Episode 39
We left Kota Kinabalu on a lovely sunny afternoon and flew through heavy rain that delayed our landing for a few minutes, it had been tipping down in Kuching. We saw some new and quite large housing estates just before we landed. These estates are quite smart and somewhat similar to what you can see in many European countries and Australia.
Kuching seemed very quiet after Kota Kinabalu; it has a population of around 600,000 and Sarawak has a total population of around 2.3 million. For several centuries this region was part of the Sultanate of Brunei, then around 1849 it came under the control of Sir James Brookes, the first of the three ‘white rajas’. During the ‘reign’ of the 3rd Raja Sarawak was invaded by the Japanese and this member of the Brooks dynasty fled to Sydney. At the end of WW2 with the surrender of the Japanese the area was placed under Australian Military rule until 1946 when the exiled Brooks decided to cede his ‘Kingdom’ to the British. Many turbulent years passed until 1963 when it was incorporated into the new Federation of Malaysia, along with Sabah and peninsular Malaya. Singapore too, joined the original Federation but pulled out within a couple of years.
The centre is much smaller and things appear to be less hectic than KK. The main business area is on the south bank of the river and across on the north bank, still very much under construction is the new State Legislature building that dominates the landscape. A group of large tourist hotels stand clustered together along with a shopping mall and some of the cat statues for which the city is famous are to the east of the centre; while a nice riverside walk heading west will bring you to the big market when plenty of fresh produce is for sale. On the other side of the road there is a whole block of shops selling Sarawak handicrafts and to walk along there is a real obstacle course, each shop is about 12ft (4m) wide and the pavement in front of each shop is a slightly different height to its neighbour to either side, so apart from ducking under all the wares hanging up outside the shop you must watch where you step as well or risk falling flat on your face.
This central area is predominately Chinese with plenty of little Chinese restaurants and two Chinese temples, all very similar to those we’ve seen elsewhere. A few blocks away near the bus station there is a large mosque with gold topped minarets and dome and almost beside it is a Sikh temple, also with gold domes. We didn’t go into either: Not far from here are two or three churches and a Hindu temple is a little way out of town. So you see, just about every religion is catered for here except Judaism that certainly isn’t encouraged and probably not allowed here as people travelling on an Israeli passport cannot enter Malaysia.
On top of the hill by the Civic centre we found a high tower and took a lift to the top where we got a view over the whole city. It is surprising how well the trees and other greenery hide the buildings. In the distance we could see the jungle covered limestone hills near the village of Bau where there are a couple of caves that we visited.
An hours pleasant bus journey through suburbs of Kuching passing, along the way, the Hindu temple, another Chinese temple, numerous shopping malls and smart housing estates as well as some quite seedy looking areas, a little bit of countryside and we arrived in the village of Bau. Here we changed busses then a short distance outside the town we got off and walked about a kilometre along to Wind Cave. After paying a small entrance fee and armed with a torch each we set off into the foul smelling cave; it is only one cave really with several caverns all interlinked.
This cave like many more we were to visit are home to millions of swiftlets and bats and the floors of these caves are thick with guano. The smell is not pleasant: As it was daytime when we visited the swiftlets were quite active and very noisy, don’t know how the bats could sleep with so much noise but I expect that they are used to it, they have been sharing the cave for thousands of years.
A good path leads into the cave and through it, up and down many stairs and in places it is pitch dark, that’s why we had our torches. This cave was huge and it was the smallest of all those we were to visit. Several hundred metres of pathway and steps lead from one cavern into another and then another until eventually we came out the other side. There are some stalagmites and stalactites in this cave but we couldn’t see much of them as our torches weren’t powerful enough. We did see some swiftlet nests and they had eggs in them. We also saw some of the bats clinging upside down to the roof of the cave: All those bats and birds are still dropping guano and that makes the pathways and steps very slippery especially where there is water dripping too.
When we’d finished here we asked the only other person around where to find Fairy Cave and he gave us a lift there fortunately, as it was a long way distant. This cave is more a huge open cavern though I think there are some small passages that lead back into the hill. We had first to climb up 150 or so steps to even reach the entrance, then up about the same again before we came to the small Chinese shrine that sits in the centre of the open cavern. It is a huge cavern and where there is plenty of light and the rain can reach there are lovely ferns, mosses and lichens. From a ledge high up on one side there is quite an extensive view over the deep green vegetation of the flat land surrounding these hills; some small areas of vegetable plots and bananas but mostly there is long grasses and shrubs and vines with a few scattered trees.
