Day 106 - Orangutans & Longhouse trip, Sarawak

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Trip to the Kesit longhouse, up at 7am and took our day-packs for the trip, only the 4 of us and our guide, Jihey, from the Bidayuh tribe. First stop was the Semmengok Wildlife Reserve to see the Orangutans which live in the wild but come back to the reserve at feeding time. We were literally walking amongst a group of mothers and babies. We then walked to observe a feeding platform out in the jungle where we were fortunate to see the huge dominant male, called Richie, swing gracefully through the trees, bending them almost in half due to his huge size and weight. After a couple of stops for lunch and to get food for the trip we arrived at the Lemanak river where we travelled by longboat up river through beautiful jungle scenery. Occasionally the water was so shallow the boat crew had to get out and push the boat! We arrived at the longhouse village where we were shown to our lodgings, a basic but functional guesthouse consisting of a damp but clean mattress, mosquito net, and bugs. Well it is the jungle! Had some tea and met some of the tribe in the longhouse, were given some homebrew rice wine, very sweet, cloudy but nice. Later we had dinner at the guesthouse then back to the longhouse for the evening's entertainment where we met the chief, Jampang, watched dancing performances from his wife and other longhouse residents, then drank loads of the local rice wine and more potent rice whisky! Everyone brought out their crafts for us to have a look at and buy if we wished. I bought a scary headhunted skull (made of wood) and a little sculpture of a man with a blowpipe. More drinking ensued with the village elders. We were invited into the home of one guy whos daughter had married an English bloke from London, we even saw the wedding photos and his address in England. Yet more drinking back at the guesthouse where the girls went to bed while me and Mark entertained ourselved watching the hundreds of bugs all bouncing off a candle (and us!). Particularly impressive was a huge praying mantis eating a beetle and the bats flying across the river. Got fed up of being a landing platform for the bugs so finally went to bed.

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