Our time in Borneo has been racing by. Along the way we have interacted with a number of people either experimenting with a simple life, embracing one or living simply because that is how their family has lived for generations. Since we got off the plane we have found Malaysian Borneo to be an exceptionally traveller friendly country to be in. Almost everyone speaks great English and everything has a price which means no protracted bargaining over every little thing.
Nature can be very impressive in Borneo
The second day we were able to make contact with Joanna Ling who I had the privilege to work with in 2006/7 as we designed her family's shopping centre - tHe Spring - in Kuching. Our first breakfast in Kuching was spent with almost the entire Ling family in an outdoor restaurant. I couldn't resist a Laksa which I had been looking forward to for some time. Later we went to look around the centre but not before we were dropped at the Batiq Boutique Hotel to meet with Jo-Lynn. Jo-Lynn was unknown to us at the time but works for Joanna's best friend Jackie; she is an amazing trip planner and before long we had planned out the next four weeks including a long weekend in the Bario highlands. Eventually we made it to tHe Spring which has retained its position as Kuching's top retail spot so all are happy here. It was great to finally see the end result of a couple of year's hard labour!
On the first Sunday we wanted to find a church in the evening. We had been told about Blessings Church and from the internet had found the address so we jumped into a taxi and spent a fair amount of time circling the destination area until we eventually picked out the building, by which time it had started to rain very heavily. I quickly dashed in and asked whether there was a service about to start. "Oh yes" was the response so I ran out, dispensed with the taxi and we went back in - to be further informed that the service was a Chinese language version! We opted to stay anyway and an older gentleman helpfully translated key moments for us. The church was so happy to have us there that they offered to drive us back to the hotel but first half of the church decided to take us to the nearby night food market. While we were browsing the stalls we were constantly asked what we thought looked good on the menu. Having seen a fair amount we thought we had made a decision so went back to our table, just as everything we had nodded at arrived! There was so much food and our money was worthless as our generous brothers and sisters paid for everything. That was our first encounter with Malaysian generosity but not the last.
Kuching is a great place to start a Sarawak adventure - and actually a lovely place to live long term too. We started our visit in a very decent hotel (The Limetree) but our budget is not going to stretch to that for the whole fourteen months so we decided to jump right in and go to a hostel for the next few nights. ThreeHouse Hostel caught the eye and so we moved right into the middle of Chinatown. What a change! Suddenly people contact was the norm rather than the exception. We came to know the three people in reception rather well. They did not work there but each had arrived intending to stay for just a few days and each was now many weeks into their stay. Each had their own particular spot on the three seat sofa and they would just stick around and chat all day enjoying the air conditioning and the to and fro of guests new and old. Each was very interesting to talk to and it was good to get beyond the basics of "where are you from?", "Where are you going?", "How long are you travelling for?"' etc. which are the staples of brief travelling encounters.
Crossing the river at Kuching
One of these, Heinrich, was a professional photographer from Germany. He permanently travels through the far east and occassionaly flies back to Europe for another photoshoot to pay for the next tranche of travel. Living like this is very cheap. In the dorm room it costs Rm20 a night (NZ$8) and eating locally Rm5 per meal (NZ$2). Entertainment seems to come in the form of the public swimming baths - open air and local - and conversation with the other guests (and of course the remaining two of the three stooges!!).
Stooge number two has lived at the Threehouse for three months so far and shows no intention of leaving, although he has just accepted two nights free staying with some local Kuching muslims - kerching! Money in the bank! He was a stressed out event organiser in Holland and decided to sell up everything on the death of his father - "No, please, it was a blessing, I didn't like him at all". Seven months on he is still ekeing out his savings but doesn't really know why he is "travelling".
