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Published: January 30th 2008
Iban tribe longhouse
Not the Hilton as you can see!!Hi again,
We know you were all hoping our heads where on sticks by now but unfortunately the Iban tribe are now a 21st century tribe sorry to disappoint you all but we live to tell the tale (however Dan has brought a blow-pipe so watch out in December as you may/will get a darted, he is practicing on the locals !!!!!!).
WOW!!! What an experience it was, the most humbling experience of our lives. The Iban tribe live in whats called a long house about 100 metres long all made of rotting wood, with a huge communal verander and 16 different families living in there separate living quarters all under 1 roof. All three generations of them! It took us 4 hours by road from kuching then a further 1 hour by a long boat up the skrang river to get to the middle of the bornean rainforest and our home for 2 nights. As we arrived to take our boat ride the heavens opened (as Dan pointed out it is a 'rain' forest) and we got absolutely sodden for a whole hour (our coats were in our back packs, back in kuching of course!!!!!!!)
Our first
Tribal Dance
After the welcoming ritual evening there was eventful to say the least, we had the tribe perform a welcoming dance to us, we had to give the gifts we brought to the chief and then the women laid out all there handicrafts for us to buy, they were amazing, i wanted to buy them all. It meant so much to them if you brought something for even as little as a quid. They are so poor but yet it doesn't matter, they have always got smiles on there faces. Afterwards we drank rice wine with Robbert and Marija and Seb and Mary, the 2 other couples that were with us, we all got on really well and had a great laugh, it made the whole experience more enjoyable.
On Saturday Entalai (our host, the chiefs cousin) took us trekking in to the rain forest showing us how they use the rainforest to live and make money. There main income comes from draining rubber from rubber trees and selling it to the city. We eventually reached a the river where we found a few of the tribe members had prepared a fire ready for a forest BBQ, they cooked chicken, fish, rice and vegetables
Jungle BBQ
Chicken 'n' fish 'n' stuff in bamboo, it was delicious and we took a swim in the river.
The nights were as big an adventure as the days, we were sleeing in a mosquito net on an open verander in the middle of the rainforest, the noises kept us awake all night they were the strangest noises we have ever heard in our lives. We will not even mention the bathroom facilties .......no quilted andrex here, Dan was not happy!!!!!!! It was enjoyable washing in the fresh water river though. Oh by the way, whilst your thinking of naked women (you know who you are!) the closest we've come is seeing one is a naked tribe women of around 95 years old making a basket - they were the longest tiddies you've ever seen !!
We are currently in Sabah on the north of Borneo staying in the capital Kota Kinabalu which is a very commercialised city. Its the home of the Mt Kinabalu which we are going to climb the whole 4100 mtrs of it over the next 2 days (I think we have drunk too much rice wine). We are then off to the east coast for a few days before 'popping' over to the philippines for a few weeks,
Hope you are all ok, any piss take will be greatly recieved, until the next time TTFN......................
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Stu
non-member comment
Hiya you crazy kids. sounds like the Den and Jan roadshow living up to expectation so far. I`d like to say i`m insanely jealous....so i will !!. Bloq making good reading. Keep yourselves safe and well. Stu. PS.. there`s actually someone in your house at last, bloke by the name of Stig, got dreadlocks and a camper van, says he`s a good mate from way back. You might of told us you`d said it would be ok to paint the fence pink...!!!