There were 4 or 5 sections of canopy walk between trees, with a small platform at each dividing tree. When I finished I headed back down to canopy walk gate, and it started to lightly rain.

 When I met back up with Sulidza we went to go look at the Rafflesia Garden. Rafflesia are the largest flowers on the planet, and there are a couple different species spread throughout Borneo, and some other places in Southeast Asia. These flowers will take most of the year to bloom, and then will only be in bloom for about a week. There is no specific season for when they bloom, but unfortunately there were none blooming while I was there, although there were a couple buds on the ground that were about 6 inches across. After walking around the boardwalks of the Rafflesia Garden, we went to the Ethnobotanical Garden. This garden was small, but had a kind of Hobbit theme. Around little Hobbit houses and a big sculpture of a troll, there were plants everywhere that can all be used in some way by humans for food, medicine, or really anything. Now it really started to rain again so we sat under a pavilion and waited for the rain to slow down. While we waited we had started to talk a little bit about some different topics, one of which being climate change. Sulidza said that she has been starting to notice some changes, mainly the differences between seasons here in Sabah. There was always just a dry and rainy season, with there still being rain in the Dry Season. Now though, she said she mainly just notices that there are less differences between seasons. She pointed out that the main danger here was been the warming ocean and coral bleaching. She said that in the ocean around Kota Kinabalu especially there has been declines in coral and in turn some other marine life.

I finished around noon with Sulidza, then went to meet up with the interns at our place. I went with Adelly and Steven down to a restaurant right outside the park gate. Since Hijal, who is Muslim was not with us, we went to a place that serves pork and we all shared some sinalau. Smoked pork with rice and some chili sauce is hard to beat. Once we finished we walked back home and we all took a nap for a few hours. When I woke up I just hung out and then Deo returned with his car. We decided to drive into town and we all got sinalau again at the Ranau Food Court. After this we returned home and enjoyed each others company for the rest of night.

Friday 6/6

This morning I got up with the same routine, and walked down to work by myself around 8:30. The other interns had the day off today, and I would only work my morning session before resting until about 5:00 when I would get ready to go on a night walk with some of the staff. The tasks for this morning consisted of collecting food plants for the other insects that are kept in the butterfly farm, and then feeding the insects. To collect the plants, we walked on the same trail that we had walked to collect food plants for the butterflies a few days, but mainly just stopped at one location to gather them all. We had small pruner on the end of stick that we used to reach back off the trail and grab about 3 foot sections of different plants. Once we had collected what we needed we went back to the butterfly garden. Our first insects to feed were the long stick insects. They are at least a foot long and completely harmless. It was even fun to let the one crawl on me while we were replacing the old food with what we had just collected. The next stop was another kind of stick insect, but they are shorter and thicker. They look less like a stick and more like a creepy looking bug honestly. We changed the food in this exhibit as well but I did not hold any of them, apparently they sometimes bite. The last insect that we had to feed were the Three Horned Beetles. These beetles are big, round, and dark. The males have 3 horns, one on the lower part of the head, and two on the upper part of the head. They can use these to bite and it is supposed to be incredibly painful. For this exhibit, we put more dirt made from coconut husk in the enclosure, then added sugar cane on top of the dirt for food. After we finished feeding the insects I was pretty much done with work for the morning. I went back to the staff quarters, hung out with the interns, then took a nap.

I went back to the Butterfly Office around 5:00 so that I could go use the Wifi and get caught up with writing the blog. I went and worked for about an hour, then I ate some noodles with the others while we got ready to head out onto the trail and look around for wildlife. There were five of us who would go. We would follow the same path that we had followed looking for butterfly food plants a few days ago, walking out to the waterfall and then looping back around to the trail we started on. We walked very slowly, looking for whatever we could find. The first major find were two caterpillars that nobody recognized, so two people went back to get a container to collect them in. After that we saw a lizard in a tree. There was a small spine on the back and a long tail, I am not sure of the species. After that we did not see much until we arrived at the waterfall and we saw a couple frogs that the locals call Sai. Apparently Sai is delicious, they will just fry it and eat it whole. We took a small break at the waterfall then started to head downstream when one of the men spotted a snake! They were not sure of it was venomous or not so we did not touch it, but did try to coax it out of its little hiding place in tree roots. I believe that it was a black headed cat snake, but I cannot say for sure. We admired it for a couple minutes then continued our walk. We saw another lizard but not much else until we were almost finished for night. When we started to get close to the end, we were talking about how we didn’t see any birds. Then, right after we had finished talking about it there was a kingfisher sitting on a branch about 20 feet above the trail. It had a red beak beak and blue feathers and it was beautiful. After that we even saw one more bird which was an Asian Fairy Bluebird. This was further away and a little harder to identify but with our flashlights and binoculars we were able to get a decent look at it. After that we arrived back at the butterfly office, had a cup of coffee, and then went home. I got back, took a shower, and went to bed pretty quickly.

Thursday 6/5

This morning the routine was the same. Once I arrived at the butterfly garden I once again had some coffee before heading out for the day. Today I would walk a trail with a few others to go collect plants for caterpillar food in the butterfly garden. We walked along a trail that leads to two different waterfalls, occasionally stopping to grab some different vines are small plants. I am not sure the name of these plants, there is a little bit more of a language barrier here. When I asked them the name of the plants, they were long local names and I could not remember them. Some of the plants they did not have a name for but just knew what they looked like. When we reached a waterfall, we took some pictures then started to loop back. It was not a long walk, but once again we took our time. When we got back, Justina and David had made lunch for everyone. There was chicken soup with some ginger and onions, rice and a kind of sauce with anchovies and chilis which I did not eat. I’m still working on trying to like anchovies. We all ate and hung out for a little while.

 After that, Justina told me that I can go back and rest or I can stay and help make some butterflies into dried specimens. I of course stayed and watched Justina and some of the other interns come and make some specimens, then I got to try. You first kill the butterfly by putting it in the freezer for couple minutes, and then you place a large pin through the thorax. After that, you place the butterfly on a block where there are two strips of wood with a gap in the middle for the butterfly’s body. The wings are then pinned onto wood using plastic film and little tacks. It is delicate work and I do not have the steadiest hands, but the three specimens that I made actually ended up looking pretty good. We did this for almost 2 hours, but the time flew by. It required a lot of focus and patience and it ended up being my favorite activity here in the butterfly farm.

When we were done making specimens it was time to head back out into the garden to go plant what we had collected earlier into little plastic bags. This did not take very long and when we finished they told me that I was done with my tasks for the day. I still hung around for a little bit, the interns came back to hang out and one of them had to make one more specimen. When he finished, we all went back to our staff housing and hung out until around 7:00.

We were all pretty tired but we rallied to go grab a quick bite to eat, and then head to the hot springs in the park. We had been given permission to go there after hours and relax in the tubs that are fed by Poring Hot Springs. We had some smoked chicken wings, chicken tails, and rice for dinner then went and soaked in the tubs. I made mine nice and hot, which everyone else thought was too hot, and relaxed for about an hour. When I was done I rinsed off in some cold water and nice and refreshed. We arrived back at our housing around 10:00, and stayed up a little past midnight, just enjoying each other’s company. I have enjoyed my roommates a lot. They are fun to hang out with and welcoming in the way that most people are here. It is fun to talk about our two different college experiences. They have asked me a lot about the US, and I have been able to learn even more about Malaysia from them. Eventually it was time to head to bed though.

Wednesday 6/4

Today was similar to the day before, I got up around 7:30 and walked to the park with the other interns. I went to the butterfly farm and had coffee with the workers before heading out for the our morning task. Today we would walk outside of the park and go catch butterflies with nets. There were 4 of us, and we walked down a small dirt road for maybe 1 km, walking slowly. They told me that my goal for the day was to catch five butterflies. I thought that sounded easy enough, and by the end of the walk I think I caught eight, but it was a little tricker than I thought. Some of them move fast and with each flap of the wings they slightly change direction. After you catch a butterfly in your net, you have to quickly wrap the net around itself so the butterfly cannot escape. After that you have to grab the butterfly by the thorax or at the base of their wings through the net before you can reach inside and grab them. After that you can grab them and put them inside a small folded up pieces of paper that keeps their wings straight and prevents them from being damaged. Then the butterflies go in a little metal container that is worn around your waist. I lost multiple butterflies throughout that whole process. Eventually on the road we reached a bridge that crosses a river. On the other side seemed to be a little camp where people can stay or just go and swim. We hung out there for a little bit and fed some fish that were in a pool in the river, then walked back, still catching butterflies along the way. There are so many different butterflies here, that without a reference book, they are so difficult to identify.

We arrived back at the butterfly office after a couple hours and it was time to take a rest for a couple hours. I went back to my place and ate lunch with the other interns, some rice, eggs, and veggies, and hung out with them until it was time to go back to the butterfly office.

