Good times on the water

Monday was still a public holiday, continuing from the Aidilfitri celebration since Saturday. Francis had asked me last week if I was interested to join him in exploring a river somewhere in Bau during the Aidilfitri holidays. After the exciting river exploration with him and Azmi in Sg. Abang last December, I told him I was interested! However, I also told him that I couldn’t make it on Saturday and Sunday due to my ‘activities’ in the kampung on those days. So, he suggested Monday. But on Saturday evening he informed me that we wouldn’t be able to do the proposed exploration on Monday because he had to take four Dutch guys kayaking on Monday. I asked him if I could join in and he said yes. He must’ve thought that I must be bored going on the same Sarawak Kiri river all the time. But when it comes to kayaking and observing the surrounding nature, I find it impossible to get bored with it! Even if the attraction is not there, the beauty is still present! hhm…if you know what I mean.

Sarawak Kiri river

Anyways, as usual we started from Sg. Abang at Bengoh and paddled towards Sarawak Kiri river, then went downriver to Semedang. The whole journey would take around 3-5 hours, depending on the river, speed of the kayak and the times: ’stretching’ time, climbing time, eating ABC (air batu campur) time, talking-to-locals time, swimming time, jumping off the rocks time, cleaning caves time, etc. But it’s all fun!

Climbing time

As we paddled leisurely, we reached Danu about an hour later. Francis would customarily take his guests around the village and I would see my friends. Got myself some Stella for breakfast and tapau some for the road river. Actually, it’s not ethical to drink and paddle along the river as it could jeopardize one’s safety but I was too hungry for some hop juice.

We hanged around at Danu for around 45 minutes before heading back to our kayaks and head downriver. Apart from one or two small rapids along the way, the river was relatively calm. In some parts, the depth of the river was no higher than our knees! There were also patches of heavy sand sedimentation in the river which indicates heavy duty activities going on upriver.

When we reached the Semedang territory, a shirtless guy suddenly popped out of the bushes by the river bank and waved at us! It was Francis’ friend, Lars from Norway whose wife is a Bidayuh from Semedang. We paddled back to meet Lars by the pebbled beach and he invited us to see his homestay ‘guesthouse’. At the back of my mind, I had imagined Lars’ ‘guesthouse’ to be a small hut with rudimentary facilities. As we approached his ‘guesthouse’, it was massive and er…well designed (I don’t have the architect vocabulary to describe it)! The location was ideal for tourists who’d want to experience nature — jungle, fruit orchard, river, etc. After spending some time admiring Lars’ guesthouse, we returned to our kayaks for the final phase of our trip downriver.

The beach outside Lar’s guesthouse

We arrived in Semedang at about 1.30pm feeling the post-kayak excitement! While Fred and Francis were cleaning up and uploading the kayaks into the kayak-mobile, I drank my last can of Stella. One of the Dutch approached me and asked if he could find some tuak in Semedang, and I told him it’s not likely at this time of the year. But I told them I was going to Bang after this to obtain my supplies of langkau and wondered if they were interested to tag along with me. They all enthusiastically said yes, so I told Francis that I would take them with me and will send them back to Kuching in time for their flight back to Kay-El that evening.

Thumbs up for langkau?

I left Semedang with four Dutch guys in my car and headed toward Bang. I parked my car at the regular tuck shop where I get my langkau, and ordered four cans of Stella while waiting for the shop owner to pour the langkau into empty mineral water bottles. The guys were visibly excited to be in the village, drinking the Stella after hours of kayaking. So, we chatted and as Stella’s 5% alcohol began to intrude into our thinking department, we ordered for some more beers. The langkau was ready and I told the guys to have a sip of this precious water. They took a sip, said it was nice, passed it around and decided to buy three bottles for them to take back to Kay-El! So, we sadong a few rounds of langkau.

As we left Bang, I explained to the guys about the people in the surrounding areas, their livelihood, cultures and those kind of things. They seemed interested and asked if they could “have a look” in the area. No problemo! I drove them to Sun Shine Cafe near Annah Rais longhouse and ordered some more Stella.

Stella and fried noodles at Sun Shine Cafe

As usual, James was a nice host and in his booming voice, entertained the Dutch with witty stories. Of course, he had to put on the Bee Gees DVD on TV and suddenly, our attention was glued to it. One of the guys even clapped his hands and jiggled to the songs! A bit too much lah like this…After three rounds of Stella, our train of thoughts were no longer choo-chooing properly. After we bade our farewell to James and his friendly wife, we headed back to Kuching before we get stuck to James’ contagious friendliness.

