Mount Kinabalu

Compulsory selfie

Even Before I had even left home, it was the mountain climb that was one of the things I wanted to do. This was the sole reason I’d brought a woolly hat, thick socks and gloves and essentially will be the only time I use them this year! There’s no way I could have gone to Borneo for a year without having done this and I'm glad to say it didn't disappoint.

Content to have made the peak!

On the 2^nd of April Sam, Rory, Max and I woke up with a noticeable buzz because that day wasn't like any other day, it’d be a day where we’d be starting our climb up the mountain. You could tell that Sam was up for it because he’d actually packed his bag in advance! The journey up to the park passed by in no time and the few minutes we had waiting for our passes were well spent marvelling at the spectacular views on offer from the mountain. After successfully getting our passes and meeting our guide for the two days, we were ready to start. BUT not until we stretched off first (According to Sam). Looking back on it, given that we had to walk 6 km that day, I’d heard worse shouts before! The trail began surrounded by thick jungle, which must be passed through in order to scale the mountain. A combination of the dense, moist air and the fact that we’d set off at a blistering pace meant that it wasn't long before we were all dripping. However, in hindsight it was most probably because I didn't like the fact Sam was in the lead!

Stunning views from the park headquarters

Once we began to ascend and the jungle began to become sparser, the colder it became.  This meant that we kept breaks to minimum because when you did stop it allowed the ample sweat to cool and you’d find yourself shivering. The trail for the first 2km was pretty straightforward and wooden rafters ensured our pace was still blistering. However, as we rose in altitude the quality of these rafters significantly decreased and there were countless opportunities when one of us nearly rolled an ankle! Whenever there was a break in the trees it gave us a snippet of what we’d already achieved and it motivated me as I imagined how amazing the feeling must be, having reached the peak.

The final 2 km of the trail leading up to our lodging proved to be considerably harder because there were no longer wooden rafters but instead big boulders, and every step had to be calculated carefully. Nevertheless, although our legs were aching, none of us complained because local Sherpas kept on passing us with ridiculously heavy loads on their backs. According to our guide they can go up and down three times a day with up to 80 Kg strapped to their backs! I think we all aspired to have thighs and calves as big as theirs..

Unit!

pretty moist after 4km

After a gruelling last half a kilometre, we reached our lodging in 2hr30 minutes, which was half the expected time of 5 hours. By the time we got there it was really starting to get nippy and the lodge warmly welcomed us. We were all very tired and hungry and the chance to be able to sit down at a table and reflect on what I’d achieved so far filled me with immense happiness.  Thankfully by which stage, it was now time for the all you can eat buffet and we definitely ate all that we could. After demolishing the buffet, we ventured out on to the balcony, to take in the in the beautiful views across Sabah. For all except Sam, it had been a while since we’d experienced such cold temperatures and so naturally we all took our tops to prove to the others on the balcony that we were hard as nails. Fittingly as we chilled out, the sun had begun to set and the feeling of being in and amongst the clouds, with the orange glimmer of the ever fading sun was like no other. As the sun had completely faded the temperature had plummeted and at this point we took some rest as we up at 2am to start the next day’s ascent.

Sunset from the balcony at Laban Rata

Hard as nails!

The reason for this early start was so that we could watch the sunrise from the summit. The majority of people set off at 2 am but we set off at 3.15 because we didn't want to be standing still, getting cold, waiting for the sun to rise. As we set off, there was biting chill and so we all sported pretty much all the clothes we had, along with our head torches to combat the darkness. Except for Max, who was being a nutter and wore shorts! The first half a kilometre was straightforward and was the time we made up our ground on the people who’d set off before us. Trying to weave and overtake the heavy traffic of people was nightmare and it wasn't helped by the fact my head torch could barely make out a metre in front of me. For the final 1.5 km, it was just bare rock faces and ropes to haul ourselves up the slopes. At the time I wasn't fazed because I couldn't see around me but later on in the descent, in the light of the day, I realised that the bit I’d casually strolling had been at the edge of a cliff face! For the last kilometre, it was evident that the air was getting thinner so naturally the 4 of us had broken up. Sam was miles up in the front, followed by myself and Max and the guide/Rory bringing up the rear. We arrived a hundred metres before the peak at about 4.30 am, which meant as I feared we had ages to kill before the sun would rise at 6.00 am. Therefore, to protect ourselves from the icy wind, the 4 of us huddled together for 45 minutes in a nearby shelter.  After some much needed fruit pastels, we reached the summit shortly after and as I stood at the peak, 4095m in the air, life was good!

