Belalong

I wrote this a verrry long time ago. When I was 13, or something like that. Basically we had a field trip of about 20 students going for a 3-day 3-night stay at the Belalong rainforest reserve. That's in Temburung, and only accessable by a 30-min boat ride from the capital to the district, then a 30-45 min ride over dirt road and then *another* boat ride, this time a 2 hr journey. All in all, fun stuff

Belalong. Great place. Scary nights. We were lucky it was near full moon for the last two nights (there's three in all) cause the first night was so dark, you can't see your hand right in front of your face.

Lights out at eleven. The generator's too noisy in my opinion, and I never got to sleep when it was on. Thank goodness they switch it off for lights out. So noisy!

The first night (When I didn't get any sleep!) we had lights out at half past eleven cause apparently Rodze wasn't in his chalet and security were trying to find him. Silly man.

Oh yeah. Rodze's one of the two councillors there. The other one's Hjh Masnah. But though she's cool and stuff, in my opinion, Rodze's cooler. I mean, you gotta love his shades and funky lifejacket. And then there's that 'straight-to-the-point' thing he's got. And he's also patient, which is really good cause to say the truth, I think we bullied him a lot. They didn't mind us swearing in front of them. And they didn't seem to mind Fuzzy singing her song . . . (The infamous "I wanna make love to ya wo-man!")
Anyway, on to memories.

On the first night, Rodze was welcoming us to Belalong, and during the briefing about the next day (Stream and Valley study), we were interrupted by the six o'clock cicada, and he explained what it was. Needless to say, his 'all-knowing' tone and self-confident air was just too tempting to be left alone. I had to puncture it.
It went something like this.

"What's a cicada?". (Me starting things off with a question I know the answer to).

"It's an insect about this large *Insert hand gesture*, it's green related to the cricket, in Malay it's called . . .". (the following is basically what we said, but not word-by-word).

"Oh! That!" (AAR).

"I know that!" (Dal) I HATE those!".

(Me) "Why is it called the six o'clock cicada?".

"Because you hear it at about six in the morning and night".

"Why at that time?" (Me).

"Because" (Tone starts to be patient as he thinks this would shut me up) "The temperature drops and it makes the noise at that certain temperature . . .".

(Me asking the begging-to-be-asked question) "Why does that temperature trigger it?".

"Because . . " (Pauses. Hesitation drops for a chat and a cup of tea and skips off) "Well, we don't know yet. Anyway, we move on to the next slide . . .".

(We were watching a slide show of the forest, stuff like that)
"It's very loud" (Me again) "How far can it be heard?".

"It depends on the area" (Again the patient voice. He also has this disconcerting habit of having an unwavering gaze that tells you you've asked a stupid question but it's alright because we've got the right to do so)

I had to relay that I wasn't stupid! But before I could say anything, "But you can hear it roughly a kilometre away" he informs me. *Insert gasps of awe from all around* "And now, if there aren't any questions, can we move on?".
*Nods all around*

The next day, we went off to do stream and valley work. Dal, Lily, Norizah, Shirley, Zam, AAR and I were to go with Hjh Masnah, while the others went with Rodze (Unfair!). It was . . I don't know what to say.

It's like, climbing up a REALLY steep slope, trudging through mud and icky gross things (Also watching in amazement as the security guard bounded up and down the slopes like a hare while we were slipping and sliding all over the place) *shudder* then arriving at a stream where we did stuff like measure the distance of the place, the depth, catch specimens (We caught a huge ant about an inch long. It was a Giant ant, one of the soldiers. Really scary pincers! A tadpole about three inches long, a prawn, fresh water shrimp, damselfly, mayfly larvae and flatworm) did sketches of the place, that kinda stuff. Oddly enough, it was kinda fun in a way. Then we went back, had lunch, and did lab work.

The next day was the beginning of our daily routine. Wake up at about six, wake up officially at about six thirty by people screaming when taking their morning shower (Ice-cold water!) get ready by seven, lounge around doing nothing, go to the dining hall and lounge about doing nothing, eat when food's ready (Or before. We made our own peanut-butter and jam sandwiches with coffee that had condensed milk and sugar)

Then, wander about, hanging out either at the dining hall or down at the river. About this time, the councillors would have just woken and are wandering around eventually ending up at the dining hall. We'd pass Rodze sometimes (Oddly enough rarely Hjh Masnah) and we'd cheerfully go, "Hi sir!".