Another day we took a combination of a bus and motor boat to the Bako National Park where there are some nice walks. This NP is on a small peninsular so is surrounded by sea on 3 sides. There is a canteen and several forms of accommodation there but it was all booked out when we planned to visit so we just made it a day trip.
The motorboat jetty is situated on a tidal creek on extensive tidal sand flats so that when the tide is out the boat cannot reach the jetty, we had to get out in shallow water and wade through it then across the sand flats to reach the shore and the NP headquarters. We had been warned of all sorts of stingers we might encounter in the water whilst wading ashore but we didn’t gat stung.
A long board walk stretched over quite a large area of those tidal flats and near the boat dock we saw some monkeys playing in the mangroves and there were many small crabs rushing about across the sand too. Some way further on along one of the trails we saw a troop of proboscis monkeys but apart from them the only other ‘wild life’ we saw were small insects and bugs. Funny how you get quite excited about seeing such things when nothing larger is likely to present itself for ones viewing. There are several species of larger manuals in this area, some two or three species of native cat, mouse deer, squirrels, macaques and flying lemurs, and the wild bearded boar. Many of those species are nocturnal: It was very hot here and in the middle of the day nothing much moves, not even the bugs, only the silly humans hiking in the heat.
The vegetation ranges from the mangroves on the tidal flats, through the thick rainforest just above the shore line, then it thins quickly as you climb the hill where much more sparse vegetation if found. There are also some small areas of peat bogs where pitcher plants can be found. One trail ended on a high cliff overlooking a lovely sheltered sandy beach with a view to a distant headland across the bay.
Later in the afternoon whilst we were sitting in the canteen enjoying a cool, refreshing drink one of those wild boars, a considerably tame one, strolled past. Such a sight grabbed everyone’s attention and whilst we were all otherwise occupied a very cheeky little monkey, a small macaque, took advantage of the situation and snatched some food from plates left abandoned and any other item that took his fancy. Apparently this is a regular occurrence each afternoon about the same time.
Borneo is famous for its longhouses, and most tourists like visit one of these places. Longhouses are how most of the local tribes people used to live; many still do, though more and more are moving to individual houses. The longhouse is a communal house where many families live under one roof. The small hostel where we stayed in Kuching offered a 4 day trip to a longhouse quite a long way distant and so not as touristy as some closer to the city, so we took the opportunity to visit.
Trips to this longhouse consist of no more than 4 people usually as the first part of the trip is in a 4wd and that’s all the passengers it can carry. In our group there were two Danish girls and David and I. We set out about 7.30am one morning in the 4wd, our driver being someone who came from this longhouse originally and is a member of the Iban tribe. The Iban people are the tribal people from this area and make up a large percentage of the population of the city of Kuching.
After an hour or so travelling along the main road that eventually leads north into Sabah we stopped in a large town and our driver took us into the local market and gave us many different types of fruit to taste. Some small round fruit with a hard shell like skin that looks a little like snake skin is called ‘snake skin’ fruit and I found it quite pleasant tasting with yellow flesh and a fairly large seed. Another smaller, but quite similar looking fruit is very bitter. Dragon fruit I would have to say was the best of all. They are quite red in colour and somewhat resemble a kohl rabi in appearance. Sliced open the flesh is bright pinkish/purple with tiny black seeds, the skin peels back easily making them easy to eat. They reminded me of something I’ve had before but I couldn’t remember what until we saw the plant that they grow on. It is a cactus, and though it grows in a very different from to prickly pear, that is what the flesh of the fruit is similar to. A very popular snack food in these markets is pancakes spread with a sort of peanut flavoured jam, quite tasty really. For anyone with peanut allergies this is not the place to visit as most local food usually has peanuts as an ingredient.
After buying a great load of supplies to go with us to the longhouse we continued on our way and soon after leaving the main road came to the river where the road ends and where we now had a two hour boat trip up the river.
Our boat trip was in a long, narrow canoe type boat, where we sat on special little wooden chairs one behind the other with a lookout up front and our driver and outboard operator at the back. All the supplies and our packs were loaded on with us and off we set upriver. It was quite fast flowing and with many sandbanks and tight turns much skill is needed to negotiate the very long boat past all the obstacles. Of course the rain chose that time to come along, well at least in this climate its not cold rain, so getting wet really doesn’t cause a great deal of discomfort.
