A journey to Belum Rainforest

Day 1 (23 July 2010)

The Gamma 1 students supposed to be at the STAD building At 10.30pm before they off to Belum Rainforest.  The main objective of the trip is to do a research regarding Orang Asli settlement. At 11.30 the MMU bus arrived and we left with approximately 40 people in the bus. We have special guests Mr Arfan, Mr Radzi, Mr Ike Ong following us to Belum. Mr Arfan was a key person in developing the Royal  Belum. He worked there for almost 5 years and knew a lot about the Orang Asli. Mr Radzi was a lecturer in the Faculty of Creative Multimedia, Multimedia University and now has retired while Mr Ike Ong is a film director. He has directed short films such as Rentap: Iban Eco Warrior, Twilight of the Longhouse and many more.

After few hours on the bus, we stopped at Kuala Kangsar at 2.30am for refreshments and continued the journey at 4am. Around 6am we stopped again at the mosque at Gerik for the Muslims to perform their prayers and then had a breakfast at Mamak Stall before heading to Belum Inn. 1 hour later, we arrived at Belum Inn around 9am and we were given room keys to get rest before going for the evening activities.  

In the afternoon, we had our lunch and some briefings by our special guests. Mr Radzi and Mr Ike Ong were speaking about photography and how to appreciate nature while Mr Arfan talked much regarding Orang Asli as he said, he knew in everything about Orang Asli culture and he gave us some tips on how to entertain Orang Asli and being nice to them. I still remember Mr Ike Ong once said, "The world is belongs to young people, so discover it".

At 3.30pm we took a boat ride to Pulau Tali Kail and had a jungle tracking to the top of a small Island. Along the way to the top, I discovered the uniqueness of the virgin forest and transformed it into pictures. I snapped hundred of images and my attempt to get to the top was failed as I always tried to appreciate and feel the beauty of the nature rather than following my friends rushing to the top. So I lost their track. After one and half hour walking in the jungle, I returned back to the basis with my compadre Rashidi and waited for other teammates. I took a nap for about 30 minutes and when I awoke, all my teammates were gathered and ready to get in the boat to return back to hotel. The distance between PulauTali Kail and hotel is about 15 minutes boat ride with a 20 knots boat speed.

We reached at the jetty around 6.30pm. My teammate Adib asked  the navigator, Mr Suhaimi whether we could swim closely to the jetty and Mr Suhaimi replied "yes, but you have to wear life jacket". Immediately Adib took off his shirt and jumped onto the banding lake and he was followed by me. Looking at us having fun, other friends started jumping into the lake and we were having a great time and awesome bath for about 20 minutes before taking the real bath in the hotel bathroomJ. At night we had dinner at 8.30pm and later on, some friends went to bed while me, Pouyan, Adib and Fazri were online and did some final research about the orang Asli Settlement. I did not get a good rest the day before, still I went to bed at 1am.

Day 2

Being in the middle of the jungle was totally different from being in the middle of the city as the air was polluted. The morning was very awesome whilst the weather refreshed me. I could never ever wish to have this kind of feeling while in the city.

The team had a breakfast at 7.30am. I had Nasi Lemak with fresh orange juice while other friends had their own favorite dishes. As stated in the planned, we were supposed to have sightseeing Rafflesia, trekking and picnic lunch but those plans were cancelled due to time constrains. So all of us went to Kampung Orang Asli Jahai to do our research but before that, we stopped at the shops near to the Royal Belum Resort to buy some tobacco and daily stuff to give away to Orang Asli as proposed by Mr Arfan.

After awhile, we headed to Jahai settlement and the bus dropped us near to the road and we had to walk to the Orang Asli village. It took us 15 minutes to reach there and right away after I made to the village, I saw a mother bathing her son in naked but I did not take any photos of that as I remembered the guidance from Mr Arfan but I did see some of my friends took pictures of that moment. I felt it was really not right taking photos while people are bathing, you can’t do this to anyone, and it’s just violate the human rights. I did take some photos of their faces and also interviewed the deputy “Tok Batin” as Tok Batin went to Ipoh to attend a meeting. My asks to him were merely on the welfare of the Orang Asli, how they are being treated by the government, are they happy with the serve from the government, family affairs, their history, how they were treated during the Japanese occupation, British colonial and also communist era. He told me he’s satisfied with the current government and was 7-year old during the Japanese occupation and had seen his people being treated badly by the Japanese and British. He added that the communist era (Communist Party of Malaya) did nothing bad to them.  All those conversations had been recorded into my sound recorder and I will include some of them in my application.

After about one and half hour, we backed to the hotel for lunch. After lunch we were separated in 2 groups. One group rode boats to Temiar settlement and another group went to Jahai settlement. I was placed in Temiar group. So we rode boats to Temiar and Jahai settlements and it took us 45 minutes with a speed of 36KM/H. I bought with me a GPS (Global Positioning System) so I knew the coordinate and the speed.

From what I heard, Temiar are more advanced or cultured than Jahai and from what I saw, their houses are more likely same as Malay traditional house. I accomplished to get plenty pictures of the people there and while taking pictures, we gave them souvenirs, sweets, and some other stuff. Some of them were quite shy looking at us taking their pictures. I managed to ask some queries in my mind and recorded them into my sound recorder. The “Tok Batin” was not satisfied with how they are being treated by the authority. He said there are provisions for the Orang Asli from the government but there are many leaks in the authorities’ pocket. So they did not get what they should obtain. I could see his disappointment face in this matter.

From my view, I look at them as a common community and I do respect their culture. They speak like us, they eat what we eat, they think like how we think even they have a music band and they did performed in television and whatnot they are just same as us. We were separated by the culture and way of life.

My research project came to the end. At 6pm we left Temiar settlement to head back to hotel and along the way, I captured some photos of a group of eagles and some memorial pictures of friends riding a boat.  Once again, when we arrived at the jetty, we jumped onto the lake again but this time our lecturer Mr Muna swimming with us while Dr Forest was just watching us.

At night after dinner, I had a round table chat with few people including Mr Muna, my friends Kai Wen and Gahyathrie. We off to bed at 11pm.

Day 3 (last day)

Our last day had come; we had our last breakfast in the hotel, packed things, and check out at 10am. We leave the hotel and head to the highest place  of Belum via bus. We took photos there as a remembrance and because it is the highest point of the hill, the weather was pretty cool. We did Human Triangular which was proposed by Pouyan as a memorial of us. The picture below show the Human Triangular by Syafiq, Pono, Pino, Namazi, Pouyan and me. As Dr Forest said, "Wah Shauqie you were so fast" stepping on Pouyan and Pono back. Pono was angry at me as I stepped my right foot on his back Nike white shirt and leaved footprint.. :)

At last we moved back to where we belong which is MMU Cyberjaya. Me and a friend of mine Gayathrie stopped in Ipoh to get back home for 1 week midterm break while the others back to Cyberjaya  before going back to their hometown.