THE TRAVELS AND PHOTOGRAPHY OF WFOGG: Malaysia

After climbing the Mount Kinabalu, on Sunday evening Zuzana went back to Kuala Lumpur. But as I still had one week before the trip to the interior of Sarawak, on Monday morning I decided to go to the Sabah Tourism Board to ask for sponsorship. At that point I was already quite used to asking for it. I had a meeting with a woman there and she told me that she would call me in a couple of days.

After that I decided that in the afternoon I would go to Sandakan, in the eastern coast of Sabah, to take some pictures in the areas around. I went to the hostel, I packed everything, I went to the bus station and I took the first bus leaving to Sandakan. At night I was already there looking for accommodation; I found a hostel with a clean dorm at a reasonable price and I went to bed.

On Tuesday morning I planned everything I was going to do during all the days I had in Sabah. First I went to the Sandakan Tourist Office and later I took a walk on the city looking for travel agencies to see what they offered. While walking the city I found the travel agency of a local photographer called Cede Prudente, I got his telephone number and after a short conversation we decided that we could meet in the evening.

In the Tourist Office I got information about places near Sandakan, especially about Turtle Island, Sepilok (the other rehabilitation centre for orangutans) and the lower Kinabatangan River, one of the areas with widest wildlife diversity in the region. But the most important thing I got from them was the address of the offices of the Yayasan Sabah Group in Sandakan. This governmental organization is in charge, among other things, of the management of the conservation areas of Danum Valley, Imbak Canyon and Maliau Basin. These areas, in the interior of Sabah, are the biggest natural reserves of the state; and visiting Danum Valley was one of the things I wanted to do.

So the first thing I did as soon as I left the Tourist Office was going to the offices of Yayasan Sabah Group. As I told you, I am very used to asking for sponsorship, but this time, since I already spoke with the Sabah Tourism Board in Kota Kinabalu, I only went there to get information.

In ten minutes I arrive there, I tell my eternal story about the Spanish photographer, and one minute later I am sitting in the office of a very nice man called Barnabas who is asking me to tell him about what I am doing. I tell him in short what I do and I also tell him, among many other things, about the trip I am going to do in Sarawak sponsored by the Sarawak Tourism Board and that I have been talking with the Sabah Tourism Board… but just as a part of the story. I don't know what happened, it must be that I tell the story very well, because Barnabas started to say that it is very interesting and that he has a program of homestay in Karamuak, a small village in the upper Kinabatangan and that it is a very good promotion for him.

In a couple of seconds Barnabas has already called the 6 people of his department and I look at all of them standing in his office. I was sitting in front of Barnabas desk while he was telling them my story and he is asking them about how much time I would need to see what they do in Karamuak. After a while everything is clear, on the next morning I will go to Karamuak, they will cover all the expenses and there will be three people coming with me to assist me in all I could need. But... If I just wanted some information...

I also asked them about the conservation areas I wanted to visit, which is why I went there, but the time you need to visit them is too much for me, so I will have to leave it for the next time. In fact I asked if one week would be enough to visit Maliau Basin and the answer was "roughly to cross it". Ok, with the time I had then, it is not possible.

When I left the Yayasan Sabah Group offices, I went to the office of Turtle Island. To be able to visit that island there were two problems. The first one is that you have to book quite in advance, and by now you must have noticed that I can not do plans in advance because I don't know where I will be at any time. And the second problem is the price. Going to Turtle Island usually costs from 120€ just one day and one night, besides, travel agencies usually book for a minimum of two people, so I would have to pay double the price. Sometimes you can bargain the price, but in a destination with such a high demand… impossible. So my only option is asking them to let me go as a photographer in exchange for some photographs. After talking with two people they told me that it is not possible. Well, what can I do, not always everything is going to be ok.

From there I went to the office of the photographer, Cede Prudente. While I was waiting for him I took a look on his pictures, some of his books he had there and his postcards, they were very good. When he arrived he gave me some advice about what should be interesting for me around there. After talking with him I thought that it could be a good idea going with him to the hostel he is running in the lower Kinabatangan to see some more wildlife, and when a bit later he told me that I would have a special price, we agreed that when I came back from Karamuak I would go to his hostel.

With these plans for the next four days, and realising that I didn't have much more time to visit anything else around there, I decided that after visiting the lower Kinabatangan I would go to Miri, where my trip to the interior of Sarawak should start. Since I still had a couple of extra days and I needed to leave the country to renew my entry (as a tourist you can only stay for three months in a row), I thought that instead of flying from Kota Kinabalu to Miri I could pass through Brunei, so I could also take the chance to see it.

At the end of the day I had already planned all I was going to do until I reached Sarawak. That night I went to the cinema with a girl who was in the same hostel. There was not much to choose from, since you have to forget about all the Asian movies because Malay subtitles are not very helpful. We finally ended up watching a romantic comedy that I don't even remember the title, I only remember that I expected it worse. At least cinemas were decent, and a cinema evening is always a pleasure.

I woke up early in the morning and when I arrived to the offices of Yayasan Sabah Group, everything was ready. The driver, the three people coming and me, we all got into the four-wheel drive car and left towards Karamuak. After driving around 120 km on the road through palm oil plantations we took one of the many tracks disappearing into the palm trees. It is at that moment when you realise why Malaysia is the second producer of palm oil in the world. It is not something I had never seen before, when flying, for example, but somehow being for such a long time in between all those plantations makes you really realise it.

During many years, the logging industry and palm oil plantations have been the two biggest reasons for the deforestation in Malaysia. When travelling across all those plantations, it is difficult not to think that once all that was the rainforest.

It is not easy for me just to mention this topic and not to say anything about it.

Those of you who know me know that I love nature, wildlife... I recognise that I feel a bit sad when I see such a wide surface which is not rainforest anymore. And know that I write you back from home, I can assure you that I miss the rain forest. During the last months in Malaysia, the extremely long rain season last year didn't allow me to go to the rainforest as much as I would have liked, but the few times I could get close to it and listen slightly to its sounds... It fascinated me again and I kind of felt like home.