His only reply would be the faintest of faint smiles and if we're lucky, a sleepy grunt. Chirpy or what? Amused us like hell it did.
Anyway, after doing stream work, we had lunch (REALLY GOOD FOOD!!!) and did lab work. We had to draw the specimens we had caught, and AAR kept on complaining that the ant refused to stay still and let her draw. Cian . . .

Anyway, we weren't really sure what we were supposed to do, so we went to the dining room and to our pleasant surprise, found food in the form of yellow kerupok type things with kacang and pusu. The cook was so kind to give us a whole plateful, and we finished it off. It was THAT delicious.

After that, Aemy and co. appeared and told us we had to get back. With much reluctance, we left our half finished coffee and totally finished kerupok and headed to the lab.

Rodze then showed us the air-con room and the computers.

Shirley and I were like, "Computers... screens... keyboards... must resist urge...". He started to show us the GIS (Geographical Information System) and it had plots of the land. It was quite impressive. The plots showed the roads, rivers, main rivers, etc. And you could choose what you wanted to see. There was also some of Belalong. Those plots showed what types of trees could be found in certain hectares of the forest. He showed us that if you wanted to find a durian tree, you just click on this button, click on the type of tree and/or species or name and volia. There you have it.

Somehow, we managed to change the topic to telling him about the weird things we heard at night. He listened patiently, and told us what it was. Then, we told him of the footsteps outside the room. He said it was rats. We demonstrated how it sounded like, and told him 'It was slow and deliberate, definitely something on two legs'.

He fell silent. Then, 'In that case, someone's playing a trick on you'. Then he went on to reassure us that there were no 'X-files' in Belalong, then he mentioned that there had been talk of it down-river.

Needless to say, we started begging him to tell us.

He didn't, and changed the subject. He showed us what animals had been sighted in certain areas of Belalong. We got really interactive there, and participated. We wanted to know whether any cats had been seen, but unfortunately, none. Sad, sad.
Then after everything, he leaned back and asked us if there were any questions.

"What's the X-files down river?" we all asked.

Rodze stared at us blankly. Hjh Masnah grinned. "What X-files?" he asked.

"The one down river!" we reminded him.

"Oh . . .". Then, "Ok, they say that they've seen red eyes fly around at night".

"Only eyes?" (Norizah)

He nodded, "Only eyes".

*Collective gasp of horror* Cuckoo clock cuckoos. Then, "Cooooool".

He shrugged, "Of course, for those of us who are used to the forests, we know it's a bat". Everyone grins. Then he asked us if there were any animals with blue eyes. Dal said Siamese cats. He repeated his question, adding, 'When you shine a light in their eyes'.
We shook our heads. He then told us that if we saw anything blue, it's fungus. No more questions? We filed outside.

Then Rodze started to explain to us the animals in the jars and stuff on the table. The huge head of the snake was a python, killed when ran over by a boat and it was over seven meters long. It was a reticulated python. Later on, he explained most of the animals there had been found in the buildings. He also told us of a time when he had been bitten by an 'ular daun'. Apparently, when there were some other visitors there, they had found the snake and started playing with it. Needless to say, it got quite pissed off. Rodze decided to get it away, so he picked it up behind the neck, but it still managed to bite him on the palm, his left and right arm.
Lastly, he showed us a hamster-like creature. "Do you know what this is?".

"No" (Us).

*Grins*. "Neither do we. We found this in a kuachi packet, and to this day, none of us have eaten kuachi. We keep it here to remind us never to buy kuachi again".

Later . . .

While we were deeply engrossed in our work (Yeah right! As if we knew what we were doing!) Rodze appeared out of no where (Has a strange habit of doing so) and was munching on a yellow kerupok thingie. He was just watching us, munching rather loudly (It IS kerupok) then spoke up with a rather guilty look, "These are really nice . . there's some in the dining hall if you want any".
"It's alright" Zam had a huge grin on her face, "We finished a whole plate".
He had a strange look when he went off to the next table.

Then at night we had another briefing and slide-show, about the boardwalk. This one Rodze was showing. Shirley and I weren't feeling well, we had a stomach ache, and for some reason, everything cracked us up.

He showed a picture of a fruit, and before he could say anything, Dal pops the obvious question "Is it edible?".

"It's a nut".

"Yeah, but can you eat it?". (AAR)

The 'look' appears on his face. The unwavering gaze that says, you've asked a really dumb question, but its alright cause you've got the right to ask. Then, that 'tone' appears, and he asks very slowly and patiently, "Why would you want to eat it?".

On other people, this would probably cause them to reconsider their question. On us, we're left unfazed. "Cause we're hungry". (Norizah)

"No, I don't think it's edible".

