It's a Jungle thing, you wouldnt understand..;)

In less than 3 months of being home, i m leaving again...
To somewhere beyond what i can imagine.
The greatest adventure in my life---Raleigh International Autumn 2007 Expedition
A 10 weeks programme starting from 2/10/2007 --------> 10/12/2007

"What you are going to do there Laine?"

Below are the summary of the project site that has just revealed not long ago. We will be invloving in the following 3 phases...

Ta-da!!

1) Adventure phase

Trekking
Assisting local guides to upgrade the trail through the dense vegetation since the jungle very quickly grows back across trails locating in the south western corner of Sabah on the Kalimantan and Sarawak border starting from the small village of Long Pasia

Diving
All adventure groups will be involved in a SCUBA diving conservation program in Tungku Abdul Rahman Marine Park in partnership with Borneo Divers and Sabah Parks. The team will spend 3 to 4 days doing their PADI Open Water diving qualification followed by 1 to 2 days of an underwater clean up, where they will collect litter and other waste from selected areas of the marine park. During this time they will live on their very own paradise island from where the diving is carried out.

Mt. Kinabalu
The adventure phase will finish with an opportunity to climb Mt. Kinabalu to watch the sunrise from the top of the highest peak in Southeast Asia. This exhilarating climb passes through five different temperate zones from a dense rainforest to a barren alpine landscape. The mountain is 4096m high and is certainly no walk in the park. It takes approximately 24 hours to climb to the summit and back down with a few hours of sleep in the middle.


2) Environmental phase

Danum Valley – Bridge and Camp Construction
Danum Valley Conservation Area provides facilities for research, education and wilderness recreation in one of the Sabah's last strongholds of undisturbed lowland rainforest.
The project group will help complete the construction of a hanging suspension bridge started by a Raleigh team in late 2005. The purpose of the bridge is to increase access into the conservation area for scientists in order that they can carry out further research

Imbak Canyon – Trail & Infrastructure Development
Imbak Canyon is the last remaining untouched and relatively unexplored area of Sabah. Less than 200 people have ever entered this virgin primary jungle area while the last research team discovered a new tree species. The region is home to wildlife including elephants, orangutans and 100’s of rare bird species. Yayasan Sabah (the concessionary) now wants to reserve this area as a natural gene bank to help protect future biodiversity of the whole region and has asked Raleigh International to play a major role in the development of this area.

In early 2004, a Raleigh International project team worked closely with the staff of Yayasan Sabah to plan the location and type of necessary infrastructure needed to protect and allow access to the pristine protected area of Imbak Canyon.


The next phase of this exciting project is to further expand the infrastructure including finishing the field centre complex, developing the newly recce’d trails into the canyon for researchers and upgrading existing tracks to a waterfall and jungle camp. In addition one of the key priorities identified was the need for a bridge crossing the Imbak River to the entrance of the conservation area.
In the dry season this river can easily be crossed by foot. However, during the rainy season the river often becomes swollen cutting off access to the conservation area. This would be approximately a 200ft span hanging suspension bridge to be constructed from scratch. This bridge will enable scientists to access the canyon for research purposes as well as enabling a gravity feed water system to be fed across the river into the field centre.

3) Community phase
Kg Ambong, Kota Belud - Gravity Water Feed System
Kampung (village) Ambong is situated approximately 90 minutes north of Kota Kinabalu, just short of the small provincial town of Kota Belud. It sits on the untouched coastline to the south west of Kota Belud and is a Muslim village made up predominantly of the Bajua ethnic group.
The Bajua are a very proud group whose history stems from the Philippines, have their own dialect, dances and are renowned for being excellent horsemen and seaman.

Currently water is collected by households from rain and stored in tanks. In addition there is a small well on the edge of the village where people collect water for washing – this water is cloudy and ideally not suitable for drinking.

Approximately 3 km away there is an existing water source which feeds a small gravity water system to an outlying household some 2 km from the village itself. It is intended to improve the dam at this source, put in several storage tanks there and run pipe into the village. This will require close survey of the surrounding area, avoiding padi fields but ensuring sufficient drop on the pipe to maintain a workable pressure.
The pipes will be laid around the village to pre-selected sites where further storage tanks will be placed for villagers to access the water in times of need. In addition it is proposed to build several bathing/washing tanks for the community to use, rather than the small swamp which is used currently.

Batu Puteh, Lower Kinabatangan – Eco Lodge
For a millennia the indigenous ”Sungai” (River) people of the Lower Kinabatangan River have been living off the rainforest for food, medicine, household commodities and products of trade. This world changed dramatically from the 1960's onwards, with the advent of mechanised extraction of the forest’s timber resources.

The ensuing rapid reduction of traditional forest resources forced many local people into a spiraling trap of dependence on timber as the only remaining viable source of trade.
With the final conversion of large tracts of lowland forests of the Lower Kinabatangan throughout the 1980s into permanent agricultural crops, many local people were then forced to poach timber and other forest products to eek out an existence.

Raleigh International have been working with the community since 2002 in developing this interesting and cutting edge project. The key objectives of the MESCOT Initiative are to develop an alternative path of co-existence with the remaining rainforest resources and generate a sustainable long-term economic path for income generation.

The mainstay of the eco tourism project is a lodge, now semi finished, which sits on the edge of a large oxbow lake formed by the former course of the river. The group will live in an environmentally sound jungle camp on the edge of this small community, just 10 minutes up river from the main lodge/lake site.
The team will assist local tradesmen with finishing off the lodge, develop trails and bird hides as well as help the local community in its continual battle to rid the lake of Salvinia. In addition there is the opportunity for wildlife cruises along the rich banks of the mighty Kinabatangan river, where monkeys, crocodiles and an assortment of birdlife can be seen at close quarters. This is an exciting project, combining a unique environmental project with interaction from the community.


---------The above is a simplified cut and paste from the official blog for all the news and gossip on the final 2007 expedition in Sabah, Malaysia.
http://malaysia-autumn-2007.blogspot.com/

So meaning, for the rest of the 3 months or so, I am not accesible at all from the world of electrononic communication like phone calls or sms or MSN. I will not have any chance to come online and let alone updating my blog. However, any of you who would like to gimmie moral suppot (i needed them most plzzzzzzz), do drop me a line at the COMMENT area at the official webpage above stating to Ee Laine Lim ( then the staff will send ur regards to me into the jungle) or those who have time can write me a letter and send to the following address:

Ee Laine Lim
Raleigh International Autumn Expedition '07,
P.O.Box 14182,
88848 Kota Kinabalu,
Sabah, Malaysia.

thankyou thankyou..Since there isnt any electiricity in there, our night time leisure is just letter-writting. So any of you who wants a letter from jungle please write me ur address here k! I would be very happy to update you abt my life in there.

chaoz!