During all the time I spent in Malaysia, I spoke about the problem of deforestation with several people, especially with Cede Prudente, the local photographer I met in Sandakan, who collaborates with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). So, even if I don't have much information about it, after listening to all of them, my opinion is that these days it is necessary to understand these industries without which Malaysia could not keep the development status which has. As far as I know, Malaysian government created new laws to prevent further deforestation, creating protected areas and preventing the decrease of the surface of the rainforest. Let's hope it works.

During our trip in between the plantations I was asking from time to time the driver to stop so I could take some pictures; since they were there to help me, every time I asked him, the driver would stop or turn back to take me to the place I needed. After a long way crossing plantations and rain forest we reached the area which Yayasan Sabah Group manages. But… What does exactly Yayasan Sabah Group do?

This organization was originally created to manage the logging industry in the State of Sabah in a way that all the population could get a benefit from it, specially in order to support their education. But nowadays its activities are not limited to this sector; its different departments manage different areas such as conservation areas, oil palm plantations, gas, petrol or biotechnology among others. In this region, through the Community Forestry Centre that they manage in Karamuak, they run two main activities: ecotourism and, most importantly, helping the local communities to survive in the new conditions the live in. People living here used to live from the rain forest and the natural resources they got from the river. But now the environment is not the same as it used to be and they have to adapt their customs to the new resources, such as palm plantations to produce palm oil.

That first day they showed me the facilities they had in several places, all them were quite nice and were located in beautiful places.

They also showed me a place with a few small waterfalls where people go to have a bath, but don't think it was a place where you could really swim.

Finally, we arrived to Karamuak; the woman who managed the centre was waiting for us. I was given the key of my place and as soon as I left my backpack she took me for a walk so I could see all they have there and how they used it.

In that centre they have several classrooms that they use for two different purposes: they teach the locals how to use the new resources and give them basic education; and when they have visitors, they show them how the area is and how it is managed.

In the centre they also have the different accommodation facilities for the homestay programme. These homestay programmes, which you can find in several places in Malaysia, try to stimulate rural tourism. The idea is to visit a village, spend some days there together with the local people, seeing their customs, and enjoying their hospitality. People in Malaysia are very kind, especially in rural areas. A homestay programme usually consists of basic accommodation in small villages where some activities are prepared for the visitors so that they can get to know better how the locals live. And it is also one of the best ways of getting to know the real popular gastronomy.

They took me to see the different types of accommodation they have, and I was taking pictures of them. Then she took me for a walk around the centre, and even if the centre is not in the middle of the rain forest, it is not a bad place for a walk.

Karamuak is quite in the interior of Sabah, but even though you can reach it by car (better if it is a 4wd) and it is not really in the middle of the deep rainforest, which makes it seem to be more developed than other villages, it still has its limitations. For example, this girl was waiting for an sms.

Mobile phones are hanging there because it is one of the few places where, from time to time, there is a bit of mobile network coverage. Even like this, after 15 minutes, she left without any message, leaving the mobile hanging there, where they are all the time… unless it is raining.

In the evening I had some free time before dinner, and from the car I saw a place from where I thought I could see a nice sunset, so I decided to take a walk by myself and enjoy the sunset.

I arrived there before the sun set and I had time to take a couple of pictures. It was a pity that there were not more clouds because the place was nice and quiet. But even if it wasn't the nicest sunset in history I spent a very nice time there.

After that, and before it was dark (remember that there is no electric power in the middle of the rainforest), I walked back to centre for the dinner. One of the girls who came with us from Sandakan was the cook, although I guess she had more tasks to do. She was not the only one cooking there, there was always somebody helping her, but you can be sure she knew what to do in a kitchen. It is not that she cooked anything really sophisticated, I guess that all she cooked during the time we were there were normal dishes for them, but I really liked them all.

In the next morning we went to a hike they normally do with the visitors who come to the centre. Close to Karamuak there is the mount Tingkar (this time it is only 768 metres above the sea level). In 1962 a helicopter crashed on its top, and the pilot and the geologist who was with him had to walk all the rain forest down the hill until they reached Karamuak. It is the peak which you can see on the photograph of the sunset.

It usually takes about 2 or 3 hours to climb it, and it didn't really seem to be very tough to me, but I was a bit more trained after the last two weeks in Mulu and climbing the Kinabalu. But one thing is for sure, from all the hikes I had done so far, this was the most "real" from all of them. In both parks, Mulu and Kinabalu, the trails are a bit crowded and it is easy to follow the path. This trail was not so "touched", in fact, the guys going first had a machete and sometimes they had to re-open the path, clearing the plants that had grown in the middle. Don't think this was anything like Indiana Jones though.

After three hours walking up the hill and stopping to take pictures, we reached the top. Once we were there we took our meal packs and sat close to the helicopter to enjoy the food and the views.

When we arrived back to Karamuak, again soaked in sweat, of course, I took (yet another) shower and sat to have a rest for a while in the terrace of the hut where I was staying. I think they gave me one of the best ones.

That evening they took me to meet the "mayors" or the "chiefs" of the village. I was told that there are 2 chiefs (changing every few years) who are in charge of different tasks related to the village, the relation with other governmental institutions and who take decisions to solve small problems of the people of the village.

Apart from these two people, I was also introduced to a third person. They told me that he was the owner of the plantations and he was in charge of improving the access roads to the village and several other small projects.

I think there is a difference in between them.

Alterwards we went back to the centre for a ddinner. Here, as in the Iban Longhouse, I was the first one eating when the meal was ready, and after I finished, the rest of the people started to eat. Of course I was telling them that it was not necessary to do it like this and that I preferred them to eat with me. That night I told them that I would like to have the dinner all together because it was my birthday and I would like to celebrate it with them, even if it was only having dinner all together. That night the power generator didn't want to work, so we had a nice birthday dinner under the light of the candles.

