HERO IN TEN SECONDS

From Basic Iban Design by Augustine Anggat Ganjing

Attending Robert Raymer’s creative workshop was so refreshing; a tonic boost really. It wasn’t all listening of course and we, lucky participants, had to turn an experience into an article. So here is my story which could have gone so many different ways, really, and probably will soon. Thanks to Robert whom I invite you to follow on his blog.

It had been a spur of the moment idea. Dinner had ended and I had volunteered to throw the mussels shells into the sungai (river) which blesses our family by crossing right in the centre of our three acres property, a mere fifty meters from our terrace.


The afternoon had brought some drizzle and I put on a pair of rubber thongs to walk the stone-slab-path which, lately, had become seriously overgrown with grass. I had also remembered to bring a torch light, which was common sense after nine o’clock at night. Holding the torch while trying not to spill the large glass bowl filled to the brink with half emptied shells and still hot with stock, I was walking confidently, one step behind the cropped tail of my devoted Caramel, and I could already hear the water jumping over the man-made dam and rushing its swollen flow past underneath the belian* bridge that leads to the second and unoccupied half of our farm. Intent on watching my feet, a sudden fear grabbed and stopped me in the instant: What if I crossed a snake?


Needless to say, I had just opened a Pandora box of horrors sustained with personal memories of past experiences: the viper I almost stepped on while in Kinabalu Park; the large brown snake that killed Sunset, my brave cocker spaniel, right in the centre of Kuching city; the long grass snake I found casually napping underneath our living room sofa or even the more recent colourful visitor which had elected to relax on the broad arm of my wicker chair on the terrace; not forgetting that chilli and so amazing encounter I had yesterday with a King Cobra that gave me a royal salute from the side of the road, before slowly withdrawing into the safety of tall grasses, head up and high, as I proceeded to drive on and home.

Of course I am scared of snake; and living on a farm in Borneo brings the odds of meeting reptiles to a frightening statistical number; yet it is not fear of that kind of reptiles that bothers me. In fact, and to the risk of appearing bold silly, I am not really afraid of any animals but rather of not knowing what to do with them so that I may survive an encounter such as one with a defensive poisonous snake and still let my attacker go in peace. I must confess that, so far, I have been oh, so lucky never to be alone every time I had to face a serpent, so that I did not have to find out, in an extreme situation, if I had the guts to pin the lethal head to the ground with my long stand-by harpoon. Truly, I often wonder how I will actually react the day I’ll find myself alone with, let’s say... a cobra?


Still holding my step while my dog is staring at me with expecting eyes, the scene we are creating together feels like it has been caught in a time warp: we are suspended in time. My mind is definitely on hard drive and I am asking myself what I am doing here, alone (except for a toy poodle!), in the dark of the night, in a Borneo countryside, with my feet and legs exposed... I read somewhere that it takes about ten seconds of thinking to make a person either a deserter or a hero. My ten seconds are now over and I find myself back to present time and action. I look at Caramel and I command him “Let’s go!” as I slap my rubber soles on the ground to warn-off any creature lurking nearby. Who’s afraid now?




Belian: Borneo iron wood.

SARAWAK PROPERTY FOR SALE NEAR KUCHING: KO KO WANGI, COUNTRY HOME IN BORNEO

KOKO WANGI VIEW FROM THE RIVER

COUNTRY HOME IN SARAWAK

Located 25km from Kuching, this fully furnished 4 bedrooms single storey country home has a unique design. It sits on a 1.0765 hectares lot crossed by a small mountain water river. Easy access by Kuching-Serian road.

