Bukit Lawang 2012 - Youth Expedition Project Trip 1

Sharing The Love For The Jungle And The Passion For Sustainable Development With My Students. For 7 years, from 2011 to 2017, I was involved in a project to share, promote and practice the concept of Sustainable Development with my students. For that seven years, every year, I would bring a group of my students to North Sumatra at a place called Bukit Lawang. The next seven postings would be about the experience I had sharing my belief in Sustainable Development with my students.

Bukit Lawang, 17-30 June 2012 – Team 336

18 June

I’m here at Bukit Lawang again. This time round I’m joined by 20 students and a colleague of mine, Shahidah. A journey that started in 2009 eventually realized 3 years later. I’m at a different college and with a different partner from originally planned. I started this journey as a way to evolve my love for the outdoors and trekking.

Previously, the occasional but regular outdoor treks were just an opportunity to get away from the hustle and bustle of city living. Getting away from the pressures of everyday living in a city-state like Singapore. It was an opportunity for self-actualisation by achieving and climbing mountains and trekking through the rainforest which are not the usual things that you get in Singapore.

But 2 years ago I decided to evolve it into something with higher objectives. I thought on how nicely things fall into place. Now that I’m slightly older, it makes more sense to do these type of activities beyond just for the adrenaline rush.

My love for nature, interest in conservation work, passion for outdoor activities and job as a teacher à all put together. It is nice that I’m able to share this passion with a group of enthusiastic students. The bonus is that I get to travel “free” and dabble into my new interest of photography. When your plan is flexible, it makes life much easier to manage.

This is the group of students for YEP Bukit Lawang 2012

19 June

It’s day 4 of our expedition. Ahhh…the word “expedition” has a high sounding to it. Hopefully, this would the first of many expeditions for me. I reckon that I still have another 20 to 25 more years for more expeditions. I need to pace and do appropriate expeditions. For instance, today I woke up to an aching belly and aching body. So instead of doing the tree replanting with the students, I rested in the morning. I sent them to the tree replanting site and then I rested at the hut near the area. I must pace myself well since I’m not as young as I used to be.

Tonight, it is raining in Bukit Lawang. Should prove to be a cooler night than usual. My students are proving to be quite resilient. They are performing quite well and nobody is missing home that much. Yet!

Even though I think that 14 days is a long time to be away from home yet 4 days had passed just like that. Only 10 days more and then the expedition is over. Hopefully, we would have contributed to the saving of the orangutans. And also, several of my students would come to believe in the cause of conservation and also become nature lovers.

The team that went trekking 2 days ago just came back 2 hours ago. They just finished cleaning up and are resting at the moment. They need to recover first and fast.

One of the main component of the expedition is for the students to experience a 3-days 2-nights trek into the jungle of Gunung Leuser Nature Park. This will ensure that they get first hand account of the jungle and hopefully learn to appreciate the jungle and wild nature. During the jungle stay, they are given snippets of lessons about the jungle from the guide, Pak Wanda. In order to ensure that the trek is effective and efficient, the students are divided into 3 groups. Each group would do a different activity every 3 days and we rotate the activities so that each group goes through all those activities.

20 June

It’s 11.30 am at Bukit Lawang. I decided not to do any activities today and just stay at the lodge. My tummy is getting better…at least I don’t feel so bloated and no more air. But I’m still passing watery stools. I’ve taken 16 dumps in less than 30 hours. I’m quite dehydrated and short on energy. I’ve not retained any food since supper on Monday. Fortunately, I’ve had the right sense to bring diarrhea pills and stomach relaxant. At least it’s not as painful. But I do hope I can carry on with activities tomorrow. I’m gonna bring a new team for tree replanting.

Another main activity is the tree replanting. We select a green corridor that would connect 2 parts of the southeast edge of the GLNP that was cut off due to part of the land that was sold to a rubber plantation farmer. This parcel of land was then bought by a local young man in his 30’s to transform the plantation into a jungle homestay. His main objective is to educate the locals about the wonders of the jungle. The creation of the corridor was an idea that we discussed. We planned to plant fruit trees so that when the trees come of age, they would bear fruits. This would encourage animals to migrate from one part of the reserve that had been cut-off to the main part of the reserve. This is to ensure that the risk of inter-breeding is minimal.