It is funny, I remember how, when we were finishing the dinner, I could hear them at the end of the table talking between them to sing the "happy birthday", but they had some problems remembering my name (here, in this kind of trips, people usually call you "sir"). This happens to me quite usually in Malaysia. In the end I think they felt a bit embarrassed and didn't sing anything. I felt as happy as if they had singed it.

The next day they showed me what Yayasan Sabah Group had done in the village until then. Thanks to them now in Karamuak there is, among other things, a small jetty, a church (you would be surprised how many indigenous people in Sabah and Sarawak are Christian), a small medical centre and several schools for boys and girls of different ages.

After the walk through Karamuak I was taken to fish a bit in the Kinabatangan River… well, or rather to see how they fish, I confess that I am not too keen on fishing. They also showed me a bridge that Yayasan Sabah Group built over the Kinabatangan River and we went to another village where they had more projects running.

After having lunch there was no more time for anything else, so we packed our stuff and went back to Sandakan so that I could be there before 6, when I had to be in the agency of Cede Prudente.

During those three days in Karamuak for sure that I didn't visit the most spectacular landscapes in Malaysia, but I did experience a part of the country that you miss if you only visit the typical destinations. I met really charming people and, above all, I really had a great time. And that –when I look at it from a distance, after a long time as I see it from here, while I am writing this, that– makes me appreciate it even more.

So if one day you come over here and you feel like spending some days in a different way, I really recommend you to pass by Karamuak.

miércoles, 8 de abril de 2009

Formula 1 in Sepang

Ok, just for a change I am going to tell you some of the latest news.

This last weekend it has been the Malaysian Formula 1 Grand Prix in Sepang circuit. So now that I am here, that I am showing the most important aspects from Malaysia and that the Formula 1 is the most important sport event in the country, at least I could go and take some pictures, don't you think so?

I tried to get an accreditation from the FIA, but they didn't give it to me. FIA is very strict with accreditations, but even if it annoys me I recognise that I understand it. If they gave an accreditation to every photographer in the world applying for it, there wouldn't be space enough for the cars in the pit lane. I don't have a big media behind supporting me, so even if I had a recommendation letter from the Director of Lunwerg (the publishing house supporting my project), I ended up without a press pass.

What I did, two weeks before the race, was going to Sepang circuit to talk with the Media Relations Manager (who I already knew from the last year) and I told him my story (again). He told me that FIA gives only a few accreditations, they just have 12 accreditations for Malaysian photographers, and Sepang circuit already has 2 photographers. For the rest of photographers that can not get the accreditation, what they do is giving them a pass to access all the areas of the circuit so they have more chances to take pictures. He told me to send him an email with my data and they would prepare one of those passes for me.

That day in the evening I sent him the email with my data and the next day I sent him another email with the recommendation letter from Lunwerg and asking if everything was correct or they needed anything else. They didn't reply, but since then I started to receive all the media release from Sepang circuit, so I consider it done.

The weekend of the race come and on Friday I go to Sepang to see the two first practice sessions. When I get to the accreditation office my name is not in any list. I talk with the man who is in charge and after explaining him everything, he asks some people through his walkie with no result, we try to contact the Media Relations Manager but we can't get him through… so what he does is taking my business card and go into the paddock to find him and ask him about my pass.

After a while he calls me on the phone telling me that the Manager didn't receive my data and my picture. I tell him that I didn't send them the picture but that they did receive my data, that I had tried to contact them several times to confirm if everything was correct but that they didn't reply me. Finally he tells me that the Manager said that I should send him an sms with my picture and my name and they will make the pass.

Just after hanging up the telephone I tell one guy in the accreditation office, who has a mobile with camera, that I have to send to the Media Relations Manager an sms with y picture and my name. He takes the picture, we write the message and he sends it. After a while the man in charge comes and tells me that I will have the pass but that I have to wait until the next day.

That day the entrance to the main grandstands was free, so I didn't really mind. I went there and I started to take photos. I was taking some panning pictures of the cars from different places. I took hundreds of them but all of them very similar. To be able to take many of the pictures we are used to see, you have to be at the track level, from the stands there are not many options.

In the evening, before going back home, I went again to the accreditation office to confirm that this time everything was right and on Saturday morning it was not going to happen again the same thing. I talked again with the person in charge, who couldn't get through the Media Relations Manager again and told me to call him later.

When I arrived home I called him again. He told me that he could talk with the Manager, that he hadn't received the sms and that I should send him again an email with my data and picture. I sent him the email and I also sent him an sms to be sure that he would read it. And then, I called again to the man of the accreditations office to tell him that I already sent the email, just in case.

On Saturday morning I went again to the accreditation office and the man in charge tells me that my pass is ready but that it is still in the office of the media department and I should wait for about half an hour. During that time we talked about photography, he is also photographer and shots weddings to get some extra income. At that moment Ralf Shumacher gets into the office to get his accreditation. There is a small stir in between the guys working there and in the end I take some pictures of him with the guys.

This is Dean, the man in charge for accreditations.

Alter a while my pass arrives. It is a pass which allows to access the public areas of the circuit. No access to the pit lane (as I knew) and no access to the paddock (I recognise that I had some hope). Anyway, it is not so bad, I can access to any of the stands of all the circuit, from the cheapest one to the most expensive seat.

I decide that I am going to check different areas of the circuit to see from which one I can take a good picture. The first place where I go is the grandstand in front of the first curve of the circuit (K1 in the map).

The day before I had been in almost all the areas of the grandstands in front of the two main straights of the circuit (marked as Mall Area in the map, the V-shaped building in orange) and I found this stand much more interesting than the other ones.

I stayed there waiting for the beginning of one of the races which were going to take place on Saturday: the first race of the GP2 Aisa Series. While I am waiting there, I started to pay attention to the big screen that you can see from there, which was showing at that moment a image of the curve in front of me. But… the view of the curve on the screen was not as I was seing it, it was much better on the screen. Where is that camera?

