To Bario Jungle

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We stayed one night in a cheap hostel in Miri.
The next day we caught a taxi to the airport joining us was a German guy called Hubert. We were heading to a remote place deep in the jungle called Bario.
It can only be reached by plane, a very small MAS Twin Otter 19-seater aircraft. This was the first time I had ever flown on such a small plane so I was petrified. Bario is home to 900 people living across the land and in long houses. When we arrived we landed on a small concrete landing strip at their tiny hut like airport. The locals UN loaded boxes of supplies from the plane. We waited for some direction as we were surrounded by large muddy puddles. Eventually a jeep pick up truck came to our rescue, I was thinking how the hell did they get that car into a location like this??? The answer was they transported the car in small parts, some by plane and some by river boat.
We pulled up at a house set back from the rest, the lady that owned the house was called Nancy (since travelling I have met heaps of people who know Nancy from their stay in Bario. She even had Ozzys son, Jack osbourne staying with her only two weeks before we arrived!)
Nancy was such a lovely lady, and welcomed us into her home warmly. She took us to her local restaurant where we ate some Bario grown rice, Bario grows a large amount of rice and pineapples (which are famous for a very good reason......they are delicious!!!!) Nancy ordered us some jungle food to sample, one of the dishes consisted of mouse deer! I bet you've never heard of them!!! They do exist, tiny creatures, I didn't enjoy it much for being too aware of exactly what I was eating; I think I got the ear!!!! Yuk...
James Hubert and I took a stroll around the area, walking between the rice paddies and through the giant puddles on the road (as it was the wet season). We visited a longhouse; I couldn’t believe how massive it was!!! I walked through the door and looked down the long corridor right to the end of the building! Wow, huge!
That night we were invited to a party, most of the locals was invited too as one of the village’s hunters had caught a wild boar in the jungle and it was to be shared amongst everyone. Delicious roast boar served with lots of Jungle greens/vegetables. The people in Bario only eat food they find in the Jungle, (apart form the odd pack of Maggi noodles anyway!!)
The next day we took a hike into the jungle. We were heading for an indigenous village where our guide Mado lived, we were to stay at his for the night and walk back alone the next day to catch our plane. The walk took 5 hours over wet muddy terrain, swamps and mud slopes!!! Lots of fun watching James trying to balance over logs in the swamps!! Mado showed us plants along the way that we could eat and leaves that we could use as a note pad, I held a rhinoceros beetle which was beautiful shiny black. The sounds of the Jungles are overwhelming; it’s just amazing how much noise can be produced by such small insects. (And big ones too). We passed through a small village on the way where there was a church service being held, the music was fantastic the people sang their prayers like gospel singers. It was really uplifting to hear, apparently a service is held everyday in most of the villages.
we finally approached Mados village it was awesome, right in the middle of nowhere, there was lots of grass between the Tudor like houses, buffalo grazed in the surrounding fields, chickens strutted around freely, grunts form pigs in pens outside each house. It was so cool like travelling back in time!! The bathroom was outside in a little bamboo hut, a simple tap as a shower stones on the floor made for a fantastic drainage system.
We were made vegetable jungle grub with rice for dinner; afterwards we went for a snooze. I awoke to a complete blackout, I couldn’t see a thing, luckily I had my video camera with its Infar red mode so I used that as a guide to the outside toilet, and they have no electricity!!
The next morning James and I headed back to Bario for our plane, Nancy (bless her) came with us to the airport to wave us goodbye.
We boarded the plane back to Miri, washed our clothes ate some food and caught a bus from Miri to Kuching which was an 11 hour journey!!!

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