The shelter we all huddled under

Scaling the mountain 

Before long, a faint orange glow started to from in the distance, until finally the sun peered above the mountain peak and the beautiful radiance warmed the air ever so slightly. The light spread over the landscape and lit up the nearby rocks and spikes and restored the mountain to its glory. There have been few moments in my life where I've been speechless and it definitely was the most awesome sight of my life!

Sam at Sunrise

The descent was by far harder than the way up and extra care had to be taken to avoid spraining an ankle. Needless to say, this philosophy went out the window when Max, Sam and I raced for the last kilometre. How one of us didn't snap a leg, I don’t know! Whilst at the time the race seemed like a good idea, let’s just say our bodies punished us for it for the whole of the next week.I think I can speak behalf of us all that this is a memory we will all treasure for the rest of our lives..

Unbelievable view

Painting, pancakes and party

February has proved to be one of the busiest of the 6 months I’ve been out in Malaysia. A combination of painting, pancake making and late nights watching sporting fixtures have contributed to what has most probably been the most exhausting period of my time here; but that’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed it!

Early February started off on a high note as we were invited to one of the boy’s sister’s birthday parties. It’d be some time since Rory and I had been to a celebration out here and think we’d forgotten at the extent of the attention we would receive. Like the weddings we’d been to earlier in the year everybody from the village was invited to these celebrations; and it was great to feel famous again purely on the basis of being white. It came as no surprise when we were lined up early doors for a karaoke cameo, as well as some traditional dancing to some ‘Kadazan-dusun’ songs. After much debate of a song that we could sing, for some reason that I can’t explain, we found ourselves churning out a performance of Robbie Some of the boys in their shirtsWilliams’ - ‘Something Stupid’. The performance went down as expected considering both Rory and I are both awful at singing and the few sympathetic claps confirmed it was time to take our seats. I don’t know what the craze is out here but if you go to any form of celebration without having had some ‘Tapai’, you’re doing seriously well. It’s basically a home brewed rice wine that has potency of 40% and looks like glue... lethal! This particular party didn’t seem to be running dry of the stuff and the hardest part about it was trying to make it clear to this one drunken lady, that I couldn’t stand the stuff. Towards the end of the party I successful managed to lose my stalker and get stuck into cutting some shapes on the D-floor and after a couple Dusun songs, we were on our way back to the hostel – a truly exceptional weekend!

Painting

A couple weeks into February, we finally got the go ahead from MYTC to re decorate the classroom and so Rory and I have been at it most days. We started off by sanding the walls and then put three coats of paint on and it was exhausting. However, there's nothing like a few tunes to pass the time and i can speak for both of us that the song 'Timber' is not getting a run out for a while.  I’ve painted before but because the weather hasn’t dropped below 30 degrees for as long as I can remember it meant that shower breaks every 30 minutes were a necessity. It’s taken best part of a couple of weeks to finish off the sanding/painting but the hard work has paid off; even though I’ve successfully managed to sand more of my hand off than I did on the walls! We’ve still got to put posters etc. on the wall and I’m waiting for when Sam comes out as he’s bringing some posters that I’ve bought to donate to the hostel. In the meantime at least now the classroom won’t look as dull as the students probably find my lessons!