I started to look for the camera all around, behind me, at the back end of the stand... until I looked up. There, at the end of the structure of the roof I could see two small platforms. I took a look from the edge of the stand and it seems that yes, the camera seems to be there.

I waited for the begining of the GP2 Asia Series race, I took some more pictures during the first laps and afterwards I went to the main area to take more pictures.

From the main grandstand I checked that the camera was exactly where I thought. And I also checked that besides to the platform where the camera is, there was another platform, lonely… sad… abandoned… poor platform. That was going to be my place.

I took some more pictures during the race. In this race there were also some Spaniards. This is Roldán Rodríguez, who finished in fourth position on Sunday, in the second race.

After this race there was another race, the Formula BMW Pacific, and later on the qualifying session for the formula 1 in which, for a change, I kept on taking pictures. I have pictures of every colour under the sun, from here, from there, from far, from close… but all them from the stands.

That was all, alter the qualifying session I went home to have a rest for the next day.

On the evening, I burned a CD with the pictures of the guys of the accreditation office with Ralf Schumacher to give it to them on the next morning. And I thought that then, I could also ask them about the platform of the camera. I was almost sure that it was not going to be a problem, but it is always good to be able to turn to somebody from the organization when you are going to do something which is not allowed to everybody.

On the next morning I went to the circuit with time enough before the races. First I went to the accreditation office, I gave them the CD and they told me that there was no problem if I wanted to go to the platform. Even one of them told me that he would be around there half an hour before the race to open in case the stairs were closed.

Very nice these people from the accreditation office. Here people like very much taking pictures, so after being with them for a bit of time during the three days, when was about to leave, one of the girls working there said that she wanted to take a picture with me. After a second we ended up taking pictures all together with all the cameras around, you know, this thing of "wait, wait, now take it with mine". And of course I was not going to be the only one without the picture, I also wanted to have a memory of all that time spent with them in the accreditation office.

Then I went to the main area again, and you know, more of the same: more photos. The first race was the second race of the GP2 Asia Series and, before it could start, it began to rain. The start was delayed for almost half an hour and in the end it started when it was still raining.

The rain stopped later and the second race of the day, the Formula BMW Pacific, could start without problems.

It was the time for the Formula 1 race. The people were arriving, the stands were starting to be full and it was possible to see the ambient already.

When the VIP arrived, the drivers came out for the track parade, which means that they get into a double deck bus and they are driven all around the circuit while they are waving. In the meanwhile a group of people appeared to make a beautiful performance with drums, flying Chinese and people running with big flags.

After all this, the preparations for the race began and I started to walk towards the first curve to climb up to the platform. The pass I had was nothing special by itself, in fact it is the same one that all the people working in the main area have, it doesn't matter if they are cleaning the windows or selling hot-dogs. But apart from that pass, I also had the pass that Tourism Malaysia gave me in August for the Independence Parade. Do you remember it?

Having that pass (the one on the right) helps, people usually make things easier for the media. When I arrived where the stairs were, the man there told me that the media should enter trough the other side, and I replied "no, no, I am going up to the platform", while pointing out to the stairs, and then the man said "ah, ok, ok… you can go". I waited for a while to the man of the accreditations to come, but when I saw that he was not coming (something I thought it could happen) I called Dean, who told me that they couldn't come.

The staris were open, so I told the man there "I am going up", and I went up.

Mi idea was being there for the beginning of the race and the first laps. Then I would go in front of the pit lane for the laps 15 to 25, when the first pit stop was expected, and then I would go to the end of the last straight, to be in front of the entrance of the last curve before the finish line. And also ,at that point there is another big screen, so I could see the race in other areas of the circuit.

But no way. When I reached the platform and I saw what you can see from there I thought "where am I going to go better than here". I could see almost half of the track. Definitely better than any seat that you can buy.

Besides, I had already been thinking about it the day before. I don't need "the photo" of the race, an overtaking or something similar. If I can take it, great, but what I need is a picture of the formula 1 for the book I want to publish, a photograph representative of the circuit. The most representative image of the circuit is from the tower in the last curve before the final straight, in between the two main straihts, with the structure of the roof. It is very similar to this one.

But I can not take this picture, for that I would need to be in the outside of the curve with the wide-angle to take the picture with the cars and the tower, and if it si possible with nice blue sky and white clouds. Since I can't take that picture, I think that the most representative picture I can take is from up there in the first turn of the first lap, although the cars were not so big in the picture.

So there I was, ready to take the picture and looking at all the official photographers below, who where in front of the fence ready to take their pictures.

There should be all of them but one, who also had the happy idea of going up to the platform and at that moment was on my left. But something was for sure, no blue sky and white clouds for us this time. At that time, even if the sun was still shining, you could already see what was coming, and from up there you could really see it coming, from far.

The race started and I took the picture I wanted to take (well, better said a couple of them). I stayed there taking pictures of the cars arriving to the end of the straight and also enjoying the race. I found it quite interesting, specially from there, that I could see many parts of the track.

A bit later I started to think on going to the main grandstand to take pictures of the pit lane, but it was starting to rain and I though that I was not going to have time to reach there before getting soaked, so I'd better stay there.

And yes, it started to rain, as it rains here from time to time, it rains as if it was the end of the world for a while and then it stops. And of course, with all the cars dancing around the track or going out the track to enjoy the meadows, the race was stopped. That is how I "saw" the moment when they stopped from where I was.

And that was it, we were waiting there until they decided that they were going home. A bit disappointing, I would have liked to see the end of the race, maybe next time.

What I was worried about at that moment was if they were also going to cancel the concert that Sepang circuit had organised after the race, and that I really wanted to see. It was not raining, but here you never know.

It rained again a bit before the concert and during the first groups, but then it stopped. I didn't know that there were support bands, in the advertising campaign Sepang circuit only announced the main artist. First there were a Malaysian DJ and then another Malaysian group called Maliq & D'Essentials, they played ok. But then, it was amazing. Seven black guys that I had never seen before came out to the stage and they started to sing a capella in a really wonderfull way. Their name is Naturally Seven. Maybe you already heard of them, but for me it was really a wondereful surprise.

