Pitas folks BOLEH! Part 2

An excerpt from Philip Golingai's column on The Star dated 20 September 2014,

“The last part was the scariest. I wanted to get out of the vehicle because I did not want to die. The 45° slope going up and 45° slope going down were scary,” said @rismarobin of Kota Belud.

“It was like driving on the moon.On this road you can’t tweet and drive, unlike in Kuala Lumpur,” said @saroki19.

These are the experience we had while travelling on the DIY road paved by the villagers. The road will certainly be impassable during rainy days but it is a good start for the villagers in the 6 villages.

That's me clinging on a seat belt at the back of John's 4WD.

Risma grabbed the excuse to be on foot to take pictures rather be in the Pajero she was travelling in.

On 2 occasions, John had to reverse his 4WD and then revved his engine to climb steep ascents. It was a hair raising experience. There was one particular bend that both Darrel and I agreed was a dangerous part of the journey especially at night. It was a 45 degree ascend and on your way up, you wouldn't be able to tell whether the road would continue straight on or where there'd be a turn. As it turned out, there was a sharp turn once you reached the top and if we had drove straight on, we would have fallen into a ravine. Darrel and I agreed that a sign should be put up to indicate the sharp turn.  

Villagers hitching a ride on the back of a 4WD

This particular stretch of road cuts through a stream.

After an hour or so of stomach churning trip, we reached Kg Dowokon. We made our way on foot to gundohing Maklin's younger brother's house. Upon reaching the house, we were surprised and touched to see a group of 20 -40 villagers already waiting to receive us. At the first sight of us, they played their gongs and Kulintangan; We were treated like YBs. Later that night, I was told by a villager that no YB has ever set foot in their village. 

I saw some men walked off and thought that they were going back to their homes after greeting us but later they came back with some coconuts and offered all of us fresh coconut juice.

 

The house we put up in

Philip chatting with some villagers. 

Risma taking pictures of some villagers' activities in Sungai Perupok. 

We were told that there is no electricity nor piped water in the village but we were surprised when we were told that we had to bathe in the river which by now, technically should be called a stream. There was a water tank at the house but because it hadn't rained for quite some time, it dried up. Why I call the river a stream? The water level has dropped due to forest clearing upstream by Oil Palm plantations. All the guys decided to skip bathing except for Risma who gamely went to the river at night, accompanied by a villager, to bathe. 

Another view of the house we stayed in. We thought it was a 'balai raya'. Pic by @Desonny

@RismaRobin couldn't resist taking a selfie with the free range pigs 

Our host slaughtered a pig for our feast that night and perhaps to spare us from the sight of seeing the pig being slaughtered, Maklin brought us on foot to see the farthest edge of the village to experience how villagers, including school children, travel on foot on daily basis to the outside world. Even without carrying anything, we were soon panting and perspiring from the trekking.

Me trekking to the farthest end of 'Lost World'

On the way back and very close to dusk, I slipped on a rock while crossing Sungai Perupok. The same route that that villagers take on daily basis, so that shows the hazards that villagers had to content with on daily basis. Thankfully, I only bruised the side of my right knee, missing my knee cap. @Saroki19 and @Desonny were quite shock by the sight of me trying to 'save' myself from a nasty fall. 

That night, villagers from Kg Dowokon and from nearby villages converged at the house we stayed in. All of them traveled by foot just for the occasion. Needless to say, we were touched by the warmth they showed us. 

Simple meal of pork soup and rice on leafs. Light is powered by generator.

I spoke to the lady in blue T shirt and she told me she goes to town once a month to stock up on mostly canned food because they have no refrigerator.

Villagers performing 'Mongingol' 

Villagers sharing their stories with us.

Kids playing

Guess what they are doing? @Saroki19 , @Desonny and Darrel went to answer nature's call and decide to take a selfie :P

To be continued..