For the second half of the day I would work with Justina to identify all of the butterflies that we caught. We had a couple large books with hundreds of species in each, and about 20 different butterflies to identify. Luckily, she has been doing this for about 30 years so she was able to recognize what family they were all in, and most of the time she was able to figure out the genus pretty quickly as well. The tough part was figuring out the species. There are so many butterflies that look nearly identical, only having slight differences. We did this for nearly 3 hours and I really enjoyed it. I think it is fun to identify animals, and I had never really identified butterflies or other insects before. After we finished identifying the butterflies it was time to head home for the day. When I got back I showered and just hung out for a while. When it was time to eat, I told my roommates that I wanted to buy them dinner since they had given me so much food. They agreed and we went to eat at a restaurant that was right next to a small stream and near the town of Ranau. We all shared some tom yam soup, and all had some kind of fried rice, I had shrimp and chilis in mine. After dinner we stopped at the grocery store, grabbed a couple things and returned our staff housing. For the rest of the night we sat in the small living room and talked until about 11:30 before heading to bed.

Tuesday 6/3

This morning I got up around 7:30, and we all walked to the park around 8:15. The three other interns worked in the butterfly garden all of last month, and were going there again this morning to look at some of the butterflies they had been working with. Their internship goes all summer and they do something different each month, but they stay in Poring the whole time. When we arrived to the butterfly garden office, we met with Justina, my supervisor for the week. She has worked in the butterfly garden for over 30 years, and she is very sweet. She made a schedule for the week that we reviewed and she introduced me to the other workers in the butterfly garden. After that, the three interns left to go to the botanical garden that they will be in for all of June, and Justina showed me around a little bit. After that we started our task of searching the garden for butterfly eggs and caterpillars to collect. It was Justina, a man named David, and myself. We did not find any eggs but we found some rare caterpillars, including a kind that Justina said she has not seen in years. She was very excited and went to get her nice camera to take some pictures. The place in the garden that we were searching is filled with butterfly food plants, most of which are vines and flowers that grow on wires that are maybe 5 feet off the ground and all tied together in a giant web. The garden also contains areas for the public to walk around, including an enclosed area and a building that shows preserved specimens. We searched for a couple hours then went to the breeding building and put the caterpillars in containers with leaves and some water They will stay in the these containers until they metamorphize into butterflies. After this we had some coffee and talked for a little while before it was time for a 12:00-2:00 break for lunch and rest. I went back to our place with the interns and we ate some leftovers from the night before. While we were there the fourth intern arrived. His name is Hizal and he is a bio-mechanics student at USM. They all didn’t have any more work for the day, so around 1:45, I walked back down to the park entrance and butterfly garden. This afternoons task was just walk around and bait about 8 butterfly traps with some mashed up banana. David, another worker, and myself walked around and baited the traps which are in the woods along the perimeter of the garden, and returned to the office within 45 minutes. Then we just had to wait until 4:00 to go check the traps. While we waited I sat and talked with some of the workers who don’t know much English, and I got to practice my Malay for a while. When it was 4:00 we went to check the traps.

Surprisingly, we caught nothing. Oh well, we laughed and walked back to the office. I saw Justina and she told me that was all for the day. I talked with her for a little bit and had some coffee. She had gotten me a mug and some snacks when she heard I was coming. She said her daughters are a little older than me and she says it’s like I’m her son. After we had our coffee I left and went back to the house.

When I got back everyone was napping. I took a shower, had a snack, and just hung out for a little bit. Around 7:00 it was time to cook dinner. Hizal had gotten some fish and he chopped them into sections and washed them but then the water in the kitchen turned dirty. The water from the faucets here is supplied by the river, so when it rains the mud that washes into the river also washes into the faucets. We had to use some bottled water to finish cooking but I helped hizal season and fry the fish, and Steve made some chili sauce. The fish, which was seasoned with tumeric powder, salt, and a little MSG was fantastic. After dinner we all hung out for a couple hours, talking about school, America, and Malaysia, then around 10:00 I got tired and headed to bed.

Monday 6/2

Today, I woke up around 7:00, and quickly got my things packed up before Andy and I left the rest house at 8:00, only today we would be heading in different directions. Andy went west, to Pulau Tiga, a small island of the coast south of Kota Kinabalu. I came north to Poring Substation in Kinabalu Park, near the town of Ranau. We are at our separate locations for a week before we switch spots with each other for the following week. We wished each other good luck, got in our separate trucks, and left. Jonathan was my driver. He doesn’t speak much English so I got to work on my Malaysian which was fun, listening to Bon Jovi for a majority of the drive. We stopped for food in Tambunan, a place that I have driven through a couple times already. The only difference today was the sky was clear, and it was possible to see Mount Kinabalu, from about 50 miles away, towering over everything else around it. As we got closer I got to see my first clear, up close looks of the mountain. It is jagged, with a lot more being above tree line that I had initially thought. We got to the town of Ranau around 11:30 and met with Mr. Fred, who is my supervisor for the week. Jonathan and I had coffee with him before we loaded my things into his truck, said goodbye to Jonathan, and drove towards Poring Substation. We stopped on the way at a roadside restaurant for some fried rice and fried noodles along the way, and I got to talk with Fred for a while. He is a biologist who does research in the Parks, specializing in small mammals and the local Sambar Deer. We talked some more about his research and Kinabalu Park on the way to the Substation. Poring Substation is much different from the ones that I had been to Crocker Range. Here, the main focus is tourism and research rather than enforcement. Poring is known for their hot springs, and they have both small and large pools as well waterfalls, a butterfly garden, an orchid garden, laboratories, and a population of Sambar Deer living in an enclosure used for research and breeding. Mr. Fred showed me around the complex and then showed me to my room. I am living with 3 other local interns from the University of Malysia Sabah. Mr. Fred told me I will be working in the butterfly garden because that is where they have the most tasks for me, but also said I will get to participate in some bat surveys later in the week.

This week will be much different from the last in many ways. I seem to have a more structured schedule in a place that focuses on tourism and has much more people. I will not have Andy, but will have an opportunity to meet lots of new people, and do a much different type of work. I am looking forward to all the new things that I will get to do.

When I arrived to the staff quarters where I’ll be staying, I met my roommates for the week. Right now, there are three, and a fourth one comes tomorrow. They are all interns from The University of Malaysia Sabah, and they study forestry. Their names are Deo, Adelly, and Steve. When I arrived and started to get settled in, they left to go see some friends but returned a few hours later. They brought back some delicious bakso, and we hung out from about 8-12 before I went to bed. They are all very nice people, and I am glad that I will get to hang out with them all week.

Sunday 6/1

This morning, Andy, Lee, and I got up at 6:00 to go and look for birds. We first looked by the river and caught a few glimpses of birds but then decided to walk down the road. I ended up seeing nine new species of bird between 6:00 and 10:00 am. First we saw a Black and Yellow Broadbill which is a beautiful bird, although it was a bit backlit and hard to make out all of the colors. Then, before we saw another bird, and I’m really psyched about this, we saw a lizard from the Draco genus, known for their ability to fly. Andy and I actually both saw it fly and land on a tree, and we didn’t know what it was until we saw it scurry around the tree to where we could actually see it. The lizard was only about 6 inches long, but it was able to fly with way more precision and grace than what I thought it would. They fly by stretching out their ribs and gliding. We had learned briefly about them in herpetology and Andy and I had talked about how cool it would be to see one, but I wasn’t so sure we would be able to, and really did not think that we would be able to see it fly. We had our eyes peeled for birds, and were not searching for Draco, but we saw it fly through the air, land on the side of a completely vertical tree, and climb around to sit facing us about 20 feet away. We almost couldn’t believe it. After that we saw a bunch of cool birds, most of the time thanks to the eagle eye of Lee. We saw some different species of Bulbul, some Green Leafbirds, and Raffles’s Malkoha which Lee called the Doctor Bird, because it only makes it’s nests with leaves that are used in traditional Chinese medicines. Some of these birds are listed as rare on the app Merlin and are beautiful.  We were lucky to see as many birds as we did, however nothing really compared to seeing Draco. After looking for birds all morning we took a small rest, then went to swim in the river. We swam for about a half hour before Mr. Silver arrived to take us back to the Crocker Range Rest House for the rest of the day. We hung out and talked for a while and Lee kindly gifted Andy and I each a homemade parang; a large knife that everyone carries when they do work in the jungle. Lee used to work primarily as a blacksmith in his village, and still does a little bit, and that gift meant a lot to me. He was someone who took it upon himself to always help Andy and I with anything we needed, even after long days of work. He and Silver both had a huge impact on our overall experience in Keningau and they told us that anytime we want to return we have a place to stay. They thanked us for our time we spent with them and told us they see us as their brothers, something that meant a lot to both Andy and I. We also thanked them for welcoming us with such open arms and giving us an experience that we will never forget. They are truly some of the kindest people that I have ever met. It was a sad goodbye, but Andy and I packed our things in Silver’s truck and left Bayayo.