Well, time to go…

 

Amusing 31st

I received an SMS from Francis one day asking me if I’d like to join him for dolphin spotting at Salak Bay on the country’s Merdeka National Day. I’d be stupid to say no to that offer, so I said yes. I’ve never seen wild Irrawaddy dolphins before although I’ve seen dolphins — don’t know what species lah – in Bako some years ago.

I drove over to Francis’ place on the morning of August 31st and then, from there we went to pick up two of his guests, Damien from England, and Natalie from Kay-El. Now, Natalie was quite talkative and inquisitive about the trip: “Are they really dolphins in Sarawak?”, “What kind of dolphins are they?”, “Can we touch them?” were some of the head-spinning questions that she bombarded on Frankie Francis. I just kept quiet, discreetly smiling while Francis talked a bit about the Irrawaddy dolphins and gave her a brochure on this elusive creature. Then, she started to divert her verbal attention towards Damien and off she went about everything. I lost track on her subject of conversation.

We arrived at Salak Bay at around 10am and I helped Francis to unload the kayaks. As usual, Francis gave his guests a crash course on the techniques of paddling and steering the kayak. Meanwhile, I was talking to a guy, Ah Voon, on the beach. Apparently, his fishing net drifted from the mouth of the river and got stuck in the bay. He wanted our help to retrieve it. Francis and I were on the same kayak. We had to carry our kayak through the mud before entering the sea!

Mud

Once we got off the muddy beach, we headed towards the middle of the bay. The water was calm otherwise it would have been difficult to paddle against the waves or current. The thing about dolphin spotting is that one has to be very patient, quiet and constantly alert in scanning the horizon. On the other kayak about 50 meters away from us, we could clearly hear Natalie talking to Damien. For some reasons, I thought it was quite amusing. Apart from hers, the other sounds that did not naturally belong to the bay area came from some tourists in two different speedboats. But there were quite a distance from us. Tour agencies take their tourists for dolphin spotting in this same area.

After 30 minutes into the water, we still couldn’t spot any dolphins. They were probably there but it’s just that we probably missed them? Francis told me that he never missed spotting a pod of dolphins whenever he takes his guests with him. In my mind, I tried to telekinetic the elusive Irrawaddies to emerge out of the water so I won’t be blamed for being a dolphin jinx. But really, these are wild creatures and I didn’t expect them to pop out of the waters if one of us decided to summon for it.

Anyways, I have to say that even without the Irrawaddy dolphins to entertain our sense of wonderment, the kayaking experience alone is always interesting! Everyone was expected to scan the horizon. I did for a while but the physical surroundings were more captivating. Mount Santubong was in full view and from any angle, the legendary mountain looked imposing.

Santubong on fire?

When I looked behind me, Francis was also busy taking photos of our surroundings. “Scanning the horizon”…yeah, right! But really, the bay was so beautiful that I even forgot that we went there to do dolphin spotting! I turned my focus to the right and saw Damien and Natalie actively turning their heads to scan the horizon. But I didn’t see them use their cameras.

Francis told me that we should paddle towards the island and told the other two to follow us. The island ahead of us looked strange. I was not even sure if it’s an island. It was bare, no one living and nothing much growing on it.

Pulau Bodoh

Francis told me that the locals called the island Pulau Bodoh, which literally means Stupid Island in Malay. How did it get the name? Well, according to Francis, many boats have accidentally got ‘beached’ on the island because they couldn’t see the muddy sloping ground at the side of the island. If that’s the case, er…why should the island be bodoh?

I wanted to go on the island as I saw some locals were fishing from there. But the prospect of walking through the mud bank wasn’t that attractive. So, we decided to turn back and paddle towards the beach on the opposite end. The other two tagged along. Natalie was quiet this time. As we reached the beach, we stretched our legs and I took some more photos of the area. I went up to Natalie to chat and she asked me if I had ever seen any dolphins in the area. I told her I’ve never been to this area but I have heard from many people that there are dolphins around here. “Then, how come we don’t see them?”, she asked almost in exasperation. “Well, these creatures are wild, y’know, and this isn’t exactly a zoo”, I replied to her. She sighed. Changing the topic, she asked why the sea in Kuching is filled with rubbish unlike the ones in Malaya. I asked her if she had ever been to the beaches that are not filled tourists and housing areas, and she said no. There you go. She also made some amusing statements like “Kuching is boring”, “I’m glad that the natives here are already modernized” or “There’s nothing much to do in Sarawak, I think this will be my last time coming here”. Well, if that’s what makes her happy, why not lah…

Salak Bay

Well, after stretching our legs at the beach, taking photos but no dolphins, we decided to head for home. It was past midday and Natalie had a plane to catch back to Kay-El. For me, it was a great day! I wouldn’t think twice of kayaking in the area again. With or without the sighting of the Irrawaddy dolphins.