This question pops up every time there's a pix of a fruit.

Sometime later, he shows a picture of a mushroom, and he sees Norizah open her mouth. "No, it's not edible". She shuts it.

Among the weird questions we asked, here's some of the weirdest.

(Rodze) "We're going to the waterfall".
(AAR) "Are we going to get wet?".

Or . .

(Display pix of snake)
(Norizah) "Is it good or bad?".

Anyway . . .

"Ok, you know that bright colours and foul smell usually means it's poisonous, but besides using lab work and extracting chemicals which takes a long time, how else can you tell if it's poisonous?". (Rodze)

*Blank looks everywhere*

*V. strange grin appears* "You feed it to an animal, and if it dies, then it's poisonous".

As we found out, we're not the only weird ones on this earth.

The song we kept on singing, in the cabins, in the dining hall, on the trips . . .

The best things in life are free
But you can give them to the birds and bees
I want money
Money
More money . . .

The next day . . . BOARDWALK!!

When we woke up that day, there were so much bees and wasps littering the ground! I had to guide Lily (Who wasn't wearing her contacts) around them. Watch the bees!

It was a three km walk, to and back. We went with Hjh Masnah (Me, Dal, Lily, Zam, AAR, Norizah and Shirley). She explained about this and that, etc. On the way, about half of the whole walkway had been eroded, and we had to trudge through mud, climb up steep slopes and everyone was skidding and everything ('Cept for me!). I avoid touching the roots and ground etc. Fungi, lichen and moss gross me out.

Onto the canopy!

It was so cool. Really tall and stuff. I left some skin and blood up there, but it's cool. When I went down, Fuzzy, Aemy, and three others went up. One of them was Maria. She got halfway up, and then got freaked out and was yelling about how she wanted to get down.

Eventually, with Rodze's instructions from the ground, she managed to get back down. "Way d'go tiger".

"Shut up. I'm not a tiger". (Maria).

We saw he was teasing Maria, and we decided to get back at him. "Hey sir! Why didn't you go? Scared of heights?".

There was that shrug and grin.

Then later, Cikgu Leila let us borrow her mobile. There were some very funny conversations. Like Zam's:-

"Hi auntie!".
. . . .
"I'm in Temburong".
. . . .
"What do you mean what am I doing in Temburong?! I'm in Belalong!".
. . . .
"You didn't notice I was gone?!".

Mine was so-so
"Hi auntie" . . . "I'm in Belalong" . . . . "Yes, I'm in a forest . . .".

But Shirley won hands down.
"Hi ma! I'm having a really great time here, it's really cool . . blah, blah, blah, etc". *Go on for about two three minutes. Then* "Ma, you don't know who this is?!".

During lunch, we had the best surprise of our lives. Potatoes with chicken!!! And ice in our drinks! The cook loves us!!
We finished everything that meal time. After we were done . .

"We love potatoes".
"We really love potatoes! Hint, hint!".

(At this point, Fuzzy claims to have seen Rodze disappear into the kitchen for a reason or another. Hmm).

After that, Rodze was writing down the topics for the presentation on the white board, and his handwriting went all funny. It went down and sideways and stuff. We were all just staring at him blankly.

"Your handwritings almost as bad as mine!". (Me)
*Shrugs and smile* "I was very naughty when I was a boy. I broke my wrist. I didn't go to the hospital, and now this is why my right wrist does things even I don't know".
"You didn't go to the hospital?!" (AAR).
"It's only a broken wrist".

But I have a suspicion that he was just exaggerating with his writing.

We asked if there were any leeches at the falls. He told us "Not unless someone tosses them in".

On our way to the waterfall, Rodze told us that at one or two points, we might have to get out of the boat to push it. Norizah's boat didn't get through, so they had to jump out. Our boat got through! It wasn't fair! The others didn't!
We were complaining to Rodze.

"Why didn't our boat get through?".
"I wanted to get out!".
"I wanted to go into the river and push the boat!".
"This isn't fair!".
"This is your fault!".

His only reaction was that shrug and a smile.
(Either he had thought that we didn't want to push the boat which is why he tried really hard to make sure we got through, or he just did that to try spite us)

When we got there, he called us over and explained that we would have to go walk along the stream. While he was talking, I had my camera in hand, and something dawned on to me. Before he knew it, I had taken a picture of him.

He just froze, and had this look that was wondering whether to be amused or insulted. He settled for amused.

They love us.

Then at the waterfalls, it was cool. Cikgu Leila, the security guard (V. shy!) and Rodze were taking photos while we swam. They were three totally different photographers you know.