On the way to the Rest House we stopped at the Bataras Supermarket to shop for the upcoming week. While we were there, Jus, the other head ranger for the area along with Silver, called and asked if we wanted to play soccer with him and Silver in an hour. Andy immediately agreed. I hesitantly agreed. I’ll admit it was mainly because I just didn’t want to embarrass myself. We finished shopping, stopped at Silvers house so he could change his clothes, and arrived at the field  in a village near Keningau. When we arrived, it looked way more serious than I thought it would be. Two teams with their own uniforms warming up with refs getting ready to go as well. It was basically a men’s league. Kentut, it turns out, is on the team with Jus and Silver as well, so it was good to see him. They played three 30 minute periods and Andy and I would play in the second period. After the first period it was still a 0-0 game and I really did not want to go in, screw up, and give up the first points of the game. Luckily there so many people on the team that there was only enough space for Andy and I to each play half the period. Andy started, played really well, then it was my turn to go in. I was playing winger I guess, but had no clue what I was doing. I kicked the ball twice, then accidently had a handball. Shortly after a member of our team scored, giving me a break in the action to go sub myself self out. I called for Andy and ran to the sideline. They asked what I was doing coming out already (I played 5 out of my 15 minutes), and I told them I had no idea what I was doing out there! They all laughed and said some encouraging words, knowing I really hadn’t played before, and said they were glad that I tried. I was too, but I was happy witting on the sidelines and watching our team win by one point. After the game we all had some food at the field, then Silver took Andy and I to the Rest House around 7:30. I made some phone calls home that were long overdue, showered and went to bed around 11:30.

 Saturday 5/31

This morning Andy and I got up around 7:30, had a quick coffee and biscuit, and were picked up by one of the drivers named Jonathan. Jonathan took us back to the Keningau District Headquarters, and we picked up two workers who we had just met at the party on Thursday night named Khai and Arip. They would be taking us to the final Kaamatan festival in the city of Penampang, just to the east of Kota Kinabalu. We arrived around 10:00 and were met with a huge line of traffic. Jonathan dropped us off at the gate of the Kadazan Dusun Cultural Association Complex, referred to as the KDCA, and we joined the crowd of people entering. There was a lot going on, but the first thing that we did was walk through a little cultural village that showcased all of the different Dusun tribes from different areas of Sabah. Each tribe has their own type of traditional house and dress, and they were all on display to see, also selling traditional jewelry and trinkets. After seeing all of this, for maybe an hour, we went to look around the rest of the area, which was kind of like a big fair. With different vendors selling foods and items, as well as some booths selling things like air conditioning or cell service. After walking around this area we went to try to watch the pageant for the Unduk Ngadau. The Unduk Ngadau one of the main things celebrated during Kaamatan. The origin of the holiday, at least from what I have been told, is that a long, long time ago there was a drought and it was very difficult to grow food. Then, a beautiful woman, or the Unduk Ngadau, was sacrificed to end the drought and famine, and people were now able to grow rice. The Unduk Ngadou I think kind of commemorates this legend. Unfortunately, the line to enter the hall to watch was long and moving incredibly slowly. After waiting for about a half hour the four of us decided to call it and go eat some food. After we ate some pork soup, we walked around the cultural village some more. Now things were starting to pick up, and Andy and I once again got roped into joining a dance circle. I felt embarrassed but still had a great time, and I think people thought it was funny watching us struggle to keep up. When the song ended we left that house, got our picture taken with another group, then went to go wait for Jonathan to pick us up to leave.

When he made it to us, we hopped in the car and Andy and I both thought we were heading back to Bayayo. Instead, we drove into Kota Kinabalu, and Khai and the others wanted to show us the largest mall in Sabah. I’m typically not one for malls but it was pretty cool to see. It was 4 stories tall and had a mix of stores I recognized and had never heard of. It also had an arcade where we went and played some games which was pretty cool, then we walked around some more and ended up in a massive grocery store on the first floor. There was really a mix of everything there.  After we left I thought again that we were heading back to Bayayo, but instead went to a big public beach. This was the first time we actually went to a beach while being here and it felt great. There was a night market starting up when we got there, and there was a nice ocean breeze to cool us of from the hot afternoon sun. We had some cold drinks and some snacks and sat on the edge of the beach for about an half hour before heading back to the truck. I had wondered why I didn’t see many people in the water but on the way out I saw a sign for crocodiles that said swim at your own risk so I think that might have been the reason.

We left the beach, feeling pretty tired and drive all the way back to the Keningau District Park Headquarters and ate dinner at the resteraunt across the street. I had Deer Fried Rice Pattaya (Nasi Goreng Payou Pattaya) which was deer meat and fried rice topped with a thin sheet of scrambled egg.  It was delicious (sedap), as most food is here. Then we piled back in the truck, this time Jonathan switched out with another driver, and went back to Bayayo. When we got there, it was only Lee, Galis, and Kentut. Others had already left for vacation, and Kentut was getting ready to leave because his three month contract was over and he has to wait another month before returning. So Kentut packed up, and packed up the puppies as well because he was taking them home with him, and left along with the folks who took Nady and I back. The four of us that remained stayed up for a little while, but ended up going to bed around 10:30.

Friday 5/30

Today we slept in again until around 8:00, had a nice big breakfast with some instant coffee, and got ready to start the work for the day. Today’s goal was to improve the water collection system here at Control Post Bayayo. To do this we needed to unroll two huge rolls of 2-inch diameter piping and drag it all up a trail and across the river a few times before taking it up the creek, the same way that I returned from my hike a couple days ago. Each roll of piping was probably about 70 meters long and it was pretty heavy. We split up so there were about 4 people per pipe. Each with a piece of it over the shoulder and dragging it through the twisting trail was hard work. We took fairly frequent short breaks, and a nice long break once we made it to the creek that we had to walk up. The whole point of bringing in this new piping was to go further upstream to reach a better, natural dam in the creek to make the piping more resilient during floods. Once we dragged the pipe up the creek, we had to get it situated up on the bank to keep it out of the path of floods. The difficult part of this was keeping it all running downhill so that the water would flow. After messing with it for about an hour, four of us walked back since there was not much else we could do.

Once we made it back to the Control Post, One of the workers named Galis made lunch. It was rice, some ginger chicken soup, and fish that were fried whole. This was one of my favorite meals that I have had here so far. After that, the others returned and ate, and we all took a rest. After we ate it was time to play some more sepak takro. This time there were only six us playing so we played a best of three match and my team lost. After that we all hung out for a little bit, but as it was getting dark Andy and I decided that we wanted to look around for wildlife again with our flashlights. Lee joined as well, which was awesome because he spotted a mouse deer. Tonight we just walked through the bamboo forest next to the Control Post. It was pretty far away and at first he just spotted the eye shine from the flashlight, but after looking more closely we were able to catch a glimpse of the smallest species of deer. We also saw a couple small dark blue birds called Black-naped Monarchs as well. It eventually started to drizzle a little bit, so we hurried back to take our clothes off the line that we had left them drying on. After that, we went to bed shortly after because we were leaving the Control Post the next morning to go to the final Kaamatan festival.

Thursday 5/29

We had meant to wake up this morning at sunrise to look around for some birds, but we ended up sleeping in until around 8 again and had some different biscuits and instant coffee for breakfast. When we were sitting outside we still saw some birds flying around and then ended up walking around looking for another hour and a half. I saw some new birds including a Spectacled Spiderhunter, a Red and Crimson Oriole, and a Penan Bulbul, as well as some other birds that we had seen before. The Molunggung Control Post is beautiful. Looking out from the porch of the office there is a small yard and pavilion that is bordered by a very nice stream. On the other side of the stream is actually part of the Salt Trail that starts in Inobong, and some big Banana Trees. After looking for birds it was time to get started on our task for the day. We had to move bricks from the parking lot, across the footbridge and cement path, to underneath the staff house. We had a wheelbarrow, a cart that could fit a little more than double the wheelbarrow, and 4 people, Andy, Lee, Ronnie, and I. Lee and I worked together on the cart for most of the time and I got to learn some words in local Dusun language. Mainly Asonong (great), and Awagat Kopio (Very Heavy). Andy and I have probably learned as much Dusun as we have Malay since being here. Dusun is the largest ethnic group in Sabah and most people know how to speak both languages.

We probably moved about 400-500 bricks, each probably weighing a little under 10 pounds, for about 3 hours, then it was time to go. We packed are things up and drove to the same restaurant in Tambunan for lunch. We ate fairly quickly and left to head back to Bayayo Control Post. At Bayayo, the whole Keningau Distract Parks staff was waiting for us, probably about 20 people. They had planned a small party for us because Andy and I will most likely not see a lot of them again. They had planned for today, Thursday, because a lot of the folks have work off for the final Kamaatan Festival this weekend. They had gotten catering consisting of rice, whole fried fish, chicken, and eggplant, and brought some beverages as well. We all ate, talked, listened to music, and some of the people even played guitar and sang. As the night went on we ended up playing some cards for a while, a game that I do not know well enough to try to explain here. I cannot emphasize enough just how nice everyone here in the Keningau District has been to Andy and I. They welcomed us right away, and now feel like friends that we have known for much longer than a week and half. I want to specifically thank the whole crew here at Bayayo, where we have spent most of our time. We learned a lot from a lot of people, especially Lee and Mr. Silver who did a great job of bridging the Malay/Dusun-English languages. We all sat outside for a majority of the night, eventually heading to bed around 11:30 to get a good night’s sleep.

