Back to basics…

Wild Elephants @ Danum
Originally uploaded by Big_Ade.

If you’ve been reading my ramblings on these pages you’ve surely noticed that this trip is not just a tour of beaches. You’ve probably smiled to yourself when I tried to save the world in Thailand or when on my random escapades in Cambodia but I‘ve been smiling at myself too. I’ve managed to try new things, speak to different people and get a fresh perspective of my interests in life. It’s been great, except I still haven’t got a clue what I fancy doing when I get back to the UK!

I guess one of the things that’s crossed my mind more than once is whether I fancy heading back towards biology which is what I originally studied at Swansea all those years ago.

Someone had mentioned a jungle camp in southern Sabah (Borneo) where a bunch of researchers are looking at jungle stuff. There was even a link to my old university at Swansea so this seemed like an interesting place to see if I could be tempted back into a life of biology.

Danum Valley Research centre is based 20 km down a logging track in the middle of some of the last virgin rainforest in Borneo. It was a simple affair, no tourists as such, just a bunch or researchers and a couple of wildlife enthusiasts - nice and quiet so I got chatting to some of the researchers

These guys were focussed I can tell you. There were people studying termites in soil, ants in orchids and gas from trees and they all seemed to work from 8am to 10pm, 6 days a week. Could I spend that amount of time researching the same thing, no variety, no real contact with others? Nah, probably not, which was a good job really because that’s exactly what I worked out 7 years ago when I graduated.

One of the guys did mention an interesting option though and that was working in environmental compliance. Basically companies in the private sector are spending a lot of money making sure that they come up to scratch on various environmental rules and regulations. This is more of a consultancy type role where you get to deal with people, travel a bit and make more money than a researcher. This type of thing would combine some of my experience in the commercial sector with my biology background. I would probably have to do some more study if I wanted to get into this field but I guess it’s worth looking into as an option.

So I guess the visit was a useful one. I got to see some wild orang utans and elephants and managed to cross off researcher from my list! It was even worth the leech bites I got down my trousers.

The search continues!