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Share with you my experience and joy on the magnificient outdoor life in Borneo 和你分享我的探险故事与经验,带你一起探险婆罗洲
Mount Murud Exploration - Summit The Mount Murud, Highest Mountain in Sarawak Post 3 of 4
Our guide wake up early to cook breakfast for us |
Morning view on top of a small ridge at church camp |
Muddy Trail |
Not a pleasant journey to hike up |
Humid condition causes moss to grow everywhere |
Waterfall trail with no water |
uneven trail, hard to access. Need to watch out for mud pot along the way |
Rock Garden at about 2300 m ASL |
Church camp so far away |
Good weather, can have good view of the mountain range |
“Wilson!!! Let’s go…” Ah Loong called me, and brings me back to reality. “OK” I answered, and off we go to the summit.
Moss Garden with tree roots all over |
Borneo Explorer - Wilson Chin at the Mount Murud Summit |
Mount Murud Exploration - Ba’kelalan to Lepo Bunga to SIB Church Shelter post 2 of 4
Entering Day 2 of my exploration trip to Mount Murud. Woke Up at 5.30am, had a very nice sleep last night. I lay on my bed again, very hesitate to wakeup, all of a sudden I listen “ho-ho-ho-ho-ho” wait a minute, that’s the sound of the horse. I peek at the windows, and look down. A few horses was just outside the Inn eating grass. How on earth they manage to get horses here, the road is very bad?!!!
Bakelalan Inn |
We head down for breakfast, the lady owner cooked fried beehun, fried rice, and soup. I ordered a hot milo, I told myself I need to eat more, as I will need all the energy to trek up the mountain later. After breakfast, we depart from Ba’kelalan to Lepo Bunga to start our hike and begin our ascent of Mount Murud.
All of the 4WD arrived, the driver said it another 3 hours of drive from Ba’kelalan here to Lepo Bunga (Where we star). When we know about the 3 hours, all of us starts to mumble… just can’t stand the terrible road condition. I miss nice tarmac road so much.
After finished our breakfast, we still have time. Willie the tour coordinator arranged the porter to carry food, water, and bags. The charges is RM450 for three days (RM150 per day), and maximum is 30kg per person, so we have 5 porters all together. Me, Loong, and Aldrin did not hire any porter, because we do not have much stuff, so can carry our own backpack to the church shelter later.
The Ba Kelalan Airport, operate by MASwings. Fly from Miri & Lawas every Monday & Saturday. |
Ba Kelalan Polis Station |
I saw there is another home stay called “Apple Lodge” the building are well structured than the one we stayed last night. A few 4WD parked inside the compound, they might be on another expedition. As I know there are 4WD clubs which likes the challenge of the muddy logging road here.
There is a Church, a Sidang Injil Borneo Church. Some interesting facts about this…
In the Island of Sarawak, Borneo a charismatic revival broke out among the Kelabits, a small tribe in Sarawak, in 1973 at a traditional Easter convention when an Indonesian evangelist, Petrus Octavanius, preached. There where signs and wonders in his ministry. Many were truly converted, and a number received healing, while other found new zeal to share the revival with others.
Among those present where a group of secondary-school students from Bariio. Greatly impacted, they met regularly for prayer. In October of that year, at the close of their regular prayer meetings in Bario, the Holy Spirit fell upon the place.
They began to confess theirs sins and weep in repentance. Many stayed all night in prayer, and other joined them. The meeting lasted a few days until it spread to the whole village. There were miracles and manifestations of gifts, and many were converted and baptized in the Holy Spirit.
The Bario revival soon spread to neihboring tribes. In December of that year, at the church in Ba Kelalan, the Holy Spirit came upon the church, and suddenly members started falling under the power of the Holy Spirit and a number spoke in tongues - revival had come to the Lun Bawang tribe.
As the Bario revival waned, the Ba Kelalan revival inicreased in power. In a spectacular series of signs and wonders throughout 1984-85, the Ba Kelalan received nationa coverage in the national press.
The New Strait Times reported the "Sarawak Sightings" for two days in December 1985. The central figure of the Ba Kelalan revival of 1984-85 was Pa Agung Bangau, a powerful prophet, whose ministry was filled with signs and wonders.
He exercised the gifts of knowledge, wisdom, workings of miracles, and prophecy. The Ba Kelalan revival impacted the "Sidang Injil Borneo" Church (SIB) whom Agung worked closely. The SIB church has a network of 45,000 members among the tribes of Sarawak, Borneo. Among whom many was touched by the ministry of Agung.