Wednesday 5/28

Everyone slept in a little bit this morning, waking up closer to 8:00 rather than 7:00. We all ate breakfast and sipped coffee, then I packed up my things were when a driver arrived. We would take Lee and I to go pick up Andy, then head towards Tambunan to go to a couple different places in the Northern Crocker Range. Forst we went to Gunung Alab Substation, about a 1.5 hour drive from Keningau. Gunung Alab, or Mount Alab, is high enough to be considered a cloud forest. We stepped outside of the car, the weather was foggy and seemed to be in the low 70s, maybe even high 60s. We took a small hike on a boardwalk with Lee through trees, all covered with moss, almost looking like we were in the Pacific Northwest. Then we took another hike through an area with lots of different rhododendrons and pitcher plants. It was really cool to get to see this different kind of mountain top environment. After our 1.5 hours walking around Gunung Alab, we drove down into the town of Tambunan for lunch. We went to a Javanese restaurant, and spent about $2.50 USD per person on big plates of chicken and rice and veggies. This is the average price of a meal here. It’s nothing super fancy, but it is really good food.

After lunch we switched drivers to someone from the Tambunan Region, named Ronnie, and he took us to Mahua Substation. The attraction here is Mahua Falls. A 55 foot waterfall that is 500 meters from the Substation. We took the paved path back through the old growth forest with massive Suriya Trees. The whole way, walking along the crystal clear river littered with large boulders. Along the path there are little pavilions where you could have a picnic, as well as bathrooms  not far from the falls. When we got to the falls there was only one other group there. Two British people along with their guide who had just finished the 16 km trail from Gunung Alab down to Mahua Falls. These were the only tourists that we have seen while being here. The waterfall was stunning. A strong rush of water dropping 55 feet into a small pool, producing a nice cool mist. We hung around for a little while looking for birds, but only saw some very common yellow rumped Bulbuls. After this we walked back to the Substation and hung out with the workers for 20 minutes, friends of Lee’s. Then we got back in the Truck and went to our final destination for the day, Molunggung Control Post.

 It was dark when we arrived, but we carried our things across a small bridge over a stream, and back along a short cement path to the Control Post. There were multiple buildings there. A building for the 1 staff member who lives there, an outdoor kitchen, some small sheds, a bathroom, and the Control Post Office. We took our things to Office, where we would sleep in a bedroom with a couple beds, and met with the staff member Zeno. Lee calls him Uncle Zeno, he said he is a worker who does a great job and he really respects. He helped us get settled and we talked with him for a while. Then Andy, lee, and I decided to go walk around with flashlights and see what kind of animals we could find. Andy was the first one to find something, a wild gecko that bit him on the thumb when he caught it. It was beautiful. It had two lines that ran laterally along it’s back, with another set of long spots that ran on the outside of the lines. It’s tail was just plain brown, and we suspected that it had lost its tail at some point and grown back. When this happens, they usually are one solid color. Next we saw some frogs that we weren’t sure about. Probably Ranids, one was medium sized with green and brown stripes on its hind legs, the other was small and dark but had red eyes. After that, Lee and I went off the path and into some woods to have a look. The only thing that we found was another gecko of the same species, this time with a horizontally stripped tail that was black and brown. We eventually got tired and went inside to make some dinner around 10:30. We had some instant coffee and some shrimp flavored noodles. After that we went to bed around 11:30.

Tuesday 5/27

This morning, I got up again around 7:00, and went outside to hang out with everyone while. Here at Bayayo they always take their time in the morning and make a nice big breakfast. While We sipped and coffee and had breakfast, we talked about the plan for the day. Today, Andy would leave Bayayo and head to Malidang, where I was the previous week. The plan for me was to take a hike and explore around the Bayayo with a couple others; Lee, Kento, and Danu. Later at night we would all meet, along with some other Sabah Parks employees, to play futsal in Keningau.

When we finished breakfast, Andy got picked up and I started to do my laundry. I had not done it in a while and was running very low on clothes. Doing laundry here is very simple. You put your clothes in a bucket with soap and water and wash and rinse them. So far I would say I have done just an okay job washing my clothes… they don’t smell THAT bad. After I finished that it was time for our hike. Our goal was to walk a couple kilometers up to a waterfall in a small creek. On the way out there, we walked on a wooded hillside, covered primarily by bamboo, crossing over a couple steep washes as well. On our hike we were also joined by the Kurudot, the dog who lives at Bayayo and accompanies us everywhere. Apparently one day she showed up and looking very sick, so they gave her medicine and nursed her back to health, and she stays at Bayayo now. Kurudot also has a litter of 2-month-old puppies that live at the control post as well, but they did not come with us. Shortly into the hike we heard a sound and Lee said they were monkeys, but right away Kurudot ran towards the sound and started barking, scaring them away. We kept walking and took a break once we reached the stream, probably about 1.5 km. We talked for a while and then continued up the stream, walking through water that ranged from ankle to thigh deep. We eventually reached the waterfall which was not huge, but was very pretty. We took another break here before heading back. When we got back to where the trail cuts back away from the stream Lee asked me if I wanted to take a different way back where we get to cross the main river twice. I said that sounded fun so we continued down the stream. Not too far downstream from where the trail cuts up, Lee showed me where they get water from for Bayayo. There is plastic piping, 1-inch in diameter that they place in the stream, that leads all the way back to the Control Post. They used to have a damn where the pipe starts, but a flood had wiped it out a couple months ago, so every couple days the make the hike up to make sure that nothing is blocking water from getting into the pipe.

 After that we continued downstream a couple hundred meters until the stream flowed into the main river that flows past the control post a little further downstream. We crossed the river and continued on a path that took us maybe half a kilometer where we had to cross the river once again. Once we crossed, we finished the last hundred meters on the path we started and arrived back at the control post. On the hike, they gave me a pair of shoes to wear since we would be walking in the river. They are low cut rubber shows with big rubber lugs on the bottom that grip really well in mud, but also on wet river stones. You can wear them with or without socks and they are about 5 USD. They worked really well and I think I’ll have to get a pair to bring home with me. Once we got back, it was time to relax for a couple hours before futsal.

Around 6:00 pm we all piled into the truck, with about 5 people in the truck bed, and made the 30 minute drive into Keningau to an indoor futsal facility. They had rented it out from 7:00-9:00pm. A long time, especially for me. The last time I played any kind of soccer was when I filled in for my roommate Zane’s intramural team and allowed like 10 goals while playing goalie. This time I did not play goalie and had a lot more fun. Everyone was very skilled, but we all just had a good time playing with each other. Nobody kept score, and different people kept subbing in on different teams for the whole 2 hours. We were all exhausted. On the way home we picked up dinner and all showered and went right to bed.

Monday 5/26

I got up this morning around 7am and hung out for a little bit before heading outside. The control post here is technically still under construction, but the setup is pretty cool. The actual control post contains a couple bedrooms, a small living room, and a bathroom. Right outside there is a roof, half metal and half tarp, that covers some storage, a table and chairs, and also a makeshift kitchen with a sink and two burner gas stove. There are about 9 of us here right now, and we all ate breakfast, and got ready to start the day. The first task of the day was to continue their work on the walls of a small building that will be bathrooms. These walls consist of river rocks and cement on the outer walls, and brick and mortar for the dividing wall of the two bathrooms. First, we went down to the river and collected a bunch of rocks from along the river that we put in wheelbarrows and brought up to the building. Then, we mixed the mortar and started to work on building up the walls for a couple hours. Andy and I mainly worked on laying the bricks for the dividing walls, while Mr. Silver and a few others worked primarily on the outsides with the river rocks.

It was fun working together on this and we went until we ran out of mortar. Then we down to eat lunch. We had rice, spinach, papaya buds and flowers, and chicken curry. After lunch it started to downpour and everyone went to rest and take a nap. A couple hours later, when the rain subsided, Mr Silver asked if we wanted to learn how to throw a casting net. It reminded me of when I was younger trying to throw one on beach vacations, but these ones were a little different. The difficult part was not necessarily throwing the net, but positioning it on your hands and arms to throw. We eventually got the hang of it after practicing in the yard and we drove outside the park boundary to go try and catch some fish. We parked the truck, got in the river, and waded to the other side. We were out there for maybe 10 minutes when Mr. Silver told us all to hurry and get back to the other side of the river because it is going to start flooding. We waded back to the other side and sure enough, within 10 minutes the river was at least a foot higher and looked completely different from when we had first gotten there. He said he could tell because he knew we had the rain earlier and then he started to see more leaves and debris start to come down through the water. It was a good thing that we were with people who had that kind of experience and knew that we had to cross immediately to be safe.

