PRODUCT UPDATE

BB 18 Ultimate Experience (12 days)

Another new value package which combines an assortment of great destinations in Borneo. Bandar Seri Begawan will never fail to impress you with its history, heritage, religion, culture and daily living of the local people. For nature lovers, the visit to Ulu Temburong National Park is definitely the highlight, with opportunity to see a wide variety of insects, flora and fauna. Climb and walk across hanging bridges with 360° surround view of the green lush rainforest is one of the best activities you get to try.

Cross to neighboring country via flight to reach , . New sets of adventurous tours await you as you begin with a visit to Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park and best of all, making it to the renowned tip of Borneo in . Here, you can enjoy the breathtaking scenery of finest beaches in Borneo plus, a chance to get up close and personal with the local Rungus people by staying in a longhouse and trying as much fun cultural activities as you can. Proceed to , Malaysia’s first World Heritage Site to observe the wide array of natural attractions including exotic flora and fauna. Continue your journey to the East Coast where the best wildlife sightings experience awaits you. Join a guided Sepilok orang utans tour in before we depart to Sukau by boat journey to reach our multi-international awards winner, Sukau Rainforest Lodge in Lower Kinabatangan. It will be your closest encounter with exotic wildlife at their on cruises, an environment-friendly tour with minimal impact on the wildlife and their .

More details on BB18 are available at http://www.borneoecotours.com/tours_view.cfm?THE_ID=52 .

Susan Soong ~ Assistant General Manager

Sounds like a familiar name? Susan Soong is one of the household names in Borneo Eco Tours (BET). Started her career in 1993 as a secretary, Susan’s responsibilities spanned to operation and reservation. Her abilities to run clerical, operation and reservation tasks earned her a promotion to the post of Administration and Personnel Manager in 1996. Susan again moved up in rank to the post of Assistant General Manager in 2003 and in 2004, she was also appointed as the General Manager of Borneo Backpackers, a budget accommodation run by Borneo Eco Tours.

Susan’s motto is simple yet positive, “I can!” Coupled with that, her personal mission statement is “Be inspired to impact and influence life”. Her strong mission is one of the key factors that built up Susan’s strong leadership skill in Borneo Eco Tours and Borneo Backpackers. Susan’s comment on the current responsibilities she shoulders:

“Apart from daily managerial task, I assist in marketing, sales and to ensure office reservation system run smoothly. I enjoy imparting my knowledge and skills and help to 1 train, motivate and encourage staff so that they too will sharpen and maximize their strength”, Susan said.

Being in the company for more than a decade, Susan is happy to share about her observation on the changes that took place. “The capacity of the company has grown drastically. We started as a small scale company but now, we are expanding at an incredible rate due to rapid increase of tourists’ arrival. I have also noticed that our style of recruitment has changed. We were previously focusing more on work capability, but we are now looking for positive working attitude of employees. This has made a big impact on our services, which is also due to our regular in-house personal development training”, added Susan.

To be excellent in service, Susan believes that proper and regular training is the most important factor that shapes the employees’ working attitude. Other than that, it is important that each staff could serve with the heart of excellence, passion, joy and not just out of obligation. “Personally, I enjoy sharing and teaching the juniors. I also love to analyze in order to continuously improve and enhance our system and the overall efficiency of the operation”, Susan said.

Susan has high hope for Borneo Eco Tours in the future. She believes BET will continue to grow in size and business thus expanding job opportunities for the local community while existing staff will achieve further career advancement. “In our quest to be on par with other international companies, I see that we need to continuously focus on staff development training and also to upgrade our infrastructures from time to time. Only with that, we can raise our standard in the face of the ever changing environment. Apart from that, it’s important for BET to play a bigger role in conservation and sharing the economic benefits with the local community through various environment and community projects.

Leaving work aside, Susan prefers to do traveling during free time. “Traveling is a great way to gain extra knowledge especially on different culture aspects and ways of life. It’s been my passion to travel and while working in tourism industry, traveling will keep me updated of the many things we could practice and emulate here”, Susan summed up.

In Memory of Mr. Kari bin Ongong

Mr. Kari bin Ongong is a legendary name in the history of Sukau Rainforest Lodge. Mr. Kari in his 70’s had just passed away on the 6 th June 2007 due to chronic pneumonia, leaving many monumental memories for both Sukau Rainforest Lodge and Borneo Eco Tours. To know more about this special individual, Borneo eZone dedicates this special column to him in remembrance of his sacrifice and contribution toward part of the success of this world renowned ecolodge.

