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Published: September 5th 2009
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Or as one of our Portuguese friends remarked: Head-ache hunters. Referring to the amounts of alcohol consumed. But this rather amusing yet slightly negative remark does no good to the greatness of these people, something I will write about later.
First we arrived in Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, the western Malaysian province in Borneo. Kuching is definitely a nice city and for the last couple of days we’ve really enjoyed ourselves exploring this great capital and its surroundings. What makes Kuching especially great is that it is a city of half a million. Yet many area’s still maintain the feel of a small village. Also the people have been treating us exceptionally well, which made us feel right at home.
The highlight of our stay in Kuching so far has probably been exploring the countryside on motorcycle. This has been especially great because it allows you to explore at will with your own transport. So no need to use the tourist busses and we could go were no other tourist had ventured before! Well not really of course, but that’s how it felt sometimes. Also it’s just great to travel as the natives travel. It’s hard to explain
but it feels great, you really take part in their daily lives and they really appreciate it.
Although it seems easy at first, riding a motorcycle trough Borneo can be a bit difficult. In Thailand for example foreigners are forbidden to ride a motorcycle, simply because they get into a lot of accidents. This isn’t difficult to imagine when you see the traffic. Although Malaysia is a bit better than Thailand, you need a decent amount of guts to brave the traffic and many one way roads. Especially the one way roads! Many cities in Malaysia have this wonderful system and it makes travel a nightmare, for example: from our hostel to the tourist office it’s about 15 min by foot. By motorcycle it took us almost 1 hour and I’m not a bad navigator! After this little adventure we started another one by embarking on a local longhouse trip for 3 days and 2 nights.
At some point long ago the people native to Borneo started using a type of house that became known as a longhouse. Basically, a longhouse contains many dwellings all connected to a common area. The dwellings are all build next to each
other in a straight line. Since all the dwellings are connected to the common area it stands as one long building, hence the name: longhouse. The tribal people of Borneo would live with their families and relatives in this house, commanded by a chief. From here they would conduct trade with other longhouses. In less peaceful times however the men of the house would depart on an activity that made them famous, headhunting!
Although I think these raids weren’t much different from those conducted by other peoples and cultures around the world, there is one fundamental difference. The tribal people of Borneo would take the heads of their fallen foes. Apparently this was considered very brave and it would win you the respect of your longhouse. Something required to get married and fulfill certain positions in the house, etc. Some fellow travelers reported that there is still some headhunting going on in the more remote parts of Indonesia. but none such traditions survive in Borneo. Here the people live harmoniously as farmers. As it stands, only one longhouse still displays their acquired skulls, dated some 100 years ago. Still the interesting part is that these people still retained much
a Loooooooong house
sorry couldn't resist of their other traditions, most notably the tradition of living in a longhouse. In Kuching there are many tour operators that can arrange for you to visit a longhouse, but not stay in one. Yet through a local woman named Lycia or ‘auntie’ we were able to arrange a 3 day 2 night trip in a original (untouristic) longhouse. This experience has been great as it allowed us to see how the people of the Iban tribe live nowadays. Of course there has been modernization so you can expect the longhouses to be equipped with satellite TV and some other modern comforts. Still it retains much of its traditional flavor. Apart from our 2 nights at the longhouse we have enjoyed traditional dance, the local drink, traditional cocking, jungle trekking, foraging for food, swimming and canoeing through the jungle and more. Although there is some thrust in the statement of our Portuguese friend, as the young people of the tribe leave the house to work and live in the city leaving the elderly behind and they often fill their time with heavy drinking.
Simply an amazing experience that left us with joy in our heart.
Something I forgot
Getting ready for the Jungle
Why did they give me the gay basket? to write and just to good to be left out:
During our foraging for food in the forest we encountered a large banana tree. Sadly the bananas were located to high for us to reach so ‘auntie” employed drastic measures. The plan was that I “the strong big man” would pull the tree towards the ground while she would make a small cut that would make the process easier. The result: we pulled the whole tree down! Although incredibly funny, it’s not very eco friendly. But, we got the bananas! Luc a friend from new Zealand wasn’t so happy though since he had to carry all those bananas (and there were a lot) back to the longhouse. Something to remind myself of: Never accept the biggest carrier bag when offered.
I’m around 2 weeks behind on updates but internet is slow and uploading pictures is a nightmare so bear with me.
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Roanna
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Borneo
Hi, I would love to go to Borneo and am thinking of planning a trip. I would really like to get a taste of what tribal life i like there. Do you have any idea where I might go to, to set that up? thanks