Top of Form  State Sarawak Location Mile 16 – Kuching-Serian Road Style Hobby Farm Type Land Bedrooms 4 with bathrooms Price M2,500,00 Net Estate Agent By owner Contact: Genuine inquiries welcome through email to shabada_tree@yahoo.co.uk   Ref: “Ko Ko Wangi” Bottom of Form

Description Located only 25km from Kuching, yet the ideal country retreat for nature lovers and bird watchers. Nicely furnished, own unique design, solar heated water system, covered car park for 3 vehicles and large store room attached to car park. Huge deep terrace (120 X 50 feet) with belian wood flooring. All rooms are over sized: 4 bedrooms each with own bathroom, family room, living room, kitchen dining room, laundry and pub-karaoke room. Most rooms with native timber flooring and fitted with an individual air-conditioning unit. Landscaped land with 2 fish-breeding ponds and 2 decorative ponds, small mountain river running through. Fruit trees and heliconia plants. Village style wooden house for working couple accommodation. Easy access by Kuching-Serian Road.   Bedrooms: 4                       | Bathrooms: 4 + 1 Visitors’ Toilet  Land area 1.0765 Hectares  Built up area 6,000sf Email: shabada_tree@yahoo.co.uk

A THEME DAY

The curse of the red ants

There are days which are like any other ordinary day and there are those that seem to follow an agenda of their own and those have the particularity to signal their difference as soon as the absolutely unaware yet decidedly targeted human gets out of bed. There are those days, for instance, when I seem to hit a corner of every piece of furniture in the house; when door handles are determined to catch my sleeve, or again, when the door of my car turns vicious for no apparent reason and ordinary objects I reach for would rather attempt defying gravity and risk shattering to pieces upon landing on the floor rather than letting me grab them. Go and figure?                                                      Then too, there are days when I seem to be the only driver on the road willing to speed over 60kmh and others yet when all the road loonies pick exactly my time and my route to put their mad skills to the test. Indeed there are days which are simply “theme days” and today I’ve just lived through “Insects Day”.

It all started this morning. As I was walking through our car porch I almost stepped over a huge rhinoceros that had come to end its insect life (what did you imagine?) right in front of my black WV beetle, perhaps struck by despair at the sight of such a dinosauresque beauty straight out of Jurassic Park or even a Transformer, no less. I picked up the little fellow in my hand and placed it on a table top where I knew it would be safe from ants’ attack. 

"I almost stepped over a huge rhinoceros"

                                                                                        

Just as I was making my way back towards the door that leads to our laundry room I noticed yet another casualty: a large leaf insect that was lying on the concrete path where a column of red scavenger ants was already forming. I often make a point to save ants, simply by ignoring them until they finish whatever task they came to do in my house and disappear once more, yet I must say that I truly hate their cruelty. I picked up the martyr by its wings which were closed and gathered above its back; it was still alive. There was nothing I could do to change the fate of my unlikely protégé and yet I wanted to make its passing more humane than that of being eaten alive. I thought of throwing it into the river as I had done with a small bat that had broken a wing on a ventilator blade (radar error); the red ants had found it within seconds of its fall, and attacked their terrified pray without mercy. This time however I lacked courage and instead I laid the insect on a large tree leaf well above the ground, a safe enough place it seemed to me for it to surrender its little soul to the great universe.

"I picked up the martyr by its wings"

A few minutes later, back inside the laundry room and as the washing-machine had completed its cycle I walked out again with a bucket load of clean laundry in hand and almost stumbled at the sight of a snake awkwardly rolled up at the bottom of the steps. I ventured to check it out. The reptile appeared bizarrely twisted and inert. It was dead; probably one of the dogs. I’d have to check them for any symptoms of poisoning. I once, at another address, lost a Cocker Spaniel that had prevented a cobra from entering our kitchen. Malaysia does not authorise the use of anti-venom for pets that sacrifice their life for their mistress.                                                                                                           Armed with a long metal clip I turned the 45cm long body around. The scales were a beautiful bluish-black with alternate orange markings along both sides all the way from its tail and up to its eyes. I have no idea whether that snake was venomous or not, however I couldn’t help finding it exquisite and likely to inspire a master jeweler.                                                                                           I decided to dispose of the body by throwing it over the fence and into thick wild bushes. While I passed near the leaf insect, I noticed that at last, it had surrendered its tiny little soul and that it had been able to do so undisturbed. I felt relieved to have been of help.

