Into The Heart Of Borneo

After Singapore we spent a couple of days on the pleasant island of Pulau Tioman. The weather was unpredictable but the island looked like something out of lost and the people were warm and friendly. From there we journeyed to Kuala Lumpur and stayed for a few days wandering around the markets of Chinatown and Little India as well as diving into the air conditoned bliss of shopping malls. The smart KLCC complex at the foot of the iconic Petronas Towers was nice to explore as were the leafy parks on the outskirts of the city centre.

During our time in Singapore we had decided spontaneously to take a detour to Borneo. Sarawak to be precise in Malaysian Borneo and it was here we headed next to explore the rainforest and get a feel for the culture and everday life of the people who live in the longhouses and the towns.

We started in Kuching, Sarawak's capital and used it as a base for a trip to a longhouse a few hundred kilometres into the interior. Before we reached the longhouse we stopped by at the orang-utan sanctuary and caught a glimpse of a large male swinging through the trees and a female and baby at feeding time. Not bad going as often the freed orang-utans don't return to the centre to feed unless they can't find enough fruit in the forest.

Then we visited the crocodile farm and witnessed their feeding time. An altogether more aggressive experience! In the entrance to the farm stood a large display board filled with photographs of man eating crocodiles that had been hunted, captured and killed by villagers over the years in Borneo. They included some shocking photos of a partially digested young boy being cut from the stomach of an enormous killer crocodile. We left with our already healthy respect for crocodiles reconfirmed.

Then it was on to the longhouse. We were welcomed warmly by the Iban people and it was a fascinating experience. Much drinking of Rice wine ensued, supplemented by good food and music. The music and dancing was only interrupted for more shots of rice wine, often mid song and people took it in turns to tear up the dance floor with some 'Iban' dancing including myself and Sam. One man, a self proclaimed expert hunter, carpenter (and I suspect Alcoholic) was supplying the fuel for much 'merry-making'. We spoke at length with the chief of the longhouse about the history of the Iban people and the trades they are involved with including exporting rubber and pepper but mostly about their knowledge of western culture. The Iban have had access to newspapers, magazines and television for some time now and it shows. They knew all about celebrities, football, politics and more. Most of the men we stayed with were in their late thirties and conversation and songs always came back to Boy George, Duran Duran and Kiss which was surreal to say the least. Sitting at the table in the longhouse drinking rice wine and singing Boy George songs made for a strange evening.

The second day at the longhouse we went trekking and fishing in the jungle. We trudged up stream through the humidity and tried to keep our footing on the slippery rocks. Apparently no crocodiles lived in this particluar river but we couldn't help feeling a little paranoid after our visit to the farm and seeing the headline 'croc attack' in the local newspaper the 'Borneo post' just the day before. An old lady was basket fishing and some of the men were spear fishing and using nets with great success. Included in the catch was a turtle which I felt a little sorry for when they didn't return it to the river-especially when I saw it arrive on the dinner table that night! The trip into the jungle was fun though and we went via a very refreshing waterfall. Perfect after the constant heat of the jungle.

After leaving the long house we returned to Kuching for a night before embarking on a 16 hour bus journey to Miri. We arrived around 3am to find ourselves locked out of the guest house we were booked in to. After much fuss and a nice waitress at a dodgy late night cafe across the road lending us her phone, we managed to get in and get some much needed sleep. We spent a day in Miri before heading out on the tiniest plane I have ever seen to go to Bario.

The only way to get to Bario is to fly or if you're crazy, walk. There is no road and everything they have has to be flown in! We arrived in Bario with the intention of walking to a guesthouse we had read about and trying to get a room as we had had no luck getting any sense out of them over the phone. However after climbing from the 'toy' plane we were greeted by Nancy, a lovely lovely lady who owns a guest house in Bario. It turned out that the owner of the guesthouse in Miri had phoned to let her know we were coming. With no better options we decided to go with Nancy and this turned out to be the making of our trip! We were given such a warm welcome, not only by Nancy, but from a lovely American family who were staying there too. Everyone was so friendly and chatty and we felt so at home!

We didn't do any long hikes during our stay as it rained quite frequently and heavily- we managed to get ourselves caught in a torrential downpour a couple of miles from home and had quite a job slipping and sliding across the mud to get back whilst also trying to keep the camera dry! It was surprisingly cold! A lot of our time was spent reading, taking in the views, eating delicious homecooked food and chatting to the other guests. We took some shorter walks around the area and walked up to the top of a hill where we could see that we really were in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by jungle! It felt great! By the end of our 3 day trip we were so sad to leave, even despite the huge black spiders and Mr. Brown, a giant hand-sized spider who all lived in the bathroom. How strange that the place with the most and biggest spiders that we have seen was the place we least wanted to leave! The flight back was on the same tiny red and black plane and we survived it once again. We returned to Miri feeling like we had left a part of us in Bario and it took us a while to get back to normal.

From Miri we went to the Niah National Park to visit the famous caves. For some reason they give you a lot for your money - the food and the accommodation was lovely and very reasonably priced which at a national park, was quite a surprise! The walk down to the caves took us through lush rainforest and we saw lots of colourful lizards and gorgeous butterflies.

The caves were amazing and absolutely enormous! The entrance to the great cave was stunning, bats and birds flying around above us and the floor was completely covered in guano which Jed slipped on several times. Hilarious! We walked through the cave, some of it in total darkness except for the light from our torches all the way through to the painted cave. So called because it was here that cave paintings and deathships (coffins) were discovered some 40,000 years ago. It's hard to imagine living in the caves now, let alone 40,000 years ago! Unfortunately we didn't see the art as it is apparently quite hard to make out.

On our way back through the caves we came across some horrible bug things which were like a cross between a spider and a cricket but were very pale whitish/translucent. Luckily they had an aversion to the light from our torches so we were able to 'peg it' past them! On the way back we had to go up a slope in the dark. It was so slippery with guano that I (Sam) just kept sliding back down doing an involuntary moonwalk. The handrails were covered in big spiders and cobwebs so they were not an option, but after several run up's the slope was defeated! It would have been scary if it wasn't so funny!

We emerged in to daylight blinking and taking in the scale of the cave mouth once more before returning through the rainforest back to the park headquarters. It had rained while we were exploring the caves so the boardwalk was also slippery and once again we had a lot of fun attempting to stand up straight! Altogether, a fantastic day out - much recomended!

We left Sarawak the following day feeling that we had had a brilliant holiday and had a lot of good experiences! We are now back in KL where we will stay for a day or two before heading up to Penang and Kedah and Perlis before moving on to Thailand!

Sam and Jed xxx

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Part of trip: Asia

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