Agung passed away at 1992, and anointed prophet of God who brought revival to God's people in Ba Kelalan and in the SIB. This charismatic revival continued on within the SIB churches.
Source Article taken from the -- The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements by D.Tan
Homestay near the Ba Kelalan Airport |
She replied “I’m from Kuala Lumpur, come here for a quiet retreat”
-.-” okay… no wonder. We bid farewell with her, and continue with our exploration.
The time was 9.25am. From far distance, we notice someone was yelling. When we look closer, it was Liang Yong. He was teasing us if we wanted to continue stayed here? Because they are about to depart to Lepo Bunga. We quickly run back to the Inn and start our next journey.
A group photo before we depart to Lepo Bunga |
New road to Bario, total of 21km, it takes 1 year to complete...estimate |
Big tree bring cut down for the road construction |
Lepo' Bunga, the research station and visitor centre |
A group photo before our hike |
Nepenthes lowii, or Low's pitcher-plant, is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to Borneo. It is named after Hugh Low, who discovered it on Mount Kinabalu.
Nepenthes muluensis, or the Mulu Pitcher-Plant, is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to Borneo. It grows in highland habitats at elevations of 1700 to 2400 m above sea level.
The way to the Batu Linanit Summit |
The holy ground of Batu Linanit summit |
Batu Lawi from far away, taller 'male' peak is 2046m ASL, female summit 1850m ASL |
The Kelabit Highlands mountain range |
The last three to arrive at the SIB Church shelter |
The long building is the SIB Church, the rest are empty rest house settlement |
A baptism pond at the right side, and the rest are empty rest house reserve for devotees when visit the SIB Church |
The temperature is about 22⁰C as we put down our backpacks, we was told that there are no water supply. The only clean water supply we have is the leftover rain water inside some of the old water tank. There are also no electricity, there is a genset, but its only for the church usage.
Christian has been gathered here this since 1990, thousands of pilgrims from the Borneo Evangelical Church (Sidang Injil Borneo) and other Borneo churches people either young and old, will trek like us to this Church Camp at 2135m ASL for their retreat. From my research, once every two years, thousands devotees from all over the world join the ascent to Church Camp to seek the face of God. This is the International Revival Meeting.
The three of us are smelly, and need to clean ourself fast. Despite the freezing temperature, we still go bath. We manage to find a metal drum which still have some left over rain water, the three of us are just in our underwear, and as I feel the water. It was COLD, just like ice water. I saw Ah Loong hesitate for a while, and just pour the water on him, then followed by Liang Yong, for me I’m still hesitating, but I cannot sleep smelly and dirty later, so I also shove the water on me. On my first shove, I scream!!! Freezing.... i continue, and after 4 to 5 shove, slowly got use to it a bit, and quickly apply soap, clean, and shove water to wash away the soap. Whole process last for not more than 5 mins. When I breath, I can see vapour, it’s that cold.
The holy SIB Church |
Inside the SIB Church |
Dinner prepare by our guide, arrange by Willie (tour coordinator). We had pork, veggie, and Ba Kelalan rice, all cooked with fire wood. |
Temperature drops from 22⁰C to 15⁰C, I'm very cold, luckily I didn't get hypothermia that night. |
And that’s how I spend my first night here at the SIB Church shelter, stay tune for my next post where my team and I will starts to ascent to the summit of the highest mountain in Sarawak. And the interesting encounter along the way. See you on my next post.
To see more Photos of my Day 2 adventure, click on the link here
Mount Murud Exploration - Kuching to Ba’kelalan post 1 of 4
Day 1 of my adventure, flight is at 6.10am to Kota Kinabalu. I woke up, look at the clock it was around 4am, I don’t feel sleepy at all. Will be meeting my team at the airport at 5am, so I still have another hour to do a final check in case I miss out anything. I only have one backpack, which weighted around 12kg, this is the average weight that I carry on my 3 days 2 nights camping.
All of a sudden my phone rang, it was from Loong one of my team members, telling me that most of them are at the airport now. I check on my wrist watch, it was about 4.45am, and I look at the clock on the wall, same…. Should I be going to the airport now?
Reached the Kuching International Airport about 5.10am, got my backpack to scan, and as I walk through the x-ray door, I’m clean! Meet up with my friends and some new team members at the café near the boarding gate. We all started to chat about what to expect on our journey, and calculate the time we need to reach our next destination. For all we know, the last call announcement made by the airport got our attention, we quickly rush to board the plane.