The third stooge, also Dutch, was the newest and she had only been there for three weeks or so but again had no obvious intention to move on - then again she only arrived intending to stay one or two nights. She is travelling in a gap year while studying law "originally to make lots of money, now I have decided instead to fight for children's rights", she was very interested to hear of my Uncle and Aunt's long term involvement in child protection. One day we walked in to find them sitting in a different order on the sofa. It was quite remarkable. By the time we returned from our room order was restored. Each had felt profoundly uncomfortable with the change! The final occupant of the reception was the owner of the Hostel. She came to Kuching from Sweden to help her Finnish brother with his restaurant across the road. She was the dessert queen, he makes the best Swedish meatballs! Opportunity knocked five years ago and the hostel was purchased, now finally she has staff and does not need to work 24/7, which is great for her. Unfortunately the restaurant no longer serves desserts which is a crying shame!
Each longterm Threehouse resident seems to be searching for a simple life. In some ways they have found it but I'm not sure how long it will be fulfilling to them. If I had to stay long term in Kuching I would probably also choose Threehouse though as it is always clean, is well located and is full of character.
We are not on this trip to sit around though so we went for a kayak trip through the jungle (no we didn't fall out despite the guide's firm expectation that that is what tourists do). We went to see the old men of the forest, the Orang-utangs. Fortunately we arrived early as there were a couple of good sized females in the trees close to the mustering spot swinging down to pick up the fruit that had been left there. By the time everyone had assembled these two had swung through the treetops to a place far away. Every day the orang-utangs build a new nest high in the trees - who knew?! So, after a tortuously long briefing where we were pretty much told that the orang-utangs are wild and dangerous and we are in their territory so don't expect us to save you if they attack (30 minutes to get that out!), we headed up to the feeding area for the main event. Everyone fell into a hushed and silent expectancy which was held for the next hour until the guides gave up and we all went home.
A visit from an Orang-Utang
Bako national park beckoned and we took a boat out to a lovely coved beach surrounded by cliffs and jungle. Bako is home to a good population of proboscis monkeys and we had hired a guide to make sure that none of the wildlife could escape our notice. His keen eye picked out many an insect, viper or silverleef monkey that we would not have otherwise seen. We did see some proboscis monkeys at a distance and, during the night walk saw a number of the park's nocturnal life too. Our guide Mr Ismadi used to be very involved in politics being the head of the local political party and well involved in business. One day he decided to throw it all in for a simple life as a guide and is much happier for it. He was particularly keen to ensure that nothing he did could be implied to have benefited from corruption which he says is very rife. He was a very well informed man though and good to talk to though about wider matters such as whether it was good or bad that the British were the country to colonise Sarawak.
The next day we were guideless and so took ourselves on the 7km circular walk which was almost free of any animal contact with the exception of some amazing ant trails. Towards the end of this walk two things happened to give punctuation to the day. The first was that Tamara lost balance at the top of a very high, steep and slippery wooden ladder. I thought she was a gonner as sharp rocks beckoned 4m below. Somehow, despite facing outward, she managed to catch hold of the low handrail and prevent the fall. I still do not know how she was able to do this but forever grateful. (You may ask why she was attempting this without holding on - it was to try to develop her core muscles through having to balance!). It wasn't until the next day that she realised the seriousness of the situation and felt certain that if she had fallen that in the least would have come out with broken bones (my actual thought was that I would have broken my neck, bizarre but that was a strong feeling I had the next day and also that it wasn't my time...). The second punctuation mark was to come across a large colony of proboscis monkeys with babies etc. We watched these from a good vantage point for around half an hour before moving on and passing the tip on to other groups. Elsewhere in the park we saw plenty of Macaque monkeys and wild boar. Both are considered a pest but cannot be hunted within the park.
