Borneo - Sarawak

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Our time in Sarawak would be in two distinct parts, firstly in Mulu National Park, and then spending time in a traditional longhouse in the jungle.

First we met with our group in Miri, and after buying supplies we headed for the river where it took us a full day travelling up stream until we reached Miri. The park headquarters were lovely, but we would not be spending all our time here. We would use it as a base to explore some of the biggest and most impressive caves in the world, including Deer cave, a cave so huge you could fit St Pauls Cathedral in it easily. The cave was also home to 4 million bats, and the largest pile of bat poo in the world. Other caves were smaller but not less interesting with great limestone formations, or huge underground rivers.

From the park headquarters we would also launch an adventure off deep into the jungle. First by travelling yet further upriver, this time in small longboats, we found ourselves at the trailhead for the headhunters trail, and after a few more hours walking to the hut where we would spend the next few days. Our plan was to climb the Pinnacles. While not having nearly as much height as Mt Kinabalu, the average gradient of this climb was around 45 degrees, so this would be quite demanding. All in all the total time taken up and down was around 8 hours, and the way down was no easier than the way up. But it was a spectacular view from the top, looking over the dense jungle, and at the dagger sharp pinnacles themselves, huge limestone rocks stabbing at the sky.

Heading back through the leech infested trails, we would go back to Miri, and then onward to another part of Sarawak. Kuching would be our next stop, a nice little city, before driving and then on longboats up the river to a traditional longhouse. The people of this part of Borneo used to be headhunters, but most have put away their grizzly trophies and welcomed visitors to stay with them. Also coming with us was a film crew for a New Zealand travel show called Intrepid Journeys. This show features a different celebrity each episode on a different 'Intrepid Journey'. This time it was big Norman Hewitt, an ex All Black. Norm proved to be a really nice chap, and fit in really well with the rest of the group.

We spent several days staying with the tribespeople at the longhouse. We would sleep on mats in the communal living space, and also consume a little bit too much rice wine again, but we all had a great time, it was great spending time with tribespeople, of which only a few actually spoke english. Still language doesn't seem to be a big thing after a couple of rice wines.

And then our Borneo adventure was truly at an end. Back at Kuching we said our goodbyes and then flew back to Kuala Lumpur and back to our 'Big Trip'.

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Photos

The Pinnacles
an incredibly hard climb

Drawing time
Some crayons and paper and these kids are away

Umm... millipedes
Having it off. My that is certainly a lot of legs to spread!!

Buying goods on the Blackmarket
Lots of great stuff available!

Caves of Borneo
Sarawak has many impressive limestone caves, including Deer cave which has the largest entrance in the world. You could fit St. Pauls Cathedral in that one.

Underwater River
A huge river has cut its way straight through a mountain.

Jungle Fern
Very tasty.

Python at the markets
Some big snake steaks on this one

Bath time at the Iban Longhouse
Also doubles as a swim

Cock fighting
A huge sport in Asia, every night the roosters would be brought out for some sparring practice.

That's one angry rooster
Ready to have a fight with another rooster.

Communal area at the Iban Longhouse
This is also where we would sleep, on mats on the floor.

Little boy at the Iban Longhouse
AKA Spiderman

Outside the Iban Longhouse
Amazingly it seems more stable than it looks.

Pigs Head
These would be our bar snacks, they go well with rice wine

Ross and Norm
Yeah not much of a comparison really. I need to do more weights.

Rubber tree
The tree is carefully tapped and the sap runs down the goove into a container.

Sad but true - a chained Macaque
Many animals are captured like this, even Orangutans sometimes.