David Hustler came back with his wife, Helen and son after 40 years. He came as young British Volunteer Service Overseas (VSO) to teach us in 1967. Some of Class 66-68 student came back for the class reunion with him and family in Lawas. Liaw Kah Ho took this and other photographs with is digital camera and emailed them to me. David, now a retired professor in education at the Manchester Metropoliton University, told confessed he was inspired by us to become a professional and trained teacher when he went back to England in early 1968. He has written a number of books on education, simply search him in Google. If Richard Schatz was remembered more for buying horses from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah and trekked down to Lawas, might be that he wanted to show off American cowboy spirit, David left his mark by starting the Boy Scout and the first whiteman to reach the top of Mount Hustler just across the school compound.
During the day they were taken to the local market place. Here David savoured the aromatic, delicious and punget durian, the king of tropical fruit. But Helen and his son could not enjoy this bizzare food.
David is a real survivor too like Richard from Whitworth University in Spokane. They still keep in touch. Davi
d and his family are spending a few months travelling and touring the world. They flew from London to Singapore by Malaysian Airlines and to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Liaw Kah Ho met him there and took them to Lawas. David and his family later trekked to Mulu National Park from Limbang using the Headhunter Trail in the rainforest. From Mulu they went to Miri, the famous oil town, where Cikgu Ibrahim and Bob took care of them. Later they continued their tour to Bintulu, the gas town and met Alias there. After two days in Bintulu the took Air Asia, low cost airlines, to Kuching. A few of us in Kuching entertained him after David and his family spent a few days in the first national park, the Bako National Park within easy reach from the city of Kuching. They then left for Thailand, Kampuchea and Vietnam. Now maybe their back in Manchester, England. Richard is coming back in May 2008.
You hope to see many exotic plants when trekking in the virgin rainforest. My fellow travellers and I came across these. At the top is the protected but familiar exotic pitcher plant, in Malay periuk kera - monkey cooking pot! Perhaps not so exotic but more frightening because this plant eat up insects that fall inside it. Carnivorous plant, so be careful. A real big one may swallow big animals. The second photograph is real exotic; real wild orchid and friendly too as it grows near to the ground. The third photograph is a giant fern. I have not seen it before. A real giant and real exotic this one. It is harmless too.
