Miki's Survival Camp

I recently got the opportunity to visit Miki's Survival camp again in Kiau, if you are wondering where that is it is at the foothill of the world famous Kinabalu Mountain. Mt.Kinabalu standing at the height of 4095.2 meters above sea level, making it the highest mountain between the Himalayan and the Papua New Guinea. A Glimpse of Mt.Kinabalu

The adventure began with a spectacular view, walking on a side of a hill, fill with crops such as hills rice and pineapples on both sides. The walk or hiking will take you about 2 to 3 hours depending on your physical condition and camp location, passing trough rivers with bamboo bridges is an experience very few have encountered.

Bamboo or locally known as "Poring" is abundant here, Useful in every way.Just to name a few bamboo is made into drinking cups, floor, walls, roofs and its a very good fire wood.

Just in case you are in need drinking
water bamboo does provide you
with that as well.
Simply chipping the side of the bamboo and using one
of its branch as a straw.

Lunch is served on arrival at the campsite, you don't have to do your own cooking here, its simple food and yet very appetizing. Some visitors have commented that, back in the U.K people will pay good money in a good restaurant for the type of food we had at the campsite, yet here it was cook using firewood not even with a proper stove. I think Miki should open a restaurant in the U.K, just a thought. Haha.

After recovering from a good meal, there quite a few activities to be done here. Remember i mention about the uses of bamboo just now, we'll teach you how to make them and a few more. Ever fancy blowing a traditional blowpipe, that's here too. You need to be careful walking around the outer campsite area, the well camouflage traps is set up to catch anything from rats to Wild Boar, you'll just have to see it to believe it, its ingenious how these traps was made and set ups, everything they need, they just use from the forest.

After dinner we did a night walk around the camp grounds, we saw quite a few Frogs, insects and illumines mushroom. Here are some photos. But what interest me the most is......




This Little guy, I've seen some small frogs in my time but this one is ridiculously tiny. We found it by accident, well actually my friend found it. His name is Martin Boakes, was with me visiting Miki Survival Camp. While looking for insects and such he notice this odd looking piece of leaves stuck to another bigger greener leaf, and said "whats that, oh its a piece of leave?" i replied "yeah a piece of leave!! Oh......hang on........ it a FROG!!!" The tiniest, littlest frog i ever did see..here it is..

Thats Martin's pinky set right next to it as camparison.

Here a front profile of the Frog

Here's a side profile of the frog

We have identify it as a tree frog, which tree frog you say? i do not know.. I've done some looking up, ask a bunch of friend no one have ever seen this type before, some claim they've seen it but not with that pattern on its back. Its so tiny its almost impossible to take a good photo of it. I could be wrong but have we found a new species of frog? I told martin, Now, you found it so we'll call it "Martinii Kiauinssis" and I laugh...Ha ha.., Now I ask if there is anyone out there that know this frog proper name???? Please, please tell me..

After that interesting discovery, we chatted away the night in front of a burning campfire and had ourselves a good bottle of rice wine.

No postings!

Hi All,
I've been quite busy for the last few month on my guiding trips that i didn't do any tattoo work.
So i have yet to post anything, rest assured that, i will post something, not soon, at lest something.. LOL, catch ya later alligator!

The Making of the Tattoo

There are many ways of creating a tattoo. Some of the practices in olden days were risky, causing infections and maybe even death, but in the end the principle in making a tattoo in sterile environments is still the same: the skin is lightly pierced with one or several needles, and while the piercing takes place some type of ink is applied to the wound.

The piercing is done along the lines of the desired design, and it depends much the skills of the tattoo artist how the final result looks. In olden days the instrument to pierce was made from sharp bones, bamboo, rattan or shell, attached to a handle(woodden stick). The piercing was done using a mallet to fast and sharply hit the ‘needle’ at one end of the handle, and the simplest ink can be made very easily from soot and oil. Another local recipe (Rungus, northern Sabah) suggests pounding charcoal, mixing it with sugar cane water and straining it. A more sophisticated ink is made from boiled guava tree wood and the bark of mango tree in coconut water until black and thick. The mixture can be kept in a jar, and a few shards of iron, and tobacco may be added. This mixture is also applied to blacken teeth (Rungus, northern Sabah).

Once the design is completed, which may be anything from a few minutes to a few hours, the wound is left to heal. Generally this should be within a few days: the skin peels off like after sunburn, and under the new skin personal body art appears…

The picture on your right is a sample of modern day tattoo machine (gun). The on the left is the usual commercial instruments whereby the one on the right is a home made machine. To Be Continued...

St Michael...

Click on Pic for a Larger View

This is a work in progress, the person requested a light black an gray work of St.Michael. Due to its size, I estimated that it'll take about 4 or 5 tattoo session. Two session has passed, It'll be much faster actually, if he wasn't being such a big baby about the pain...hahahah....Derrick, that's his name, is a good friend of mine. We grew up together in the village, going to school together, play in the field, collecting rubber seed in the forrest, basically he is one of or was my best childhood friend. I moved away and after...mmmm.. i think 15-18 years, I'm back to the village, and got reunited back with my old friend..and hence he requested this of me...

Tattoos in Borneo

Borneo has been inhabited by modern man for at least the past 40,000 years, maybe even longer and may have played a yet to ascertain but crucial role in the development of modern man. As with many parts of the Austronesian world, the people of Borneo have taken the tattoo to aesthetic heights, and they played always a very important role in social and religious life.

Well preserved for thousands of years, Borneo tattoos are testimony of living traditions, proud cultures and a turbulent history intercepted by fierce tribal wars and headhunting. Though being the third largest island in the world, little was know of Borneo until the Second World War. And it is only now that certain states – Borneo is divided into Kalimantan (Indonesia, ca 73% of the island), Sabah and Sarawak (Malaysian Borneo, ca 26% of the island) and Brunei Darussalam (less than one percent of the island) – undertake serious efforts to conserve its ancient and ever so rich and diverse heritage. Because even 50 years ago many tribes in the hilly and rather inhospitable terrain of Borneo lived so far away from what is called the civilised world that they could maintain, almost in self-sufficiency, their age old traditional life, centred around rice and an intricate animistic belief system. It is only with the rapid development of the jungle – the generous logging by state and private firms for short term profits dislocating entire tribes from their ancestral land and subsequently pushing them hard into a consumer society so alien to them – that many aspects of the traditional life are getting lost. Like forest, animals and so much wisdom, tattooing was certainly also about to disappear. But then, in Sarawak, undaunted artist-explorers found the most outstanding tattoos, and their designs soared to world fame. This has entailed more detailed studies in traditional tribal design, and even the local people in Sarawak are now proud of their cultural heritage and preserve it where they can. It may not be continued for the same reasons as it has been in their way of life of old, but the tradition is maintained, and time honoured. ....TO BE CONTINUED!!