The name for our jungle camp came after a few bottles of wine. Reclining on siliu bamboo floor under a sheet of tarpaulin we bandied ideas around. It had to be something marketable, a brand that would not be confused with any of a dozen other nature lodges, jungle resorts, rainforest lodges, river lodges, wildlife resorts etc etc that can be found in Sabah. Lupa Masa means 'forget time' and Lupa Masa time, such as it is, is set an hour later than standard Malaysia time. Who likes to get up at 6am to go birdwatching when you could...

Arkitrek are designing a jungle camp near Poring hot springs on Mt Kinabalu in Sabah. The project is to be built by the local fellas and aims to find a creative new expression for indigenous building forms and locally available materials. When complete the jungle camp will be used by voluntourists engaged in community and conservation work, naturalists, schools groups and adventurers. A love of nature and be acceptance of the challenge of living in the rainforest is a pre-requisite for working on this job. The work will...

‘There’s a new route from Kampung Melangkap’ said Jasirin my mountain guide friend. My interest was piqued immediately ‘Have many people done it?’ I enquired ‘Yes lots’ he replied. I was deflated. ‘But only villagers’ he added. My imagination took off again and for some reason the word Melangkap got caught in the mesh of my sieve like brain. About a month later I received a call out of the blue from Graeme Shepherd an old climbing friend of mine from Dundee whom I had not seen for six years. Graeme and I had met in my last...

As we were tucking into our dinner last night we were rudely interrupted by an extraordinarily loud crash. It scared the life out of Eda who immediately leapt into Jamil’s arms, thus confirming a point of gossip that Andy and I had been debating for some days. We continued munching our steamed fish for a few more moments before Andy voiced what I had been thinking. ‘That sounded like it came from the region of our hammocks’. Having managed to let go of Eda, Jamil rushed off to investigate and returned slightly animated...

My meeting with Prof Ho is documented at Arkitrek under the post of his name. Another fascinating thing for me about Prof. Ho is that he was a member of the 1964 Mt Kinabalu East Expedition during which Prof. E J H Corner of Cambridge University made the third ascent of Kotal's Route to the Eastern Plateau of Mt Kinabalu. This is the route that I followed in complete ignorance with friends Emma and Matt in June 2004. The account of that ascent follows. * * * * * The rotting branch takes on a fresh intensity as I decide to trust...