Wilderness Weekend: The Ingai Report

Tiring. Exhausting. Long walk. Feet killing. Dehydrating. Scenic. Invigorating. Exciting. Exhilarating. Refreshing. Very green. Loving it. Well worth it. These were some of the things said by everyone who were on the working visit to Kuala Ingai and managed to reach the last waterfall.


We set off from Pengkalan Sungai Mau in Mukim Bukit Sawat, Belait after a brief breakfast stop in Sungai Liang. After enduring a 2-hour boat ride and numerous leg cramps, we reached our rest stop in Sukang. As we reached Sukang, words got around that one of the boats capsized 15 minutes after leaving Pengkalan Sungai Mau. The boat had hit a floating log and lost an engine and the rear half of the boat. Fortunately, all people onboard were safe. However, one of them had to withdraw from the trip as he had lost his bag, which held his personal belongings including mobile phones and an MP3 player.

After a quick lunch, we all set off for Kuala Ingai, Mukim Melilas. If we thought the first leg of the boatride was slow, this was even slower, especially with more floating logs and the low water level. There were a few times that we had to get off the boat as it had to pass under logs that had fallen across the river. During one of the stops, RunningDiva (one of the two ladies in the trip) managed to accidentally drop my camera bag into the water. I had put my camera in a water-tight zipper plastic bag, so my camera was safe. But yeah, I got me all worried and only picked up the courage to check if it had been spoilt when we eventually arrived at the base camp, almost 4 hours after we left Sukang.

The base camp in Kuala Ingai was not exactly Empire or even the Belalong camp. Nevertheless, everything was already made ready for us and it was as luxurious as we could have wished for. The initial party of Belait District people and army had prepared the site very well and they left us with nothing else to do to the camp site. The base camp consisted of a sleeping tent, with more than 40 beds arranged in 2 rows and a makeshift kitchen. Probably because they had not expected any lady to be in the party, there was no proper toilet/changing facility provided. The initial party had to be commended for their effort to quickly build the toilet/changing facility. As soon as we arrived, we chose our own 'bed' to sleep on and it apparently caused some problem initially as some of us ended up sleeping at their least favourite spot, like towards the end of the tent. So some shuffling had to be done, but still some people were not too happy, and they had to live with it! One of the first things that we did when we arrived there was to freshen up after spending the best part of the day travelling in a boat. Since there was no toilet facility, we decided to take a dip in the river. There was something about camping that brought out the unexpected from us. Some of us had not brought any swimming gear or even shorts, so had to resort taking a dip in the river in their underwears.

While waiting for dinner, we had some card games. I learnt to play this new game, called Bluff. Dinner was cooked by the District Office staff and consisted of canned sardines and pineapple cubes. When you were in the middle of the jungle, sardine became everyone's favourite dish! After the dinner, we had a briefing session led by the Penghulu of Mukim Labi. We were briefed on the long walk that we would have to do the following day and we were advised to sleep early, which we wisely followed. By 10pm that night, we were all sound asleep. Well, some of us were till one point when a certain person in our party snored loudly and apparently almost made someone to smack that person in frustration!

The next day breakfast consisted of bread and jam, boiled eggs and biscuits. For the expedition to the waterfalls (wasai) and hot springs, we were divided to groups, each led by an experienced guide. We set off almost immediately after breakfast. We walked through the forest floor, river streams, on logs that had been fell across the river so that we could walk on the logs to cross the river, up and down often muddy slopes and mud, and got bitten by numerous insects and the odd one or two leeches. The first destination, an abandoned camp site, was reached after a 2-hour walk. Immediately after that, we reach a natural rock formation called "Batu Melintang" which literally meant a rock that lied across the river. The rock actually separated a lake from the river. After a quick round of picture taking, we set off for the first hot spring which was reached after a 10-minute walk. The water was not actually hot; it was warmer than the river stream that flowed nearby. We then set off for the first wasai (waterfall). To reach the wasai, we had to walk for almost half an hour before reaching the top of a hill. We had to actually walk through a trail that branched off from the main walking trail at the top of the hill. However, the walk down the hill was actually worth it as we reached the wasai at the foot of the hill. The water flowed with a ferocious current and if one were to be carried off by the current, he would eventually drop into a lake some 10 metre below. The water was cold and refreshing. We all took a dip in the water and it took a lot of coaxing from one of our guides for us to leave for our next destination.

