The Forbidden Track
Yesterday was the scariest ride I have ever been on in my life in Brunei. We were accompanying our Acting Minister to visit two works currently being undertaken by the Public Works Department for the Forestry Department which was to build a helipad and a suspended bridge and for the Youth and Sports Department which was to repair the Outward Bound facilities, both at Belalong.
Normally one will use a temuai, which is the very shallow perahu to get there. The temuai is scary enough as the boat sits very close hugging the river. There is not much room between you and the water and if everyone decided to turn to the right or to the left at the same time, you know the consequences. Cold water.
Anyway, in order to bring in the equipment to do the heavywork, the contractor had two options. One is to fly everything in which is expensive and not so easy to do given the narrowness of the river and the place to land everything. The other option is to bring everything overland. This is what he did. But he had to carve out a track out of nothing. This is the track that we decided to use instead of using the temuai. The track is made of earth and nothing else. If it rains, the track is virtually unusable. So it had to be dry before it can be used. The other thing is that once the work is completed, the jungle will take over the track completely. No further tracks will be allowed in so as to preserve the nature.
Here are some photos of the ride plus the group photo across the Ulu-Ulu Resort in Belalong.
Normally one will use a temuai, which is the very shallow perahu to get there. The temuai is scary enough as the boat sits very close hugging the river. There is not much room between you and the water and if everyone decided to turn to the right or to the left at the same time, you know the consequences. Cold water.
Anyway, in order to bring in the equipment to do the heavywork, the contractor had two options. One is to fly everything in which is expensive and not so easy to do given the narrowness of the river and the place to land everything. The other option is to bring everything overland. This is what he did. But he had to carve out a track out of nothing. This is the track that we decided to use instead of using the temuai. The track is made of earth and nothing else. If it rains, the track is virtually unusable. So it had to be dry before it can be used. The other thing is that once the work is completed, the jungle will take over the track completely. No further tracks will be allowed in so as to preserve the nature.
Here are some photos of the ride plus the group photo across the Ulu-Ulu Resort in Belalong.
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