The other day we organised pancakes for the boys as it was Shrove Tuesday. We had to make something like 120 pancakes as we’d promised the boys two each and they made sure we stuck to it; meaning we had to mix some silly amounts of eggs, flour and milk! Even though we had a couple of the boys helping us, we hadn’t anticipated how long it would take us and I think I the end it took best part of three hours!  I tried a few flips and after successfully landing some i got a bit big headed, and therefore got together a crowd of boys to show. To my disgust it completely backfired as it ended up setting alight in the flame of the hob; it just had to be that one.. I was a laughing stock! Off the back of Rory's fair suggestion, I took 5 mins to cool down after displaying such appalling behavior and as Rory said i thought to myself 'you're so much better than that'. Nevertheless, i put it behind me and got on with the task ahead, because at this point we still had 50 pancakes to cook. We settled for a classic topping of chocolate and slightly obscure but surprisingly good topping of condensed milk and the speed at which the boys ate them confirmed that we’d done a good job. It was great fun making the boys the pancakes and I'm hoping that the boys can hold back their cravings from pancakes for a while or at least until i can recover from the howler in that last batch.

Pancake making

I’m looking forward to Sam coming out in the coming weeks and even more excited to be doing a couple weeks travelling with him around other parts of Borneo, including: Sandakan, Kuching, Miri and climbing Mount Kinabalu! The climb was one of the main things that I wanted to achieve when I came out here and it’ll be so good to share this experience with Sam, Rory and Max; as well as making all of you jealous back home.

Hope you’re all well...

The Boy's with their shirts

Shirt Rory designed

The boys getting stuck into some footsal

December- February

Sorry it’s been a while to update the blog but I’ve been so busy! When I last posted, I mentioned that Rory, Max, Liam and I set off for 6 weeks holiday travelling around Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. I’ve always wanted to travel this part of the world and I can safely say that we had the most amazing time and of course some unforgettable memories. I think out of the three countries I enjoyed Thailand the most and in particular Phuket because it was nice to see the place where I lived for a year, when I was one. It was great to see James Bond Island, as well as Ko Phi Phi and I look forward to going back to Thailand in June to do a full moon party on Ko Phangang! Other fond memories include: seeing the sunrise at Angkor Wat, shooting an AK47 in Vietnam, Cu chi Tunnels, nights out in Bangkok, Tiger Kingdom, Koh Rong and finally elephant riding in Chiang Mai. It was so weird being away for Christmas and I think I can speak on behalf of the 4 of us that this was certainly a time where we all missed home a lot. What was even weirder was that they don’t celebrate Christmas in Vietnam, which meant that all the westerners became somewhat of  celebrities to the locals in our Santa hats. Nevertheless, despite the non-existent hype, we were determined not to let this ruin Christmas; so we did a number of things such as: a secret Santa and found a place that did a full Christmas meal. It was also nice to be able to Skype home and see what the family were up to! New Years was equally as enjoyable and we decided we’d finish of the travels on a high note by staying in a 5* hotel for the night. We made sure we got there as early as we could so we could get the most of the price we’d paid and I’ll always remember the concierge’s look of disgust as four rogue travellers, with big rucksacks strolled in through the doors. Obviously there was a lot more fun stuff that we did but I’m conscious of keeping this short, so hopefully the pictures below will suffice! 

Tiger Kingdom- Chiang Mai

Elephant riding- Chiang Mai

Angkor Wat

Ko Phi Phi

Over this period I've also had some time to reflect on my first few months and i've set some goals for this next year. The three that I've come up with are: improving my teaching, learning more Malay and to explore Borneo more. Hopefully these should be achievable and if I’m able to do so I can say that year really has been a successful one.

The 1^st of January brought about the time when Mum and Dad were due to come out and visit and we planned it so we’d meet each other in Kota Kinabalu airport; as our flights were landing 15 minutes apart from each other. Their flight arrived before ours and it was so odd seeing two familiar faces waiting for me at the airport. After one of the Brothers from MYTC kindly picked us up, we spent the first night at Montfort.  It was a shame that the Montfort boys were still on holiday but it gave my parents an idea of the place I’d stayed at for my first week prior to heading up to my project, in Kiulu. 

View from the hotel at New Year

The good thing about this was that it allowed mum to take her compulsory photos for the day! 

