The Long Way Home: Sarawak

After leaving Kota Kinabalu in northern Borneo we took a "domestic" flight direct to the town of Kuching on the other side of Malaysian Borneo.  I use the scare quotes because even though both airports are in Malaysia we still had to clear customs and immigration.  Malaysia is a weird place.

Kuching was the capital of the state of Sarawak, historically interesting as one of a few places in SE Asia that had a western leader at the top of a traditional power structure, in this case the "White Rajah" Charles Brooke.  Brooke was able to curry favor and a trade relationship with the coastal Iban tribespeople ("Iban" even means "Sea People"), convert them to Christianity, and outlaw their traditional head-hunting practices... unless they were head-hunting his adversaries in the Urang Ulu tribal federation (their name translates to "Inland People") in order to seize their land and resources.  Over the course of about 60 years the Brooke family extended their control from a small initial foothold centered on Kuching to a state that covers over half of the Malaysian portion of Borneo.  The Brooke Dynasty ruled Sarawak until it was ceded to the British crown at the end of World War 2.

Kuching today is the seat of the state assembly and home to a lovely (if touristy) riverfront district, which we explored after checking into our hotel and taking care of some chores.  Across the river there is a cute lights-and-fountain show that runs once or twice a night, and an elaborate suspension bridge.

This bridge was possibly the fanciest thing in town

Oooh...  Aaah...

 The next morning we were picked up to go trekking in the jungle and spend the night in a jungle village in a (relatively) traditional longhouse.  On our way we visited a nearby Urang Utan ("Forest People") preserve, where apes that have been driven out of their habitat by agricultural expansion are able to live safely in their natural environment.  At least, relatively natural.  There is food put out at set times, and everyone (forest and tourist people) have learned to congregate when that happens to get a glimpse of one another.

Coupla apes.

Lots more apes.

 We were staying with members of the Bidayuh tribe, one of the inland ethnic groups.  We were set up in a semi-traditional longhouse, that had a little more privacy and a little more structural steel than they would have a hundred years ago.  It was still pretty rustic, and had a lovely river nearby to relax in.

Danger Monkey was very slow crossing the rickety bamboo bridge.  However slow you're imagining, she was slower.

Two inner tubes and three children leads to ENDLESS FIGHTING

This was apparently super low... during the rainy season this would be 2 feet higher

Just deep enough for lazy floating

 We went for a hike in the jungle with our guide Valentine told us about how people used to survive in the jungle, the notable properties of various plants (some were edible, some were poisonous, some felt like burning, some cleared up the burning feeling from the other plant).  It was pretty tough going, but we eventually made our way to a locked and fenced building deep in the jungle, which our guides unlocked to show us their ancestral trophies.

There were some seriously great trees.

Intrepid!

Middle Child: "Is that a cow skull?"

 
The practice of head-hunting on Borneo was one of religious and cultural significance, and although it has been on the decline since they established contact with the outside world it still experiences brief resurgences of popularity during periods of increased violence (notably during World War 2 and the Konfrantasi, the conflict between Indonsia and Malaysia in the early 1960's).  Some tribes gave up the practice all together, while others substituted coconuts as stand-in heads for their rituals.  We were assured that these skulls were over a hundred years old.

Afterwards, and with a new appreciation for the ancestry of our amiable and cheerful guides, we hiked to a waterfall for a swim.  As always, there is nothing better than swimming in a waterfall.

Our guides kept trying to talk us out of doing fun things, like scrambling down this cliff

I cannot overstate how cold this water was

Jungle elves!

Finally we hiked back to the longhouse, enjoyed a delicious dinner of local delicacies, and got some dance lessons from the villagers.  The accompanying music was played by the village elders on an assortment of gongs and cymbals.

Finally, once we had all proven our mettle, we settled in and hung out swapping stories over shots of rice whiskey and wine made from peppercorns.  We made friends with "Batman", who would be our river guide the following day.

After waking up and eating an enormous breakfast, we hopped in the back of a truck and drove off to a good place to put in to the river.  We would be riding rafts made of dried bamboo, lashed together with strips of green bamboo, poled along with long, thin bamboo poles.

Building the raft at a convenient ford

It's hard to convey just how quiet it was

Someone got hold of the camera... and it wasn't Danger Monkey!

We traveled through the most amazing jungle imaginable, through stands of (you guessed it) bamboo and under archways of strangler fig.  The banks were covered in ferns, palms, ironwood trees, and strung with vines.  Michael and Her Pineapple Majesty rode with Batman, who was a pretty committed comedian.  We all got super hero names, and he frequently passed the rice whiskey around.

A rare shot of Batman when he's not showing off his belly

 After awhile we stopped for lunch (bamboo shoots cooked inside of bamboo tubes over a bamboo fire... also some pork and rice) and the kids played with burning sticks.

Food boat beats food truck

Luckily he was not catapaulted into the forest when Michael let go of the branch

We had come across log jams that our guides had to machete their way through occasionally, but after lunch we came to the mother of all log jams - 100 meters of jumbled bamboo blocking our path.  They spent about 90 minutes chopping their way through, one log at a time.  A sharp machete can make pretty short work of even thick bamboo, but everyone was pretty wiped by the time we finally got through.

Thassa lotta logs

We're pretty sure some of our traveling companions missed their flight as a result of the mega jam, but they seemed to be in pretty good spirits still.  If everything went according to plan, it wouldn't be an adventure!

After we eventually got back to our hotel in Kuching we collapsed and re-packed in preparation for three days at the Rainforest World Music Festival!