Motosikal Diary: Batang Ai

I have seen...

...what man creates here in Malaysia.
I have stand in front of Petronas Twin Towers and admired how it
touches skies in Kuala Lumpur. I have walked around Historical
Town in Malacca and see things from man past. I have smelled
the flavors of pure green tea plantations in Cameron Highlands
and tasted serenity of calm atmosphere.

All of those are made by man, but here in Sarawak man created
something much more unbelievable. Man created a huge
water surface - giant lake between hills that looks perfectly
natural. In 1985, a dam was completed and now
Batang Ai is one of the most fascinating scenery in Borneo.

I was there with a small production team for
a television documentary program called
'Motosikal'.
For more info click here

First try

"I tell you, it is beautiful!
Believe me, Alex*. You even
can find Hilton Resort in
the middle of jungles
there!" - Jackson* keeps
telling me.

The best way of all is to
explore it. Hence,
we formed two groups -
the production team
jumps into Toyota Hilux,
Boy* and I use
a motorcycle. The trip
was short, only 15
kilometers and
surprisingly fine condition
of the road we traveled. When we arrived at the destination, we were very attracted by how magnificent of the lake is. Inside, I was shouting:

"It is so damn beautiful!"

It was one of those moments, beyond words, felt so deeply from
the bottom of my heart.

Jackson was right, as no one else. No doubt, Batang Ai truly is one amazing landscape and I barely believe that men are capable of creating it! As we standing near the shore of the lake, vividly it would reflect its dark green color in nature. Deep underneath the surface, it crosses path with the sunlight, the lake would give us another magical color of dark blue. Staring at it, it seems like Batang Ai is inviting us to release ourselves and enjoy its warm water. Unfortunately, time is the luxury that we do not have.



Everyone seems to know what to do at that time. Chang* starts preparing equipments. Felix* is too occupied making boat arrangement. Jackson is finding the spot to park the car.
Meanwhile, Boy and I wait patiently for them getting ready.Our schedule of today is to have shooting of the lake on a boat ride.

When everything almost ready, unfortunately, problems come. The boatman can not give us a ride and he need to leave immediately because his relative suddenly passed away. After awhile is started to rain. I noticed Chang is packicng his camera and I realized we have to leave. Felix made a decision we will come back the next day.

Boat ride

Next day we ride on a not very stable long boat. So, we are not able to move around much. All of us, including a local guide, have to sit still. The speed of the boat was rather fast and quite often we experienced water splashes. I was worried about my small pocket camera getting wet but Chang, the man with the giant camera is going through more challenging time than me. I admired him that he has such great patience of take good care his own belongings because I do not, the camera fell down on the boat, broken eventually.

“It can take 24 hours to make a circle around this lake” our guide, an Iban, told us that.

The lake is really huge in scale. At times, I would though we have reached the end of it but in actual fact I was wrong. Even after few hours of trip, I was not sure where are we. Anyway, it is better to be in the middle than on the edge, right?



We glide through the surface of the lake here and there; we took some shoot on the dam and the view from the boat. We had a lot of fun and we made it a show. It maybe a work for the production team but for me it was an adventure.

As results of trip - one broken camera(mine), two times at lake(planned only one), three injured toes(only mine), four sunburn faces(except Felix), five tired bodies(everyone), but still fresh souls.

Job is done.


Author's note

Felix - producer
Boy(Danny Koo) - host
Jackson - assistant producer
Chang - cameraman
Alex(me) - guest

Cover picture - Danny with helmet

See also...

Dark Surface H.O.B. GALLERY
Motosikal 2.0 ver H.O.B. GALLERY

Links

www.astro.com.my/motosikal Motosikal at ASTRO