"The reptile appeared bizarrely twisted and inert.

"

"I couldn’t help finding it exquisite and likely to inspire a master jeweler"

Once I finished hanging the laundry, I went back inside the house still lost in my thoughts over those serial deaths. As I was crossing the living-room I found yet another victim, its amber color wings spread out on the silky fabric of the white sofa. It was a giant dragonfly as they often happen to be here. I turned to look at Caramel, my toy poodle; I needed advice and he seemed as intrigued as I was.”Want to poke it with your nose?”  He gave me a blank look. As I grabbed the dragonfly by one of its wings it suddenly jumped out of its slumber and darted off and out of the open doors, leaving Caramel and I perplexed yet relieved; end of the curse?

"amber color wings spread out on the silky fabric of the white sofa"

A familiar ring tone finally called me back to the ordinary world and I hurried towards the console by the window and stopped short of picking up the phone when I realised that a few hundreds of those red ants (my nemesis?) had taken over the receptor, the phone book next to it and even a bouquet of artificial roses! What were they after? Was it some kind of curse really? They left me no other choice than use the ultimate weapon on them. With a few well aimed sprayed, I decimated a whole army of those mean carnivorous scavengers, at once avenging the unfortunate bat and the leaf insect. All I had left to do was to clean up before returning the call.

I would have liked to find some clever words to end my account of an unusual morning, even by Borneo standards, yet I have to conclude rather in a hurry if I wish to avoid being hit on the head, or worse in the eye, by an air ported black bomber bent on attacking me; so ciao for now!

UNPREDICTABILITY: A BLESSING!

No matter how well organised or prepared I pretend to be, life in the country is simply unpredictable.                                                                                                                                                                   

I make a lunch appointment in town, thinking that getting up earlier and doing most of my morning chores the night before will be an assurance that I will show up on time, and clouds of tiny insects choose to descend on us during the night, to drop dead by the thousands all over the terrace floor, the garage and the whole perimeter of the house. The best thing to do in such a case is to grab the water hose, open full pressure and spray, spray everywhere there are insects, on the floor, on the walls, along the roof cornice.... Iko, the Labrador, is having a field day, catching the spray, sliding the whole width of the garage, falling off the terrace deck, and honestly, so am I having a wonderful time being wet, wet, wet. Meanwhile, the old Dutch clock in the living-room remains indifferent to my having fun; it keeps a stern track of time while I totally lose it. I’ll call to say that I’ll be late for lunch.                                                                                                                                                                                  

I promise myself an afternoon treat at the book store; an indefinite power cut strikes the area and I am left to choose between manually opening the front gate which weighs more than a ton (literally) or spend the day staring at my own sweat oozing out of my pores. I choose to open the gate, and while I can’t help a quick mental calculation of my surely will-be sinsei (traditional Chinese chiropractor) bill, once the job done I find myself standing both arms stretched up towards heaven, proud to claim “Yes! I did it!”  “I am woman!”

And just this morning I wanted to stay at home and concentrate on writing something I’ve had in mind for a while.  I had barely opened my computer when suddenly the whole study-room sounded like the busiest dog pound on its worse day. I looked out the window to find four of my dogs furiously barking towards the corner of the wall. One glimpse and I jumped to my desk, grabbed my camera, ran out and took my best shots at a tiny baby monitor lizard fencing with three Maltese and big Uncle Sherlock, the Belgian shepherd. And so it is with unpredictability, which by nature always catches me unaware and more than often, turns my day into experiences I would not have missed, not even for a lunch appointment with a friend.                                                            

     

I pull my tongue at predictability!

