1/11/2017 0 Comments Beyond greenery - KBFSCOur Biology students had once again embarked on their field trip at KBFSC last September, 2017. Below is the article written by our very own student, Ellyna Alus sharing her experiences! Our trip to the Kuala Belalong Field Studies Centre was no leisurely excursion. Being a trip organised annually, our fellow participants themselves have heard bits and hints of it from our seniors—Even earlier in the year, it’s been periodically mentioned by our tutors and lecturers; undoubtedly, their beaming excitement had caught up to us and for months, we’ve looked forward to the official announcement of the trip. Our lecturers had received an overwhelming response over the trip once it was announced; students were awed over the generously subsidised fee, and by then, there had already been a race amongst the students wanting to win a spot for themselves. Only 18 participants were allowed for this trip along with three supervising teachers.
It was a wholesome four days and three nights ‘expedition’, to an extent—like a journey, beyond expectations, and very much—absolutely—fulfilling. A journey into the wild and strange, into that of new sceneries, and a degree of greenery beyond what even regular Bruneians see on an average day. The first strange experience had been the temuai (long boat) ride to the field studies centre. There was an open sky over us, the tallest of trees shooting out as if to penetrate the sky. We couldn’t tell whether or not the water under us was shallow or deep, and with all the participating students being girls, admittingly—most of us had been fairly iffy about getting ourselves wet; especially when the temuais were being navigated through the rapids. 45 minutes into the ‘true adventure’ and already an adventure! Arriving at the KBFSC, we hadn’t known what to expect—Everything was a whole lot more spacious than what the lot of us had been expecting. I’ve never gotten used to a foreign environment so easily—not when it almost felt like a home! There were so many things to be in awe of—For one, we’ve never seen this much green, and two, I assume that it’s going to be fair to say that many among us were very fascinated by the sight and sound of the flowing river right from our balcony. Shortly after our arrival, we were introduced to the three figures we’ll be seeing often from there on. Teddy, Ms. Rosie, and Dr. Salmah were representatives from UBD who were in charge of the centre, as well as the ones in charge of our whole batch. The ice-breaking session that followed after the briefing involved the students’ introductions of themselves, along with the ultimately literally purposeful question; ‘What is your purpose for participating in this excursion?’ To gain new experiences, most said. To learn something new, almost everyone said. To admire nature, some said. To discover, everyone concluded. We came as inexperienced students, and little of what we’ve seen and encountered there could be any less short of an actual discovery to us. Amongst us, there were often remarks raised here and there in between our walks through the jungle exclaiming; ‘Hey, isn’t this featured in one of our textbooks?’, and some occasionally excited ‘I’ve always wanted to see this!’ The foreign environment, our exceptionally beautiful surroundings, this was the second strange experience; Of course, in all its’ beauty, nature does not permit anyone to simply approach her without a fair number of challenges here and there. Walks uphill, rough terrains—our instructors had warned us over and over again not to underestimate our dear mother forest. Plus, fair to say, some of the tasks we’ve been assigned with were not your regular science projects (and clearly, we couldn’t just search our data up online so perhaps, this will provide a better insight to where our very raw data had originated from.) I repeat, our trip was no leisurely excursion! However, we were alien to the concept of having the means to fully indulge in nature at its’ purest and untouched form, and towards the end, it was this concept that we mainly focused on—Worthy to note that our morning alarms may be some of the rarest sounds to any city folk; undisturbed by sirens, or the engines of dashing motorbikes that we’ve all gotten plenty used to. Besides the sound of the flowing river nearby, we wake up serenely to the birds and monkeys making their calls in the wild.
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