And then the concert that they had announced so much started. I recognise that it is a concert which I would have gone even if I had to buy the ticket, but like this… even better. When the concert finished I went back home, after a long weekend, taking the bus to the airport and then the train to Kuala Lumpur. I had been really worth it.

So, here you are, two of the pictures of the concert that I took. It was not allowed to the media to enter into the area in front of the stage, but I got a good place. I guess there is no need to say that the concert was great, I would have liked to enjoy it with you, I know some of you like him, but nothing is perfect.

And now the question is:

You are Spanish... Don't you have pictures of Fernando Alonso?

Of course I have.

Running on the track…

Running closer...

Waving…

Or what did you think....

miércoles, 18 de febrero de 2009

Kinabalu National Park

This is the other Park of Malaysia that, together with Gunung Mulu National Park, which has been included in the World Heritage list by UNESCO. In it you can make many things, as Tomaš and me did when we were here. But from all those things, there is one which is the most important thing you can do at Kinabalu National Park. Because the Mount Kinabalu, with its 4095 metres high, is the highest peak in South East Asia, or at least that is what is written in many places, but depending on where you check it can be even the fourth one in this list.

Zuzana and I like hiking mountains, so when Zuzana knew that she was coming to Malaysia and she looked for some information about the country, she decided that one of the things she wanted to do was climbing the Mount Kinabalu. It was then when we decided that as soon as she had a long weekend we would try it.

As I told you, the Muslim New Year (the Hari Raya), coinciding with the end of the Ramadan, is one of the most important holidays of the Muslim year... no wonder, as a professional big eater as I am, if I was not allowed to eat during daylight for a whole month, I would also celebrate the day Ramadan finishes. Obviously, the Hari Raya, in a Muslim country as Malaysia, means public holidays, more precisely two days of public holidays, which, this year, were Wednesday and Thursday. Just on Thursday the week before Zuzana knew that she was going to have the Friday off, so she called me to ask where she should book the plane ticket for those five days.

I was going to spend the Hari Raya in Kuching with Nadim, the local photographer, who had invited me to go to his neighbourhood to see how it is celebrated there. Zuzana called me on the phone ,but just at that moment I was dying trying to climb the Pinnacles. Digi, the mobile company I use here, has no coverage in the Pinnacles, as in many other places, but even if it had had it, I don't think I would have had the strength to take the mobile out from my pocket.

Zuzana could not contact me and she booked the ticket as we had spoken before, that we would climb the Mount Kinabalu. Two days after, when I came back to the headquarters of Mulu Park, I met in a path one of the girls working in the offices and she told me "Hi, Zuzana called you and she said that she is Singapore and she will be arriving to Kota Kinabalu on Wednesday morning". Imagine my face at that moment, when somebody tells me that sentence in the middle of the jungle. So the Hari Raya in Kuching was not going to be possible and I will go climbing the Mount Kinabalu instead. ¿You see? Changing plans again, I can not plan anything.

I called Anddreas to see when we can make that trip to the interior of Sarawak. Then Zuzana and me got in touch as we could (between Mulu and Singapore) and we decided that as soon as Zuzana arrived Kuala Lumpur on Sunday she would book a plane ticket for me to fly to Kota Kinabalu.

Once in Kota Kinabalu I tried to book all we needed to be able to climb the Mount Kinabalu, but of course, in a long weekend like that, everything was fully booked for the three days when we could climb it.

Even like this, Zuzana and I decided that we will go to Kinabalu Park on Friday morning with the first transport leaving Kota Kinabalu and we will be at the waiting list, in case somebody doesn't go and there are some free places.

To be rested before climbing the mountain, we decide that on Wednesday we would just take a walk on Kota Kinabalu to see how they celebrate the Hari Raya. People wear traditional dresses, men and women, and the city becomes full of bright colours wherever you go. Besides, there are many celebrations where people wear their best clothes.

We also decided that on Thursday we would go to the islands that you already know close to Kota Kinabalu. Since I had already been there and I also wanted to spend the day with Zuzana not been worried if I have to take a picture here or there, I gave myself tha day off and I left the camera in the hostel. Obviously, since I don't have the camera, when we are in Sulug Island (the "desert" island where Tomaš had his foot incident), we see a beautiful gecko besides our bags which I can't take a picture of. Well, at least I leave you here a small video I took with the compact camera that Zuzana takes in her job, so you can see a bit of the island and the small gecko.

That evening, coming back from the islands, it started to rain, but one of those funny tropical rains. When we arrived to Kota Kinabalu we were already soaked, so we decided to go walking, better said, running to the hostel. I was really funny, when crossing the streets the water was up to the calf.

On the next morning we are at seven o'clock in the bus station ready to take the first whatever going to Kinabalu National Park.

As soon as we arrive to the Park we go to the offices and we ask if there is any free bed in any of the mountain refuges, but... nothing, everything is fully booked, and without a reservation in a refuge it is not allowed to go up. Almost everybody already arrived and there are not much places left, but anyway we put our names in the first position for the waiting list. Moreover, the woman in charge of the accommodation is one of those cold people who don't care if you ask if it is possible to sleep on the floor in the café; the expression in her face doesn't change at all, there is no way to convince her.

It is supposed that people arrive at 10, but we have to wait until noon in case there is any delay. After one hour we ask again... nothing. We are not going to get anything from that woman, so I try to ask somebody else. As soon as I see that the woman is attending anybody else I go to the desk to ask another girl, who looks nicer, if there is any cancellation, even if I know that there is not because we are the first ones on the waiting list and they would have told us. When she tells me that there is no cancellation I ask if there is any other way to go, even if there is no free place in the refuge. Then she tells me that they can't do anything about it, that it has to be authorised by the chief of the Park Rangers. This is what I want to know, who can allow us to go, who can take the decission.