THE DRAGONS OF KO KO WANGI

The Sungai at Ko Ko Wangi

To the Chinese and Feng Shui practitioners, choosing a location for their own home requires the study and investigation of its surroundings. Assessing a location before deciding to build a home on it involves the consideration of natural phenomena like the direction of the sun, the soil type and if the area is susceptible to floods; of the immediate environment, such as proposed road and building developments, previous land use and the type of neighborhood; of positive surrounding features, like street lighting, a park, a school and shops; and of negative surrounding features too, like factories, noisy night entertainment venues, an airport, a cemetery or even a crematorium.                                     We built Ko Ko Wangi, our family home, in a valley where a Sungai (river) runs from the heights of Padawan. The Sungai, after meandering through the jungle and the countryside, actually crosses our property bringing very good energy, and because it feeds into a large fish pond, it accumulates chi in front of our house. In Feng Shui, the river is the dragon and I find it extremely romantic to think that we live nestled in a Dragon Vale!

The Sungai is not the only dragon in Ko Ko Wangi; in fact we have lots of them. Some are white and some are purple-red. The Chinese call the white ones lóng zhū guǒ "dragon pearl fruit", and the red ones huǒ lóng gu "fire dragon fruit". Indeed our dragons are really pitahaya and the fruits of a cactus specie called Hylocereus which is native to Central and South America and is now quite widely cultivated in Asian countries and, well, in my garden. The Hylocereus blooms only at night, which is rather a pity since its large white flower is absolutely magnificent; it has two names, “moonflower” and “Queen of the Night”. I personally prefer to think of it at a moonflower created so beautiful to please the feminine star, and perhaps, who knows, it is only fair that something from Earth should add beauty to the night so that we may come out and gaze into the heart of a flagrant flower and not just at the stars?

The pitahaya appeared on the Kuching markets only a few years back yet it is rather odd to observe that most local people will only buy the fruit with purple flesh while Caucasians much rather eat the white, less sweet and firmer dragon fruit. As for me, I love both types with a preference for the white one when I want to serve with style as it is extremely neat to cut. Both types are great for juice, some people like to liquidize the skin together with the flesh; I even have a few friends who eat the whole thing and leave nothing in their plate!

The Dragon fruit is a versatile one. As I often prepare natural bath salts for my friend Helen’s salon, I started experimenting with the red Dragon fruit and while I was baking the salts mixed with the purple flesh in the oven, I was delighted with a very appetizing aroma. The results of the experiment as bath salts were a total success, especially with the tiny black seeds acting as an additional and oh! So natural exfoliating agent. Yet, with this leading to that, I just could not resist creating a tart, and so I did last Sunday with Hubby hovering over my creative work in progress. I had in mind to puree the red flesh and lay it on top of a sweet dough. Hubby argued that I should not puree but slice the fruit instead. French diplomacy “oblige” I made two tarts, but before it was time to place the fruit flesh on top of the dough, I stroke genius: I spread a layer of melted dark chocolate, then I added the fruit on top. Voila! And who can resist a dragon au chocolat?

Note: The Dragon fruits and other fruits cultivated at Ko Ko Wangi are organically grown. For any information on Organic fruits, food and products, I recommend my Kuching friends to check with my friend Mady of Mady Organic & Natural Food Store, a beautiful and inspiring all new shop at Green Height Mall.

THE COMPANIONS OF KO KO WANGI

                                                             KO KO WANGI

I can’t remember not loving animals, especially dogs. I sobbed watching Lassy and was outraged with what happened to King Kong (still am, and will someone, please, change the ending of the next remake?). As a matter of fact, I never missed Daktari and had seriously planned to spend my future life as a veterinarian somewhere in wild Africa (plan B was to move to Florida with Flipper’s family). Needless to say that I hated the evil poacher who murdered Mighty Joe Young’s mum and pursued him all the way to the USA.