When we made it back to the control post, we immediately jumped right in to playing a new game for Andy and I. It is called Sepak Takro, and is basically a mix of volleyball and soccer, with a smaller, less bouncier ball. There are two teams of three that have to try and kick the ball over the net in three kicks or less, you can also use your body or head, just no hands or arms. It was definitely tricky to pick up and I was still not very good. I did get lucky though and was on a team with two studs, Josalin, and Jus, and we went undefeated. We all had a blast and played for maybe an hour and half. Then, some of us took quick showers and got dressed to go to the night Market in Keningau. It was Jus, Josalin, Lee, Andy and I. Jus and Josalin dropped the three of us off, while they went to run an errand we explored for probably 45 minutes.

There was a bunch of street food, as well as fresh fruits and vegetables. We eventually sat down and had some Bakso and waited for Jus and Josalin to be ready. From there we went to a supermarket to load up on groceries for the control post. When we made it back to the control post we hung out for a couple hours, talking with everyone about many different topics, before heading to bed around 11:30.

Sunday 5/25

Today being Sunday, I slept in a little bit until almost 8:00. When I woke up, I worked on putting together my last post. Andy and I thought that we had Sunday free, but at 10:00 Andy got a text from Bille saying that we would be picked up at noon by Mr. Silver, one of the people who is in charge of us who was gone for a conference last week. Mr. Silver would be pick us up and take us to his village for their Kaamatan Festival, and then take us to Control Post Bayayo for the night. Andy and I got packed up and hung out until 12:00 when Mr Silver arrived, with his little boy Sylvio to take us to his village.

His village, Kampung Tigot, is right outside of Keningau. The geography is flat and has a lot of fields, particularly for growing rice. Kaamatan is the biggest holiday that is celebrated in Sabah, and as I would learn later, the biggest cultural festival in all of Malaysia. Kaamatan comes from the Dusun ethnicity, which is the largest ethnic group in Sabah, but is celebrated by most people today. It is about celebrating the rice harvest for the year, and there is singing, dancing, and pageants where people show of their traditional dress and their ability to speak Dusun.

When we arrived, we were welcomed by many people and were told right away to go get some food. They had all kinds of traditional foods to try. I had rice, some kind of noodles, some chicken curry, watermelon, and a dish that had raw fish, lots of lime, some crisp veggies, and some kind of white sauce. Someone also came up to me and told me to try this special kind of rice, wrapped in a large leaf. The rice had a slightly different aroma and tasted different. The celebration took place under a large pavilion and a few small tents. Mr. Silver explained the whole village was there, and that everybody knows everybody. There were probably no more than 150 people there and it was really cool to see that kind of close-knit community. It being such a small village also means that they do not get a lot of visitors. Especially American visitors during Kaamatan. There were a lot of people who came up to talk to us, and get pictures taken with us. Everyone from groups of young children, to old men. Andy and I sat with Silvers family for a while during and after lunch. And were brought Tapai, the local rice wine, by many different people to try. While sitting there in between events on the stage at the end of the pavilion, Andy and I were surprisingly introduced as guests, and a lady came over and asked us a few questions with the microphone such as where we are from and what we think about Kaamatan. After that, we went to go play some of the games that they had set up under some other tents. We went over there with a man named Edward, who also lives in the village and works at the Bayayo control post as well. We played games such as Mystery Box, where you reached inside of a box and had to guess what you’re touching, A game where you had to rearrange bottles in a correct order, and a game where you throw darts at balloons. It was fun and a lot of the children got a kick out of us playing the games.

After that we went back to sit down, and I talked to a man named Stevenson, who had one the big Kaamatan pageant in Kota Kinabalu a few years ago. He gave me a good rundown of the Holiday and then traditional gong music started to be played, and we went to go watch that. While we were watching it, some older women grabbed Andy and I to go do a traditional dance. I am no dancer and felt a little embarrassed, but I tried my best. We were in a circle of about 10 people and would move around in a circle, then people on opposite sides of the circle would enter and dance together then switch sides. It was quite the experience, but I really appreciated everyone teaching us. After that the pageants started and I took a seat, but then the woman who had introduced Andy and I early came over. She asked me if I would be willing to go get a henna tattoo that her 13 year old daughter was doing for people and I agreed. While I was waiting for my turn I talked to some of the children, many of which asked me what state I was from. I was surprised to hear that most of them knew Ohio. When it was my turn I told the girl that I would let her choose what design to give me. She talked with her friends for about 5 minutes then showed me a picture and told me it was a local design. I agreed and then for the next 20 minutes she went to work, talking to me the whole time about my internship, college, and also her interests and what she might want to study. When she finished it looked fantastic. I was walking back to the table and saw her mom again. She asked me if I knew what the design meant and I said I did not. She explained that it is about unity. Each shape around the circle represents a different person from a different ethnicity. And the circle in the middle is Tapai, the rice wine. It shows hoe everyone comes together and drinks the wine together. I thought that was a great design that she chose, especially with how welcoming everyone had been to Andy and I. After that Any and I were waved over by a group of men hanging out at a table and we went and talked to them about various things for about a half an hour before it was time to go. When we went to leave, a couple people had asked to take pictures with us. Then, they announced to the whole crowd that we were leaving and it seemed like almost everyone wanted to take a picture with us. We were there for at least another half an hour. When we did leave, Mr. Silver told us that there are hardly ever American visitors around Keningau, and that everyone was very happy to be able to meet us. I told him that everyone was so welcoming and kind and that I was just as happy to meet them.

When we left we went straight to control post Bayayo. When we arrived we ate dinner and hung out for a little bit. While we were sitting there, someone had been walking around and spotted a Slow Loris. There was a bunch of excitement and we all got up, went along the nearby river and shined our flashlights about 30 feet up in a tree to see a Slow Loris just sitting in the trees looking back at us. It was pretty cute. Slow Loris are a type of small, tree dwelling mammal with big eyes, and as the name suggests they do not move fast. After that we went back and got ready to walk up the road with flashlights to look for more wildlife. When we started off, we saw some common paddy frogs and about 20 minutes in we saw our first cool find. A frog from the Megaphryidae Family? We’re not really sure. It was fairly large, had a big head and mouth, and was grey/blue in color. After that we continued walking and went and looked in a small clearing off the side of the road. Here we saw multiple large stick insects. Two of them, one green one brown, were a solid 8 inches long. I’m not really a bug person but this was really cool to see. After that we what we initially thought was Wallace’s Flying Frog, but after closer inspection appeared to just be a massive tree frog. We got to a creek and walked upstream along it for a ways. Here we saw a black spotted rock skipper frog that was way more green than the other ones that we had seen, but other than that, nothing. We made the walk back to the control post, and saw another Slow Loris along the way, Climbing around way up high in the trees. After that, I took a quick shower and went to bed feeling exhausted from a great day.

Saturday 5/24

I slept in a little more than usual this morning, waking up around 8:00. Andy and I were up and figuring out what we were going to do for the day when we got a txt from Billie, saying that he would pick us up soon. Around 9:30, Billie, along with a man named Dennison who we met last night, and the driver named Alex (I think) picked us up and we started the almost 3 hour drive north to Kundasang. There was a festival there, underneath the towering Mount Kinabalu, that was celebrating the Kinabalu Geopark. Along the way we stopped at a roadside restaurant for Sinalau, which is smoked wild boar. I have to be honest when I say that this rivals some of the best BBQ that I have had in the US. It was different, small pieces of fatty pork, served with rice, but just as delicious as something you might have at home in the US. After that we dropped of Dennison at his small village, and the rest of us continued to Kundasang. As we got closer, the roads became steeper and windier, and when we got to be about 45 minutes away we got our first views of Mount Kinabalu. The top of the mountain was in the clouds, and unfortunately stayed that way the whole time, but there was no doubt that we were looking at the largest Mountain between the Himalayas and Puncak Jaya, in West Papua. Mount Kinabalu is 13,000 feet high and looks every bit of it.