The next destination was a second hot spring. The water was warmer than the first one. Some of us had run out of water and we were encourage to refill our water bottles with the hot spring water. Needless to say, the water smelt unappetising and you could actually taste sulphur. I could not really stomach it but I had no other choice! The final leg of our walk took us for the ultimate destination, a taller waterfall and a cave on its top.

Arriving more than 4 hours after we set off at the base camp, we finally arrived at the final waterfall. The sound of the waterfall encouraged us in our remaining last gasps of breath to reach this wonderful place. Its breath-taking view was enough to make us drop our bags and run for the lake at the foot of the waterfall. The water was even more refreshing than the first waterfall. We could not resist the children in us to splash water to everyone and to just stand under the cascading water. We just could not care if our feet turned pale and became pruned! For afar the cascading water of the waterfall resembled the map of Brunei (you just have to use your imagination a bit!). The cave at the top of the waterfall led to another part of the waterfall, which was equally beautiful.

After a quick bite or two (of Take It chocolate bar, courtesy of the Belait District Office), we left the waterfall to return to our base camp. I thought the walk was faster, but someone in our group hurt his knee when he slipped on a muddy slope and this slowed down our pace a lot. On our return journey, we could not stop at any of the places that we visited earlier in the day as we tried to reach the base camp by sunset. On the final hour of the walk, it started to rain quite heavily and this slowed us down much further. The day was getting darker and the rain got heavier as our slow trek back to the base camp progressed further. I felt sorry for the person with the injured knee as he practically dragged his leg during the last hour of walking. When we reached the base camp, we were greeted by a flash of lightning and a thunderclap! I had mistaken it for someone's flash camera and was stopped dead on my tracks as the thunder roared above our heads. RunningDiva was startled by the lightning and thunder and for a second she looked lost and got rooted on her spot. We practically sreamed our heads off, telling her to make a run for our tent. As soon we reached the tent, we binged on any food that we could grab, just to give us back the energy that we had spent walking from early morning until late afternoon.

Dinner on that second night was simpler; canned chicken curry was served with mixed vegetable. We were so tired that we all slept by 9 o'clock that evening. We all agreed that it was probably the first time in a very long time that we slept really early on a Saturday night! That night someone else in the party took over the loudest snorer title! Also one of the two guys who slept next to me was mumbling something in his sleep.

The next day, we were treated to a more special breakfast of corned beef fried rice! The water level had rose overnight and it would ease our boat trip back to Pengkalan Sungai Mau very much. At one point, someone with Global Positioning System (GPS) told that we were going 5 times faster than the trip 2 days earlier. On the way back, we stopped by for a quick visit to the Melilas Long House. To reach the long house, we walked along a 700ft (~200m)-long wooden walkway. Most of the residents in this long house have converted to Islam. Considering more than five families with a total residents of more than 50 people lived in the long house, I found that the long house was really clean and very homey. During the visit, the residents kindly performed some traditional songs. They also made some preparations for our visits; hot drinks and traditional malay kuehs were served during our visit. I thought it was very thoughtful of them to do this and I appreciate what they had done for us.

Kicks with his tapau from the long house!

The rest of the boat trip did not go quietly. Almost one hour away from Pengkalan Sungai Mau, our boat stopped as it had run out of fuel. We thought that we might have to paddle back to Sungai Mau. Fortunately, there was a forest ranger boat behind us and the forest rangers had kindly 'loaned' some fuel. We finally reached Pengkalan Sungai Mau just after noon, more than 4 hours earlier than expected.

Picture shows RunningDiva cosying up to Kicks on the boatride back to home comfort.

Before setting off for the trip, we all confessed that we had no idea how we were going to do a "No. 2" in the absence of proper toilet facility. Somehow we all survived three days without going to the loo. I was pretty sure many of us made a visit to the loo once we got home.

If I were to take away few learning points from this trip, I would say:

1. Do not, I repeat, do not ever forget to bring water if you're going for a long walk.

2. Good friends are earned, not given.

3. Regardless of how green Brunei is at the moment, we should not rest on our laurels and forget about our forest.

4. Brunei has these natural beauty spots to offer and we shall not forget about them. At least try to visit them once in your life.

5. Let not surrender our green forest easily to development.

I am posting some pictures on this blog. I will post more as I get permission from the other photographers.