I AM THE BORNEO EXPLORER 婆罗洲探险者

Kampung Meritam Mud Vocanoes Exploration with Wilson Chin - Limbang Borneo

I woke up early that morning, as I will be going to a place called the Meritam Village (Kampung Meritam), what is so special about this place? Where is this place located?

Kampung Meritam is located 35km from the Limbang town (in Sarawak, Borneo). What’s special about this place is a bizarre natural phenomenon that occurs here – volcanic mud pots or “mud volcanoes” (some called them mud springs) covering an area that stretches over 10 acres – some of these pots are as tall as 80cm high.

I roam around the place and tried to apply some mud to my hand. Surprisingly it is cold :O cause its volcanic mud, I assume it will be warm just like a hot spring.

A few big mud mounds around the place, and I can see mud and bubbles flowing out from the earth. Simply amazing phenomena 😁

My brother send me there with his car, there is a guardhouse at the entrance, then follow by a wooded pathway which lead us into the mud volcanoes. This place is a bit like a moon landscape with quite a few mud mounds bubbling away around the place.

You can dive in the mud pots, and don't worry about the mud cause you can clean yourself at the guardhouse, they prepared a few gallons of water for people to clean up after the mud spa.

The mud is very slippery, my foot is covered with mud, and when I wear my flipflop it just slips off, so I can only wake barefoot back to the guardhouse to clean myself up. I like this place, and it has a huge potential to become a nice tourist attraction.

Selangau Town Exploration Trip with Wilson Chin, Borneo Sarawak

Selangau is a small town in Borneo Sarawak located at the Sibu-Bintulu road. Situated along the Mukah river. Its famous for its longhouse which owns by the Dayak people, some of them are Rumah Manchong, RUmah Layang, Rumah Teretang, Rumah Usit and more.

I roam around the market which is near the Mukah river, and a lot of local fruits (tropical fruits) are sold here, like durian, coconut, rambutan, and something rare was a pair of poor pangolin. I saw two dead pangolin at the market, one is the mother, anther is a smaller one it maybe the child.

This is a protected species in Sarawak, I'm so angry that it was killed. Effort should be made by the nature reserve, forestry and any other relevant parties to educate the locals about the importance on protecting these gorgeous animals.

The old shop lots at Selangau town, most shops are run by the Chinese, and opposite the shop is the market, where the dayak people sells fruits and veggie there.

These two pity pangolin are dead, killed!!! I dont know how to express how sad I am after I saw it. This is the first time I saw pangolin in real life, but I prefer to saw it in the wild instead at the market. The local killed it, and will take it scale and sell it to the chinese. Chinese believe that the scale are very rich in medical value, and some part of the scale can be use as exorcism.

My friends in Sarawak, if you see any of your family members or friends caugh this pangolin, please ask them to release this back to the wild where it belong. We have no right to take its life for money.

This is the Mukah river, the river plays an important role in transportation, where the rural folks will use this river to come to town and do trade, children goes to school, and a little bit of tourism where outsider can go visit the longhouse upstream.

Borneo Explorer out again to explore places in Sarawak

This is the wharf upon reaching the Selangau town.

Berumput Sebako Camping Trip with Wilson Chin and Friends at Borneo Sarawak

Initially we plan to conquer the Mount Rumput (as show on the map above) at 1560 m, however due to some unexpect circumstances we have to descent on the 2nd day. Mount Rumput is located at the Sematan/Lundu area on the Sarawak and Kalimantan border. After bring told by the local village people now I know that there are actually 3 mountain at the Sebako area which are: 1. The highest mount in western Sarawak - Mount Kanyi 2. The 2nd highest mount in western Sarawak - Mount Berumput 3. The 3rd highest mount in western Sarawak - Mount Pueh The three of these mount are sitting side by side, and if to go all three we maybe need to spend maybe one week in the jungle of the Sebako area.

Kuching Adventure Team front row L-R: Porter No.1, Tony (Guide), Sim, Porter No.2, Lek, Wilson Chin (Me), Nelson (Guide), Loong Back row L-R: Jong, Ong, Alen, Tut, Lee, Handerson, Gilbert

Damn was build by the Sarawak Energy to generate hydro electric

The water from the mountain are crystal clear, its not adviceable, but some of my friends just drink it directly. There maybe contain certain bacteria which may harm our body, so possible please boil the water before consume them, or use certain filter.

A lot of huge tree which are 5 to 6 stories high.

A tiny mantis

A huge centipede was spotted by my friend, and kid you not this fella is huge...

How long does it take for the roots to wrap around the stone?

Leeches are everywhere in this jungle, and I've been bitten for more than 10 times.

When we reach an elevation of 825 meter, we stop and setup camp. We had been walking for almost 6 hours and 9.2 KM, some of my friends are first timer joining us on this hike, can tell that they are tired.