Love is an Action

“Watch out for the headhunters!” 

Being dispatched from my Squadron to the opposite side of the world on a Jungle Survival course, known for the courses’ ability to reduce fit military men to their basic component parts of starving, shitting, scared and exhausted human beings, that parting shot from a more seasoned pilot than myself of “Watch out for the headhunters” was more a call to risk, adventure and personal challenge than actually getting poisoned by a member of a local tribe and losing my head.

It was a bit of a risk though as the Pun-an did inhabit one side of the notorious Batang Kayan river and were an unknown quantity as they still used poison tipped arrows for hunting and for defence. 

I’d return though, alive, six weeks later, mostly intact, but with a few scars, including one on my little member that been attacked on a river crossing by a leech, and an intestine full of unwelcome inhabitants caused by eating everything in sight including six month old rotten pork, filled with maggots.

But there was more than physical change.

Metaphorically speaking the phrase “Watch out for the headhunters” was quite appropriate because the historical problems I was trying to dealing with were, indeed, mostly in my head. A lot of the stress in there needed to be rearranged, cut out, deleted, disposed of, or got rid of.   “Watch out for the headhunters” could accurately be applied as a euphemism of “watch out for those that would steal your light”.  

 toneless.indulging.tapeworms

Anyone knowledgeable of What3Words will be able to find that location in the jungles of Borneo, What3Words (W3W) being the locating system that breaks down the whole world into easily identifiable 9metres squares. 

 Indulging tapeworms?; ironically that was one of the less savoury gifts that I received during that month and hosted the little fellas for years in my guts. But you don’t really need to know about that. 

The jungle location would have been even more iconic if it were

 crocodiles.scorpions.tapeworms 

but that W3W location in remotest North West China near the Kyrgyzstan border. Not my calling this time. 

No, toneless.indulging.tapeworms  is instead a W3W remote location on a riverbank in the rainforest jungles of Brunei, where sixteen dishevelled aircrew were dropped off by helicopter to start a lengthy, hot, sweaty, hungry, crocodile infested course in jungle survival.  

Now Borneo is a giant, rugged island in Southeast Asia’s Malay Archipelago, shared by the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, Indonesian Kalimantan and the smaller nation of Brunei. It’s known for its beaches and ancient, biodiverse jungle landscape.  

The rainforest jungles of this part of the world literally term with colourful and exotic wildlife.  Home to the clouded leopard, sun bear, gibbon, hornbill and many species of squirrels, langurs and civets, the rainforest is a Darwinian treat for any explorer.

That attractive list of exotica however misses a few necessary additions for the wide-eyed survivor; it really should also list wild pigs, snakes, scorpions, mosquitoes, leeches, pirhanas, poisonous trees, maggots, and, of course, “niyama!!” …. the local word for “man eating crocodiles”  and “Pun-an!!” the somewhat fearful description for “ man-eating men”. 

Apart from a hundred different stories that burst from my time in that jungle, there is one theme that stuck out above all else.

It’s that theme of not being afraid to break out, to stay open minded, to challenge the unwritten rules, to assess the risks and benefits of taking a different path.

It’s about having a mindset that is prepared enough to walk the different and sometimes difficult path that some people choose.  For them an encounter or project may end in failure, but they know that’s not the end of it, but by repeatedly electing to take calculated risks, the outcome will eventually and always favour success.

It’s about avoiding those people that would stifle enterprise, those that want others to follow the old rules, and instead seeking one’s own opportunities for a different way, a different path. 

It was the great scientist Louis Pasteur who said “chance favours only the prepared mind”.  By this he meant that sudden flashes of insight don’t just happen, but are the product of preparation.

From being young I was prepared. I had learned to fly under the radar of my parents as much as possible, whilst keeping my wits about me to predict any change in their demeanour. It was about being a kind of wary opportunist, knowing when adventure was calling and knowing when it was safe enough to break out, or knowing when I needed to haul in. 

So flying up the river bed as a passenger in the left hand seat of an old Huey leased to the Brunei Air Force, I felt adventure and diversion from the norm creeping up on me.

That wary opportunity was creeping in.  I noticed a little path popping in and out of the trees, beside the winding jungle river that we were flying up.

Towards the last fifteen minutes of our one hour journey I played with an alternative plan in my head to depart from the unsavoury norm of each four man crew building a raft and spending two weeks floating downstream, hungry, avoiding nasty crocodiles and getting eaten by a plague of mosquitoes.

I was sure my plan was worth a go; all I had to do was convince my crew of the same thing; to take the risk of walking out on foot, finding better food sources, staying drier and not having to spend days building a raft.

I’d already done the calculations about how far we needed to walk each day, so if we could find paths that would lead us downriver all our risks were really about avoiding hostile natives. and the path looked like it was there.

The only real danger was getting too involved with hostile natives. My first encounter with the natives the next morning was indeed terrifying, having upset a local tribesman when he found me sleeping in his prized dugout canoe.

I was using it, and the plastic sheet over it, as a basic overnight hotel, free from the rain and myriad of nasties crawling the riverbanks at night.  

I woke to find a brown, gnarly half naked old man with a big stick that could well have been a blowpipe, standing motionless over me.

Fearing for my life I ducked back under the plastic sheet, failed to formulate and escape plan of any sorts, looked up to see if he was going to attack me and found he disappeared as fast as he appeared. He was nowhere to be seen.  

Long story short, soon after that we met with members of his tribe, exchanged gifts, drew pictures, made welcoming gestures and, quite surprisingly, we got an invitation to an evening meal in their four bedroomed longhouse, built on stilts, nestling in a small clearing in the jungle.

The gods had certainly smiled on us, the risk of choosing to walk out paid off. The rest is history. 

Feared monsters became allies: a story of my life.

My angels were looking after me and my crew: another story of my life.

We learned that they were from the Iban tribe and, to our dismay, found out that the tribes, having been saved by Americans and Brits from the wrath and horrors of the Japanese in the Second World War, that we were descendants of the saviours of the Iban.

We made lifelong friends with them, eat more than I’ve ever eaten in my life, drank gallons of awful rice wine, learned a new language and new customs, often got a dry and insect free places to sleep.

We were taxied up and down river in dugout canoes powered by huge outboard motors, taken to visit other tribes’ locations and were generally hosted as the heroes that saved them from torture and extinction. 

The message of this story?  

If we’re so attuned to seeing problems, or taking what we’re told at face value, then we’re never going to see the opportunities even when they stare us in the face.   

So learn to take risks. Be vulnerable. Be prepared.

Be prepared for good things to happen, so when that opportunity arises that passes the filters of wisdom and kindness, you’ll be able to see it as something ready for plucking with both hands, and then run with it.  

You’ll never know what wonderful things might happen. 

Also, be prepared; learn about What3Words; it might save your life one day. 

Next: Chapter 3 – Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

Previous: Chapter 1 – The Jigsaw of Life