First team to circumnavigate Borneo
A three-man team from Sarawak Superwheels Adventures, comprising Wilfred Gomez Malong, David Nanta and Augustine Ningkan, were first to circumnavigate through Borneo.
The event, Silverstone TransBorneo International Jungle Periplus, from 7 to 24 March 1996, was the first circumnavigation attempt by any four-wheel drive expedition throughout the unexposed interiors of Borneo.
From Kuching, the team met up with the other 23 participants, who were from Sabah, United States, Holland, Turkey, United Kingdom and other foreign countries, in Kota Kinabalu.
The convoy travelled towards Tawau by road, and then via barge to Tanjung Selor in Kalimantan Timur.
From there, they went through Tanjung Redeb, Samarianda, Banjermasin and Pontianak, often driving between 20 and 30 hours non-stop. Finally, all teams arrived in Kuching on 23 March 1996 to be greeted by the then Minister of Tourism Sarawak, Dato’ Dr James Jemut Masing.
The remaining 23 teams then left for Kota Kinabalu in order to complete their circumnavigation of Borneo.
First solo endurance cyclist
Michael Lu from Sibu, is the nation’s first solo endurance cyclist. He cycled on a mountain bike under gruelling weather conditions and traversing terrains in a three-day solo cycling effort from 29 till 31 August 1999.
The starting point was Bukit Goram in Kapit, where from he travelled towards Sibu, covering a distance of 191.51km. Lu cycled for 14.3 hours along the valley of the 400km-long Batang Rejang, the state’s longest river. At a few stages, he was forced to push and carry his mountain bike for a few kilometres due to the track’s muddy and slippery conditions.
Most Gigantic Christmas Trees
Holiday Inn Miri created a charity project for Christmas by stacking pots of plants into gigantic Christmas trees in their hotel lobby.
Starting in 1996, two to three hundred pots of poinsettias imported from the Netherlands were piled onto a 7-tier wooden skeleton to form a giant tree, standing at 13 feet. Members of the public were invited to “adopt” the plants at RM50 each and the proceeds were donated to various charities. The first project raised about RM11,500 in 1996, and RM7,600 in 1997. In 1998, a taller tree was erected, standing at 20 feet, and made from 30 four-foot artificial ‘Canadian Pine’ trees stacked atop another and supported by a skeleton of wood and wire.
In 1999, the hotel bettered its previous record by erecting a tree 24 feet in height, and it was recorded as Sarawak’s tallest Christmas Tree.
The record was perpetuated in 2000 when a tree measuring 26.5 feet was erected. It is apparently the tallest possible height in its present location in the hotel’s atrium, having reached the skylights, unless the tree is moved outdoors!
(Only two more instalments in our series of Amazing Sarawak are left. Part 25 will appear on 15 May, 2017, Monday)