Then I go to the counter where you have to pay the Park taxes to ask for the chief of the rangers, waiting for a moment when there is no queue, but there is always somebody. Then I go to the entrance of the Park rangers' office and somebody comes to ask what I need. And here I go again, I give him my business card and start the speech that I have so well prepared: "I am a photographer from Spain...". The man calls the chief of the rangers, who comes and he tells me that there is an agency managing the "via ferrata" in the Mount Kinabalu and they have some places reserved for them, that I should talk to them to see if we could get any of them.

We go to the office of the agency and they tell us that they have free places but that we should contract any of their activities. Well, it seems that things are getting better and we will be able to go up after all. When we are getting out of the office of the agency my telephone rings, it is from the Park office, there has been a cancellation of two people. Yes!

We talk with the girl of the travel agency which had the cancellation and we decided to keep the two beds. We pay the Park taxes, we look for a group to join and share the expenses of the Park guide and the transport to the beginning of the path (you can start from the offices but believe me, it is not necessary, the normal trek is enough) and we move off.

Climbing the Kinabalu. The general opinion is that it is not as tough as the Pinnacles, but that it is also quite demanding. You start climbing at 1886 metres high and that day you walk 6 Km until the refuges, which are at 3272 metres high (don't do the calculation, I tell you, it is 1406 height difference). On the second day you climb to the top, but there is a small detail, you climb to see the sunrise from the top of the Mount Kinabalu, at almost 4100 metres of altitude (if you are lucky and it is not cloudy, in Mount Kinabalu you never know). So what you do is starting the hike at 2:30 in the morning, yes, you read well, at half past TWO in the morning. The objective is to ascend in a bit less than 3 Km the 823 metres to the top and be there at 5 in the morning to see the sunrise. After that you go back to the refuge, where you have lunch, and then you hike down to the starting point; in total 2229 metres of descent.

So, let's go.

During the first day you walk through all the different kinds of vegetation which exist in Kinabalu Park. At the beginning you start hiking in the rain forest, but when going up, the weather becomes more fresh, humidity decreases and the jugle turns into a forest, and slowly, the forest becomes less and less thick and changes to the typical high mountain vegetation all surrounded by bushes. Clouds change and move very fast here, it is probable that during the ascent you can see
all kind of images as a resutl of the mix between them and the Sun.

The path is easy to follow; the only problem is that the people who built it were either very tall or very lazy, because the steps sometimes (too many time) are as high as your knees.

During this day you are meeting everybody coming down after reaching the top (or maybe not). Since we had to find the accommodation, we started quite late, and we are meeting the last people coming down. They look really tired, so we realise that the walk is going to be long.

During the hike we stopped several times, to eat the picnic pack that the travel agency gave us, to have a rest, to drink some water... it is very interesting, you talk with people, where they come from, why they are travelling... in this part of the world, in South East Asia, there are many people travelling for long periods of time, from 2 months to several years. I imagine that if you come in an organised trip, it will be more difficult to meet them, but if you are not so "conventional" (just a little bit less) you would be surprised of how many people do this kind of things.

Finally, in the evening, we arrive to "Laban Rata", the refuge where we have the beds reserved. The pack we have with the travel agency includes meals at the refuge: the dinner for that evening and the lunch for the next day after coming back from the top. Both of the meals are buffet, and you can be sure that we appreciated it, and it is not just because of me, that I love eating, but recovering the energy spent during the day and getting ready for the next day is really important.

Laban Rata, together with other refuges, is in the area where almost everybody who climbs the Mount Kinabalu spends the night. They are several wooden houses in a privileged place. After dinner, you can come out to the terrace to enjoy the sunset over 3000 metres of altitude.

In a short time we go to sleep. Even if it is early (around 8 or 9 in the evening), it is not difficult to fall asleep, the day has been long and we are tired.

Two in the morning, we are so sleepy.

After achieving to move away from the bed and wrapping us up warm with all the clothes we have, we meet our group and the guide and we start the hike to the top. The day before, since I was a bit "fit" after the week before in Mulu and Zuzana was not so trained because in the office she doesn't practice many sports, we decided that I would take most of the stuff in my backpack. That morning we only took the small bag with the minimum necessary, so Zuzana said that she would take it. Without the backpack, only with the almost 5 Kg of my photo gear, I have to say that I felt like new, like a child, jumping from one stone to other. There was an area where there were some ropes to help yourself; I didn't care, without even touching the ropes, stopping to change lenses and trying to take a picture. My camera works very well in low light conditions, but at night, in the middle of the mountains... there is not much it can do.

Zuzana was quite tired, and thanks to the guide she managed to keep on going up. I took her bag and then I stopped running all around, but even like this I was quite fresh compared with other days.

We finally reached the top of the Mount Kinabalu, 4095 metres over sea level. And we took the picture, of course.

We did it quite well, I would even say that we were one of the first groups reaching the top. When we arrived up there it was getting light but it was still dark, so we found a place to have a rest and protect ourselves from the wind. Because of course, if you think about it, in the highest peak in South East Asia there is nothing in miles around to stop the wind. And being in the tropic doesn't make a difference, 4000 metres it is quite high anywhere. How cold that was! it doesn't matter how much you protect yourself from the wind, there is always some wind blowing around you, and your t-shirt is wet.

After a while, at the break of dawn, we could admire sunrise from the top of the Mount Kinabalu.

Don't think that taking this picture is just grabbing the camera and shooting. As soon as your hands are out of your pockets they are frozen. And when you have been taking photos during half a minute, with all this cold wind blowing, you don't feel anything at all. There was a moment when I had to take the pictures with the middle finger because with the index one I had no sensibility at all and I didn't know were the shutter was.

After a while we started the way down. Much better than the way up, besides, since you go up at night and then you go down with daylight, it is absolutely different. The Mount Kinabalu is not in a big mountain range, is like a single mountain in the middle of nothing, so the views are amazing.

At ten in the morning we were in Laban Rata again. Since we had time enough, we decided that, instead of going down immediately, we preferred having lunch calmly, sleep a small one hour siesta and then walk the rest of the path.

