The Hills Have Eyes

The Hill

One of Bario’s iconic mountains is called Prayer Mountain (locals call it Bukit Doa) located near the Arur Dalan village. 

Now, for those in the dark, Prayer Mountain is approximately 15 minutes walk away from the Bario Asal homestay.  At the base of the mountain, a 10 minute walk through mildly dense fern plants is required before the proper hike up the path where you will start cursing the over-hyped ‘kampung adidas’ shoe that doesn’t fit your feet properly. The trek up is certainly not easy with the dried leaves on the ground giving zero grip for your shoes.

Some sections have steep ‘steps’ formed by tree roots which require you to use your hands digging onto the ground to support your way up.

There are ropes at the more difficult sections to help pull your way up if you don’t mind having blisters on your skin (note: bring gloves). However, a broken rope which was snapped in half by an overweight man found halfway during the trek serves as a reminder not to trust your life with those ropes.

I had my first climb up the mountain on our second day in Bario with the the entire Batch 3 participants. It was a big group of 12 where Karthik had an injured foot and Alicia had to descend halfway due to asthma, so we took frequent breaks and reached the peak under 2 hours.

The Church

The church built three quarters up the mountain was the first place of prayer in Bario. It is a simple structure put together by unpolished planks of wood. Each wood is obtained from the trees of Bario; each plank brought up by the local Kelabits and Penans. Such a unassuming little church, yet it is as if the hands of God molded this church in the midst of forestry, high up above, signifying a spiritual revival. Without any excessive embellishments, the church is most organic in its form. This speaks volumes how the Kelabits have such untarnished, honest love for God. 

The Mission

As part of our community service duty, YC and Dom have been planning to clean the church in Prayer Mountain and carry out some maintenance work to the toilet (small shed with a hole) there. I offered to help out but was the most unprepared one considering this will be my 2^nd time up Prayer Mountain and it’ll be their 3^rd time. Let me just take this time to clarify that YC does ballet whereas Dom does Muay Thai. Both have longer legs than I do.

However, I didn’t want to waste another chance to wear my RM9 ‘kampung adidas’, so I went ahead with them. With equipment"s ready, YC and Dom marched their way forward, each step exuding purpose and a mission to accomplish, speeding their way up. I on the other hand, tried to catch up behind them and forced myself not to pant too loudly. Halfway up, my head was pounding, my arms felt weak, I was out of breath and my thighs were sore. YC and Dom graciously waited for me while I take frequent short breaks to catch my breath and motivated me to push forward.

“Keep your head up Ai Jin!”

 “Hear that pounding in your chest? It means you're alive! ”

 “One, two, one, two!”

We arrived at the church in 50 minutes; an achievement, I would say.

Dom brushing off cobwebs.

YC clearing the floor from dead leaves.

Nailing planks to the toilet.

After we were done, a hike up to the peak was necessary just for the heck of it. My already fatigued limbs took another beating and for each painful step, I began to ponder upon every mistake I made in life including this hike up to the top (exaggerating a bit here). When we reached the top, the view didn’t amaze me but maybe that was just me being used to the beauty of Bario that this birds eye view was nothing compared to the accumulative beauty this place has revealed to me in the past week; the thing that amazed me was how I've pushed through and endured the pain (physical) to reach my destination. For that, I am proud of myself.

The attack

The sky was slowly dimming and it was getting chilly at the top, it was time for us three to leave and get quickly to the hydrodam to shower due to water rationing in the homestay. 

We bid our last goodbyes to Prayer Mountain, but apparently this mountain was not done messing with us. At the foot of the mountain, when we were about to exit the shrubbery to the opening, we got attacked by bees probably because we were bustling the shrubs too much. It was a chaotic scene: YC screamed, I panicked and froze on the spot, thank goodness Dom yelled for me to run and we soon got out to the opening. Well, there was a lot of pain and panic but all was well when we found out the stings weren't poisonous.

Prayer Mountain has given me a lot of memories. Good or bad, it's all in nature, I'll take it as it is.

Ai Jin 
Aren