22 June

We’ve been here for a week now. It’s 2.45pm right now on a Friday. We’ve completed our tree replanting for the day quite early today. 2 of the Muslim boys; Fardee and Fareezuan, went for Friday prayers with me just now after lunch. It was a simple and small mosque. It was quite sparse considering there is a big population of Muslims here. But then again, there are many small mosques in the whole vicinity. At the same time, there are many of the people here who don’t really practice their Muslim faith. Actually, in my numerous travel and I have travelled quite extensively, majority of Muslims don’t actually practice our faith. At time, I wonder, why is it so? This is especially true for rural areas. The basic fundamental of Islam is not really practiced. Islam is more practice in the urban areas. Come to think of it, Islam grew from an urban setting more than 1400+ years ago. It is actually quite an urban phenomenon. Hmmm…this is a point to ponder.

Another activity that the students go through is to help out to do administrative work at an NGO named Orangutan Health Project. This project was initiated by a professor from a university in the Czech Republic. The main aim of the project was to study the way orangutan self-medicate in the wild. The idea is then to apply that knowledge of human.

I wonder what’s happening at home? How is Raihan faring; taking care of the kids without me for 2 weeks. Should be ok, I guess since she is quite used to it. I’ve been travelling for work quite regularly since 2006. There were a couple of rafting trips (2006), climbing Kinabalu (2007), China trip (2008), Kuwait trip (2008), Jogja trip (2011) and 4 trips to Bukit Lawang (2009, 2011, and twice in 2012). I think next year, I want to bring AB for a father-son trip to somewhere. I guess I’ll discuss it with him and Raihan. I think it would be great to go on a father-son adventure holiday. Maybe, I’ll bring him trekking to Nepal. That would be quite fun. Hmmm…

23 June 2012

It’s Sunday night now. I’m penning this down at 5pm. I experienced something that I’ve never experienced before.

At about 11.25 am today as we were sitting around drinking Redbull after our morning tree replanting, there was an earthquake tremor. I found out at around 2pm that it was measured at 5.8 on the Richter scale. It happened quite suddenly. We were sipping our Redbull then suddenly my cup on the table started shaking. It was quite violent. The I said to the guys “…I think this is an earthquake…” I panicked and wasn’t sure what to do.

Then I saw the lodge lady-owner ran out to the garden and shouted “…Earthquake…run to the garden…” I shouted out a few times. Most managed to do it. Some were not as fast. Fortunately, there was no devastation on injury. After about 5-7 minutes milling around the garden, as nothing else happened, we went back to the lodge and carried on drinking our Redbull. That was quite an unexpected experience. I read somewhere that earth tremors happen in groups so I wonder whether more are coming in the days ahead.

One of the side activity that the students go through is harvesting at one of the fruit farm in the nearby village.

28 June 2012

We are at Brastagi today. This is a mountain resort about 120km southeast of Bukit Lawang. It’s about 5.45pm right now. This is our day off within our expedition. We left Bukit Lawang at about 8.30am this morning. Everybody woke up on time and was already having breakfast by 7.40am.

Last night, we had our farewell party. It was quite well attended by all our guides, the plantation assistants and the 3 Project Assistants from the Orangutan Health Project and of course Murad. Even the owner of the lodge and his family joined us. We did a presentation of our journey and the work we did during the expedition. Then we had some games, performances by the students and sing a long; led by Henry (the son of the lodge owner) and Wanda (the Chief Guide). All in all, it was quite fun and I guess enjoyed themselves.

The students get some downtime after dinner.With no electronic distraction, the only activity was to engage with each other.

Just before we depart for home, we treated ourselves to an hour of soaking at one of the hot spring in Brastagi. The hot spring comes from the nearby Mount Sibayak which is a live volcano.

So now the expedition is over. A journey that I started over 3 years ago is almost complete. Just a few more loose ends and reports to submit and it would be time to start planning the next one. Would I do it again? Would I be asked to do it again? Would I have the time with me doing my Master the next 2 years. I guess only time will tell.

2 July 2012

I’m back in Singapore. I’m at AlMajlis right now. We arrived early Saturday morning. I’m here to watch the Euro final between Italy and Spain. It’s quite crowded this time round. Last final in 2008; there was only a dozen people or so. Today, there must be around 50 people. I think Italy is gonna win it. I feel a bit tired though. I’ve been feeling tired since yesterday. The fatigue from the expedition is seeping in right now.

P.S – Spain won Euro 2012