By Hong Boon How

THE word Borneo has somewhat become a rarity in our vocabulary, especially when most Malaysians from the peninsula refer to that part of the country as Sabah and Sarawak.

But for most Westerners, Borneo is still very much alive, and usually romanticised and mentioned in the same breath as untouched virgin tropical forests, men in loin cloth or giant apes.

We had a first-hand excursion into the our two eastern states' interior last month under Isuzu Malaysia's Dura-Mission, and are pleased to inform that the former may ring true but the rest are probably the result of over-imaginative Hollywood movie script writers who have never set foot on the island.

The mission, on a convoy of 10 Isuzu D-Max 4x4s, involved a 700km plus drive from Ba'Kelalan, Sarawak, to Maliau Basin in Sabah and finally to Tawau airport for our flight back to Kuala Lumpur.

Flying over Ba'Kelalan on a 19-seater Twin Otter from Miri, we could see pockets of settlement scattered over the green forest of the Sarawak highlands before the aircraft swung around to land on an airstrip.

The villagers are a closely-knit community of a few thousand and they are bound to give a rousing welcome to outsiders, complete with a musical ensemble.

Ba'Kelalan is a group of nine villages in the Bario Highlands. At 1,000m above sea level, it is cool in the day and can be chilly at night.

Indonesia's Kalimantan border is just 4km away. Don't be surprised that the Malay the locals speak has an Indonesian twang.

With no mobile phone coverage, the latest Nokias and Blackberrys are pretty useless in these parts except for taking pictures.

Almost disconnected from the world and surrounded by lush greenery and verdant hills, life here is carefree and moves at a snail's pace.

Electricity comes from several micro hydroelectric power plants and might not be available round the clock.

Almost all provisions - fuel, food and cement - are trucked in by 4X4 pick-ups through an 80km unpaved road from Lawas.

Being a subsistence-based economy that has a semblance of facilities for tourists through the 20-room Apple Lodge, the area's mainstay is the hill Adan rice, known for its fragrance and starchy texture when cooked.

The other crop grown here are apples, the only commercial apple farming enterprise in Malaysia.

Among the varieties grown are the Ba'Kelalan (also known as Manalagi), Rome Beauty, Tropical Beauty and Anna.

The apple growing industry started in the 1970s when local Andrew Balang Paran brought in 50 apple cuttings from Batu Malang, Indonesia, after he noticed locals growing them.

However, the venture did not fare well and was plagued by problems and bugs.

In the 1980s, Andrew's brother Tagal Paran stepped in by taking over 300 dying trees using fertilisers and pruning techniques and well as seeking help from two Indonesian apple growers to nurse the trees back to health,

From there onwards, apple growing took off on a bigger scale. Tagal's farm, located next to the airstrip, has some 2,000 trees now.

After the pleasant stay in Ba'Kelalan, it was time to pack our bags and move out in 10 D-Max 4X4s, accompanied by several other vehicles for the Maliau Basin in Sabah, some 490km away.

We travelled to Lawas on a mix of paved and unpaved roads, with stopovers along the way to see how organic salt was made and enjoyed a dip at a hot spring in a place called Merarap.

Our D-Max 4X4s were standard vehicles, just what you would have probably seen from the showrooms, save for the suspension system being adjusted for higher clearance and the use of Goodyear off-road tyres.

Having a 3.0-litre turbodiesel engine is always good for tackling steep inclines and getting out of muddy ruts, something that is part and parcel of off-roading trips.

Those in the peninsula who have wondered about Sabahans and Sarawakians' penchant for 4X4s have probably never driven on the rough interior roads of Borneo.

Ordinary sedans would have quickly become bogged down in the treacherous and muddy stretches of the interior.

Try driving cars through stony roads at 80kph like what we did with the D-Max and we bet they would easily have been rocked to bits.

Designed for durability, the D-Max performed well to absorb punishment with their large wheels and off-road suspension, keeping us from being shaken like rag dolls.

Dirt tracks, dust and chunky tyres are meant to be together.

In fact, things were comfy enough for the occasional catnap while my co-driver was having his turn at the steering wheel.

As it had not rained for days, the road to Maliau Basin was bone dry and vehicles in front had kicked up a thick dust cloud easily two storeys high. The scene was like something from a route on the Silk Road.

With visibility reduced to a few metres, we had to squint at the dust cloud to look out for the D-Max in front of us, making sure that we were ready to swerve in case of emergencies.

After a full day's drive from Lawas, we finally made it to the basin, also dubbed the "Lost World of Sabah."

Located in central south Sabah, the Maliau basin was discovered by a pilot who almost crashed into the cliff of the basin escarpment in 1947.

Now managed by Yayasan Sabah, the basin has a rich botanical diversity and is a refuge for rare and endangered animals such as the Sumatran rhinoceros, orangutans, proboscis monkeys, Bornean pygmy elephants and countless insects.

A short helicopter ride, courtesy of Isuzu Malaysia, gave us an overview of the basin's beauty.

As far as we could see, it was all greenery.

The Maliau Basin Conservation Area covers 588.4 sq km and includes the entire Maliau Basin itself which is some 390 sq km.

It was given a Class One Forest Reserve protection status in 1997 and still has a large percentage of areas that are still undocumented and explored.

Spending three days and nights trekking in the interior, we finally got to the Tawau airport and completed the Dura-Mission without any D-Max 4X4s breaking down.

What the D-Max 4X4s needed now is a good wash.

--The Star/Asia News Network