The North Borneo Railway

John and the train

I hadn't thought that I was a railway enthusiast before but I feel that I could become one if all train journeys were as lovely and picturesque as the train ride from Beaufort to Tenom. This railway was completed to Tenom in 1903 and runs closely along the Padas river. It was used mostly for transporting tobacco and rubber from the plantations down to the coast and of allowing the people to travel to their villages and markets. It has suffered periods of closure since its opening but in 1970 the steam engine was replaced by diesel locos and since then there have been the freight and the passenger Diesel Multiple Unit carriages which have remained unchanged. The line is often closed due to flooding and landslides but it is being upgraded and since the white- water rafter tourists are using the railway there has been more concern as to the safety issues!

 
  Susan, John and I drove to Beaufort and missed out the other section of railway from Kota Kinabalu and arrived in good time for the 1.30 departure to Tenom. We queued up and were very surprised to hear that the ticket was only 2.75 ringgit (about 50 p!). Susan was in charge of getting the seats by the window on the river side and before you knew it we were off. There were no other tourists except us and the train was full of people using it for some very short stops and others going all the way to Tenom with their shopping. It was charming and my photos do not do it justice. The Padas river is a very fast flowing river with many rapids and even though it hasn't rained for seven weeks it looked like it would be an exciting rafting experience and when the river is full I suspect it would be terrifying! We slowly rattled along taking in the amazing scenery and looking at the passengers and catching glimpses of peoples' lives as we trundled past.

A passenger descending with her shopping

 After about two and a half hours we arrived in Tenom and made our way to the Orchid Hotel just across from the station where we booked in for the night. A very kind mentor based in Tenom gave us a quick tour of the views and sights of this sleepy town (also famous for it's coffee )in the Crocker range. We then had our meal, a few beers and then went to bed so that we could be up in time for the 7.30 am departure. The return journey was much the same except that we had a group of "Young Farmers" from near Ranau who were going to do the white - water rafting and were all very excited. So I wish I could describe the scenes eloquently like Thomas Wolfe (1935) in Of Time and the River which Lisa had to translate into French this week for her exam, but I'm afraid I can't. It was however a very enjoyable and cheap two day outing that I highly recommend!

Happy Saint Patrick's and Good Craic with Friends

Susan took this to commemorate the occasion!

 Yes this is my two hundredth blog post! I'm not sure what to say on such a momentous occasion so best not to say anything! I can't believe that I have written so many times and just be thankful that I didn't start a daily blog. I have just had a quick look at the statistics and 1,281 people read my blog last month and since I started in July 2011, 32,687 people have looked at Fiona in Borneo which all seems amazing as the majority are people I don't know. Most of the people reading the blog at the moment are either from United Kingdom or Malaysia but last year the majority were from the United States and there are very few faithful followers left in France now.

Susan and John with the invisible Mount Kinabalu behind

So enough of boring statistics and on to the news of the week. On Friday evening my school friend, Susan Woods and her partner John arrived in Sabah. We started out in Primary 1 together at the age of 5, continued on to secondary school  and  have kept in touch on and off for over 50 years but haven't seen each other since Mummy died about 6 years ago. Susan is an intrepid traveller who likes to escape the Northern Ireland winters by travelling around continents that specialise in sunshine and warmth during the dreaded months. Our lives have been quite different in many ways and there seem to be lots of gaps about each other's lives that we don't know so there has been lots of chat, craic (an Irish expression) and reminiscing about school days. John also went to the same school but was that much  older than us so I didn't remember him, although his baby brother Colin was in our class. I do think it is one of those amazing parts of the brain that we can remember so much from certain times of our lives. Susan remembers all sorts of things from Friends' School Lisburn days that again has opened up rooms of memories that have been locked away.

Another amazing sunset

 Since starting that post we have headed up the mountain to Ranau and Slagon Homestay and Susan is identifying places that she has seen and read about in my blog. As always it is lovely seeing people up here and we went for a lovely walk in the padi fields yesterday. I feel like crying when the children still recognise me.

Threshing the rice in Ranau

By complete coincidence Anna and Mike White plus parents are staying here tonight too. So since it is St Patrick's day we are going to celebrate our Irish heritage with a bottle of Jameson's and some guinness. Happy St Patrick's Day!!
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The ELTDP Symposium 2015!!

Sunset on the river cruise

ELTDP Symposium 2015: https://youtu.be/pJimjjmQBOw via @YouTube
Enjoy the film that I have been involved in making.

It is all over and all of us on the very busy symposium committee are suffering from the adrenalin withdrawal symptoms now! It was a great success and I feel that all the teachers left feeling inspired, enthused and full of ideas to try in their classes. Our keynote speakers, Anji Maldarez, Jamie Keddie and Jim Scrivner, all from the UK , were really excellent and pitched their talks exactly right for their audience. The other workshops, presentations and creative displays were amazing and the teachers although really nervous at the beginning, soon gained their confidence and were really great.

  The exciting event for Anna and I, who have been working on the storybooks, was to actually hold the printed books in our hands and we both felt like crying! It has been such a last minute effort to get the books finished for the publisher and then they have been working flat out too to have them for the Symposium. Anyway they managed to sell lots and there was a lot of media and public interest in the illustrators who were flown from Sabah to be there. Jainal is already a published illustrator but Didi, a young man from the village of where the first parent workshop happened, had never left his area before, let alone fly and stay in a very fancy suite in the Hilton. It was rather overwhelming for him but he managed to do two sessions of book signing, talk to the VVIPs and press and cope with all the attention although I think he was longing to get back to his village and his water buffalo.

Didi and Jainal

One of the books!

There is talk of a book launch in Kuala Lumpur and an invite to present the storybook project at a conference in June and put forward a proposal to win some award..... so who knows what lies ahead!

Anji and Tricia

Happy education officers on the cruise

Keeping it going!

Countdown to the Symposium!!

Tuaran Police Station photo with the FBI!!

This is going to quite a short entry this week as I have got a few things to finish this evening in preparation for the Symposium and then tomorrow I set off to Kuching. The contents of my suitcase seem rather strange - there are 45 sarong "Miss World" sashes for the organising team, a banner, 3 pink and multicoloured wigs, a red clown nose, 4 pairs of large glasses - all for the photo booth and I haven't got round to thinking of my clothes yet! Anyway I'm sure it is going to be great and lots of fun but at the moment I'm feeling like there is a big exam ahead...

Lots of #itis ideas at the rehearsals this week

    On Friday I received a phonecall from the Education Department in Tuaran that I had to report to the police station with my passport. Off I went a little bit later than the 4 pm appointment and was ushered into the office with a policeman from the Special Branch or FBI (he told me) and answered all his questions about my address, job, emergency contact number etc. and then he asked me whether I had heard of ISIS to which I was able to reply to. He then told me that he had decided to assign two detectives to all the "orang putihs" in Tuaran so that we could contact them directly if we were in trouble. He then showed me into the next room where there was a big tea party in progress with 3 recently arrived American Fulbright students and the 3 mentors of Tuaran. The Special Branch had laid on cream cakes, banana bread, muffins, tea, coffee etc.and it was quite the jolliest visit to a police station that I have ever had. The final request of us was that we all posed outside the police station to remember the special day that 7 white people came to Tuaran Police Station! The nice thing about it was that we now have been introduced to the American girls and spent a lovely evening with them afterwards. Tuaran seems to me a very sleepy quiet town so I wonder what the Special Branch do with their days!?