So we did. After the siesta and packing again, we started the way down to the head offices of the Park. Then, as it had happened to us the day before, we were meeting all the people climbing to the refuges to reach the top on the next morning. We were always trying to encourage them and make them see that it can be done.

Other people you pass by when going down are the porters. As I told you before, meals at Laban Rata are buffets, and there are many people climbing the Mount Kinabalu everyday. Somebody has to take all that up there, and for sure it is not going to be by car. Local porters, men and women, carry big, better said, huge backpacks or just packs on their backs. And they climb up to the refuges on their sandals, flip-flops, whatever. So when you see them, then you realise than it could be much worse.

In about 4 hours we were back at the begining of the path and we took the minivan to the offices of the Park. There is another meal waiting for you to recover all the strength you left in the Mountain during last two days, it is also buffet, of course. After lunch we went back to Kota Kinabalu with some other people we met during the way up and down.

In Kota Kinabalu, that night, we decided that we deserved a feet massage. It was really relaxing. And the next day, one more session of islands to finish the recovering process before Zuzana goes back to work on Monday, and before I continue with my adventures.

One last thing. If any of you is thinking about climbing the Mount Kinabalu, you should know that there is another option than the one we did and most of the people do. Every year there is an event called Climbathon and that you can imagine what it is about. It is a race consisting on climbing up and down the Mount Kinabalu, running, of course. It is 21 Km long, like half marathon but a little bit steep, in fact, if you think about it, the accumulate different of height is negative (according to the map race). People usually makes it in a bit more than two and a half hours, so it shouldn't be too difficult.

So, come on, who wants to try?

sábado, 13 de diciembre de 2008

Activities in Kuching

Hello again, my abandoned English speaking friends. Here you are, the entry I began to write almost two weeks ago.

Again quite behind the Spanish blog... When I started all this I knew it would take time but... it takes more than I thought. I really couldn't write you before, and it has also been a long time since I don't write in the Spanish one. Now I am in London, with jet lag, it is Saturday, 8 in the morning, and I am already in front of the computer translating for the blog (and I have already replied a couple of mails). Somehow this jet lag thing is quite useful.

You might have seen that there are two new entries in the Spanish blog, one of them is about when I am coming back (Ok, I tell a bit about some other things) , too late for that one, and the other one is the one I am writing here.

You already know that I have been twice in Gunung Mulu and that in between these two times I have been doing some activities that I had contracted with an agency. They are those activities I told you a loooong time ago when I began to write about Borneo.

And what are all those activities? I visited a rehabilitation centre for orangutans. I was two days and two nights in an Iban Longhouse. And I also visited Bako National Park. After a month of this, I went back to Bako with Zuzana so she could also see it and I could take more pictures, because just one day was too rush. I will tell you about Bako some other day... when I find the time.

The rehabilitation centre for orangutans is called Semenggoh and it is located close to Kuching. In Malay, as in many other languages, the name is the same, but it is written separately: orang-utan. In Malay "orang" means "man", and "hutan" means "forest", so you know where the origin of the word comes from. A long time ago, orangutans lived in a wide area of South East Asia, but nowadays they can only be found in Borneo and Sumatra. During many years, orangutans were hunted by the aboriginals because of heir meet, this reason itself is not enough to decrease its number so dramatically, but together with forest fires, deforestation due to logging and palm oil industry, and the hunting for souvenirs and illegal trade as pets, all together makes that orangutan is an endangered species. Nowadays orangutan is a protected species.

In Malaysia there are two centres of rehabilitation for orangutans: Semenggoh in Kuching, Sarawak, and Sepilok in Sandakan, Sabah. In these centres they educate orangutans which are found in captivity to reintegrate them into the jungle. They are also an information and rapproachement point for the people to learn about orangutans. But there is controversy about how they work. These centres are not closed, they are open to the rain forest without any fence or barrier, and they have fixed feeding times for the orangutans, so if they are hungry they come at those times to eat. This makes that detractors of these centres see them as a tourist attraction making orangutans go to eat habitually and missing their natural feeding habits in the rain forest. I think that things are not either white or black. It is true that at feeding times what you see there is a little bit as a show for the visitors. But the fact is that there are orangutans that can not be reintegrated because they are not able to adapt themselves to the groups or wild orangutans. This happens, for example, with orangutans which have been living for too much time in captivity. So these orangutans still can live free in the rain forest close to those rehabilitation centres, otherwise they would die in the rain forest. If in this way it is possible to collect funds with tickets and souvenirs, I think it is no so bad.

From there we went to the Iban Longhouse. When I asked the travel agency in Kuala Lumpur to prepare this trip for me, I told them that I wanted to be there alone rather than going with a group of tourists, even if I had to pay extra. What I wanted was being able to take pictures of their normal life and not to see how they behave in front of tourists.

So after four hours by car and half an hour by boat upstream we arrived there. this was my first longboat ride, and it was one of the things I liked the most, going in that long, narrow, wooden boat through the river in the middle of the jungle.

Iban people, as many other aboriginal people in Borneo, live in villages where the main construction is called Longhouse. A Longhouse, as its name suggests, is a very long building and the concept is very similar to what we call "terraced houses". Imagin a Longhouse, empty inside, and divide it in two parts lengthwise (now you have two long thin parts); now you take one of the long parts, divide it in many parts (as terraced houses) and leave the other one empty. So this is approximately a Longhouse, many single-family homes in the same building sharing the same common area. This is the common area of the Longhouse I visited.

This area is protected from the heat and the rain, but through the doors there is enough light entering so they can work inside. Here is where they seat to make the carpets, baskets and many other objects that they use for their normal life or that they sell as handicraft.

It is also the area for social relations. When they don't have anything else to do, they seat here to talk between them or simply to be there calmly. These people don't know what stress is, and I mean it in the best sense of the word, not as a criticism, and in general they are not as expressive as we are, I guess due to the kind of life they live. Many times you could think that they are bored, but they aren't, are just there, watching life go by. Some times I wonder what is in their minds, what they are thinking about... I can't get to the idea, I don't know how their perspective of life is, or their needs, their ideas or what their worries are... because for sure they are not the grades of the child at school, the mortgage, the car insurance, the next holidays, the politics... the world economical crisis...