Giant ant trail
Having booked ahead somewhat it felt like money was running through our fingers a little too quickly and, once we discovered that there were no permits left to dive on the world famous Sipadan reef in Sabah we made the decision to limit our visit to Sarawak only. Instead we moved on to Miri which is on the coast, quite close to Brunei and very handy for our next two destinations Bario and Mulu each of which are accessed by plane from Miri. A bonus was that we knew of several dive sites off the coast of Miri. We lost count of the number of people who asked us why we chose to go to Miri. We wondered too at times but in hindsight do not regret it. I went on four dives. Three to coral reefs which were good fun and at times very colourful with several good sized puffer fish the highlights. The fourth dive was by far the highlight though. It was to an oil rig which had been deliberately sunk to form an artificial reef / wreck dive. There was a fair amount of coral forming but we soon found ourselves surrounded by shoals of fish. Thousands and thousands. At one stage a shoal of silver fish swam past like a giant curtain - awe inspiring! Meanwhile Tamara was walking back from the marina and starting to doubt the wisdom of walking in the middle of nowhere in the hottest part of the day and met a lady called Helena who lent her a parasol and then escorted her into town and bought her a bottle of water and some fruit. Above and beyond! Helena was a real blessing. In town Tamara went for a relaxing massage so the day was not all bad despite opting not to dive.
Later in our stay we went out on the town with my divemaster and her friend who was French but spoke English with a very Indian lilt having taught English there for five years. If we were on a budget these girls had nothing much to spend at all but we were hooked by a Phillipine cover band who were really high quality. All three girls and one guy could really sing and circulated the lead. They were backed up by very talented bass, drums and lead guitar. A very good night out - to be honest our first of the trip!
We met up with our friends Joanna, Jackie, Jo-Lynn and Hazel in Bario airport which is a pretty small affair right up in the highlands on the border of Indonesia. When I say small, think chickens wandering through the terminal!! Our 20 seater plane was pretty full and gave us a great view as the pilot stayed low all the way and threaded his way through the cumulus clouds. There was no cockpit door so we could watch everything that went on. When it came to land in Bario we watched the landing with interest as we must have landed on the first 5m of runway, slammed on the brakes and turned in to stop in front of the terminal in about 10 seconds. Our host Peter said that our pilot was a bush pilot who likes to show off to his co-pilots - Well, I was certainly impressed!
Bush Pilot
There is no road access to Bario except for a logging trail that was formed two years ago. Now a 12 hour 4WD track will get you back to Miri but until then the only way in and out was by light plane and they only started in the late '80s. There is no river connection so to say this area is undeveloped is an understatement. We stayed in the original longhouse which dates back to the '50s. Many of the occupants are very old and some date back to the first world war! (There's a WWII wreck of a plane laying in one of the fields, the Japanese came really close to Bario. People in other villages certainly had stories to tell like deliberately poisoning their own food crops because they knew the Japs would steal the food and either torture them or slowly and painfully kill them if they refused to help them so the villagers got their own revenge this way).
Longhouses are set out like a long line of terraced houses all linked by a communal front porch which runs along 30 odd "doors". Each door houses a separate family but they each have their own fireplace in the communal area over which dinner is cooked. People wander up and down the covered porch and sit at each other's fires. We did the same and everywhere we went we were very welcome to share in whatever was being eaten or drunk. It didn't take long before someone gave me a guitar and they were very keen for me to entertain them. After a while one of the 100+ year old ladies asked in Kelabit whether I was singing Christian songs and the diplomatic answer was "no, it is a love song" her face changed as though she was chewing a lime so people started into whatever christian songs they knew such as Amazing Grace.
The Kelabit people of Bario are 99% evangelical christians who experienced revival in the 80's and have remained pasionate ever since. Every morning at 5am the drum bell is beaten for church with attendant howling of dogs. On Sunday there are also meetings at 9am, 2pm and 7pm - generally they are expected to attend them all! That first evening we were treated to the occupants of the longhouse dancing their traditional dances in full costume. Some of the ladies have been weighting down their ears since they were little girls stretching them out. One lady we visited caused a fair amount of speculation - what are those scars in front of her ears? Had she had an amateur face lift? Was it some primitive scar ceremony? It turned out to be none of these. Instead she would wrap her long earlobes around the back and over the top of her ears to keep them out of the way while cooking! To every line of the song "Do your ears hang low, do they wobble too and fro?" the answer was honestly "yes"!
