SPELUNKING ASIDE

SPELUNKING ASIDE

By Jean Duell

A huge painting dominates the sunken lounge room in Dr Robbie King Tjoen Ko's house at the headquarters of the Buena Vista Foundation located in the hills around Bogor.  Massive clouds like the bloated hands of the begging damned loom over mountain cliffs where rivers plunge and swirl into the centre of the earth.  All the earth's forces are at contest in the evolution of our planet.  To the left is a small office and library of multi-lingual eclecticism.  A cocoon of books, papers and journals jostling for space on the shelves; books for every mood and every idea: Life after Life, Mind Over Matter, Macrobiotics, Dances of Indonesia, 50 Years a Surgeon, Sacred Summits, Medicinal Plants, Flora and Fauna of Java and, Living Guide to Bathrooms. If you are in the mood, the full set of Time Life "The World's Wild Places" sits ready for consumption. An amazing collection, mirroring the interests of the dermatologist, president of the Indonesian Speleological Society, spelunker, president of the Buena Vista Foundation, lecturer in Tourism and Forestry, and painter, Dr Robbie KT Ko.

Dr Ko, fresh from Jakarta, hurried up to meet me, and immediately set to about today’s protracted discussions in Jakarta in defence of the swiflets in a nearby area. 

"They say the swifts only fly over our land, but I told them even swifts must eat!"    We dined al fresco in an elevated dining area where cooling breezes from the hills around Bogor and Puncak Pass sidle through. "My real love is nature.  Medicine allows me to earn the money, but the other allows me to live” Dr Ko, 50'ish second generation Javanese of Chinese stock, speaks his 4th language, English, perfectly.  A recent Chinese visitor told Dr Ko that his name in Chinese characters means, 'intensely loving high forest'.   It could be a case of living up to your name, but not knowing its meaning until late in his achievements, one wonders at the forces at play.  Dr Ko describes imperceptibly large and stunning caves on the Moluccan Island of Ambon, caves he had recommended for closure and subsequent revision of management of this fragile cave environment.

Speaking at an international workshop on Eco-tourism in Manado, Sulawesi, he impressed upon the gathered, the problems of carrying capacity, access, zonation, visitor's circulation, permit systems, periodicity of visits and the absolute need to identify educational as well as scientific connotation if tourism is to pick up the 'eco'.

Dr Ko's first love is speleology, and evidence of his fascination with caves and the science of caves lays everywhere. A stained glass window of a spelunker (caver) entering a cave adorns one of the impressively appointed conference rooms of the Buena Vista Foundation. The rambling, 5 level accommodation, conference centre and home to Dr Ko, appears to mimic the twists and turns of an actual cave.

The Buena Vista foundation, a low profit eco-travel and educational organization, boasts on its pamphlet "If you are bored with the ordinary, classical, stereotypical touristic (sic) objects and shun mass-tourism.(we)...offer educative (sic) tours in co-operation with national parks management, agricultural centres, geological and archaeological institutes"  An executive mini-bus with everything that opens and shuts and bike vans can be arranged to take the adventurous and inquisitive to sites from Bali to Kalimantan and beyond. The Expatriate schools in Jakarta are apparently great users of the services of the foundation, some staying at the foundation for background briefing before they begin their trips. 

Fifteen or so Forestry students, the future managers of forests in Kalimantan, Irian Jaya, Sumatra and elsewhere in Indonesia, have made there way the 30 or so minutes from the Forestry Institute in Bogor in an effort to convince Dr Ko to organize a caving trip for them.  He dines them, chats with them and then shows them a video of Meryl Streep shooting white water rapids.  Full tummies and a dose of celluloid excitement are all they get this night. 

"Life is short, so try anything in a professional way" is the self-professed Ko way to live.  So, any regrets?   'I regret most, not influencing others to my level of interest in caves, karsteology, speleology, conservation and tourism, especially for children.'  The flip side is his achievement in introducing karsteology and caving into Indonesia and the recognition it has attained under environmental law.

Dr Ko's foster daughter skips through the outside dining area.  I ask her what she would like to be when she grows up.  "I want to be a doctor" she replies.  And to the question of whether she liked living here, she barreled me with a look of incredulity   "I love living here".

The greatest accolade to the teacher is when they are exceeded by their pupil.       

The Buena Vista Club:

Jalan Ir. H. Juanda 30,

P.O. Box 154,

Bogor

Indonesia

Ph:(0251)25 4376

Fax: (0251)25 5343