When we arrived in Kundasang, we were in the shadow of the mountain in a small plaza. Inside the plaza there was a stage with traditional singing and dancing, vendors, and Sabah Parks information tents that talked about the wildlife and geography of the park. Outside the plaza there were more vendors selling food and drinks. Andy and I explored the information tents, watched some really cool performances, and went aand got some food. After that we got to talking with some different parks employees about Kinabalu Geopark. While talking to Dr. Nasrulhakim Maidin, director of International Relations for Sabah Parks, he explained to us the difference between a geopark, and a normal National Park. First, a National Park is US based classification compared to Geoparks, which are European and a UNESCO classification. Furthermore, Geoparks include not only a park, but also surrounding communities. He said part of what makes something a Geopark is community and Culture. We really enjoyed talking to Dr. Maidin, and I think he enjoyed speaking with us as well. After that we enjoyed the festivities for a little longer and then left around 4:00. We only had two hours to be there but I really enjoyed learning more about the parks, and getting to experience the culture of the area. Driving home, I enjoyed taking in all of the views again, and when we got back to Keningau we stopped at the grocery store to get some food, and stopped again to meet Alex’s family to get dinner at a small plaza. We had another pork dish, served with okra and rice, and by the end of the meal everyone was getting tired. It was fun to meet Alex’s wife and three children, the oldest being 14 and the youngest being an adorable 11th month old boy. After dinner we were taken back to the rest house and went to bed shortly after.  I am writing this post on the morning of Sunday the 25th. Later today I will be picked up and taken to Bayayo where I will have no cell service for the rest of the week, So I will not be able to post again until next weekend.

Friday 5/23

I woke up once again around 7:00, had a small granola bar breakfast, and packed up my things. Today the plan was to leave Malidang, go pick up Andy at Bayayo, then go to another substation at Ulu Senegang. Once I packed up my things, I read until it was time to go. I’m currently reading The Monkey Wrench Gang, by Edward Abbey, a book about the American Desert Southwest. It is an engaging book and I am really enjoying it, but there is something strange about reading about the desert while being in a jungle. At 9:00, the driver arrived, and we were taken to Bayayo. We stopped there for about 45 minutes, having a small snack of papaya and fried rice with what tasted like chicken curry. After hanging out for about 30 minutes, Andy packed his things in his car and we left. We drove for about an hour to a village called Ulu Senagang. Ulu Senagang is where Rasidi is from and it ended up being a really cool place. It was a little off the beaten path, but it has a beautiful little river that comes straight out of a core zone of Crocker Range Park, and flows right through the village. It also has a substation and information center for the park. When we first arrived, we met with the man in charge, named Guill (I think that’s how its spelled). We then went right away to the information center and learned about the Crocker Range and Ulu Senagang. The main purpose of the substation there is community use. The village lies within the park boundary, so the village and park work closely together to ensure sustainable practices, particularly regarding agricultural practices. After exploring the Information Center, Andy and I each helped to plant a Rambutan Tree. Then we went to what seemed to be the main garden for the village. To get there, we parked and walked over the river across a small bridge made of cables and wood that did a lot of swinging when you walked on it. When we reached the other side there were a couple small buildings, but there was largely just Cacao Trees, and Banana Trees. They explained to us that the Cacao trees belong to the whole the community and when the village needs money for something they will harvest and sell the Cacao. They showed us how they harvest it and try out the beans and then we left the garden and went back to the Substation. There we had time to just relax, so some of us went right down to the river to take a dip. The water was cool, but not too cold, and crystal clear. The substation is right at the end of the village and the first place the river flows by when it leaves the core zone of Crocker Range Park, so the water was about as clean as it gets. Andy and I hung out in the water for a while and were joined by Guill. We talked with him about a whole bunch of different things in a mix of Malay and English and we all had a great time.

When we got out of the water we had some coffee under a pavilion, and left about 20 minutes later. We were about finished for the day and it was time to head back to The rest house where Andy and I stayed on Monday the 20th. On the way back though, we stopped at a little roadside resteraunt. I had Ayam Penyet, or smashed chicken. It was chicken that had been squeezed, then fried, served with okra along with fried eggplant, and as always, rice. It was a good meal. After that we arrived back at the rest house around 6:30 and just relaxed. We saw our friend the cat again, although now we figred out that her name is Oyen. She is super cute and loves to sit on our laps. Andy and I talked about our weeks for while hanging out with Oyen, then got a text from Billie, the Keningau District Manager asking us if we would like to go hang out with some him and some others at his place. We accepted the invite and were picked up and taken to his employee housing near the Keningau office. We hung out there for a few hours, talking about everything from sports and music to life in the US compared to Malaysia. We tried fried jackfruit, fish soup, and even tumpun, the local rice wine. We had a great night talking and laughing with everyone but went back to the rest house to go to bed around 10:00.

Thursday 5/22

This morning was the same routine as the day before. I woke up at 7:00, did some reading and had some tea, and then got ready to head up the road at 9:00. Today’s objective was to head back to the ginger farm, see the fields, and learn how it is harvested. So Rasidi, Datu, Galis, and I started the couple kilometer walk up the steep road. We reached the end of the road and turned off onto the steep, muddy path. This time, close to the small garden that we went to yesterday, we took a different turn that went much further, and probably more than doubled the distance. We descended further along the still muddy trail, crossed a stream using a bridge made out of two logs laid side by side, and eventually approached a small hut. While approaching the hut, there pieces of bamboo cut longways, and placed end to end coming down the hill, acting as a kind of makeshift aqueduct. It was actually really cool. This bamboo aqueduct ended by the hut, where a boy was washing off ginger. Rasidi and the boy exchanged a few words and he directed us to a trail on the other side of the hut that quickly crossed a fast flowing, crystal clear stream, and ascended up the steepest hill we had encountered yet. Not too far up that hill, it became slightly less steep, and we found a group of about 6 people harvesting ginger. The first two people we came across, a man and woman, were sitting under a tarp that was strung up between trees for shade, cleaning off huge pieces of ginger, or halia as it is called in Malay. And there was a ton! We sat and said hello to them, and then we went 50 meters up the hill were a group of women and a young man were harvesting the ginger. The main parts of the plant had already been chopped off, so what we saw were pieces of the root poking up out of the dirt. The women harvesting had short medal rods, almost like a crow bar. They would use this to do a little digging around the root, then pry the ginger up out of the dirt. After that they brush off large pieces of dirt, and throw the ginger in a pile. One of the women showed me how she does it, then asked if I wanted to try. Of course I said yes, and got to pry up 3 of the roots. Everyone seemed to get a kick out of it and there were lots of smiles going around. Actually, I would say that the people here had smiles on their faces 90% of the time that we were there. I don’t think they get many visitors there, especially American visitors. After I got to try harvesting we took some pictures, and they gave me probably a couple pounds of freshly harvested ginger to take with me. I expressed my thanks about 10 different times, “Terima Kasih” and then Rasidi, Datu, Galis and I went to look at a 1 month old field that they had planted nearby. This was on an even steeper hill and we climbed to the top of it and checked it out.  Afterwards we headed back down the hill and walked back to house where everyone was taking a break. There, a woman gave us some white chiles, a leafy green vegetable called hongkong, although they said its not from Hong Kong! And then she also cut me down a sugar cane stalk to chew on. Once again all smiles. We all thanked them for all of the gifts and started our walk back up the trail. I talked to Alfred about the people on the way out and he explained to me that they are a big family, and that they, like many others here, enjoy having company. Their kindness and generosity meant a lot to me, and their smiles were contagious.

When we arrived back at the control post, we were done for the day. For lunch we had rice, fried eggs, and the hongkong that the family had gifted us. I think it tasted extra good, knowing where it came from. The rest of the day I read and we hung out at the station. For dinner they cooked the banana heart with anchovies, more hongkong, and of course rice. The banana hearts were not bad, but I do not really enjoy anchovies so it was kind of rough to get through. That was probably the first meal that I’ve had here that I did not love, but it wasn’t that bad. Again I went to bed at around 9:30 and fell asleep fast.

Wednesday 5/21

The next morning I got up around 7:00, did a little reading, and a cup of NesCafe Instant Coffee. Then, around 9:00 it was time to get started. We grabbed water and snacks and started to walk up the road further than the control post. The goal for the day was to go through the inventory of community uses in the area. This is the Transition Zone in the park where communities are still able to use the land to farm and do other things. Our first stop, a couple hundred meters up a steep hill, was at a rubber farm. There was a small hut, raised on stilts not far from the road and it was surrounded by rubber trees that had been planted in rows. We met with the owner and talked with him for a little bit, although he did not really know English and I tried my best to keep up with the Malay. Then I was allowed to try cutting a rubber tree to harvest the latex. This is done with a handheld tool with a blade in the shape of a notch that cuts away just small strips of bark. Cutting at a diagonal angle that wraps around about 1/3 to 1/2 of the tree and placing a small piece of metal into the tree at a perpendicular angle allows the latex, or the sap of the tree, to flow down the ridge of bark below where the tree was cut and then into a container placed below the piece of metal. It was a really cool process to see and to experience. The latex is bright white and starts to flow pretty quickly immediately after being cut. After thanking the man for allowing me to see how it all works, we continued further up the road. Our next stop was a large fruit garden with a nice vantage point looking out over the large flat valley that contains Keningau. The farmer was not home, but Rasidi and Datu pointed out all of the different plants in the garden. Avocado, Mango, Banana, Durian, Sugarcane, Rambutan, and Coconut. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were even more that we could not see. We stopped here and had some water and a snack and also petted the resident cat that lived there. Then, walking further up the road, we stopped at another rubber farm and got to see the rest of the process of how rubber is made. We got there just in time for a man to show us that after the latex is collected from the trees, it is mixed with a little bit of vinegar is 5 gallon buckets, then poured into little plastic, rectangular molds to settle. That’s all there is too it. Give it a few hours and you get little bricks of white, squishy rubber.