The following day we were driven up to my project and it was so nice to be able to show my parents things of which I’d talked about over Skype. I think one of my fondest memories about this day was when we arrived all the boys flocked into our room to say that they’d missed us and asked about what we’d done. That evening, I introduced the boys to my parents and i was proud to see that some of the boys went up to them on their own accord to ask how they were and other questions. We spent only a day or so back at the project because I was keen to show my parents Kota Kinabalu over the weekend. Unsurprisingly, I was still shattered from the travelling I’d just done and it was exceptional to catch up with some sleep, relax and show my parents some of the food I've enjoyed such much since I've been out here. We spent the Saturday just chilling out and in the afternoon I saw it as an opportunity to take my parents to the imported store ‘Tong Hing’, as it’s a place I can’t usually afford to go to. I bought some things that I hadn't had since I’d left such as: Marmite and milk and put it this way I most certainly abused the fact mum and dad’s budget stretched a little further than mine! On the Sunday Rory, my parents and I spent the day sunbathing and snorkelling at ‘Sapi’ island, just off KK. The weather was unbelievable and it gave me an opportunity to make immense for coming back from my travels looking like a ghost. My parents left on the Monday and it was very sad to say good bye to them as it was now the second time. However, although we didn't do a huge amount that weekend I think it was lovely just to be able to catch up with them and find out news from back home.

Sapi island

In this past month I've done a huge amount and two highlights have been a football match V.S MYTC and Chinese new year celebrations. In the midst of this busy month I've also been appointed to be in charge of sport and recreation. This means that I have been organizing what sport is done each day as well as writing up a report if a boy gets injured and thankfully none of the boys have! The football game against the Montfort boys was on the second weekend and Max and I organised it. We trained extremely hard for the game and we even had home advantage but unfortunately the size of the Montfort boys meant that our boys were pushed off the ball resulting in a 4-1 loss. Max and I both played for our respective teams and fair enough to Max I haven’t heard the end of it! However, I’ve gone out and bought some boots off the back off the result as we plan to organise another fixture and I’ve told the boys that losing is not an option. Tuition has been a bit tougher this year because the new form 1+2’s level of English is quite low, which has meant that sometimes I’ll have the whole class staring at me blank faced. Nevertheless, I've enjoyed the fact that it’s made me think on my feet a bit more and hopefully has improved my quality of teaching.  It's good to be challenged and most importantly it’s been great to see some of the new boys’ confidence rise in this small space of time. In the coming weeks I’m really looking forward to redecorating the classroom and we plan to get some of the boys to help us with the painting as well as choosing new posters for the wall.  I’m keen to make it look half decent and I’ll upload some photos of the final result to see what you think. For Chinese New Year, the boys went home, which gave Rory and I and Opportunity to go to Montfort to see Max. Brother Thomas kindly invited us to celebrate Chinese New year with his family and he didn't disappoint in saying that there’d be more than enough to eat! The spread of food was superb and I was not alone in going up for seconds and even third helpings.  The thing that I found most thoughtful was that Chinese tradition means that at this time of year married couples give out a little red envelope called an ‘Ang Pow’. We received a few of these from various individuals over the weekend and I was shocked to find out that Inside contained money; especially as we had just me these poeple! 

Team line ups

Cramp

Kiulu Team

Setting up the nets for the game..

View of Mount KK from our village

A couple of the boys

Mum, Dad and I in KK

It feels odd to think that January is already up and even more startling is the fact that I've now got less than sixth months before I fly home. I’m looking forward to seeing if I can achieve the targets that I have set out for this New Year and I have no doubt that February will be equally as fun. I expect I’ll probably be as slow in uploading the next blog so you can look forward to another essay when i get round to it.

Hope you’re all well back home!

October..

Yet again, this last month has been unbelievably busy and SHOCK...I've enjoyed every minute of it. I keep saying this but days seem to fly by, and it feels like yesterday that I posted my last blog! If I had to narrow the month down into to 3 highlights, I’d have to say that the outdoor cooking , Montfort Open house and Halloween celebrations have been the ones that have stuck out.

spot the 'orang putih' !!

Mucking around with one of the boys..