December back pain (part 1)

HO HO HO..HA HA HA…”Merry Christmas & Happy New Year” and whatever other cliche phrases that usually go along with the December month. When I arrived in Kuching on 20 Dec after my Long Banga trip, I had already made plans to leave Kuching for somewhere, anywhere, just to avoid the hype of Christmas. Besides, I thought I needed some time in solitary to reflect on what I’ve been doing (and not doing!) this year. Yes, it was all planned carefully and almost naturally, I thought of finding solitude in Bako during that day.

Anyways, Francis called on Friday (22 Dec) inviting me to join him and Azmi to do some exploratory kayaking in Padawan. The river, Sg. Abang, is a tributary of the larger Sg. Sarawak Kiri. We got off near the junction to Kpg. Bayor and as usual, the orange kayaks attracted the amusement and curiosity of the villagers who were selling their durians by the roadside. As I got off my car help Azmi with the kayak, I felt something funny happened to my lower back. I didn’t think much of it then but the pain gradually came. I thought I must have slightly twisted my back as I got off the car. My overgrown love-handle blubber didn’t help as I thought this would contribute to the back ache. But I just let it go.

As we kayak through the river, I could feel the pain in the spine, the lower part of my back. It felt uncomfortable, not exactly hurting, as I sat longer on the kayak. The only thing that distracted my from the uncomfortable feeling (and thoughts) was the beauty of the river! There were small rapids after another, which none of us had expected. As I said, it was an “exploratory” adventure. Then, there were obstacles in the form of bamboo arching over the river and large fallen tree trunks. I capsized twice throughout the journey, and later, Francis thought it would be better if I exchanged “seats” with him – he takes my single kayak and I join Azmi on the double. It suited me better as Azmi did most of the paddling and I did most of the..er..observation.

We must have been on the river for almost three hours before reaching our (planned) destination at Kpg Bengoh, where we usually start our kayaking downriver to Kpg Semedang. It was then when I felt a sharp pain on my lower back. I almost couldn’t stand and if I did, it hurt so badly that I was on the verge of tears.

Again, on the way home, I managed to ignore the pain. I took a shower and went over to pick up a friend of mine, Terry who came to Kuching from Miri to visit his brother for Christmas. We hanged out in my apartment but most of that afternoon, I was so tired from kayaking that I decided to sleep. My back was throbbing with pain. In the evening, I took Terry back to his brother’s place and I went back to my apartment. When I arrived home, I sat on my sofa and as I was about to pick up my computer, I felt a sharp thrust of pain coming from my lower back. I just collapsed on the floor and couldn’t move my legs. The pain stayed for almost 10 seconds but it felt like one whole hour! After the pain slowly subsided, I decided to move very, very slowly and I could feel it’d come again if I place my body or move my limbs into certain postures. So, to reduce that possibility of experiencing another thrust of pain, I decided to lay still for that whole night. And I did.

Sunday, Christmas eve morning. I woke up. I felt nothing on my back. I thought it was just a bad dream. So, I quickly got up off the floor where I slept and that was a mistake! The pain returned with vengeance and once again, I became a lump on my floor. I thought “This is too much! What’s wrong with me?” The whole Sunday morning I was in pain although I managed to get out and grab my breakfast. I said to myself “There goes my Bako trip and plan to do some bloody reflection shit!”

So, I stayed depressed the whole Sunday, staring at the Ghost of Christmas Hype sniggering at me like a sick hyena. Oh, gosh! Christmas came on Monday and I was still struggling with my back. It was so painful that it made my head go spinning. I thought “hhmm…this is a good way to get a natural high!” I can’t be bothered taking painkillers because I’ve lost faith in those medications. Doesn’t solve the problem. More like alcohol. But that’s another different story.

I’ve got to see the doctor today and see what is wrong with my back. I’m really hoping for a bad case of straining my lower back muscle and not something like a slipped disc or spinal problem. Urgh…

Sunday kayak….and langkau

At the last minute, I was informed that my exam invigilation duty was postponed to a latter date. As a result, my Sunday morning schedule was empty. I decided to ask Francis if there was any kayaking activity on Sunday morning and he said “Yes but we’re going on the same river with 11 other dragon boat racers!” I said I didn’t mind as long as my Sunday is occupied.