Pitas Folks BOLEH! Part 1

A couple of weeks ago, @Desonny brought the plight of folks in six villages in the district of Pitas to the attention of @PhilipGolingai. Philip, who is a member of our not so secretive WhatsApp group by now, Barang Naik, mooted a road trip to Pitas. @Saroki19 and I took up the challenge. Soon we were joined by @RismaRobin, our designated photographer who spent most of her waking hours doing handstand. She is a Yoga practitioner and I call her Stretch for this trip.   

The objective was to observe first hand the living condition and bring awareness to the plight of villagers in Kg Mandamai, Kg Kobon, Kg Perupok, Kg Dowokon, Kg Maliau Pusat and Kg Maliau Layung; In particular to their endeavor to build a road linking them to the outside world.

Truth to be told, I did not know what good I or we could do by going to Pitas. Building a road seemed to be a monumental task but we thought if the villagers are positively mad enough to take on this challenge, the least we could do was to highlight and bring awareness to this commendable ‘Kami Boleh’ spirit. Weeks before the road trip, we started a campaign on Twitter and Facebook under the hashtag #PitasRoad to promote this road trip and the website www.pitasroad.org which was set up by supporters of Pitas folks. As to be expected, there were cynics who responded with disparaging remarks and some did not even bother to find out more what #PitasRoad was all about before making comments. Fortunately, these cynics are in the minority whereas our supporters are aplenty.

@PhilipGolingai, @Saroki19 and @Desonny flew in to Sabah specifically for this trip on their own expense. We started our journey from Kota Kinabalu on the morning of 13 September 2014, a journey of more than 200 Kilometres. There were eight of us in our entourage i.e. @PhilipGolingai, @Saroki19, @Desonny, @RismaRobin, @PetrusConrad, Darrel, Stevie G and myself. About three hours later, we arrived at Pitas town where gundohing Maklin Masiau, the gentleman who is spearheading the road building, was waiting for us with a few villagers who had come with their four wheel drives to ferry us via the proposed road to Kg Dowokon where Maklin has arranged for us to put up at his younger brother's house. So we split up and Petrus, Darrel and I decided to take a beat up looking Isuzu Trooper driven by our driver named John. John is a young looking Dusun chap with a ready smile and ever ready to answer our questions but from his demeanor, you could sense that he has seen and done it all. Having spent the last three hours or so, travelling. I was very eager for our journey to end very soon. So I asked John, "Bos! Berapa lama lagi sampai di kampung?' John sympathetically answered, 'Satu jam lagi bos. Sori lah bos, ini kereta kebun. Tiada aircon.' I asked how far was the journey and John told me about 8 Kilometre and I remember thinking it was odd that an 8 Kilometre journey had to take an hour to reach because back in Beaufort, my farm is 11 Kilometre away from town and it takes only less than 20 minutes drive for me to reach there. Soon, I would find out why it took that long. 

After about half an hour, we reached the launching area for our journey; At the edge of an Oil Palm plantation. There our convoy stopped and someone gestured for John to lead the way. Obviously John's driving skill was trusted. The road was narrow and could only accommodate one vehicle at a time. It is basically a dirt road. Occasionally rocks will jut out from the earth making it a bumpy ride. Only passable by four wheel drives driven by experienced drivers with cool composure like John. There were sharp turns, steep descents and ascents. The road cuts through hills and ravines in some places. At one stage, I wondered what would happen if we meet an oncoming vehicle, there was simply no space to give way in some places. I wouldn't want to be in John's seat then. The road leading to Kg Dowokon was like a serpent snaking through hills and ravines. I thought the person who designed the road was either a sadist or an off road enthusiast. In some places, we wondered why they did not cut through the hill in a straight line instead of meandering abrupt left and right turns. I found out later that they have only a Hitachi Excavator to work with. They are ill equipped for the task. Anyway, I shall let the pictures taken tell the story of our arduous and treacherous journey to Kg Dowokon. 

Taken from the backseat of our vehicle. It was dusty and bumpy but we soon found out it was just the beginning of a torturous trip.

      

Picture taken by me as we waited for the rest of the convoy to catch up.

Risma taking pictures of our convoy as they labored to climb a steep ascent.

To be continued