The outdoor cooking weekend was very similar to the camping weekend we’d done earlier on in our time in Malaysia. However, this time, it was just our boys and the fact that it was by the river near the hostel definitely made it all that more memorable. The outdoor cooking started on a Friday afternoon and it was so nice just to chill out and joke around with the boys in the river. The main activities started that evening when we all sat round a fire that Rory and I made. We made sure it was enormous so that it would burn all through the night and the next day; it was over 10 ft high! We played a number of games and introduced the boys to ‘Chinese whisperers’ and as you could expect, given the slight language barrier, some hilarious things came back out once it’d gone round all 60 boys! Much like the camping, we slept under a makeshift tent of bamboo and leaves as the roof. I made the mistake of thinking that it could never get cold in Malaysia and oh I was so so wrong! That night was probably the most horrendous sleep I’d had since I've been here. What made it worse was all the boys next to me were wrapped up nicely and all I had to cover me, was my wet towel! I lay there, eyes open shivering most the night waiting aimlessly for sunrise to come so that as soon as there was enough light to walk back to the hostel I could run straight for a shower! The whole of that Saturday, we organised some games for the boys including a swimming race and British bulldog. The boys seemed to enjoy it and the weather, not for the last time, provided a perfect opportunity to get ridiculously burnt. All in all the camping weekend was a huge success and most of all I think it made me appreciate at how relaxed I've been since I've got here.

Outdoor cooking

The following weekend was Montfort’s Open house, where we (Max, Liam, Rory and I) would be selling our ‘English delights’. We decided to build off the back of the previous volunteer’s success and do like they did: flapjacks , pancakes and our addition of brownies. We spent the entire day before the open house baking, and we managed to make over 100 flapjacks and likewise for the brownies. We baked for pretty much 5 hours straight and to be honest I don’t really know if what we were churning out the end was even edible! The day was a massive success and what was great was that people we coming back for second and third helpings of each. We’d been warned that people would buy what we’d baked purely on the basis on being white but the fact people were coming back for more meant that they actually enjoyed them! This meant that we sold it all in no time at all and raised about £200 quid profit for MYTC. (More than last year’s lot!) Not only was this good but it allowed us plenty of time to get stuck into some of the other stalls that were on offer. The atmosphere was really good, the weather was ridiculously hot and I don’t think I could have asked for a better weekend.

Our Stall at open house

Couple of our boys manning a stall..

Halloween proved to the most fun I've had since I've been here and it was the first time the boys have celebrated it. Therefore, Rory and I had to seriously step up and make it something for the boys to remember. We got in as much of the classics as we could such as: pumpkin carving, apple bobbing, making toffee apples, a scary film and a game where the boys had to eat doughnuts off a string without using their hands. At the start of the night, we gave the boys some flour, face paint and some fake blood and told them that they had 30 minutes to do their worst. We didn't expect much but we were completely amazed at how they looked, and most pleasing of all was that the boys were buzzing for the games that Rory and I had organised for them. We got some really good photos and the boys said that it was a good night; which is the main thing!

Toffee apples

The from 1-4 boys have all just gone home for their end of year holiday break, so there is only 10 form 5 and 6 boys around at the moment. This means that Rory and I have a fairly relaxed run in before we go off travelling in just under 2 weeks because we will only be giving tuition for these 10 boys, who have exams in the coming weeks. I can’t wait to go and explore more of South East Asia and the I expect the 6 weeks I’ll be spending in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam will bring out some unforgettable stories..

Pumpkin Carving

                                   

Apple bobbing

Doughnut game..

From 2 class with their 'favourite celebrity' posters 

1 month in..

So.. Last post I mentioned that Rory and I were off camping with our boys and the Montfort boys. It’s been almost 3 weeks since then and like most days here, time has flown. Believe it or not, I've been here for over a month now!