The contribution of Mr. Kari bin Ongong to Sukau Rainforest Lodge (SRL) is immense. Mr. Kari, an (The People of River who lives along the ) was initially the land owner of the seven acre site of Sukau Rainforest Lodge.

When Lodge owner Mr. Albert Teo was looking for a piece of land to build the lodge in 1994, Mr. Kari offered to sell the land to him - against the local tradition. “I sold the land after we discussed the benefit from selling of the land. I decided that is best to sell off the land with the conditions that my children and grandchildren are given the opportunity to work in the lodge and that when a boat charter is required, our boats will be given priority before the others’, Kari said.

Kari was initially severely criticized by his neighbors and relatives for selling his land to the lodge. The villagers berated him and questioned his judgment, but Kari knew that the land was of little use if left idle. He felt he could create a better future for his family and allowed his grandchildren to continue their education if he sold the land and let it be used for the ecolodge. Initially, the villagers had looked down upon him but his move was proven right as his family members were employed and obtained the rights to conduct river cruises for Borneo Eco Tours’ clients. In view of Kari’s sacrifice, priority is always given to him and his family members for employment opportunities and boat charters. 2

According to Mr. Kari, Sukau Rainforest Lodge provides employment opportunities and side incomes from the sale of the locally produced food such as fish, prawns, vegetable as well as by doing odd jobs in SRL such as repairing the jetty and sundeck, extending the staff quarters, making boats, supplying timber and engaging boats for river cruises.

“I am particularly happy to see that the lodge is engaging locals from this area, apart from my children and relatives, to work in the lodge. The lodge is benefiting the locals so it shows I did not make the wrong decision when I sold the land to the company”, added Kari. As of April 2007, Sukau Rainforest Lodge employs 27 full time and part-time staff and 85% are locals.

In January 2001, a boardwalk linking Melapi Jetty to the main building was constructed and named ‘Kari Boardwalk’. In addition, we also dedicate room no. 3 to Kari in recognition of his significant contribution to our conservation and community projects. Mr. Kari’s profile also can be viewed in ‘Conservation Fellows’ segment: http://www.sukau.com/public/con_per.asp

INFO ZONE

Kudat: The Tip of Borneo

Kudat is a small town on the coast of the northernmost part of Sabah, approximately 190 kilometers north of Kota Kinabalu. Blessed with awesome beaches, Kudat is one of the must visit place when you touch down to Sabah. Further to the north, we will reach the much acclaimed “Tip of Borneo”, akin to Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. It offers the picturesque view of South China Sea meeting the . The protruding land point is also called “Pompod Tana Sabpang Mangazou” in the local Rungus language or “Tanjung Simpang Mengayau” in Bahasa Malaysia.

Being the only place where longhouses are available in , Kudat deserves to be called ‘the Land of the Last Longhouses in Sabah’. Inhabited by the local Rungus community which spans generations, the longhouses are scattered in several villages around Kudat. Visiting the Rungus longhouse is a great experience for many tourists. It is in the longhouses that one can experience the authentic village lifestyle and taste their healthy basic foods. These traditional longhouses are reducing in number as the years go by, partly because of the effect of modernization. Other longhouses now standing in some villages are modernly built by Government agencies with government allocations.

The Rungus are the earliest aboriginal inhabitants of North Borneo. They are the last bastion of cultural authenticity and until now they have maintained their traditional culture and values, farming traditions and village life. Most outstanding are their traditional longhouses and their consummate skills in making handicraft. They are humble, courteous and innocent-looking especially the older generation in the villages. They now numbers around 150,000 around Sabah especially on the northern part of Sabah, although some young Rungus people are in West Malaysia now.