I never made it to Africa, let alone to the wild part, not even on a tour; and I have yet to visit Florida. Instead I ended in Borneo, where I never planned to go (life is like that!) with my dog Picsous, a mean cross dachshund I had adopted from SPA, the animal welfare society in Marseille. Picsous had to spend six months in quarantine for rabies prevention; I must say that while there, he received a five star treatment. One day though we learned that Picsous had fathered puppies (Tony the warden was also a match-maker) and that one of them, a female was left unwanted: the articulations on her right hind leg were reversed. We took her home and named her Lady. I improvised some sort of physiotherapy and a couple months later she had become one fast three legged dog! Quite a number of people offered to pay me top ringgit to have Lady, a dog with a “tabalek” (reversed) leg is supposed to bring good luck. I made it clear that Lady was mine to stay.

I had always dreamed of owning a house in the countryside and possibly by a river. Hubby caught the bug too. Whenever we would find a picture of a mill house, we would both fall in a dream state. We would often drive to the hills in Matang and follow the river, playing John Denver’s Greatest Hits cassette over and over again. Once back home we would seriously discuss the house we would build there, some day. In retrospect, isn’t it what The Secret and the law of attraction are about? Indeed a few years later, we attracted a farmer who wanted to sell his land which happened to be crossed by a stream, and at the right price too! The deal was done and the hard work started: pulling out at least a hundred of cocoa trees, dumping soil to landscape, planting fruit trees, building the house and even a bridge over the sungai (stream). At last we had our country home and we named our very own Eden Ko Ko Wangi.

The Sungai at Ko Ko Wangi

A couple of nights only after we moved in, Hubby and the kids had to go to town; I was left alone to enjoy our over-sized terrace. There are no silent nights in the jungle; for a while I could hear an owl call, until it drowned in a cacophony of sounds; every living creature it seemed was caught at once in conversation! While days are much quieter in comparison to the nights, especially when the moon is full, I can say that, over the years, Ko Ko Wangi has attracted a substantial number of now permanent residents of the animal kind. Obviously, some are domesticated, with a job to do, while other are kept for breeding purposes (supposedly anyway). The present leader of our guard dogs is Sherlock, a black Belgium Malinois. He clearly believes he’s on a life mission to control all traffic on the path that follows our front fence. Big Athos (of unspecified breed) is more detached from his duties; I suspect he knows by now that everyone is scared of him despite his bright blue eyes. As for the breeding dogs, they are of course obvious company to me and certainly good entertainment. First there is Caramel the toy poodle; he can climb any fence of any height and yet he is not as gifted to become a circus dog as Kenzo the Maltese who can learn any trick within minutes; Kenzo is not only attention seeker, he is also a drama queen. Last but not least, Kenzo’s wife to be, Ines who deserves to carry the name of a former French top model for her beauty and pose, is really a female wrestler.

Sherlock

Caramel

Kenzo

As for the insane cats that keep coming to the house behind the dogs' back, I am not sure if they can be classified as wild? Why not? After all they are left to breed in the nearby jungle and our family is the closest they ever come to approaching a human being. Those are Felix Sarawak, typically with a crooked knotted tail yet and despite their uniqueness, I can’t say that they fascinate me, unlike my other yet wilder companions do.

The acrobatic squirrels for instance; they can run along a cable and keep their balance by swinging their tail from right to left like some pendulum gone crazy. I love to watch when one that has just climbed down a tree, cautiously looks right, then left and finally behind before running for dear life across the lawn to the next trunk and repeats the action from tree to tree. The scene never fails to remind me of the star squirrel in Ice Age.

Some birds are regular visitors while others have built their nest somewhere on the land. There is “Big Bird” the egret that sometimes comes with a partner or two. Big Bird works very hard, the whole day long until the sun has already set, tirelessly patrolling the mini dam on the sungai to catch some jumping fishes, then moving on to check out the breeding pond where it often has to compete with a few monitor lizards, then back to the dam…

The blue heron likes to keep its distance from Big Bird, it seldom strays from the sungai, while the flashy blue and orange kingfisher enjoys perching on the pontoon over the pond and cross the width of the land like a low flying bomber, which never fails to create total mayhem at ground level among the water hens, the noisy magpies and other small birds that have established their home in our trees or in the high grass of the marshland. The only ones not impressed are the eagles that patrol above our heads; I can often hear them clearly calling for the hunt of our closest neighbor’s chickens.

