Nobody can deny that Ecolint does gift us with incredible and inspiring adventures in the form of the number of trips on offer. Cultural voyages, notably the educational trips organized by the Spanish department, are the best in the business– but are essentially holidays. Additionally, the economics and history departments have joined forces to create some exceptional trips in Italy over the last few years on top of the usual Bristol trip. But what about CAS trips? Usually, trips under the premise of CAS mostly involve community service and a level of so-called ‘cultural immersion’ that returns students changed and deeply affected by the experience of making a so-called ‘difference’.
There lies the problem. We are spending an exuberant amount of money to embark on life-changing experiences while being so sheltered that we do not truly experience the reality of the destination. This results in a situation by which team of private school travelers enters a poor school to help build something just as another team of private school travelers leaves– all while giving more money to big companies that organise such trips.
However, not all the companies are bad, and not all the trips are bad either. One such company, World Challenge, offers a different kind of trip, in which students are far less sheltered than on other trips; Participants organize everything without adult help, gathering supplies, exploring cities, eating exotic food, booking accommodation, searching for transport, and being left alone to make their own mistakes. Of course, big money means big profit, and World Challenge does profit, but the difference is that many on-ground people benefit too. As a member of the World Challenge expedition to Borneo, Malaysia, I saw first hand how our trip, combined with other World Challenge trips to the area, had actually made a difference. For instance, we were hosted by a woman in a small jungle village before our trek who, only ten years previously, was unable to gather more than one bowl of rice for all of her four children, but now had enough money to send all of them to university and build a proper home– all after receiving a lost World Challenge team who had no place to stay ten years ago.
As students on a school-run trip, we were unable to fully experience South-East Asia as a simple traveler would, but we had the privilege to be a part of a far less artificial and far more inspiring journey than other CAS trips at Ecolint. Here’s a small part of what our trip involved.
It takes approximately fourteen exhausting hours to travel to Kuala Lumpur and another two hours spent tense and never quite comfortable, like a dog on a road trip, drenched with overbearing fatigue and yet unable to fall asleep in the imperfect perfectness of a British Airways Economy seat, contemplating what to expect in the strange and unknown world of Borneo. We were exhausted, but had never been so excited.
First stop: Kuala Lumpur. The capital city of Malaysia, its electric hustle, flashy lights, and zestful futurism, was an immediate reminder of my city of birth, Singapore. We had a day’s wait before our flight to Miri, Borneo, and thus were unable to explore further than Little India, an area of rich Indian influence, packed to the brim with Indian restaurants and delis expelling delicious fumes of spices and herbs. The night of our arrival served as a starter in our culinary and cultural journey through South-East Asia, as we diligently decided on the first restaurant we saw, a large establishment whose door panels boasted of fictional, near-theatrical international prestige.
On the hour we descended towards the coastal city of Miri, it had been more than a year since we had signed up for the World Challenge expedition in Borneo. Over the many months during which we prepared diligently and carefully―all the while procrastinating―our group had scaled the Jura, amassed more than 2000 chf, gathered supplies and military-grade equipment, complained at least a dozen times a week, and, consequently, had forged a strong, adventurer’s bond.
Miri, Borneo, is a dense sprawl of a city in which business and people are under the grip of Chinese expansion and industrialization. Although the culture is colorful and the people compassionate, there is an easily discernible air of changing times as tribal peoples are drawn out of their jungle villages by the spread of industry, pollution, and the destruction of the natural habitat for palm oil fields. Our first taxi driver lambasted about Chinese control that went as deep as education, language, and jobs, and had resulted in rivers turning black as palm oil seeped into the ground, rising expenses of university, and the steady disappearance of his childhood home, an “upper-river village”. The roads were clean and yet seemingly built without pedestrians in mind, making our task of finding food and supplies for our upcoming jungle trek a tad more difficult.
In order to acclimatize to the humidity and heat of the jungle, our budding team embarked on what seemed to be a difficult trek at the time, but was, to be frank, a little-baby-walk in comparison to the later challenge phase. Following an elevated wooden path, we hiked through leech-less-little-baby-jungle in the Niah National Park, on our way to the Niah Caves. Our first experience of the jungle was characterized by really (really) weird insects, humidity-induced sweat, a funny little souvenir stand halfway through, and the excited chirps and giggles emanating from Mrs. D, pictured here delighted by a big tree.
“I have the best ideas”, thought Mr. Hetherington at this exact moment. It’s ok, Sir. If you feel the need to comfort yourself, you need only observe Niklas (centre) or Imogen (far left); No comment. Regardless, minus the bats (and the bat poo), being able to experience the immensity of Borneo’s cave systems at the Niah Caves was one of those moments during which you feel very, very small and yet very, very much in awe.
Over 5 long days, we trekked through some serious jungle, braving killer bees, deadly spiders, leeches upon leeches upon adorable little leeches, blood, tears, sweat, and, worst of all, Mr. H’s singing, along the journey. We had met some incredible people and played the greatest game of football the jungle has ever seen. It was, to be frank, a mind-boggingly incredible journey that most kids our age will never even dream of experiencing. We will never forget our funny old guide, Patruss. Cheers Borneo.
After all the hard work, it was time for a holiday. Boy, did Borneo give us one. Have a look through some of our favorite photos from the World Challenge: Borneo expedition last summer. If you are interested in participating in similar adventures, contact Mr. Hetherington at thomas.hetherington@ecolint.ch. He is the handsome monkey wearing the SWAG beanie on the last photo, in case you didn’t know.