Leaving this rubber farm and walking even further up the steep and muddy hill, we reached a turn and descended to go to a ginger farm. We went from the muddy road to and even muddier trail heading down a hill. It’s funny, there’s so many unfamiliar things here, but one thing that I guess just doesn’t change is the smell of mud. The smell walking down that trail was the same smell as when I would swim in my grandmas pond when I was younger. Coming out of the thick brush of the trail we arrived at the farm to find Pineapple plants, a small hut, a dog and a cat, and a small garden of ginger planted on a small round hill. There was a great view of the surrounding mountains and a nice cool wind was blowing which felt amazing. Unfortunately nobody was home so we just sat there and had another snack break before heading back up the steep muddy hill. Along the way, we stopped at a banana tree that had small green bananas growing. They grow on a long stem and at the end of that stem is what looks like a large, red bud. This bud is called the banana heart, and it can actually be unpeeled, boiled, and eaten, so we grabbed two of these banana hearts to take back to cook at some point. After that we headed back down to the control post where another worker, Galis, who was at Bayayo the day before was waiting for us with lunch already made. Chicken and Rice. I don’t know how to explain it, but the chicken here is very good. Beyond the way that it is cooked, I would say that the meat itself just has more taste to it. After lunch we took a break and rested. I read for about an hour. Then, at 4, we went out into the clearing around the control post to plant about 10 saplings along the one tree line. They told me the name of the trees in the local language but unfortunately I didn’t write down the name and I already forgot it. After that, we were done for the day. Santai, steady. I read for a while then we all got to talking about various things. Initially I had told Rasidi I know about 5% Malay. At the end of our conversations he said he would boost my score up to 10% and possibly even higher tomorrow. It was fun to practice my speaking with them and I do think that I am slowly but surely learning more and more. After talking for a while, we were all getting tired and I went to bed around 9:30.

Tuesday 5/20

Not sure what time we were being picked up to be taken to our control posts for the week, we woke up around 5:30 am, ate a granola bar breakfast, and got packed up by about 7:00. Then Andy and I went out onto the porch to do some reading. While we were sitting there, a local cat, who Andy right away named George, came to hang out with us. George was super social and loud, he even sat on Andy’s lap and took a nap while we read.

At 9am we were picked up from the Rest House and Taken into the small city of Keningau by a driver and another man named Rasidi. There we stocked up on some last minute supplies such as water and insect repellent, then went to a small food court for a late breakfast. It was a big breakfast consisting of rice, some kind of pork soup, some small dumplings, and eggs mixed with some greens. To drink we had cold milk tea. It is almost always coffee or tea to drink here with all meals, always the option of having the beverage hot or cold. I almost always choose cold because of how hot it is here, but it seems like most people opt for their beverages to be hot.

After lunch the driver and Rasidi had to run a couple more errands in Keningau and then we headed towards Control Post Bayayo to drop off Andy. The drive to Bayayo wasn’t far, but about halfway there we turned up a dirt road that would probably be better classified as a trail. It started off not so bad, but worsened the further we went. On the side of a steep hill, with a river running below, it was beautiful, but in a few places barely wide enough to fit the Toyota Hilux truck that we were driving. To make matters more interesting, the road was incredibly rough and uneven due to a heavy rain from about a month ago and in some spots, almost completely washed out. It certainly felt like we were going deep into the jungle. When we made it to the post, we were greeted by around 6 men who seemed enthusiastic to meet us. Andy dropped his things in the room he would be staying in and we sat outside and talked in a mix of Malaysian and English with everyone. The control post is relatively new, and situated about 100 yards back from a fast moving, but muddy river. They explained that normal the river is crystal clear, and wonderful to swim in, but the same heavy rain that damaged the road had also caused a large landslide upstream, creating a dam of mud and debris that caused the river to be muddy. I will not go into a ton of detail about Control Post Bayayo now, because I will spend all of next week there, but we sat and talked for an hour before I left with the driver and Rasidi to go to Control Post Malidang.

Malidang is close to Bayayo, but to get there you have to drive back out of valley and up a new valley, then onto a ridge. It was still a dirt road, but in much better condition, and driving in there were lots of Oil Palm and Rubber Tree Farms all the way up to the Control Post, which overlooks a valley. In the distance you can see more Oil Palm and Rubber Trees. Here, my focus is on Community Uses of the area, so seeing all of the agriculture makes sense. The driver dropped of Rasidi and I, and we got settled into the post. The Post consists of two small bedrooms with bunk beds, a small kitchen with a bathroom and shower, and room with a few chairs to hang out in, and porch that wraps around the building and provides a view of the surrounding valley. Rasidi had nothing else planned for the day and he said that we will rest for the rest of the day. I had a lot of energy still, and I think he could tell but he kept telling me, “Santai, do not worry.” Santai means steady in English. He told me we will have plenty to do the rest of the week. Everyone is very laid back here, which I really appreciate. I have been looking at this internship as a kind of job as well as an experience, so I have been trying to work as hard as I possibly can and do as much as possible. But I think it will be important to remind myself to go along with the flow, and to live and work the way that the people do here. So I grabbed a book and read for the majority of the evening. It felt great, and around 5pm we were joined by another worker here, named Datu. Datu is the man in charge at Malidang, he manages and keeps track of all of the plots of land. The three of us stood on the porch and I tried to pick up as much Malaysian in their conversations as I could. We then fired up the generator, which took a little while, then Rasidi made dinner. When I asked if I could help he one gain said, “Santai! Do not worry.” His dinner was delicious. It was rice, with a vegetable called winged bean that I had not had before, but he had picked at Bayayo, and sardines, in a kind of chili sauce. After dinner, I read for a little while longer, but eventually got tired and went to bed.

Monday 5/19

I woke up around 5am, packed my things, and made some phone calls home. We made our way down to the hut around 8am and people started to show up. Paul arrived with Mr. Ludi Apin, the Director of Sustainability for Sabah Parks. Mr. Ludi was very fun and easy to talk to, and was the one who ran the meeting. He covered a lot about the parks. Many of them are UNESCO World Heritage Sites and they contain both terrestrial and marine environments. Throughout our internship we will spend time in Crocker Range Park, the largest of the terrestrial parks, Pulau Tiga park, a marine park where we will learn about marine enforcement, and Kinabalu Park. Kinabalu park seems to be the signature park in Sabah because it contains Mount Kinabalu, a 4,000 meter peak with dagger like summits that penetrate out of the jungle. During our fifth week here we will get the opportunity to take the two day trek to the top and I think we are both really looking forward to that. After discussing some details of the coming weeks we said goodbye to Paul and Mr. Ludi and began the drive to the Keningau Office or Crocker Range Park, about 2 hours southeast of Inobong. About a half hour in we stopped for lunch and did some last minute grocery shopping. After driving south for another half hour or so we turned east and drove into a large valley before taking a turn and starting the climb up into the mountains. It was a fast, curvy, steep climb that would have had younger me asking to pull over so that I could throw up. When we reached higher elevations we saw monkeys walking on the side of the road and sitting on guard rails. This was my first time seeing monkeys in the wild and I was so excited to see them. When we arrived at the office we met with Mr. Billie and a few others before we were taken to the Crocker Range Rest House where we will stay for the night. It is similar to the chalet we had been staying in, but it is a little bit larger. After getting settled in, they came back to pick us up and take us to the Visitor/Nature Center. There we met with Mr. Berry and were shown around the Center and its surrounding trails.  Everyone was so kind and fun to talk to, and it was a lot of fun walking around with them. On our walk, we saw many things, but the one thing that stood out to me were all the fern trees. Literal ferns that are about 30 feet tall. I honestly had no idea that such a thing existed, and they blew my mind a little bit.

After our walk we returned back to the Rest House where we ate, read, and just hung out. There is good service here so I am taking advantage of the opportunity to make this post. Tomorrow morning Andy and I will be splitting up, most likely for the next four weeks, and there is no guarantee of having service or Wi-Fi for at least the next week. Tomorrow I will be heading to Control Post Malidang here in Crocker Range where I will be focusing on the inventory of community uses in the area. That is all that I know for now, but I will continue to write, and post again when I get the chance.

Sunday 5/18

The next morning I woke up around 5 and took a short little walk down the road to look around.  The insects were still pretty loud, but the birds were starting to pick up. I didn’t walk around very long, and came back to the chalet to make some calls home. After that Andy and I decided to go back to the porch and look for some birds. We saw some, including a yellow rumped flower pecker which was beautiful, but mainly enjoyed the cool morning breeze. Then, around 9am we decided to do little longer hike on a trail called the Salt Trail. The Salt Trail is a 40km backpacking trail and the trailhead is essentially out our front door. We started and for the first whole kilometer we went up. This hike was different from the day before because we were along a ridge and gained elevation for most of it. There was a nice breeze and we got an occasional view through the trees. We went out about 3.5 km before eating a snack and turning around. Once again we heard a lot, but saw very little. Hiking in this setting is going to take some getting used to. The heat and humidity, combined with lots of incline leaves you drenched in sweat before you make it half a kilometer. As long as I remember to drink lots of water there will be no issues.

