Up the Batang Rejang

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The Batang Rejang (Rejang River) is the longest river in Sarawak. The river system is home to many different indigenous people (Dayaks in Bahasa Malay). The Iban (Sea Dayaks) are the notorious headhunters that regularly clashed with the Orang Ulus (people of the interior) before the peace in 1924. I'm not sure whether the Penan tribe is part of the Orang Ulu, but they are the commonly known around here as the true jungle experts. Some Penan are still semi-nomadic and refuse to listen to the government's requests to settle. It has always been a goal of mine to visit some of the very shy nomadic Penan.

From Kuching I took a small ocean boat North to the port of Sibu. The small boat wasn't the most stable and it didn't help that we were traveling perpendicular to the swells. From Sibu I took a powerful longboat upriver to Kapit. The longboat looked very similar to a airplane fuselage floating high in the water. People in the longboat were from all walks of life--Chinese businessmen carrying laptops and Orang Ulu women with elongated earlobes and near-solid black tattoos covering their hands and forearms.

Kapit is a very odd river town. The only way to the town is via longboat and yet the town has banks, fast food, and streets with plenty of traffic. There are no roads outside of town! ...Just plenty of jungle. Two nights here were enough because the people here aren't known to be the most friendly of the Malaysians. Luckily, my next stop upriver was quite the opposite!

Early the next morning I took another powerful longboat further upriver to a small town called Belaga. On the way, we motored up many sets of rapids. The turbulent rapids were no match for the longboat's supposed 1000 horsepower engine. The cargo onboard were plenty of Orang Ulu people, chickens, baskets, and other supplies collected from the larger towns downriver. It was odd looking around and seeing the people I associate with extremely remote areas, and then looking up to the onboard television playing WWF and cheesy 80's music videos. What a strange mix!

Once in Belaga, I did the normal tourist activities like visiting a longhouse and seeing waterfalls. I wasn't too impressed. Does traditional life still exist in this part of Borneo?

I decided to head farther back into the forest. After hearing that some men in the village were going hunting to provide food for a wedding, I asked if I could come along to watch. I bought them petrol so I could tag along.

We went up to their tiny hunting hut on the Balui River. This area is the site of the Bakun Dam, which displaced over 20000 indigenous people after flooding the region. Needless to say, the area had severe environmental damage--due to logging and dynamite fishing. All of this happened after the dam went in.

Every night they went out hunting - I just watched. This involved climbing high up into a rubber tree and waiting for hours for a boar to run by. Their dinners included some interesting things--monitor lizard, boar, deer, python, rat, etc, etc. After a few days, they had enough food to bring to the wedding.

The wedding was amazing! People were so friendly. Part of the tradition is for everyone to have a solo dance up in front of the crowd with a special hat and feathered costume. Of course as the only white guy in the crowd of 100 people, I was dragged up in front of everyone and had to do my own little dance. It was good drunken fun!

Do the jungle nomads still exist in Borneo? While I didn't find traditional cultures who held onto their headhunting past, I did meet some very proud indigenous people who showed me a glimpse of their daily life. For that, I'm grateful!

[Next: Into the highlands in search of the semi-nomadic Penan tribe]

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