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I woke up and packed my things before heading to breakfast with Andy. It was another great meal and we just kind of hung out, waiting to get picked up at 10. I was feeling excited to get into the Parks, but I was also still a little nervous because I did not know what to expect. However, after Paul picked us up and we made the hour long drive to Inobong Substation in Crocker Range Park, pretty much all of the nervousness went away. The Substation overlooks both Kota Kinabalu and Ocean to the West. To the North are rugged hills that are constantly being swept over with clouds. It’s a beautiful place. 

When we arrived, we met with Mr Pius, who is in charge of the Substation. We went into the office to look at maps and posters and discuss both the region of Penampang, which Inobong Substation is within, and also Crocker Range Park as a whole. One thing that Andy and I found really interesting was that the park was divided into three zones of usage. Along the periphery of park is land used by villages and people who live there. Within that is a buffer zone which separates the periphery from the core zones. I cannot remember the exact names of the zones but you get the idea. We thought that this is a great way to manage the park because it allows for land use, while creating a large pocket of land that will remain pristine.

After Discussing with Paul and Pius we were brought to our little lodge called Chalet Tobobon that contains a small kitchen, bathroom, two bedrooms, and a kind of little living room. I had gotten it wrong. We would not have our orientation on this day, Saturday the 17th, but will instead have it on Monday the 19th. So we had a whole day and a half of free time to explore around Inobong. After we dropped our stuff in the room, we decided to do a short hike down to a waterfall. My first hike in the jungle! Although it was only about a kilometer in total and we got out of there in a hurry because it started to downpour it did not disappoint. You can hear so many birds and insects, but you can see so little because of how thick it is. The waterfall, although not massive, was beautiful. The stream forces the jungle to open up and creates a tunnel through the vegetation.  After the waterfall, we continued on but turned around shortly because of the rain. So we came back to the chalet, ate some lunch and waited for the rain to die down, then went back out to finish the short trail. It was a good little hike, but we were shocked to find out that some leeches had found away to attach to our legs and feet. I think we both only had two, but the places that they attached just would not stop bleeding! Honestly it was kind of comical, but I guess we will have to keep leeches in mind for the future. After that little ordeal we went to sit on the porch of what is called the mini hut, that offers the views of the city and ocean. We had just missed the sunset, but did see what we think were Wreathed Hornbills flying in the distance. While it got darker, it also got louder. Some birds were making noise, but it was hard to hear anything over the insects.  As Andy and I walked back, it felt like we had to almost yell to talk to each other if we were further than 20 feet apart. Once we got back I took a nice cold shower and made some tea. I started to read but only made it so far before I started to doze off, so I went to sleep around 9.

The next morning I woke up around 5 and took a short little walk down the road to look around.  The insects were still pretty loud, but the birds were starting to pick up. I didn’t walk around very long, and came back to the chalet to make some calls home. After that Andy and I decided to go back to the porch and look for some birds. We saw some, including a yellow rumped flower pecker which was beautiful, but mainly enjoyed the cool morning breeze. Then, around 9am we decided to do little longer hike on a trail called the Salt Trail. The Salt Trail is a 40km backpacking trail and the trailhead is essentially out our front door. We started and for the first whole kilometer we went up. This hike was different from the day before because we were along a ridge and gained elevation for most of it. There was a nice breeze and we got an occasional view through the trees. We went out about 3.5 km before eating a snack and turning around. Once again we heard a lot, but saw very little. Hiking in this setting is going to take some getting used to. The heat and humidity, combined with lots of incline leaves you drenched in sweat before you make it half a kilometer. As long as I remember to drink lots of water there will be no issues.

We finished the hike around noon, and for the next few hours we just kind of hung out.  Ate some food, read a little bit, and had a shower where I multitasked and did some laundry as well.  Around 2:30, we decided to go back to the porch to sit and look for birds again. This time we saw a lot of cool birds, including a Scarlett Minivet, Red-Billed Malkoha, and my favorite, a Blue Throated Bee Eater, which has way more colors than just blue. We ended up staying until the sunset around 6:30 before heading back to clean up a little and get ready for our orientation in the morning.

