I just got back from Bario. Actually, came back on Thursday.hehehe.. And now I'm already at home, telling you my experience in this lovely place, far from traffic jam, stress and rowdy people on the road.
Ok...now about Bario....Google it. You'll find lots of information on the place, ok, ok..here, find it in eBario . Now, about my trip. There were 7 of us in the trip. Dr Alvin, Dr Tan, Sharin, Lau, Elly, Nancy and myself. Dr Tan and the gang (4 of them) went there first on Monday then, me, Sharin and Dr Alvin flew on Tuesday morning. I didn't have a clue why I was included in the trip, then I realised I'm in the eLearning project for students in Bario. Damn, I was excited, alright..I'll tell you later why.
Flight was at 7am (aaaaaaaa) to Miri and both Mom and Dad sent me to airport at 5.45 am. Yeah, I'm still their baby. Well, actually, their both were worried about me going to Bario. Both of them never been there, so, they could not expect how would I survive in that very remote place. I was about to open my door to get out of the car at the airport when suddenly Dad said, "Come let's pray," Huh???ok...so we all prayed. Aya....manyak susah hati mau pegi. It's all about the plane to Bario. Yeah, it's a plane alright..wait til you see the size of it.
On the way to Miri
Pictures were all taken using my Sony DSC-T5. I wanted to bring the Nikon D60, but, I've decided not to because my backpack was already heavy without it and I was ultimately scared that I'll be thrown off the plane because of my weight + backpack is already -toot- tooot- kg. Good thing about this camera is that I can slide it in my pocket. Bad thing is, it's only 5MP and I did not upgrade the card, so, the size is 256mb. Yes, I could not take too many pictures.:( Not to worry, I have plenty to share *wink*.
8.00am : Arrived at Miri airport. It's been a while since I last came to Miri. I think it was in 2004 for my final stage interview with Shell. (obviously, I didn't get through) We had our breakfast in one of the restaurants in the airport after we checked in for our next flight to Bario. Chat a bit then the three of us walked to the departure hall. Our flight was at 10.30 am and we were expected to arrive at 11.20 am in Bario.
So, I've been on a Twin Otter. It seats 19, erm..no, 12 passengers and all passengers sit in first class. There's no second class. There's no air stewards/stewardesses, so, pandai-pandai la buat air sendiri.
This was our plane to Bario. I was excited to get on this plane.You know why?
You get to sit behind the pilot!hehehe...
I was struggling to put on my seat belt. I couldn't loosen the belt to fit me. Shitt..who the -toot- sat here? I said to Sharin, it must be Dr Tan.hahahah...Sharin told me to ask him later after we get to Bario. The pilot started the engine, and I still couldn't put on my belt. Sharin pulled, I pulled, finally I found out I had to push the "stopper" to adjust the belt. Phewww....
Two anxious looking people
And, we're off!Sharin and I didn't even realise we were already on the air until we looked out the window. Then the pilot said something through his mic. In normal circumstances, we should be able to hear the pilot's report, but because of the engine was too loud, I couldn't get what he said. I prayed, yeah..I prayed.
I didn't seat exactly behind the pilot.There's no seat number but I said next to this sign.
I even found out there were fans
and, if we still feel hot/stuffy/like fainting, we can use this,too.
One of the pilots covered his view window with a cloth.Haha..I guess he was hot, too.
The view was spectacular. Mountains upon mountains..
I saw this...
Dr Alvin saw this. He said this is Gunung Murud.
Then, we saw him sleeping soundly. No, not Dr Alvin..His name is Jeffrey and he's from Bario.
11.30 am : Touched down in Bario airport.
It was a smooth touch down, thumbs up to the two pilots. I got off the plane and I paused to look around. Hmm...very quiet, indeed. Dr Alvin led the way into the airport and we passed by the check- in counter. Hmmmmm...
We walked to the other side of the building and we were greeted by a man named John Tarawe. He is the owner of the place where we were staying for the next two nights and also the man who us in charge of the eBario telecentre. I've heard and read about this man, and now I'm meeting him in person. Google him, if you want to know more about him and his effort to his community.
We lepak for a while and ate curry mee + egg and chat with John. He talked lots of stuff about his plans for Bario and his involvement with NGOs like UNDP and WWF. Dr Alvin did most of the talking, as he's good friends with John. I just knew that Bario just had Celcom line in two weeks ago and John told us that everyone has been busy on the phone talking to each other. Thank goodness I am using Celcom, haaa....llelujah!
It was noon already, so we decided to leave the airport to go to John's homestay and also meet Dr Tan and the gang. The road, sigh....the distance to the homestay from the airport was probably 5 km and on a smooth road will probably take us about 3-5 minutes. However, they have what Dad said, timber tracks. It took us about 15-20 minutes to get to John's place in second gear all the way.Wooo..hoo..
After the bumpy ride, we reached to a stop in front of John's. He invited us in and he told us to go check our rooms upstairs. This was the room for me and Sharin.
Our beds
The view outside
Both of us went down to lepak with the others. To discuss things to do next. Dr Tan and the gang came back from lunch in town and join us at the verandah. John played country music on his MP3 player that was connected to speakers. Made me feel like I'm in Texas.hahahah...
Jeffrey, John, Sharin and Dr Alvin.
hang out place
Oh, these are the shops in Bario town.
We stopped by at the eBario telecentre.
Computers that are available in the telecentre.
2.30pm: Our next agenda was visit schools in Bario. Dr Tan and the gang followed us, too, in order to identify the 'potential' hills for his study. Nostalgic moments for me when we arrived at the secondary school.
After that, John sent us to the primary school. The school was having a sports event.
Very curious looking kids.
John decided to bring us to Bario Asal, a very old longhouse. I'm not sure how many families were staying there.
I find that some of them still use firewood.
Dr Tan tried to immitate the chicken...yes, he did.
The troop
In Iban, we call this ruai of the house.
Ta da...
After that, we went back to John's place. We saw this buffalo passed by us in front of the house. Make way for the four-legged creature!
I decided to take bath before it gets dark and also before it gets cold. There's no water heater available, I don't know about other homestays, I doubt any of the homestays provide this. I was confident that the water will not be cold because it was sunny in the afternoon, but..I was over confident. It was freezing cold!!!!
As night sets in, the temperature was below 21 degrees. It reminded me of autumn in Sydney..sigh..sometimes I missed that city, but, too expensive to live there. Ok, back to Bario. We had our dinner together. I didn't take any pictures coz I was afraid I will use up all the space in my card. But, we had Bario rice, nyum..nyumm...and barbequed chicken wings which was deliciously done by James, John's younger brother. Lotsa vegetables, too. I should've taken pics of the food...hrmmm..
One thing good about less communication technologies is that you tend to communicate verbally with each other more. Most of time in the office we communicate using emails, text messages, or Gtalk. We talked about lots of stuff for quite some time then we played pool.yes,..using pool table.
Few hours later, Sharin and I decided to go to bed. We went upstairs to our room and then half an hour later we dozed off...with Sharin's torch light switched on the whole night.
Pheww...that was my first day experience in Bario. Will update to tell about the next day.:)