BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

THE “Nomadic Lion”, David Atthowe, is back and currently on a walking educational tour around the Sultanate.

The walk, which started on March 30, started from Kuala Lurah to the Muara district and will conclude in the Belait district.

“The idea of [the walking tour] is basically to go to a lot of schools, like the Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) and colleges, to share our experiences. However I didn’t get the timing right since its currently the school holidays,” he said.

“I’ve only covered Kuala Lurah to Bandar Seri Begawan, [then] to Muara and Times Square. So far it’s been wonderful. I’m really happy to be back here in Brunei. It’s been really nice to meet a lot of people,” he told The Brunei Times.

The walk will resume on Monday, where he will be walking from Times Square to Tutong district, Telemba, Seria and finally the Belait district.

“The whole event is an open walk, so if anyone wants to join, they are welcome anytime, even just for five minutes,” Atthowe said.

Atthowe is also in the country for a private screening of a documentary about his walking journey in Borneo.

“It’s also a fraction of what we want to highlight from our journey. The main thing[s] we want to highlight are of course the positive sides of Borneo and also the realities of walking,” he said.

According to him, besides the positive sides, there are still lots of small stories and things that people ought to be told.

“Even here in Brunei, I’ve got one story which I think many people don’t know. You’ll have to watch the documentary,” said the self-proclaimed nature lover.

“Aimed to raise awareness and positive stories of Borneo, we wanted to use documentary as a medium to give people a reality of the journey,” he added

The Nomadic Lion shared with The Brunei Times that his favourite hidden gems in Brunei include the story of traditional music from the Dusun tribe in Tutong and the story of Uncle Benson and the Kecapi.

“My favourite also includes Brunei’s very own traditional Sape (lute) instrument, which has its own unique sounds and songs,” Atthowe said.

When asked about his preparations for his next project, the “Walking Asia”, which is slated to start in January next year, he said that after walking in Brunei and Malaysia, he will be in Jogjakarta, Indonesia for a year to plan everything.

“We now have a “space base” with a lot of support. People are willing to help us in Jogjakarta,” he said.

The “Walking Asia” project will be a five-year walk across 19 countries in Asia, starting from Indonesia all the way to India and back. He claimed it will become “the biggest participatory walk ever in Asia”.

Atthowe, 25, had walked around Brunei for three weeks last year, where he visited various places and also gave talks on environmental and humanitarian awareness to students at Sekolah Menengah Sayyidina Ali.

He has spent the last six years living a nomadic lifestyle around Southeast Asia. According to his Nomadic Lion website, he started the Nomadic Lion project after realising that he could “either waste his time to fight life’s changes or simply let go and embrace them”.

The Brunei Times