We finished the hike around noon, and for the next few hours we just kind of hung out.  Ate some food, read a little bit, and had a shower where I multitasked and did some laundry as well.  Around 2:30, we decided to go back to the porch to sit and look for birds again. This time we saw a lot of cool birds, including a Scarlett Minivet, Red-Billed Malkoha, and my favorite, a Blue Throated Bee Eater, which has way more colors than just blue. We ended up staying until the sunset around 6:30 before heading back to clean up a little and get ready for our orientation in the morning.

Saturday 5/17

I woke up and packed my things before heading to breakfast with Andy. It was another great meal and we just kind of hung out, waiting to get picked up at 10. I was feeling excited to get into the Parks, but I was also still a little nervous because I did not know what to expect. However, after Paul picked us up and we made the hour long drive to Inobong Substation in Crocker Range Park, pretty much all of the nervousness went away. The Substation overlooks both Kota Kinabalu and Ocean to the West. To the North are rugged hills that are constantly being swept over with clouds. It’s a beautiful place. 

When we arrived, we met with Mr Pius, who is in charge of the Substation. We went into the office to look at maps and posters and discuss both the region of Penampang, which Inobong Substation is within, and also Crocker Range Park as a whole. One thing that Andy and I found really interesting was that the park was divided into three zones of usage. Along the periphery of park is land used by villages and people who live there. Within that is a buffer zone which separates the periphery from the core zones. I cannot remember the exact names of the zones but you get the idea. We thought that this is a great way to manage the park because it allows for land use, while creating a large pocket of land that will remain pristine.

After Discussing with Paul and Pius we were brought to our little lodge called Chalet Tobobon that contains a small kitchen, bathroom, two bedrooms, and a kind of little living room. I had gotten it wrong. We would not have our orientation on this day, Saturday the 17th, but will instead have it on Monday the 19th. So we had a whole day and a half of free time to explore around Inobong. After we dropped our stuff in the room, we decided to do a short hike down to a waterfall. My first hike in the jungle! Although it was only about a kilometer in total and we got out of there in a hurry because it started to downpour it did not disappoint. You can hear so many birds and insects, but you can see so little because of how thick it is. The waterfall, although not massive, was beautiful. The stream forces the jungle to open up and creates a tunnel through the vegetation.  After the waterfall, we continued on but turned around shortly because of the rain. So we came back to the chalet, ate some lunch and waited for the rain to die down, then went back out to finish the short trail. It was a good little hike, but we were shocked to find out that some leeches had found away to attach to our legs and feet. I think we both only had two, but the places that they attached just would not stop bleeding! Honestly it was kind of comical, but I guess we will have to keep leeches in mind for the future. After that little ordeal we went to sit on the porch of what is called the mini hut, that offers the views of the city and ocean. We had just missed the sunset, but did see what we think were Wreathed Hornbills flying in the distance. While it got darker, it also got louder. Some birds were making noise, but it was hard to hear anything over the insects.  As Andy and I walked back, it felt like we had to almost yell to talk to each other if we were further than 20 feet apart. Once we got back I took a nice cold shower and made some tea. I started to read but only made it so far before I started to doze off, so I went to sleep around 9.

Hello from Kota Kinabalu. I won’t lie the 12-hour flight to Taiwan was a little brutal. Falling asleep right away only to be woken up at 3am to eat a full meal wasn’t a great start for me, but once we made it to Taiwan it was pretty much smooth sailing. The airport there was really cool, and we had a good meal in the food court. The 5-hour flight to Kuala Lumpur was easy, but that airport was confusing to us and the 1 hour layover there almost caused us to miss our flight, but we made it! The 2 hour flight to Kota Kinabalu turned into about three hours because there was some wind and rain preventing us from landing right away. Once we landed we were able to quickly get our bags and we were greeted by Mr. Paul Imbun from Sabah Parks.

Paul picked us up from the airport and took us to our hotel where we checked in, dropped our bags, then went to get a coffee with him.

Paul is really nice and easy to talk to. He made us feel welcome and gave us a good idea of what to expect for the upcoming weeks. After having coffee, we made plans to meet back up with Paul at 10 am for him to show us around a little bit.

Friday 5/16

Andy and I woke up around 7am this morning and then went down to have the hotel breakfast. It was by far the best hotel breakfast that I have ever had. They had everything. Eggs, sausage, pancakes, fruit, but also fried rice, noodles, chicken, and lots of veggies. It was pretty different to us, but Paul said that these types of foods are normal for breakfast here.

Once we finished breakfast and Paul arrived, we walked to a mall and exchanged some US Dollars for the local currency, Malaysian Ringgits. After that we walked to a fish market that is right on the water. It was pretty wild. The diversity of seafood that was being sold was crazy. I saw probably the largest shrimp and lobster that I have ever seen in my life, but also colorful parrotfish, some pretty large tuna, and a whole bunch of other things. After that we walked around some other nearby markets that had just about everything. I really enjoyed this, and it was cool to see all of the different products that people had to offer

After visiting the markets, we got in the truck with Paul and headed to the Sabah Parks Museum. The main part of the museum was closed for renovations, but we were able to meet with the curator and another worker who showed us their collection of specimens. The diversity of specimens that they had kind of blew my mind. They had everything. We spent probably an hour in that room looking at everything and they were kind enough to answer any questions that we had. I am so grateful to have had that experience.

After we left the museum, Paul drove Andy and I to go get some lunch. I do not know exactly how to explain the place other than a kind of large, outdoor food court, with a lot of different vendors. It was hard to know what to get, so Andy and I copied Paul’s order of a kind of Chinese soup with noodles, chicken, and egg. It was delicious. From there, Paul drove us back to hotel where Andy and I planned on taking a short nap, before heading to the supermarket to get our food for the upcoming week. Instead, we both accidentally slept for about 5 hours, and the supermarket was closed. But Paul had told us about a night market nearby, so went to check that out. It was massive! There was live music in probably 5 different places, hundreds of vendors, and luckily a 24-hour supermarket where we were able to do our shopping. Thank God.

Tomorrow, Paul is picking us up at 10am to head to Inobong Station, where we will be briefed and have a kind of orientation. I am looking forward to heading into the parks and getting started!

As I am writing this, it is 11:15 PT at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and I am waiting to board my flight at 1:50 am. My friend Andy and I left the Columbus Airport at 6:30 ET and are about halfway through our layover. From here we will take a nice long flight across the Pacific to Taiwan, before heading to Kuala Lumpur and ultimately Kota Kinabalu in the Malaysian Province of Sabah. Sabah will be where we conduct our summer internship for the next six weeks with Sabah Parks. We will be working in conservation in various ways although a lot of the details of the trip are still largely unknown. But here is what we do know:

Sabah is located on the northern part of the Island of Borneo. It is renowned for its pristine wilderness and biodiversity. We will be interning with Sabah Parks, which vary in type and size, but from what I have gathered are all a kind of National Park. The first four weeks of the internship will each be spent in a different park, each with a unique focus. The last two weeks of the internship are dedicated to a personal project. I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity for a few reasons. The first reason is that this is truly a trip of firsts for me. I have not travelled out of the country since I was about 10 years old, and even then, I have only been to Canada and Mexico. I have been taking Indonesian language classes the past two semesters at OU (The internship was originally going to be in Indonesia, but Indonesian and Malay languages are similar lol) and I am really looking forward to all of the new culture that I will get to experience. The second reason is the location. Malaysia, specifically Sabah, is a place known for its biodiversity and natural beauty. Not to sound too cringey, but I live for this kind of stuff. Rainforest and tropical environments are something I’ve always wanted to experience but have never had the opportunity to. The third reason is that I get to experience all of this with Andy. I met Andy on an internship in Maryland, the summer after our freshman year and have been good friends with him ever since. He is a BIOS major with a track in ecology and evolutionary biology, similar to my Wildlife and Conservation Biology major. He has a lot of experience travelling around the world, something that I am very grateful for with my little experience.

To put it all simply, I get to learn about global conservation in a new place, with new cultures, with a great friend. This is an opportunity that I could not have dreamed of when I first came to school. I am quite honestly looking forward to everything.

By the time that this summer is over, I want to be able to look back and know that I took full advantage of this opportunity. I am sure that there will be bumps in the road, but that’s part of it, right? Just more opportunities to learn.

As the summer goes on, I will post every couple of days. I know that there was a lot of rambling here, but it is 3 am Ohio time and this blog is also new to me. So we will see how it goes!