I Heart Bamboo

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After Adam’s trip to Thailand and mine to India, we met back up in Malaysia and have begun exploring around Malaysian Borneo. Jungly, friendly—and way more laid back than Peninsular Malaysia—we are loving it here. We first did a long house visit, which is such a must. Basically, this is a home visit with the Iban people where you stay two nights or more and do what they do. (And in case you’re wondering, a longhouse is a series of separate apartments that open into one long communal porch all under one roof that is, well, long. We wish we would have known that the best time to visit is first of June when they have their festivals, and it seems like a wild time: pig killing and in-general-debauching.

We stayed with a spunky, bad-ass widow called Auntie who loved to tease Adam about his strength (or lack thereof) and tease me about my lameness with the machete. So, what did we do there…? Canoed to her garden, bathed and played in the river, trekked through the jungle to tap the rubber tree, attempted to build fire, and in general got close and comfy with bamboo. One night we cooked rice and chicken in it; another night we cut down shoots for soup; and in general we practiced wacking it to death to learn how to wack. Oh--and we also embarrassed ourselves with some dancing and shooting lang kao—which is rice wine on steroids.

Once we came back from there we traveled onto the other side of Borneo called Sabah and went to the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center that people have raved about. The center is doing great work, no doubt, but we’re not sure what the fuss is about. You pay 30 bucks to watch a couple of orangutans come to a platform and munch on some bananas. We did do a night walk there which was wonderful. Also, the area around the center is great, and we took a trip down the Kinabatangan River where we saw more of the beloved monkeys and bamboo.

Now, on to Sipadan for some diving.

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Photos

Charlotte Dancing at the Longhouse
A bit more dainty than Adam's method.

Adam Getting into It
Notice he's wearing his pajamas.

Freddie the Fish
Auntie stopped to buy us a live fish to eat, but Freddie the Fish was something of a jumper. So, Adam had to hold the bucket down on the way home.

Carrying Bamboo Home
We needed this bamboo to steam our dinner inside the trunk.

The Dinner
We cut the bamboo trunk into sections and then filled them with chicken, rice, garlic, ginger, and coconut milk. And then we steamed the food over the fire. Delicious.

Us Jumping Into the River
We were taking a break from taking a break.

Gritting Good
Adam's face after trying lang kao.

Adam's Fire
He was quite proud of this fire and the Boy Scout method was the real winner.

Tapping a Rubber Tree
Adam's cut is dribbling down the wrong way. Who knew rubber trees are so sensitive.

Skulls: Dead and Fresh
At one longhouse visit, they showed us this lovely bouquet of skulls that they had "collected."

Night Walk in Sepilok
Lovely little viper that's curling out to say hi.

Tree Crab
When Adam saw this he said, "I don't understand this world at all."

Proboscis Monkey
Not the best of shots, but it's the nose that's so ugly-awesome.

Comments

[anonymous]

So you can now cook inside bamboo. How much fun! There is some bamboo growing just up Northshore where you can use your new skills w/the machete. Little did we know there were any similarities between here and there! XOOOOO Mom