Kuching to Brunei, Self-drive

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What rainforest? asked local voices at the Rainforest World Music Festival.

Rainforest, longhouses, oil palms, logging: these are the story of the Trans-Borneo Highway in Sarawak.

A romantic notion of the longhouses has them all buried deep in the rainforest, with the communities leading a happy, subsistence lifestyle. In reality there are increasingly groups of longhouses close to the highway, sometimes within sight of each other. Here, as everywhere, people like being close to amenities and communications networks, and the government encourages people to take part in the modern economy. Is the Rainforest World Music Festival named for something a little outmoded?

What rainforest? Local protesters gathered outside the main gate one evening, not to protest the festival, but to cash in on the popularity of its name to worry about deforestation in Sarawak. They encouraged people to visit Whatrainforest.com. I had leisure to contemplate their concerns as I drove the length of Sarawak.

According to a VCD this group puts out, only 2%!o(MISSING)f Sarawak remains virgin rainforest. One reality of driving this highway is passing heavily loaded timber trucks. The loggers claim they practice selective logging; yet acres and acres of land are cleared for plantations of oil palms. Another reality of driving this highway is passing the heavy oil tankers. The villagers on the VCD explain how easily the land is handed to the oil companies by the government. Rights of customary ownership only apply if the villagers can demonstrate that they practice continuous agriculture; however, they use a rotational system where land is left fallow to recuperate its goodness. The nomadic Penans, deeper in the jungle, have even less chance of establishing customary rights to their land, as they are hunter-gathers with no agricultural practice at all.

Palm oil is an essential ingredient in many modern products: soaps, cosmetics, washing powders, cooking oil, processed foods and biofuel.

An overriding impression of Borneo is of the juxtaposition of the traditional and the modern; often it is a particularly comfortable juxtaposition. Yet the new inevitably replaces the old, and one hopes that Sarawak has not lost more than it gains in rushing to destroy its natural resources.

Travel Notes

This time I took 2.5 days rather than 6 days; two days would have been possible. The entire trip takes 18-20 hours; Prosper drives it non-stop, but I would not. I broke up the journey Kuching-Betong (5 hours), Betong-Bintulu (8 hours), and Bintulu-BSB (8 hours, but only because I spent a lot of time in Miri)

Betong has several hotels in the centre of town. The Betong Plaza looks the best and boasts of having wifi in most of the rooms. It is spotless. No payment is required until checkout time. The staff are friendly. There is access to an airconditioned Chinese restaurant. The cost for a single room with bed and desk, ensuite, and good lighting was RM50.00. Jimmy sat outside all night, opposite the fish market. The morning markets are extensive, and full of cheap local produce and friendly vendors. This is a town worth visiting.

In Bintulu I returned to the Regency Plaza and found it to be a better quality hotel than I remembered it the first time.

Again I found the road unpredicatable with few passing lanes and lots of surprise unevenness and potholes. This time I took the new, fast road from Bintulu to Miri. It is definitely quicker and less hilly, but it is surprisingly narrow and the soft edges are a problem. One feature of the old highway is that the edges are always firm and wide, a desirable safety feature imho.

How I’ve been

In a word: tired!

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Photos

Sarawak
The rainforest that everybody loves.

Sarawak
Jimmy inspects an oil palm plantation that has replaced the forest.

Betong
The concrete icon in Betong attests to the destruction of the rainforest.

Sarawak
A change is taking place from this ... to ...

Betong District
... this.

Betong District
The logs are pulled out on this rough railway to the track ...

Betong District
... then taken by truck out to the highway and to a port or timber mill.

Miri District
When the land is cleared, plantations of oil palm are established.

Mukah District
The plants grow from this ...

Mukah District
... to this.

Bintulu District
They line the highway for mile after mile.

Mukah District
I didn't go and investige what was top-secret in this estate.

Mukah District
The trees have a relatively short life, but self-seed. It is easy to understand the claims that they give off less oxygen than old forests when you see pictures like this.

Mukah District
When the leaves have fallen the landscape becomes macabre. No wonder the animals and reptiles of the rainforest can't live in the plantations.

Sarawak
All over Malaysian Borneo palm nuts are stacked beside the roads to wait for collection.

Mukah District
Inside the plantations they have larger collection points.

Mukah District
A single palm nut. It felt oily to hold.

Mukah District
That nut was destined to end up in this processing plant.

Sarawak
The extracted oil is then transported by road along the narrow highway.

Serian
I spotted this concrete durian as I went past Serian.

Comments

[Alison]

Nothing is precious enough to warrant rainforest devestation, but palm oil?!? That stuff is putrid!

[Lady]

Thanks again, Gillian. I can't tell you how much I am enjoying, not only the pics but the educational info as well. I just read a novel with the setting in the rainforests of Brazil. Though the rainforest itself was not the focus of the novel, there was some great information in there. Can't wait until your next email.....Thanks....Shirley

[Tracey]

Mt Vic was freezing!
Hi Gillian, really enjoying your blog, I feel inspired to take a trip to Kuching myself before too long. Back in Brunei now and very happy to feel slightly too warm again, Mt Vic was very cold and the skiing gear we took came in very handy. We had some beautiful walks round the canyon so all in all a very good trip. Take care hope the tiredness abates, say hello to Jimmy for me!

[Brian]

Another wonderful post
Once again Gillian you have brought the east into my home. It is good to see you are enjoying yourself albeit the tiredness. By the way gumnuts have returned, keep on trucking girl.

[An Erratic Traveller]

To Ali
You are so right ... especially if the cook reuses it. But remember it's in your favourite soap as well.

[An Erratic Traveller]

To Lady
I think that's the trick of a successful travel novel ... to give the exotic setting a role, but not to let it take over from the characters altogether.

[An Erratic Traveller]

To Tracy
I'm gone, but watch out for Jimmy on the Brunei roads. Charles is driving him now.

[An Erratic Traveller]

to Brian
I'm happy you're getting active again ... gumnuts? The're none in Thailand, but perhaps later on ... I'll check.