MASCOT

 MASCOT is a community initiative run by a village in the region of Kinabatangan. The village is about eco tourism and about conservation. My group was lucky enough to have two full nights with them.

The village Batu Puteh is about 5 hours bus ride east away from Mt Kinabula. I have to say it was refreshing to come to the village after the bus ride as all I saw when I looked out the window was Palm Oil trees. They have really taken over the place.

Once at MASCOT we were taken by boat to their eco stay which was about 15mins away. The place it peaceful and serene. It is situated among the rain forest and over looks a lake. We each had our own little huts above the ground with a little deck. The place is powered by a generator, though they use as little power as they can.



My humble accomodation at the Eco Camp

Once settled in, it was back out in the boat to go monkey and bird spotting along the river banks. It was my first time seeing a wild monkey in over five years. I realized that I still get just as excited as I did in Africa to see them. Due to the rain threatening to settle in, the trip was cut back a little. Later that night we had a night walk when we went insect and animal exploring. Sadly due to having about 2 hours of heavy rain earlier there were not as many creatures out and about as hoped. It was then to bed under my mosquito net to the sound of nature.

The next morning was another small trek through the rain forest learning about the different types of forests and medicinal use of some of the plans. It was then a boat ride up river to where we helped the environment. This was by getting our hands dirty and planting some native plants in an area that had previously been destroyed by fire. Once back at the eco lodge, two of us bravely got our feet nibbled at by fish. They did a good job at taking off the dead skin and after a few minutes of minor screaming, laughing and taking my feet in and out I started to enjoy it.



My feet being nibbled at. Apparently its a big thing in New York.

Once back at MASCOT it was straight into a cooking class with the some of the local women. It was my job to make some delicious banana balls. As with most food in Malaysia they were fried. Thankfully afterwards we all got to taste our fine culinary skills at lunch.

A music, dance show followed as did information on the project. As predicted the group were forced at the end to join in with the dancing. Lucky us, this dance involved moving in a circle holding hands and occasionally waving ribbons given to us to use. I was very happy when the song was over!

One of the most memorable parts of the stay was the home stay in the village. Kaori (fellow traveler from Japan) and I stayed with Musa and her 8 other family members. Only pictures can really describe the environment we were in. It was a wooden building that had lots of additions to it. The kitchen/dinning area had two complete walls and one partial wall. The wooden floor had decent size gaps in it, thankfully often these places had lino on it. There were large buckets to collect the water that feel through the roof when it rained (as it does on a daily occurrence. There were electric cords exposed throughout the house. The lounge was large with two tv’s at either end and large speakers about 1 meter high were scattered around. Windows in our room were wooden and a needed a rod to keep them open. I think that is enough to give you a picture of it for now in your head.

The family were matriarchal with Musa being the head of the family. Her husband said about 10 words to us in total. The grandchildren were lovely and full of energy, questions and eagerness to associate with us. At times they were a little too eager. The night was spent caring for their four pet rabbits that lived under the floor of the lounge, trying to watch Malay tv and then “English lessons”. It was ended however with the children deciding that they wanted to make us look beautiful and putting make up on us. Lets say it might have started well, but before long both Kaori and I certainly looked interesting and our faces represented more like canvas’s to draw on than girls ready to go dance.

The morning was brief with the family. By the time we got up at 6:30am two of the children had left for school. Musa and her daughter Anna were starting the washing and had prepared noodles for us for breakfast. Come 7:30am we were walking down the long wooden path outside to the village centre to start the next leg of our trip.