Let's talk Oud: a detailed discourse (part 2)
So as many of you know, I've been busy focusing on The Philippines for close to 7 months. Sadly, I've been forced to throw in the towel. The expenses added up way, way,
way too much, and there was no wood to show for all the efforts and expenses.
Every time, there was one issue or another. Sometimes trees were found, but we didn't succeed in getting one or another from the 3 permits required (DENR, mayor, barangay captain and/or jungle tribal chief). Other times, we managed to get all the necessary permits and the approval of all requisite parties, but no suitable trees (and sometimes NO trees) were found.
Its all been quite crazy! Some of the wood I saw would make you drool. But I couldn't touch it. This one time, our team passed through a section of the jungle with three massive sick/dying trees close to each other (this is comparable to finding 3 suitcases full of millions in cash, sitting next to each other). But... we didn't have permission to harvest in this section, the team was only passing through here to get to the section we were allowed to harvest from. Can you imagine how bad the urge was to chop down those trees?
Especially after all the recent failed hunting expeditions... *sigh*
Impasugong is an unbelievably tough jungle. After we finally returned from there back to the hotel in CDO, Amab mentioned that he's NEVER experienced a jungle as difficult as this. And he's a guy who's slept for months in the jungles of Endau-Rompin and Kuala Tahan: i.e. the 2 toughest jungles with the craziest wild animals and roughest terrains in peninsular Malaysia.
Ahmad nearly died about four times (well, we all nearly did). He's a short guy, and so when the team was crossing a cliff this one time (land was about a kilometer below) everyone hopped from a rock on this side to a rock on the other, but he couldn't. And so he decided to swing over, hanging off a vine. What he didn't know was that there would be sharp rocks in transit. He was smacked in the ribs with them, he fell, and he rolled down a good distance. He sustained serious injuries from this fall, but
alhamdulillah he's alive. Actually, every single team member fell, even Dato' Edwin – the Higaonon chieftain who was part of our team and doesn't know life outside the jungle.
William, another team member, suffered a stroke right in front of me due to how severe the terrain was. We ended up cutting the trip short, and I had to drive back to town (despite my eye condition, keratoconus – I'm NOT supposed to drive). Ahmad can't cope with left-hand drive (I could, having come from Canada), and no one else knew how to drive. William was supposed to but.. well.. by now, the entire right side of his body was paralyzed. 9 hours on the road, driving the 4x4 through rivers of unknown depths, rocks and cliffs, and my eyes felt like popcorm.
Long story short.... extremely tough expedition, and no wood. Not even a splinter.
But what
really broke my heart was an incident that happened after I finally came back home. I was talking to a certain wholesale client and... he asked for a discount. *sigh*
I had been sitting when the discount was demanded. I involuntarily sprang to my feet the moment the words fell on my ears. My heart started pounding, and suddenly all the bruises and tears felt fresh on my body. I said, as calmly as possible, look... I have no problem giving you a discount. But there's one condition. I'm gonna line up 10 guys. One will be missing a limb, another missing an eye, another limping because of a snake bite, and perhaps one who's brother died during the expedition. If you can talk to each hunter, one by one, and convince them to lower the price of the wood, then I will gladly give you ANY price that they're happy with. My own personal profit comes out to be about 5.5%, and I don't care how that's affected. You have to ask THEM for the discount.
He ended up not buying anything.
In certain parts of the world, wholesale buyers are still living in the 80's and 90's.
They expect prices to stay the same, despite the fact that it now takes
months to find a mother tree in the jungle (and the success rate is currently about 15-20% based on my experience, with the most
amazing veteran Khmer hunters doing the hunting). Now compare that to how things
actually were in Malaysia, back in the 80's and 90's. All you needed was a long weekend. Grab an axe, drive down to the closest jungle, go in for a couple hours (okay, more like 6-8 hours), and you'd find an awesome tree.
That is not the case any more. And so, naturally the prices are not the same any more.
Now my own opinion about wild
high grade wood (and I define that as wood from mother and grandmother trees) is that it is priceless. Any price tag you try to put on it, even something as 'low' as B grade is not enough. High grade oud should not be a tradable commodity; it should be too expensive to afford, and something that only those directly involved in the the harvest, deserve to possess (yep, that would exclude even me, 'the boss', for every trip I was not physically a part of).
The pain, hazards, and deaths in this industry are far far higher than the ruby or diamond industry. And so, (wild high grade) agarwood
should be even more expensive, or rather, priceless, as I stated above.
I wish I could share some photos and videos from the recent Impasugong excursion. But aside from the fact that hardly anyone got to take any NatGeo grade photos or videos (when you've been walking in a squatted position for hours, and have to use your hands to slash vines blocking the way, you can barely hold a camera phone, let alone snap a pic or video), I actually dropped my phone in the jungle.
Collectively, we just have about 3 photos and 2 videos in total. Certainly not 'entertaining enough' for putting together a video.
We are about a week away from the next jungle trek, this time a different country, different island. We've had success here in the past but faced different challenges here. I've generally avoided talk of religion/spirituality/supernatural events in my blog posts and product descriptions. But if I share everything, that would mean stepping into that domain. I guess, those who don't believe in supernatural events will just have to come up with their own conclusions.
I'll have to leave that for another post though. My back is killing me, I've been a vegetable for the past few days due to a
severe back injury I sustained in preparation for the next trip (m.arif, whom I met yesterday, can confirm I look like an 80yr old, ha!). So for now, I have to go rest a bit.
I sure hope I recover in time because.... the folks we're about to go meet are just about the most anti-social, anti-foreigner, and anti-logging people in the world. I have been authorized/initiated by a different chieftain from a different sub-tribe, so I hope I'm able to use that to my advantage. Hopefully, this chief will grant us permission (we already have the government-level approval, but need the tribal approval as well).
They've got some pretty unusual cultural anomalies. To give some examples: bringing flowers is NOT an act of friendship of love, its an act of war. Having a beard means you're a sorcerer (so imagine me going there, ha! Not to mention, I have to use a walking stick these days, I'm practically Gandalf). And the list goes on.
Thank God, we have two team members from the same mother-tribe. One is actually an ex-commando, and the other specializes in negotiating with jungle people (due to his old government job in the timber industry). Even though they're from different sub-tribes, I hope we will be granted permission by these folks. They are VERY different from all the other sub-tribes. They roam around in the nude, blacken and sharped their teeth, have long ears and necks, sport mohawks, and... one of their first 'tests' is a game of black magic to "size you up".
That I am nervous about the encounter would be the understatement of the century.
Getting awesome wood today is a challenge. No, its more than just a challenge, its next to impossible. There's a juicy hot topic under discussion in the "Ensar & Adam Musings" thread, and I wanted to share my two cents on this topic, and tie it in with the facts and figures from the supply side – the jungle.