Inside the plane, most of the passenger board the plane which left the few of us.
If I remember correctly, this van is a 13 seater. My seat is the best, because of good leg room.
Just when our van about to drive off, we heard a collision sound in front of our car. It was a corn, the driver forgot he put the road cone in front of the van. The boss from the opposite direction look at the driver, and the driver looks back, and showed the OK hand sign to the boss, and he quickly drives off.
9.32am we reached a town called Beaufort in Sabah, and stop for toilet break, and to eat some breakfast. Most of us did not have any breakfast this morning. We went to a noodle shop called Foh Chuan, the Foh Chuan noodles are their best dish at almost every table ordered their noodles. My friends and I had no place to sit, so we share with an uncle. He looks like a Chinese, so I started to speak Chinese with him, but he answers back with Malay mix English. I told myself, he might be a Kadazan people, because some of them looks like Chinese.
10.10am, start our journey to Lawas again, and reached the Border checkpoint at 11.16am. Fortunately, we Sarawakian does not need any special permit or passport to enter Lawas, or to the West Malaysia. We just present our identification card to the officer, and off we go.
Our 4WD from Lawas to Ba'kelalan, it was my first experience on a logging road.
Start our journey to Ba’kelalan at 1pm, car no#1 a Toyota single cabin, some of our friends are sitting in the truck bed area. Car no#2 is us and carry some diesel supply and #3 is a Toyota double cabin with all our luggage on the truck bed. The driver gave each of us a big plastic bag to cover our luggage to prevent from the dust.
My friends endure the dust for a total of 6 hours ++
The road that we use are from the logging company, therefore it's not covered with tar, and has lots of potholes all over the place. The max speed that we drove was just 50 - 60km/h. There are villages along the road.
Continue our journey, and not long after our ride at about 3.45pm. It starts to downpour, I saw driver of car#1 quickly lower down the canvas at the truck to keep the passenger dry. Again, pity my friends who sit there, just now was dust, and now they have rain, so what else is next?
Timber company, with a lot of rotten tree trunks at the road side
Pass by Long Luping at about 4.15pm, and I saw a nice cement building. My driver told me that its the school, the name of the school is Sekolah Kebangsaan Long Lupin, and students will stay in the hostel also. Good they have a school here i told myself, education is the only way for them to upgrade these places.
There are buffalo along the road, i was curious on why the buffalo can run freely? Aren't they supposed to be on the farm working now?
SG. Long Semadoh Naseb, where Baru Bian stay during his childhood
Car#3 carried all our luggage. All covered with mud
A viewing platform build by the Royal Army Engineers Regiment
They are called Rejimen Askar Jurutera Di Raja (Royal Army Engineers Regiment), the tarmac road from here to Ba’kelalan was built by them, but no rocks lay as a foundation, causes a lot of pot holes here and there. Its better to drive on the logging road than this, personally I think if where to build, build it the correct way, if not, it''s just a waste of money and resource.
The viewing platform brings us breathtaking views, with multiple mountain range, and clouds covering the mountain. As its close to dusk, the color of the sky had a bit of a mixture of orange color, extreme beauty.
7.38pm, its very shaky inside the hilux, but I still manage to have some shut eyes. My head bump on the handle car a few times, but I’m too exhausted, so just chose to ignore the pain. It was dark now, and I notice our car drive slowly, I saw a fence on my right, and tarmac inside the fence area. It looks like a runway for the plane. Wait a minute, its an airport… the Ba’kelalan airport. If I know there is airport, I could have op to fly in here.
Pondok Santai Cafe at Ba'kelalan Inn, my team and I had our dinner here. The food... fantastic!!!
815pm, after our shower, we were feed by the delicious food serve by the owner. We had roasted chicken, pumpkin, soya pork, and soup. It was heaven!!!
The temperature here is about 21⁰C i like this cozy weather, and hey... we’re in Sarawak, awesome to have such nice weather. After we began to socialise after dinner, and went to bed at around 11pm. Tomorrow will be another adventure, stay tuned for my next post about my adventure on reaching the CIB church at about 2031m ASL, how do I survive two nights on 10⁰C with no sleeping bag and blanket? What to expect in the church area? Find out on my next post soon...
View more photos on Borneo Explorer's Facebook page, click here
View more photos on Borneo Explorer's Facebook page, click here
A photo posted by Wilson Chin (@wilsonchininsta) on
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