And I absolutely can't think that during all this time their thoughts are something like "it is going to rain". I find fascinating how they can have such a simple life so easily; of course it is because I am used to the life in Madrid or now everyday going here and there. Maybe they think how we can have a life like this in a relatively easy way, because definitely our lives have many more worries than theirs.

That evening I was taking more pictures and then, at night, they performed a typical dance they used to perform when warriors came back after cutting a couple of heads or just after a long journey. I had already told them not to act in front of me, that they didn't have to do things that they didn't want to... it didn't matter. The feeling of "we have to do it" that I had while they were dancing was continuous. First the man made the typical dance and afterwards the girl did her dance, both quite interesting, yes, and I can even understand that it was useful for me and to take pictures, ok. But putting us (me and the guide) a hat with feathers and making us four dancing in circles... that was absolutely unnecessary. The only one having fun there was the guide because he didn't care at all. In the Spanish blog some of my friends were asking for one picture of me, so here you are. You can see the happy face of the man, I think the girl and me... well, we did what we could.

Next morning we went through the river upstream so I could see some of the things they usually do. First they collected some bamboo canes, they took some small shoots to be cooked in the evening and one big cane.

We reached an area where there was a small river with more clear water and they were fishing to get something for the lunch. They caught three small fish with a fishing net, and diving with old goggles and a rudimentary harpoon they got a river prawn. All this is to be put in a branch and then it is ready to be cooked.

With that and some other things they had taken from the village they prepared the lunch in a very interested way. The menu was: some meet, the fish they caught (and more fish they took from home) and, of course, rice. All this is cooked at the riverside with all that mother nature provides you in its huge kitchen. Why using a pot when you can use a bamboo cane to cook the rice and the meet?. Recipe for bamboo cane rice: take a big leaf which you have previously let dry up and wrap the rice in it. Put it aside.

Now let's go with the bamboo cane that you have just taken from the jungle. Cut it in smaller pieces taking care of leaving a knot in one of the ends of each one. Now put the dry leaves with the rice in the small bamboo canes.

Go to the closer river, take some clear water and fiil the pieces of bamboo. Cook on a moderate flame.

Once the rice is cooked, open the canes with your machete and serve yourself, with the hand, of course, as much as you want to eat with the meet you have just cooked in the same way.

As I told you, the guide took some more fish because obviously he knew they were not going to fish enough for me, for him, the man taking us and his three sons.

When we came back to the village, I kept on taking pictures of the people there until I was shown two new things: how to use the blowpipe and cock fighting. I found the blowpipe quite interesting because it was easier and more precise than I expected. I am quite useless with all this aim stuff and I hit the target on the first and the second try. I failed on the third one, but I even like this was quite close.

Cock fighting is a tradition which is illegal in Malaysia nowadays, especially if they are about gambling. Cock fighting can only be celebrated with a special permission in some festivals or in touristy demonstrations such as this one. But anyway they have to finish before one of the roosters is injured, or as soon as possible.

Every time I see this picture I can't help thinking that it is the rooster "Trinity" of Matrix and my mind tries to turn around the frozen roosters in the air.

Anyway, illegal cock fighting still exist in Malaysia, it is only a matter of knowing where, but if you want you can spend your money in cock fighting every week.

A bit later we went to have dinner. In this kind of trips, the guide takes food for the tourists and the family "hosting" them. Even if in my case I was not sleeping in the family's home but in another hut close to the Longhouse, there is always a family hosting the guests. The guide cooks with collaboration from people of the family and they cook several dishes for everybody. That night they cooked the bamboo the got in the morning and the usual dishes: rice, curry chicken, fried vegetables... During my visit, the procedure was always the same: The food was cooked, everything was put on the floor and I was always the first one beginning to eat. I imagine that if there is a group of tourists there, they eat first and then the family, but in my case I started alone and after a while the rest of the people were coming. That night the guide asked them if we all could have the dinner together, I absolutely preferred it like this, but even then I was the only one sitting and I started eating alone.

In Malaysia (as in many other places) many people eat with their hands, well, better said, with the right hand. But don't think it is only at home or in small neighbourhood restaurants, it is even like this in weddings (in the nice ones, like the one we went in August), so don't think that it is only the Iban or aboriginal people doing it. Oh! And there s something else, what you are not going to see ever, unless you go to a special place, is a knife; here you eat everything with a fork and a spoon. In fact the first thing I am going to do as soon as I arrive home is throwing away all the knives. Or if not, the first Malaysian visiting me, I am going to take him to eat a big steak and I will give him just a fork and a knife, and we will see what he does with them.

After dinner we stayed talking around an oil lamp, or maybe I should say that I stayed there looking how the talked in between them, because so far... I am not really fluent speaking Iban language.

In many of the villages they have power generator which they switch on at night. So now there are people watching television or movies in DVD or VideoCD (here it is quite usual). But many people keep on doing their normal life, meaning that they meet in the common area of the Longhouse to talk. Again, sometimes you see some people sitting around a candle not saying anything, just being there.

Next day on the morning we went back to Kuching. Just when we took the car from the small jetty and driving through the gravel road, the car suddenly stopped. And that's how I got my first experience driving on the left and with the steering wheel on the other side. I woud have never thought that it was going to be like that: driving a Proton (national Malay brand) which was falling apart, with more kilometres than the Transiberian, borrowed in an Iban Longhouse from a friend of the guide and through a gravel road. That's life.

The problem was in the fuel pump. The car could be repaired in he same day and we went back to Kuching in the same day with the car stinking of petrol. We stopped for the dinner in the way back and we arrived on time for, at least, the visit to Bako national Park on the next day.

What happened afterwards, you already know it: Many stories happening ni Kuching and changing my plans for the next month. At least I told the agency that they didn't have to take me to the airport on the next morning...