Cikgu Leila looked as though she just wanted to catch fun on film, Rodze looked as though he was on a mission to catch the worst and most embarrassing shots of us (He wanted revenge!!) and the security guard looked as though he wished he could just figure out how to take photos.

Cikgu Leila was nice. She waited till we looked alright, then she took a photo. Rodze was on the lookout for people floundering and just surfacing or blubbering and snapped them before we realised anything, and the security guard was relying on the boatmen to point out people to take pixs of, held the camera out at arm's length and snapped away.

Then sometime after that, AAR got a cramp. Someone, can't remember who, was trying to follow Rodze's instructions on what to do, but couldn't quite figure it out. He then waded over, made sure her leg was straight, bent her foot upwards and proceeded to prod the tense muscle.

AAR was in pain, but soon enough she was alright.

And now I know what to do if someone has a cramp. *Insert evil snicker*

Rodze had told us we were to stay till three.

"That's not fair!" we had said, "We want till four!".

"Don't you want to work on your presentation?" he had asked, amazed.

"Please?!". He had shook his head. But later that day, when we looked at our watches (Very wet watches!), while we were still swimming in the waterfall, it was past four. We pointed it out to Rodze, who gave us his shrug and smile.

They really love us!

That night, during dinner, there was potatoes!! We love the cook!!

However . . .

"Guys, there's a cockroach . .".

"Wait, it's not a cockroach . . it's a cricket!".

"What's it doing?!".

"It's tawafing around the table!". (For those of you who don't know, tawaf is when you circle the ka'bah 7 times. It's an Islamic thing )

" . . There it goes . . ".

"There it goes again . . ".

"And again . . .".

" . . . Ah! It jumped on my chair!" (Dal scampering away. Everyone at the table Lily, me, Shirley, Zam follow suit)
It jumps on Norizah's chair. Everyone there scampers ala our table. The councillors look up in amusement. Rodze looks at us questioningly.

"There's a really stupid bloody cricket tawafing our table!". (Me)

We watch as a girl goes to catch it and succeeds. We observe the very long antenna, and comment about it. However, it escapes, and Rodze goes to get rid of it. He grabs it, goes to the door, and flings it out.

And Fuzzy just happened to walk in. She looks at a grinning Rodze blankly, then suddenly realised he had just flung a cricket at her. He picks up the cricket and tosses it out, returning to his seat. A few minutes later, Hjh Masnah asks, "So who're the amahs (maids) for today?".

Dal, me and Lily get up to pick up the dishes. Rodze was for some reason, leaning back in his seat with a smug grin when I took the dishes from that table.

Weirdo.

Oh, then we all sat around and did our usual chat after dinner, when Shirley suddenly went, "Hey, has anyone seen my retainers?".
Everyone shook their heads.
"They were wrapped in a piece of tissue" she added helpfully.

Dal then had a weird look on her face, "Er . . . I think . . .".

"You threw it away?!".

Poor Shirley then had to go in the kitchen to see whether her retainers were still alive. Thankfully, it was still on its plate and not thrown into the garbage. She's never gonna forget that.

Later, when we went to the dining (We thought it was there!) for our presentation, we finally figured out it was to be where the briefing usually took place. When we went out, this thing attacked us and me, Dal and Lily ran back inside the dining.

It settled on the window. It was a huge thing, like a grasshopper but round. Totally gross!! Anyway, it wouldn't go away. We hit the window, and it flew off. Thinking it was gone, we opened the door, and it was on the railing! Shutting the door, we figured we could tiptoe past it. When we opened the door, it was on the front steps!

Dal tried negotiating with it. "Look Mr Bug, we don't like you, you don't like us, so why don't you just go off and fly away and leave us alonee!!". At that point, 'Mr Bug' took it to its head and flew straight at Dal. Lily, who had been next to her, scampered to the other side of the room with her, and I was standing behind the door, just slammed it shut out of reflex.

We were trapped.

However, for some reason, it took to wing and starting buzzing at the top of the ceiling outside. We took a chance, and darted out.

Free!!
And late!!!!

During times we wanted to go to the loo, there'd be two cubicles, and we'd go, "Which do you want? The one with Mr Cricket, or the one with Mr Moth?".

Presentation time . . . .

We were feeling very uneasy because we had to do a bloody presentation. Bugger. Anyway, Dal and Shirley got off alright, though their food web was kinda screwed up. Then, while Aemy and another girl did their presentation, (Aemy was like a teacher!! Reading straight from the book, not looking up, tone very businesslike and stuff) a moth attacked Maria, who jumped away and everyone else seemed to follow suit.