I woke up around 5am, packed my things, and made some phone calls home. We made our way down to the hut around 8am and people started to show up. Paul arrived with Mr. Ludi Apin, the Director of Sustainability for Sabah Parks. Mr. Ludi was very fun and easy to talk to, and was the one who ran the meeting. He covered a lot about the parks. Many of them are UNESCO World Heritage Sites and they contain both terrestrial and marine environments. Throughout our internship we will spend time in Crocker Range Park, the largest of the terrestrial parks, Pulau Tiga park, a marine park where we will learn about marine enforcement, and Kinabalu Park. Kinabalu park seems to be the signature park in Sabah because it contains Mount Kinabalu, a 4,000 meter peak with dagger like summits that penetrate out of the jungle. During our fifth week here we will get the opportunity to take the two day trek to the top and I think we are both really looking forward to that. After discussing some details of the coming weeks we said goodbye to Paul and Mr. Ludi and began the drive to the Keningau Office or Crocker Range Park, about 2 hours southeast of Inobong. About a half hour in we stopped for lunch and did some last minute grocery shopping. After driving south for another half hour or so we turned east and drove into a large valley before taking a turn and starting the climb up into the mountains. It was a fast, curvy, steep climb that would have had younger me asking to pull over so that I could throw up. When we reached higher elevations we saw monkeys walking on the side of the road and sitting on guard rails. This was my first time seeing monkeys in the wild and I was so excited to see them. When we arrived at the office we met with Mr. Billie and a few others before we were taken to the Crocker Range Rest House where we will stay for the night. It is similar to the chalet we had been staying in, but it is a little bit larger. After getting settled in, they came back to pick us up and take us to the Visitor/Nature Center. There we met with Mr. Berry and were shown around the Center and its surrounding trails.  Everyone was so kind and fun to talk to, and it was a lot of fun walking around with them. On our walk, we saw many things, but the one thing that stood out to me were all the fern trees. Literal ferns that are about 30 feet tall. I honestly had no idea that such a thing existed, and they blew my mind a little bit.

After our walk we returned back to the Rest House where we ate, read, and just hung out. There is good service here so I am taking advantage of the opportunity to make this post. Tomorrow morning Andy and I will be splitting up, most likely for the next four weeks, and there is no guarantee of having service or Wi-Fi for at least the next week. Tomorrow I will be heading to Control Post Malidang here in Crocker Range where I will be focusing on the inventory of community uses in the area. That is all that I know for now, but I will continue to write, and post again when I get the chance.

Hello from Kota Kinabalu. I won’t lie the 12-hour flight to Taiwan was a little brutal. Falling asleep right away only to be woken up at 3am to eat a full meal wasn’t a great start for me, but once we made it to Taiwan it was pretty much smooth sailing. The airport there was really cool, and we had a good meal in the food court. The 5-hour flight to Kuala Lumpur was easy, but that airport was confusing to us and the 1 hour layover there almost caused us to miss our flight, but we made it! The 2 hour flight to Kota Kinabalu turned into about three hours because there was some wind and rain preventing us from landing right away. Once we landed we were able to quickly get our bags and we were greeted by Mr. Paul Imbun from Sabah Parks.

Paul picked us up from the airport and took us to our hotel where we checked in, dropped our bags, then went to get a coffee with him.

Paul is really nice and easy to talk to. He made us feel welcome and gave us a good idea of what to expect for the upcoming weeks. After having coffee, we made plans to meet back up with Paul at 10 am for him to show us around a little bit.

Andy and I woke up around 7am this morning and then went down to have the hotel breakfast. It was by far the best hotel breakfast that I have ever had. They had everything. Eggs, sausage, pancakes, fruit, but also fried rice, noodles, chicken, and lots of veggies. It was pretty different to us, but Paul said that these types of foods are normal for breakfast here.

