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.