So, my Sunday morning began with kayaking down the Sarawak Kiri river, launching from Bengoh and ended up in Semedang. There were 11 people from the ‘dragon boat team’ who should be familiar with the art of paddling in the river, although I must say rowing a heavy, wooden 30-foot long boat with 10+ people is not exactly the same as paddling a 2-person 16-foot long plastic kayak along the shallow river. But everyone was happy to be on the river and almost everyone was loud throughout the 3.5-hour trip! It’s probably they are accustomed to shouting during their dragon boat races? Anyways, Francis was kind enough to allow me to paddle solo this time and I have more control over the kayak. And it’s definitely much lighter!

After the stop at Semedang, I drove to Danu to visit the people there. As usual, Sunday is their rest day and there’s nothing much going on apart from the langkau session. Needless to say, I got into their rhythm of gulping the local moonshine and left Danu at about 7pm, feeling quite content with myself and my overall state of being. It was only when I was driving home that I remembered I had accidentally dropped my sandals at Semedang! And all the while on the river, I had securely fastened my sandals on the kayak only to carelessly forgot about it at Semedang. Another pure stupidity of losing my things: last week it was the camera and yesterday it was my sandals….

Weekend kayak to the sea

It’s always been my wish to watch the shore line from the sea. Last Saturday, I got my wish! Francis decided to take me on a kayak trip along the coast of Bako National Park, which is even much better. I have been to Bako many, many times, doing what I like most i.e. jungle hiking. Although I’ve always appreciated the sea from the beach, I’ve always been curious of what it’d be like to appreciate the coast from the sea.

At 9.30am, we paddled out of Bako River towards the sea. The further we moved into the river mouth, the more I felt the paddling became strenuous on my body. I thought to myself “Gosh! This is even harder than river kayaking!” Of course, I didn’t want to tell Francis about it because he’s almost in his 50s and casually paddled himself to a sense of contentment! What would he think of a supposedly fit, young man complaining of shoulder ache merely 10 minutes into the trip and have not even yet made it out into sea? I’d have been so embarassed!

But after a while, I seemed to get the drift. Fortunately, the sea was dead calm and the kayak just flowed smoothly through it. Well, it was the half-century old man who did most of the paddling while I had to stop once in a while. The tide was low at the time and we saw some women on the mud beach flaps collecting ambal, and decided to chat with them.

We went on our way to Telok Paku from there, stopped at the beach and talked with some of the Bako NP tourists. Well, he did the talking with the tourists while I did the…whatever. I was more concerned about the aching and getting a sunburn at the end of the day. After that we moved on to see the sea stack outside Telok Pandan Kecil, and proceeded to stop at Telok Pandan Besar. Any tourist may not be able to descend to Telok Pandan Besar because of the steep cliff and absence of trails. But with a kayak, one can! I’ve been on this trail, observing the beach and life below from a viewpoint located on the 100-meter high cliff! But on this day, I was able to be on the beach and observe the wonders of nature from below. It was a beautiful beach.

Telok Pandan Besar

After that, we paddled towards Tanjung Rhu, another spot that I’ve treaded on land and it was great to see it from the sea. Tanjung Rhu does not have a beach but the rock formation that substitutes the beach is stunning. Not far from Tanjung Rhu, there’s a small beach that I’ve never been to either by land or sea. It was the Telok Tajur beach. It’s a small beach but looked good enough for future camping plans. The time it took to leave our landing at Bako River and reaching Telok Tajur beach was about 3 hours. But that was because we stopped in two places.

Telok Tajor

On our way back, we stopped at Telok Assam, where the Bako NP headquarters was located. Had some drinks there and I met up with some friends who are working in the park. It seemed that everything changes, especially one’s perceptions, when taking a kayak. The detour into the mangrove forest was an absolute experience! Or maybe it’s just me being too excited. But it was great.

Mangrover forest near Telok Delima

When we paddled back, it rained as we almost reached the mouth of Bako River. It couldn’t have been worse as heavy raindrops shot into my eyes. And as I wiped them, my sea-salted hands stung my eyes, which made look stupid in front of Francis. But the rain and swell gave me a brief preview on how the sea could be like on a not-so-calm waters. I didn’t want to imagine going through that series of painful paddling…gosh!

But it all went well and it was as if I had regained some sort of enlightening experience going through the shores via kayaking. With my short memory of that painful paddling experience, I blurted to Francis that we should go further to Pulai Lakei and think about setting up a camp there for a couple of nights! He agreed.

One day, that would be another wish come through. Meanwhile, I need to get a massage…