Aemy, engrossed in her reading out, ignored this.

The moth wouldn't leave us, and finally, Rodze got up from his chair, came over, and shooed it away. Then, he commented, "That was a hawk's moth".

Like we wanted to know that!

Anyway, after that, Fuzzy, Maria and another girl did their presentation. Fuzzy was very interesting to observe. She included hand gestures, and special effects. One part of the presentation, Rodze asked, "How does the strangler fig kill the tree?".

"It wraps itself around the tree *Insert motion of strangling* and you know like how you can tell the age of a tree right? And they're supposed to like get fatter and you know expand *Insert motions of expanding* and so when the strangler fig is like choking the tree *Insert motion of choking* and it like, can't breathe *Starts making gasping sounds* and so it dies".

That cracked everyone up.

However, Rodze asks, "Is that all?".

"Um, it steals the minerals of the tree . .".

Rodze saying very quietly and with a smug/amused look, "No . . .".

"Well, you didn't tell us the answer!" (Fuzzy saying indignantly)

"Then don't make it up". (Rodze)

"Hey!" (Fuzzy sounding even more indignant) "I wasn't making it up! I was making an . . . an educated guess".
Everyone cracks up even more. Even Hjh Masnah was grinning.

During Fuzzy's presentation, another moth attacked us. Shirley and Dal leapt up, Shirley with her clipboard and Dal with her flashlight. Both were swinging their items madly.
Suddenly . . .

"Shirley, you killed it!".
"No I didn't! It's just dizzy".
"No! It's dead!".
"Is it? I didn't mean to kill it!".
Shirley went on for the whole presentation, repeating that last sentence. Major guilt trip .

My presentation. NOOOOO!!
I blumbered. I think I blumbered. The topic : Tourism and its effects on the rain forest. Me and Zam made things up. We even said that. I blumbered at one point.

"And what if they decide to wash their clothes? They'll bring it to the river and use detergent, which probably has toxics in it! And it'll . . . it'll . . .". I looked so blank, and I think I looked like I was staring out into space or something. And I kept on making hand gestures which when I got stuck, repeated itself over and over again. It was the one where I was making chopping gestures.
"Kill the fish" Zam said helpfully.

I looked at her blankly. Then, "Yeah . . . it kills the fish!".
Big time blumber!

And then, I went on, and instead of saying conservationists, I said conversationists. Adakah patut . . .
However, I think I did alright cause I was able to answer Hjh Masnah's question really well, and when it was finished, everyone didn't need to be prompted to clap. Even the councillors seemed pleased. When I went back to my seat, Rodze mumbled something like, "Congratulations . . .". Or something.
Cool or what?

Then, after that, Zam and I were at our places, and she took out her video cam. She turned to Hjh Masnah, "This is Hjh Masnah, oh, look. She's posing". Then, "This is Cikgu Leila in her teddy bear PJs. She promised to give them to me. And that's Mrs Ramoz. Hi . . This is *It was the security guard* uh, I don't know his name. And this is Rodze . . . *He casually pretends to scratch his forehead, conveniently covering most of his face* aww . . camera shy . . ." and she switched it off.

However, I wanted to spite him, and after he lowered his hand, *SNAP*.
Heh, heh, another one for my album.

One thing that Rodze kept on overhearing, and that was me saying "Soak up the peace and serenity" Arnold Schwarzenegger (However you spell it) style. And every time I said that, he'd give me a weird look. Hah!
I'm not normal you know!

And another thing we kept on joking about. L6.

The room L6. It was empty, and on the first night, we kept on hearing weird noises. So, we came up with the thought that animals were having a party in L6. And they kept on mistaking our room for it, cause ours is L5.

One joke was waking up to find a kijang (deer) sleeping next to you. "What the hell?!".

"Oh, sorry. I thought this was L6. My apologies".

"How did you get in here?!".

"I crawled under the door. If the rats can do it, so can we". Disappears under the door, (You see, Rodze had told us that during the first night rats would come visit our rooms to see if there was any food, ad when they find out that there is none, then they'll go away. They squeeze under the doorways to get in).

Go back to sleep. Wake up to find an elephant.

"Sorry. Thought this was L6". Vanishes under the door.

And then when we saw the weird lights (I'll explain this next time!) we got really freaked out. Then, trying to make a joke out of it, I said the squirrels were morse-coding that they ran out of drink. Weird or what?
And that's how we coped with the nights.