A week later with no sign of malaria, I am proud to announce that I came back alive. I did not become a nature girl as my friend had intended, and she came back to Europe saying things like she is dying and she needs a lifeplan. It is such a beautiful thing to see how travelling buddies take each other’s traits without even realizing it. Having finished my first week of internship, I opened the picture folder from the trip and could not help but to feel a sense of warm nostalgia. I got off my chair, opened my right drawer and found my Lyon-Floral Paperback journal in it loyally. I opened it, browse through to the Borneo part and began reading. My imagination came back to those days, when everything seems to be a different world and I was a traveler, curious and scared and anxious and excited. It is so beautiful, I sat there reading through my journal and my mind plays the scenes back in my head. Everything feels so surreal yet at the same time I feel like I can even smell the trees, the river, the starry night…
From my journal:
August 23, 2011
Gunung Palung, Borneo day 2
We were woken up this morning by our guide at 5h30 by flashing his torchlight on our faces. At times like this we cannot help but to think back of the melodious sounds of our mothers with breakfast and orange juice on the table. After a cup of sweet tea and biscuits, we went for our first mini exploration through the rain forest, saw quite some animals high up on the trees; a good exercise for the eyes and ears. I felt like I was in a movie. I still cannot believe that I am here. It’s so different… hundreds of years of life(s) facilitated by this grand ecosystem I still fail to understand. Leaves everywhere in all sorts of shades. A lifecycle, the tree gives and it takes; it supports, feeds and decomposes while life continues, thriving in this harmony of mess. What surprises me the most is how clear everything sounds; the birds chirping like prehistoric dinosaurs that preceded them. Centuries old bugs who have been there for as long as the river flows. I close my eyes and open it again in an orchestra of species around me living together, supporting and predating on one another.
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Back again at the lodge after a day of hiking. Tired yes, I have been sweating in parts that I did not know can sweat. I admit it was rough, and more than once did I regretted being there. It is so different from what I am used to, admittedly much more difficult than what my naïve mind chose to ignore. I guess it is great to be so spontaneous, yet nothing is worse than not being prepared enough. As we climbed and carefully descended the steep terrains, the seriousness of it all occurred to me. People died here, I could die here. Sadly once more I succumb to admit that my parents are once again proven to know better… I did thought that it was a piece of cake, when thorns hide skillfully between the layers all along. Do things you are scared of, take chances and live to the fullest. Yet never ever again underestimate what something entails, for there are always consequences for every decision that you make. In any case I am proud of myself to have not fallen, rolling down the mountain chased by possibly screaming or laughing Joann.
August 26, 2011
Tanjung Puting, Borneo day 5
Today was really memorable – shreds of images I will one day play in my head in glowing reminiscence. As I sat comfortably on the upper floor of my klotok, accompanied by my book, diary and pen, I couldn’t help but to feel like a princess. The smell of jasmine, intermingled with a chorus of insect repellent and sun protection soon received the attention of my nose. Without me realizing it they had mixed themselves on my skin everyday, masqueraded as my personal odor.
Through the swamp forest as we prepare our lunch, we became aware of the animals that were watching us high up on their branches. Monkeys, squirrels, birds and crocodiles that disappeared in a blink of an eye. I abandoned my camera even when the Proboscis monkeys follower our curious gazes, perhaps curiously too. “Dutch monkeys, that’s what we call these beauties,” our guide Hakim exclaimed. “Why?” I inquired. “Because they have yellow hair and big noses!” he explained with a smile that I returned.
Gradually, the water became black yet remained odorless, adding t the beauty of the smaller river ways. Hakim told us that somewhere below us, the dragon fishes lurk in the dark water, swimming without realizing the danger brought by their value. Soon we arrived, and after a quick tour to the Orang Utan feeding session we made our way through the primary forest where less have trodden. It was beautiful; the silence, the crack of dried leaves with every steps, the shyness of which the sun could not shower us completely with its light due to the canopies… Sometimes however there would be clearer areas, and the sun light would pierce through it and dazzled me with its beauty.
The klotok ride home was perhaps the most mesmerizing of all. The luminosity of the dark water seemed as a mirror that doubled everything that we saw. For some moment I was not sure which was up and which was down. The sun began to retreat, ripe in its color and warm in its glow. The trees growing from both sides, beckoning the clear dark river. Everything was perfectly mirrored. It was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen, and my eyes begged for it to stay yet it never did. I blink. I see the sun on my eyelashes. The wind blows slowly, tenderly moving through my hair. Such richness.. chirps, howls, singing, calling, a feast for the untrained ears. I blink and everything would change, a moment to another. It only left me with a sense of gratitude of being able to be there. I feel so awake, the moments unfold in all its perfection. I sat there, mindful of the passing moment, happily contented.
When night finally falls, I closed my eyes under the bright, numerous stars of Borneo. The milky way stretches itself, occasionally I would be granted of a wish under the falling star. My meditative state was broken only by the call of Hakim, marking our trek in search of the flowing mushrooms that unfortunately remained elusive.
We continued our journey to Bali, and in this island the anxiety from the realization of coming back to reality began to show in our minds. Internet, tourists, people on the streets calling out for us to buy something from them. How we missed the sanctuary of our humble hut! Yet Bali to me remains one of those places where something, I am not sure what or who or where or why or how or when, would remind me to breathe. This time it was the driver from our hotel that took us to a Japanese restaurant for dinner, in a 10-minute car ride conversation that raised my goosebumps for how timely those words from that stranger could be. We ended our night in a jazz bar in Ubud, and so ends our little travel that I will never forget in years to come.
“All this has reinforced my suspicion that adventure travel, whether armchair, or up-close-and-personal, has less to do with what’s there to be seen as what we have in us to see. We can travel the globe and see nothing, or wander through our gardens and be filled with awe by what we’s never previously imagined. For me, Indonesia remains one of the lats wild bits at the bottom of the garden of our world.”
-Lawrence Blair
Bali, 2009
Taken from The Ring of Fire