Borneo Eco Tours runs 2 days 1 night tours to Kudat. For more details, please visit: http://www.borneoecotours.com/tours_view.cfm?THE_ID=11

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HAPPENING

Mid Year Gathering in Sukau

Borneo Eco Tours (BET) staff of Kota Kinabalu enjoyed fun time in Sukau when they gathered some 300 kilometers away in Sukau to celebrate Mid Year Gathering. Apart from relaxing in the wild, the staff gets to learn more about Sukau and its biodiversity-rich surroundings. Among others, the staff was able to do river cruises, join jungle trekking, plant trees in Kinabatangan Wildlife Corridor Regeneration Program (KWICORP) and learn jungle ecology through Winston’s famous boardwalk tour along the 1500 feet long covered Hornbill Boardwalk. It was truly an amazing experience particularly for new staff as this gathering gives them an insight into the operation of an ecolodge and best of all, meeting fellow colleagues who are working in similar field at Sukau and Sandakan.

Pix: Naturalist Winston conducting boardwalk tour

“WOW!!! 6 orangs in the wild, including a mama & a baby. Len got a pic of a jungle cat on his night boat ride. Except for the humidity it was perfect. Borneo Eco was wonderful to us. The kids couldn't take the heat & humidity of the Danum so we were able to add to Sepilok & K.K. Sukau was so beautiful & the boat rides were always full of surprises. The birthday party was just perfect. We all had a wonderful time. We saw a mature male at Sepilok who put on quite a show for us. Having the extra day at K. K. was great for the kids & for us to do some shopping. All in all, it was an experience we will never forget. Everyone was great, especially Saat, the guide we had after the Danum Valley. Thank you for making this trip possible”. Best regards, Arden Zalman Borneo Eco Tours and Sukau Rainforest Lodge arranged a surprise birthday party for 8-year old Jessie Zalman who was traveling with Arden on 25 th May 2007.

4 IN THE NEWS:

4th Borneo Tourism Conference (11-13th September 2007)

Albert Teo and Professor Ross Dowling of Edith Cowan University, Perth are convening the 4 th Borneo Tourism Conference on behalf of Tourism Board from 11-13 th September 2007 in Kuching. Five international speakers will be presenting keynotes including Hector Ceballos-Lascurain (Emerging trends in global ecotourism), Mark Exeter (Destination development and branding), Jill Henry (Doing business in Borneo), Costa Christ (Sustainable tourism: New trends and opportunities), Ross Dowling (The phenomenal growth of cruise ship tourism).

The five speakers will also be conducting a three hours professional development workshop on day one namely: Developing an ecotourism masterplan and ecolodge, Planning for success, Helping clients get the most out of their meetings, Going Green makes sense, and Attracting the cruise industry to Borneo. The conference is expected to attract over 200 participants from both Sarawak, Brunei, Sabah, and the regions. This is the fourth international conference organized by Albert Teo. The previous conferences that were successfully organized by Albert under MATTA were World Ecotourism Conference WEC1999, Asia Pacific Ecotourism Conference APECO2002 and Borneo Ecotourism Conference BEC2005. For more information, click www.borneotourism.org .

Sabah Women Entrepreneurs and Professionals Association SWEPA

Albert Teo will be the keynote speaker on Business Opportunities in Ecotourism, 27-28th July 2007, at Pacific Sutera, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.

WHY YOU SHOULD USE BORNEO ECO TOURS AND SUKAU RAINFOREST LODGE? Continues from previous issue …

14. Emergency Evacuation Service. For trekking tours to and we can arrange for emergency evacuation by helicopter, at guests expense, if necessary due to illness or fatigue.

To read other reasons why you should use us, please click the following links: www.borneoecotours.com/why_bet.cfm and www.sukau.com/public/whyus.asp .

Learning Bahasa BORNEO eZONE COMMITTEE Items - Benda Advisor : Albert Teo Lamp/ Light ~ Lampu Board of Advisors : Baton Bijamin, Susan Clock ~ Jam Soong & Verus John Television ~ Televisyen Text : Willie Ki, Adrian Migiu, Albert Teo Radio ~ Radio Layout : Willie Ki Table ~ Meja Photos : Albert Teo, Susan Soong, Willie Ki Jonathan Smith Chair ~ Kerusi

We look forward to your feedback on Borneo eZone. Please forward your feedback to [email protected] . Terima kasih!

Borneo Eco Tours Sdn Bhd (226853-W) KKKP 2277 Lot 1, Pusat Perindustrian, Kolombong Jaya, Mile 5.5, Jalan Kolombong, 88450 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Contact Number: 60-88-438300 Fax Number: 60-88-438307 Email: [email protected] Home Page: www.borneoecotours.com

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