Kelabit Tribeswoman
The welcoming dance had one more surprise as I was informed that I was the main event! The whole tribe were sitting down dressed in their finery waiting for me to entertain them in song! When I realised this was not a wind up I had a quick think and Tamara and I sang and played "Breathe On Us" by Barzi Baker. I explained the meaning and afterwards had to teach their musicians and later those of the Borneo Evangelistic Mission who were also there. That song is now heading around Borneo like wildfire. I smile when I consider the possibility of Barzi visiting the wilds of Borneo and hearing everyone singing his amazing song!
The Kelabit are another people group living very simply but with no obvious downfall. Land is held communally by the tribe and if you need some (if you get married for instance) then you ask and it is generally given. Ask for too much though and you may get nothing as the elders are very keen to avoid excess development. Once you have your land - build away! there is nothing to stop you building whatever you want. Move away and the land reverts back to the tribe.
Panang girl and child in her forest shelter
We spent our time walking, meeting and eating - a very special time. At the last meal we were treated to the very best of bush tucker cooked beautifully in bamboo tubes over an open fire. The highlight was the opportunity to sample one of the most expensive fishes in the world. At $600 US a kilo the Emperor fish was a subject of folklore in Borneo but it can be found in the nearby small rivers where the locals feed them up for sale. In this case though they were so pleased to offer it to us! Gobsmacked! For the record the taste and texture are unlike any fish I have ever eaten but I won't be shelling out to buy one anytime soon!
They say it is impossible to eat too much in Bario as you are always walking up or down a hill and we certainly never saw an overweight person. I thoroughy recommend it for a holiday with a difference. I could write much more but instead I will change scene to Mulu which we flew to next.
Deer Cave
Mulu is a world heritage national park comprising virgin rainforest and amazing caves set into a limestone karst mountain range. The cave system is big enough to keep the most energetic adventure caver happy for a very long time but we confined ourselves to the Show Caves some of which were very similar to limestone caves we have visited elsewhere with stalagmites and tites aplenty. The cave that really caught the eye though was Deer Cave which is the largest single cave chamber in the world and is home to 3,000,000 bats which each evening stream out to hunt the forest for up to 100 kilometres diameter. We were grateful for this - not just for the spectacle but also for the fact that barely a mosquito exists in Mulu! We kept bumping into a guy called Nick and his team filming for National Geographic everyday for 4 days! Who knows, maybe you'll see us in part of the Wilds of Borneo National Geographic film that is soon to be released ha, ha!
Having flown into Mulu we trekked out over two days which involved pushing the boat upriver due to low water levels on occasion for about a couple of hours and then a 9km tramp after that up to Camp 5 arriving totally knackered and dripping wet with sweat and high humidity. We dumped our gear on the sleeping platform and scurried to the river for a refreshing swim (really it was for a wash, says Tamara) when the heavens decided to open and this wall of rain came towards us. It was stunning, especially when the rainbow came out during the onslaught, utterly majestic.
Bats stream out of Deer Cave
An 11km walk on the second day through leech infested jungle (a dozen each quickly dealt with as we were hyper vigilant), a 2 1/2 hour voyage in a very tippy boat down rapids and past atleast one crocodile that Tamara saw (we were very careful not to rock the boat after that!). We were really in the middle of nowhere on what is known as the Head-hunter trail and, as we were the only ones on the trail that day we really had the place to ourselves. In addition to Tamara's croc spotting I saw a couple of hornbills and what looked like a white bird of paradise which seemed to swim through the air. The journey finished with a 2 hour 4WD track to a town named Limbang which is close to the border with Brunei. We were shown to a hostel where we were not only the only guests but there were also no staff. Very weird but, as it turns out, just what the doctor ordered.
So finally we headed to Brunei for our last days in Borneo. We have treated ourselves to a nice hotel with a pool to ease our aching limbs and have been delighted with the chance to relax and unwind. A real delight has been the "Energy Kitchen" which is next door and serves such tasty, healthy food that we have revelled in - more of the simple life but in a first world sense. Brunei is interesting enough but one day sightseeing seems to have covered it just fine. Vietnam visas in hand we fly out tomorrow to the next part of our adventure.
'Till next time.......
