Text: by Ian Hall Photos: by Ian Hall and Fauzan Aris I’m not much of a beach person, much to my girlfriend’s disgust. Throw us onto a tropical island and she’ll head for the sand with her sarong and sun cream and I’ll head inland with my binoculars and mosquito repellent. Pulah Babi Tengah (Middle Pig Island!) off the coast of Johor, Malaysia used to be a refugee camp run by UNHCR back in the 70’s. I’m not sure how idyllic a refugee camp could be but former interns, mostly Vietnamese, now Australian, seem...

The inaugural Arkitrek Camp will be held on Mantanani Island, Sabah on 2nd – 23rd May 2011. We're looking for sponsorship either in cash or in kind in the form of building materials to help us build a marine conservation awareness centre. The Camp aims to use the vehicle of a community tourism program on a small island to teach young architects and construction industry professionals the principles of sustainable design. Participants will design and build an icon for marine conservation whose chief function will be to accommodate...

One month after my last visit, I arrived on Mantanani and was delighted to see the site strewn with impeccable driftwood logs. Albi and his team had scoured the coast and dragged their choice finds through the sea back to the camp site. Some of the logs still lay tethered at the high water line while others where being diligently planed smooth to resemble nothing like driftwood. My romantic dreams of water weathered, silvered and twisted timbers would have to be adjusted, another casualty of the cultural conditioning that...

He held the mud crab still with his bare feet whilst deftly tying up the claws with a length of pink raffia. Job done, the fisherman tossed his catch into a bucket. On our request the second fisherman sorted us out half a dozen choice crabs and a bargain was done. Our two boats parted company and we left the fishermen to their work. Sungai Sedili Kecil is not on the tourist track but that’s why I was there as a guest of Wild Asia. Our job was to assess the community based eco-tourism tourism potential of this proposed Ramsar...

A mini Eden Project is nearing completion in Kota Kinabalu and it’s putting some green into aquarium design. Having being originally conceived as Aquatica KK, The Green Connection as it is now known is due to open early 2009. Green Connection’s founder Prof. Steve Oakley is a bit of a hippie at heart and in true hippie style has decided to DIY (Do It Yourself!) a top class aquarium using ‘green’ building principles. “Green Connection is now much more than an aquarium” Steve elaborated on the change of name, “we...