Rory and I on the beach where we camped

Sunrise from the tent

To those of you who are familiar with camping, I can assure you that this was unlike any other camping you or I have ever been on. In fact sleeping conditions in my opinion were better when I was doing Gold DofE; purely on the basis that you had a tent that you could zip up. Needless to say I was up the challenge! As you can see from the picture, the structure of the tents that we’d be sleeping under was bamboo, some rope and a massive canvas over the top, so that at least we were waterproof. The whole camping weekend was designed so that the boys could appreciate what help Montfort and San Damiano were providing to them; considering that a lot of the boys are from poor backgrounds, it made them realize how fortunate they are to have such good facilities at their respective hostels. The weekend was much like the obstacle race we’d done and was full of activities, including some absolute classics such as a sack race, tug of war and a human tower. Rory and I got stuck in and we were even able to help the boys win the human tower; as you would expect I was at the base! In the evenings the boys played guitar, sang round the campfire and shared jokes with us. On the second night, Rory and I bought the boys some marshmallows to have on the fire because the majority of them had only seen them on a movie. There was no way Rory and I was going to let them sit round a campfire and not experience this! We also made the boys some chili con carne and I think that this was the first time I've actually enjoyed something I’d cooked. As I mentioned in my last post, mosquitoes were indeed an absolute nightmare because the tent structure we were sleeping under was completely open but luckily Rory and I were able to both sleep under my mosquito net. I expect I owe mum big thank you for tucking a net into the bottom of my bag as yet again Mum had seriously stepped up! All in all the camping weekend was a huge success but it had taken its toll and therefore we were extremely tired and needed a mattress to sleep on. The boys were given the afternoon off when we got back to rest because they had school the next day, so Rory and I didn't mess around and went straight to sleep. This was by far the best sleep I've ever had and I slept flat out for 15 hours, missing supper along the way!

Hog Roast at the camping

The boys in the tent 

Our tent for the weekend

Sack Race

Me and some of the boys messing about

Teaching has been extremely fun and I've enjoyed every lesson so far. I've been trying to make my lessons as fun as possible by chucking a few games such as: Hangman and Bingo but to be honest, I’m not sure whether I've enjoyed them more than the boys because I do love a bit of Hangman!  Nevertheless I think what has been most interesting is the realization of how hard it’s being on the other end of the table! This is because the variation in the standard of the English of the boys means that often some boys don’t understand when others do, so it’s about finding the right balance of which I’m learning day by day. This last week we've got the form 1 and 2 boys starting a project on their favorite celebrities. They had to do some research on the computer and ultimately produce a profile of their celebrity on a poster and present it to the class. The boys have seemed to have enjoyed it and we've given them the incentive of winning a big dairy milk; unsurprisingly as soon as we introduced the prize, the boys worked harder! I also love the amount of time each day that we have to play sport with the boys and most of all that the boys are as competitive as me and put it this way I don’t know many people who are. As I mentioned on my last post I've been playing two of the local sports: footsal and takraw as well as finding time to do some jogging and play football on the field. I’m spending the most time playing takraw as it’s a completely new sport to me. I've got to a level where the boys trust me to kick the ball back over the net but stupidly yesterday, I got ahead of myself to do one of these flips they do and well yeah, I expect you can fill in the rest.. For those of you, who don’t know what it is just type “takraw” in you tube. We have also been jogging a couple times a week and it has been very hard to adapt to conditions because the hills and heat here are considerably greater than back home! However, Rory and I smashed out a 10 km run this week so I’m feeling fit; I've even naughtily managed to find time to loose 5 kg!

Egg fired rice attempt 1

Banoffee Pie!

Being men we are not naturally that good cooks and like anything it requires a lot of practice. When I say practice, I most definitely mean we not a lot of it; it seems to take Rory and I at least 3 or 4 times to perfect a recipe. So far we've tried to make egg fried rice which we made a better job of making look like bad scrambled egg and most recently doughnuts that tasted like stale bread! However, it has not been all bad and last week we made a banoffee pie for the staff here. Unfortunately you can’t get hold of cream but what mattered most is that it was the first thing we’d made that was edible! 
The staff loved it; so we are planning sometime soon to make enough pie for all the boys. (all 60 of them!) On the subject of food I've tried some more amazing food such as: a yellow watermelon and found myself a new favourite fruit called ‘Dragon Fruit’. This dragon fruit gave me a huge shock in the morning, as much like beetroot, it makes your urine red.. I thought was internally bleeding.

Doughnut attempt 1

 I am completely settled here and I like the fact that often it feels like Rory and I are older brothers to the boys. In particular I find it funny that the boys have started to give us nicknames and the best one yet for me has been: “Wayne Rooney’. The boys have not yet said whether they are judging this on looks or my football capabilities but for my sake it’s hopefully the latter.. I dare not ask!

Another wedding

He didn't trust me to do it!

Rory and I at a wedding reception

Sweatyy!