The Unexpected Guest, Gua Musang, Malaysia // 2015

11 January

On the third day of our flood relief mission, everything was going pretty well. We were sitting under the trees, waiting for the helicopter to return to load up supplies and continue delivering to the villages.

Suddenly, we had an unexpected guest.

Equipped with only a small backpack and a machete, Nordin made his way to find food for his family and fellow villagers.

This pair of legs has trekked 2 days and 2 nights to come seek help because they have no food in his village. Their crops were all swept away by the flood. No vehicles on ground can reach his village due to massive landslides and collapsed bridges. To reach his village from our base camp would normally take about 5 hours drive in a decent road condition. Of course he didn't use the same route, he trekked across the jungle, but imagine the distance..... His name is Nordin, from Kg.Temaga. He is of Temiar tribe.

Nordin explaining to us that this is a fang of a 3-year old wild boar.

Spending 3 days there, I can conclude that the Orang Asli are very humble and shy people. They won't come ask for help if they're not really desperate. They are tougher and much more resilient than any of us. Even the kids are very shy. When we gave out sweets to them, you can see they were excited to see the sweets, but dare not come near us until we call them to come a few times, and then they queue up. I gave 2 kaya buns to a kid, immediately he went towards the other kids and start breaking up the buns to share with everyone... without anyone telling him to do so. He could have had the buns to himself, but everyone gets a bite instead.

We immediately arranged for extra delivery to send food supply to Nordin's village. Thankfully, Captain Shamsul was very accommodating. We also ended up stranded for another night in Gua Musang because by the end of all deliveries, it was too late for us to fly back to Subang. School reopens the next day which means Capt. Shamsul and Azlan didn't get to personally send their kids to school. Dr.Kwok had to get his son to replace him for duty. But we all knew we did what we had to do, and there were all smiles on everyone's face. 

Nordin had smiles on his face too, knowing that we had sent food to his village. We didn't carry him back in the helicopter because there's weight limit and we wanted to ferry as much food as possible. Now, he had to spend another 2 days and 2 nights going home.

Into the rainforest of Gua Musang, Malaysia // 2015

9 - 11 January

This was a very special and memorable trip. It wasn't a planned trip. It wasn't a holiday. It was a mission.

Every year, the monsoon season will bring heavy rain and some flood to the east coast of peninsular Malaysia. This time, it got really bad - no thanks to logging activities. The Orang Asli (indigenous people) in the rainforests of Gua Musang was so badly hit. Some of their homes were completely washed out. Many of them in the interior villages were completely cut off from the outside world due to landslides and collapsed bridges. They were trapped in their villages, with no food as their plants and crops were all gone. 

My friends and I decided that we should send some help. I will not talk about our flood relief effort - that's quite a long story by itself... but here are some highlights and pictures from the trip.

We arrived in Kg.Parik, our base camp in the afternoon. 

A beautiful house in Kg. Parik, where our base camp is located. The few houses here is lucky to be on higher ground, and were not damaged by flood like houses in other villages.

Even though Kg.Parik was not as badly affected compared to other villages, the ground is full of mud brought in by the flood.

Boys peeping into the hall. This is where we had all our supplies sorted into bags for individual families. Not everyone is allowed in, only those appointed to help handle the supplies.

After we got all the supplies packed, we went on a ride to visit some nearby villages.

A makeshift house, because their home has been completely washed away by the flood.

The orang asli in this area are mostly of Temiar tribe.

Some path were really muddy.

The next day, we started sending supplies to the interior villages via helicopter. My first helicopter ride!

Flying above the rainforests in my 'kampung adidas'.

I think the boy in Superman costume is just too cute, don't you think so?

Throughout the 3 days, I ate very little. For a few reasons:
1) The people there are already starving and facing food shortage, and they're serving us food we brought for them because they don't have anything else, so didn't want to eat much of their food lah....
2) Errrmmm...... this is a very authentic Orang Asli village. They mandi sungai (bathe in the river), there's no bathroom or toilet. So.... less input less output lo....
3) But then again, like I said, this is not a holiday trip. So we were quite busy most of the time that we don't really feel hungry anyway.

Our simple lunch in the midst of supply deliveries. Canned curry chicken and white rice with hot tea. Simple but yummy enough.

It's amazing how they're left with the last of their tapioca, and they still gave one of their local tapioca delicacy to the doctor, as a token of appreciation. 

This was truly an experience money cannot buy. It wasn't easy. A lot of work in organising the whole thing, but I have enjoyed every single bit of it. Totally worth all the time, money and energy we put in.