Heron

Snakes are not uncommon, after all we’re in Borneo! They often cross the narrow country road that leads to our house; and yes they are usually dangerous. Once in a while, one will make it to the terrace and sometimes even closer to us like the brown cobra Athos recently spotted under our living room sofa! Before the bird flu scare, when we still kept chickens, greedy pythons used to get caught on their way out of the poultry yard, stuck in the wire-meshing fence, thanks to the bulge of the chicken in the process of being digested. A couple of years ago, python meat was selling for 5 Ringgit a kilo at Serian market. Wilson our gardener was always only too happy to take his pricey catch to his best friend’s kitchen (secret recipe!); it certainly made him feel like a rich man!


The sungai is a world of its own in Ko Ko Wangi; a world I can’t tire of exploring as far upstream from our boundary as I can possibly push, either on foot or swimming, until some trunk and entangled branches from a tree fallen victim of a fast flood won’t allow me to proceed any further. As I brake the flow, I disturb the peace of all kinds and sizes of frogs, of small colorful water snakes and of course of the monitor lizards.

Yet nothing had prepared me for the most exciting encounter I have ever made to date. It happened a few months back. Helen and I had decided to live the dream (we just love to do that) and bring a bottle of chilled white wine with two glasses to the sungai. We were happily seated, Helen on a half sunken trunk and I in the flow, on the river’s bed, both holding our glass and for once, quiet, when I sensed a black animal had just come to my side and dived in the water next to me. Helen had seen it too, then it emerged right in front of us, a large black shiny mammal with a long tail. It was off again in a flash and up on the dam when it turned around and briefly looked at the both of us. By then our jaws had literally dropped (but we were still holding our glass!) as we were staring at a magnificent otter that left us in a state of shock when it finally dived again and disappeared behind the dam.

I like to think of all my pets and all the free flying, climbing, swimming, crawling or lurking creatures that live and thrive on our property as my companions, the companions of Ko Ko Wangi. They certainly keep me under a charm and with them around loneliness simply cannot exist; and when the evening comes as Big Bird joins the hundreds of egrets that fly back in arrow formations to only they know where for the night, I know without the shadow of a doubt that tonight will be very noisy and tomorrow will be business as usual for the permanent residents, patrolling and barking, climbing up and down fruit trees, building nests or fishing, as I’ll be keeping an eye on them while doing my own things.

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TRIBUTE TO CASSIUS BONUS DU BABA AU RHUM,

he never let any snake out-smart him.

Just over 7 years ago, I adopted (from SSPCA) a large absolutely pitiful dog that could hardly manage to carry the skin that hanged on his bones. He also had a “funny” right eye, sunken into its orbit really. Later, when he allowed me to caress him, I found the shape of the tip of a shoe in his skull. When I brought him home, I realised that he did not know how to run; we all laughed, not to cry. He had never seen a cookie and didn’t know what to do with it; his nails were totally hollow for lack of calcium. He must have been one year old when he joined our family. It must have taken about half an hour for him and I to bond, then he took my hand in his mouth to walk with me the length of the terrace. As we stopped half way where we met Hubby, I suddenly felt a strange heat down my right leg! Our new dog had marked me and adopted me (thank God it happened only once!). Because I wanted him to be strong, because he was so good to me and because his coat was the color of a sponge cake topped with whipped cream, the pitiful dog became Cassius Bonus du Baba au Rhum. He also transformed into the alpha dog and ruled as the unchallenged king over our other dogs and all the dogs in the neighborhood really. Cassius left us last November after a long fight until his kidneys stopped functioning. We always knew he could not live a very long life like dear Carmen who died at 14, yet we are so happy that Cassius was able to spend all his 7 years with us feeling safe and happy protecting me always and giving me so much love.

Cassius Bonus du Baba au Rhum 2001?/2009