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Published: September 29th 2009
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Its a bit strange to get off the bus in the middle of nowhere and find that there is someone waiting for you, but that's what happened when we got to Sri Anan. Within minutes we were chatting with 'Auntie' and stuffing ourselves with Chinese stir fry. We popped to the local jungle market and we were shown all types of jungle produce that people grow and then bring to town to sell. Most of the tribespeople there were Iban, but in the town itself it was a mix of Chinese, Iban and a few Indians, but not many Malay, which meant the place felt quite different and also without any obvious mosques on the skyline it looked quite different too.
After bargaining for food and getting some parts on her car fixed we travelled with auntie for about 30 minutes before reaching a longhouse that she visits regularly, the men had all just finished work for the day and everyone was lying around in the communal area which runs the length of the longhouse. There was a huge row about a missing bag of rice and of course it was as always a bit frustrating that nobody really
spoke any English, but Auntie was very helpful translating our questions about the bundle of skulls hanging form thr entrance to the longhouse and also the remains of the elders which were stored close by.
Thankfully they loved Dan's tatoos and so this meant that we were allowed to drink Langow with them instead of the tea normally dished out if nosey travellers turn up! Well I thought it was really rather lovely and so did Dan so he was knocking it back and didn't realise the full effects until he got the munchies, we got through pretty much everything in front of us. We found out some names and ages of the tribespeople and one dude was looking pretty old, but actually he was a lot younger than we thought (oops!)
Strangely the chief had a nasty skin problem going on around both ankles which was split open, crusty, weeping and being feasted on by flies, he complained to us about it and asked for medicine. All we had was emergency immodium and some ibruprofen. The reason asking for this is strange is that they have money and you can get the medicine easlily, he had
it for about five years and has done nothing about it, but they have satellite dishes and motor bikes but they asked us for advice!Bit odd.
Then we were challenged to play one of their traditional games which involes a type of wooden spinning top with a rope strapped round it, you wind it tightly and then kind of throw the top and see who's lasts the longest. Obviously we were more than terrible and the hard lunchtime drinking did nothing for our dreadful effort. However they were highly amused.
We arrived in Aunties village after a futher 40 minutes drive and we were now much closer to Indonesia. The longhouse has 30 separate dwellings, then a communal corridor running the lenth of the house and then another outside corridor which again runs the entire length of the house. Everybody has their own front and back doors and room under the house for storage. It was a modern structure about 30years old and quite different from what we had expected, everyone has a real house inside with toilet, bathroom(bucket and scoop) a kitchen, lounge areas with their tv's and hi fi's and then
up to four bedrooms! not too bad for a house in the jungle by the river!!
However the joy of seeing taps and bathrooms was soon spoiled by the fact that due to the drought there was infact no water available at all!It would mean washing in the local river and collecting all the water to be used for drinking and cooking and then boiling it, cooling it and bottling it up.In fact this is quite a huge task at one point there were eleven of us staying in the same place and water for the toilet had to be kept in huge buckets so we had to collect that too!!
The first day at the longhouse we had Auntie all to ourselves which meant we could spend time with her and ask all the questions about her life and being part of a tribe and living in a longhouse. She was sent to school as were all her siblings but unfortunately her grandfather who was the chief took a shining to her and she was chosen to stay at home and look after things there. Her siblings went off to college and
university and ended up with good jobs, she learnt to drive at an early age and would ferry people about the jungle!She knows all the old rituals and dancesmaking us learn!) and led us down through the jungle with her machete where we paddled in a little wooden canoe through all the rivers she played in as a child. We had a lot of fun and took her up on the challenge of climbing the old trees and jumping off into the river, slippery work and a little bit scarey to be honest but great fun. She also runs her own gardens from which she grows jungle vegetables and chillies and pepper.We actually got off pretty lightly that day, she did all the cooking whilst we rested(following our bath in the river, AMAZING!)we had lots of rice, tiny little dried salted fish a jungle grass which is long and green and curls up at the end and a type of chicken broth. After dinner we had to go to the longhouse meeting, where everyone was discussing the planning for the party coming in the next few days(to celebrate a new road and many officials would be visiting the longhouse)Well we
turn up in our traditional dress, remember girls have to wear a sarong, given to me my Auntie at all times and Dan has to go without a top and we sat through the meeting, not understanding a word, but somehow working a few things out, luckily as always the hospitiality is fab and tea, orange juice, freshly roasted nuts were scoffed by everyone after the two hour meeting!!
Up at 5.30 the next day and we were instructed on how to make the traditional Iban cakes, which are lovely but really leathal!Quite funny seeing Auntie using both hands to mix the batter so she put her cigarette between her toes!We were left to it and were pretty happy with ourselves!
We met the new arrivals that afternoon and stayed up till 3am drinking rice wine, langow and beers and were in awful moods when we were woken up by Auntie at 5.50am, how the guys who drink this stuff like water get up so early everyday I'll never know.
We also learnt how to make stciky rice the traditional way by cooking it in bamboo sticks over an open fire
which is more difficult than it sounds, we had eaten it many times without realising how much work actually goes into it! We played many challenging games with the spinning tops which resulted in Dan and I actually becoming rather good at it (thanks Borneo!).
All the all the longhouse experience was good, it was pretty cheap and thank God we were really used to roughing it by then but a lot of people probably would have felt it was a rip off. I felt is was much more enjoyable being a homestay environment rather than a tacky and very embarassing tourist set up where people put on displays. What was great was that we hung out with the local people, went bathing at the same place and one day I even had a traditional basket strapped to my back to help the girls bring up the glasses and crockery form the store down the road. We helped clean all the stuff we brought up and sat in the sun chatting and working,(amazing what you can get over without speaking the same language) it was just part of their normal day and we happened to join
them!
When we left, we all had a meal together and some of the other tribeswomen came to help us hack open our bamboo!We did some dancing to work off a few calories and then we set of to take the bus from Sri Aman back to Kuching.
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ABANGNAZROL
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honest opinion yaaa...haha
hi,to the bloggers,firstly,thanks ya for setting and manage to go to my sri aman.yup..im a sri aman citizen,and from what i read,i think u have missed some other tradition here,a bit sad ya,huhu,if only i knew about foreigners that wants to see and to experience our tradition here,it would be a warm welcome from us here,u only manage to know n learn about iban tribes only right?here in sri aman,there are still a lot of things that im gladly share with others,n such a disgrace from us here when i read about that evil taxis,to be honest,i dont like this situation too,so sory from me as a sarawakian,warm welcome from me,even its a bit too late