Back to the Bubble.
And so my trip to the swamps of Sarawak is over. It was a bit of a shock (although I shouldn't have expected otherwise) to arrive back to rain and a 15oC drop in temperature! It's quite nice not being sweaty the whole time though.
Post catching-up-on sleep (not one of my fortes), I'll sit down and think about what I've learnt and how I might make a coherent story out of it, who the main characters will be, what illustrations I'll do, etc. I need to do some retrospective methodology fitting too! Although I didn't manage quite as many interviews as I'd hope, I've certainly been so fortunate with the ones I did manage, and learnt so much more from them than I was expecting. I hope I do my interviewees, my protagonist - peat, and the orangutans, justice in the write-up.
And now for a few last pre-trip-ending anecdotes....
On my way back west, I spent one day in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. It was hectic. I flew in from Sarawak around 9pm, and got on a bus, where an inconspicuous Chinese business man saw I was struggling to do some reading by the light of my mobile phone and so lent me a little torch light, that he later said I should have - it was on-par with a torch that you would get in a cracker, but super bright and I was a bit overcome by his act of perceptiveness/kindness/communication with a dishevelled white girl. Perhaps off my guard from this act of generosity, I then got completely ripped off by a taxi driver, who was going to charge me about 6 times too much to drop me at my guesthouse. I was a fool, if ever I was a fool! I only ended up only paying 4 times too much (he gave pity because I was a student, apparently), but got quite upset with him. I don't think his Mummy would have been proud at that moment. Then I had to walk down a dodgy street to get to my accomodation, as he said there was too much traffic to take me right to it. Anyway, an important lesson for me - read advice, take note of it, and don't be so gullable! The following day, now very much on my guard, I had a bizarre experience with a Chinese taxi driver. He was very interested in what I was up to, my movements, and then told me to pay what I felt was right for the ride, before giving me a hug. I was a little creeped out, to say the least. I've recycled his business card. I think there is still much I have to learn about dealing with taxi drivers.
Other than being anxious in taxis, I did two interviews whilst in that big city of oil. One with a very interesting lady from the Global Environment Centre, who's about to start a PhD basically doing what I'm doing, but without the pollen part and with three years of interviews instead of three weeks. The other was with Khoon's boss (oh, the power of contacts!) at the Malaysian Palm Oil Board headquarters. He wasn't full of propaganda, as I had anticipated (whilst remaining objective as an interviewer, ofcourse), and surprised me with his opinions. We had a long chat about his experience in Bangor, Wales, for his Masters! Apparently there's a community of Malaysians there. The MPOB kingdom lies in a relatively new part of the vast city: Putrajaya. I was awestruck driving through - if looked like a computer-simulated Hollywood set, with enormous elaborate buildings, that I can only imagine are half-full at most, and consume a forest a day's equivalent in air-conditioning energy....there was an oil palm haze about the place. Quite a spectacle. Street vendors are not allowed within several miles of it. The same applies to rats and I presume, any form of creepy crawly, especially Daddy Long Legses. Malaysia is an incredible place.
And peat swamp forest is an amazing important part of it. Please spread the word.
Post catching-up-on sleep (not one of my fortes), I'll sit down and think about what I've learnt and how I might make a coherent story out of it, who the main characters will be, what illustrations I'll do, etc. I need to do some retrospective methodology fitting too! Although I didn't manage quite as many interviews as I'd hope, I've certainly been so fortunate with the ones I did manage, and learnt so much more from them than I was expecting. I hope I do my interviewees, my protagonist - peat, and the orangutans, justice in the write-up.
And now for a few last pre-trip-ending anecdotes....
On my way back west, I spent one day in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. It was hectic. I flew in from Sarawak around 9pm, and got on a bus, where an inconspicuous Chinese business man saw I was struggling to do some reading by the light of my mobile phone and so lent me a little torch light, that he later said I should have - it was on-par with a torch that you would get in a cracker, but super bright and I was a bit overcome by his act of perceptiveness/kindness/communication with a dishevelled white girl. Perhaps off my guard from this act of generosity, I then got completely ripped off by a taxi driver, who was going to charge me about 6 times too much to drop me at my guesthouse. I was a fool, if ever I was a fool! I only ended up only paying 4 times too much (he gave pity because I was a student, apparently), but got quite upset with him. I don't think his Mummy would have been proud at that moment. Then I had to walk down a dodgy street to get to my accomodation, as he said there was too much traffic to take me right to it. Anyway, an important lesson for me - read advice, take note of it, and don't be so gullable! The following day, now very much on my guard, I had a bizarre experience with a Chinese taxi driver. He was very interested in what I was up to, my movements, and then told me to pay what I felt was right for the ride, before giving me a hug. I was a little creeped out, to say the least. I've recycled his business card. I think there is still much I have to learn about dealing with taxi drivers.
Other than being anxious in taxis, I did two interviews whilst in that big city of oil. One with a very interesting lady from the Global Environment Centre, who's about to start a PhD basically doing what I'm doing, but without the pollen part and with three years of interviews instead of three weeks. The other was with Khoon's boss (oh, the power of contacts!) at the Malaysian Palm Oil Board headquarters. He wasn't full of propaganda, as I had anticipated (whilst remaining objective as an interviewer, ofcourse), and surprised me with his opinions. We had a long chat about his experience in Bangor, Wales, for his Masters! Apparently there's a community of Malaysians there. The MPOB kingdom lies in a relatively new part of the vast city: Putrajaya. I was awestruck driving through - if looked like a computer-simulated Hollywood set, with enormous elaborate buildings, that I can only imagine are half-full at most, and consume a forest a day's equivalent in air-conditioning energy....there was an oil palm haze about the place. Quite a spectacle. Street vendors are not allowed within several miles of it. The same applies to rats and I presume, any form of creepy crawly, especially Daddy Long Legses. Malaysia is an incredible place.
And peat swamp forest is an amazing important part of it. Please spread the word.
posted by Lydia Cole at
14:35
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