Once we finished breakfast and Paul arrived, we walked to a mall and exchanged some US Dollars for the local currency, Malaysian Ringgits. After that we walked to a fish market that is right on the water. It was pretty wild. The diversity of seafood that was being sold was crazy. I saw probably the largest shrimp and lobster that I have ever seen in my life, but also colorful parrotfish, some pretty large tuna, and a whole bunch of other things. After that we walked around some other nearby markets that had just about everything. I really enjoyed this, and it was cool to see all of the different products that people had to offer

After visiting the markets, we got in the truck with Paul and headed to the Sabah Parks Museum. The main part of the museum was closed for renovations, but we were able to meet with the curator and another worker who showed us their collection of specimens. The diversity of specimens that they had kind of blew my mind. They had everything. We spent probably an hour in that room looking at everything and they were kind enough to answer any questions that we had. I am so grateful to have had that experience.

After we left the museum, Paul drove Andy and I to go get some lunch. I do not know exactly how to explain the place other than a kind of large, outdoor food court, with a lot of different vendors. It was hard to know what to get, so Andy and I copied Paul’s order of a kind of Chinese soup with noodles, chicken, and egg. It was delicious. From there, Paul drove us back to hotel where Andy and I planned on taking a short nap, before heading to the supermarket to get our food for the upcoming week. Instead, we both accidentally slept for about 5 hours, and the supermarket was closed. But Paul had told us about a night market nearby, so went to check that out. It was massive! There was live music in probably 5 different places, hundreds of vendors, and luckily a 24-hour supermarket where we were able to do our shopping. Thank God.

Tomorrow, Paul is picking us up at 10am to head to Inobong Station, where we will be briefed and have a kind of orientation. I am looking forward to heading into the parks and getting started!

As I am writing this, it is 11:15 PT at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and I am waiting to board my flight at 1:50 am. My friend Andy and I left the Columbus Airport at 6:30 ET and are about halfway through our layover. From here we will take a nice long flight across the Pacific to Taiwan, before heading to Kuala Lumpur and ultimately Kota Kinabalu in the Malaysian Province of Sabah. Sabah will be where we conduct our summer internship for the next six weeks with Sabah Parks. We will be working in conservation in various ways although a lot of the details of the trip are still largely unknown. But here is what we do know:

Sabah is located on the northern part of the Island of Borneo. It is renowned for its pristine wilderness and biodiversity. We will be interning with Sabah Parks, which vary in type and size, but from what I have gathered are all a kind of National Park. The first four weeks of the internship will each be spent in a different park, each with a unique focus. The last two weeks of the internship are dedicated to a personal project. I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity for a few reasons. The first reason is that this is truly a trip of firsts for me. I have not travelled out of the country since I was about 10 years old, and even then, I have only been to Canada and Mexico. I have been taking Indonesian language classes the past two semesters at OU (The internship was originally going to be in Indonesia, but Indonesian and Malay languages are similar lol) and I am really looking forward to all of the new culture that I will get to experience. The second reason is the location. Malaysia, specifically Sabah, is a place known for its biodiversity and natural beauty. Not to sound too cringey, but I live for this kind of stuff. Rainforest and tropical environments are something I’ve always wanted to experience but have never had the opportunity to. The third reason is that I get to experience all of this with Andy. I met Andy on an internship in Maryland, the summer after our freshman year and have been good friends with him ever since. He is a BIOS major with a track in ecology and evolutionary biology, similar to my Wildlife and Conservation Biology major. He has a lot of experience travelling around the world, something that I am very grateful for with my little experience.

To put it all simply, I get to learn about global conservation in a new place, with new cultures, with a great friend. This is an opportunity that I could not have dreamed of when I first came to school. I am quite honestly looking forward to everything.

By the time that this summer is over, I want to be able to look back and know that I took full advantage of this opportunity. I am sure that there will be bumps in the road, but that’s part of it, right? Just more opportunities to learn.

As the summer goes on, I will post every couple of days. I know that there was a lot of rambling here, but it is 3 am Ohio time and this blog is also new to me. So we will see how it goes!