Certainly our arrival at the longhouse didn’t create any excitement, in fact no-one made any effort to come and help us take our packs and all the supplies from the boat, up the steep track to the longhouse. So we each struggled up heavily laden:
Many families live in one long house. They are all related to each other: This longhouse is nearly 100m long. We went up the steps at one end and along a central passageway. On our right are the enclosed private areas for each family, whilst on our left was a semi enclosed veranda with an open slatted floor made of planks or split bamboo. The planks are ok to walk on but the bamboo is not so easy being smooth and rounded. Beyond the enclosed veranda, about 4m wide, was an open deck where each family had their clothes line and at the end of the deck most had a little shed in which the toilet was situated. For some though, including the one where we stayed, the toilet was down the bottom of the small yard reached by descending some very basic ladder steps, walking past the garden, the fish pond, and coming to a small tin shed where there was a shower as well as the toilet and a small chicken coop. The fish pond was full of fairly large carp:
This longhouse was divided into 17 separate living quarters, each one roughly the same size. The enclosed private sections were much larger than we expected with one large room that serves as living room come bedroom, and beyond that a smaller room used as a kitchen with a door and steps to the outside. So, you have a structure that is not only about 100m long but is also quite wide, 15m covered, and a further 5m or 6m uncovered. The roof was a mixture of BHP colourbond steel and very rusty corrugated iron. The place had been built in 1987 on a plot of land that had first been levelled by a bulldozer brought in overland and across the river in the dry season. There are 105 people resident here but with 50 of them being school age children who are away at school there was only 55 left here. The chief is a wizened old man in his 80’s who formerly welcomed us to the longhouse in the evening.
Our host took us on a walk up and over the hills behind the house: Growing up on these hill sides are plantations of pepper, the real stuff that most of us use as seasoning at some time. The pepper is a vine that climbs up a tall pole, the seeds (peppercorns) form on small seed heads with probably a couple of hundred seeds. These seed heads are nipped off when the seeds turn black. I will describe more of the process later. Along with the pepper there are many rubber trees, which, along with the pepper provides most of the income for these people. Each family in the longhouse owns their own bushes and trees. Large pineapple bushes and some rather scrappy looking bananas grow here too. We also saw the palm that is harvested for palm hearts. This particular one produces many heads so that harvesting the heart doesn’t kill this palm as it does with some species.
When we reached a clear cool stream with a nice waterhole we had a swim and rest while a couple of men from the longhouse prepared us the most wonderful BBQ lunch. This consisted of fish wrapped in large leaves that the guide didn’t know the name of, then pushed into a large bamboo tube that was cut from a nearby bush. Palm heart was cut into small pieces, wrapped in the leaf, and put into another bamboo tube, likewise with the chicken, and even the rice, separate tubes for each item, then the tubes were filled with water, sealed with a bamboo plug, and placed on a rack made of green branches over a fire. After a good while cooking the tubes were carefully removed from the fire and the meal served up on more leaves, the perfect disposable plates. It has to be one of the tastiest meals I have ever eaten. It was unbelievably good!!! We returned to the longhouse via a different route following the creek until it joined the river then along the river bank, a cooler alternative in the afternoon heat.
The men from the longhouse usually work at collecting rubber or picking pepper in the morning. Any pepper picked in the morning is usually ‘stamped’ in the afternoon. This is done by laying the collected pepper heads over a coarse sieve with a collection box beneath and people climb up and stamp on it to remove the seeds from the stalk. After that has been done then it is taken out onto the open veranda and laid out on woven mats to dry in the sun. This means a constant eye has to be kept on the weather as a shower of rain can come along very quickly and the pepper is brought inside before it gets wet. To get white peppercorns the seeds are first soaked in water to remove the outer husk then dried in the sun.
With the rubber trees a gash is made at a 45˚ angle in the trunk, a little spout inserted at the lowest part of the gash and this directs the sap into a small container at the base of the tree. After a couple of days this gash seals itself and a new one is made below it a few days later. The collected sap is taken back to the longhouse and in a nearby shed some sort of acid is mixed with it, then its poured into a large tray and put out into the sun to dry. The resulting material is like a thick piece of cream coloured spongy rubber, which, of course is exactly what it is. With the recent hike in oil prices the demand for rubber has increased greatly too, along with the price, but I don’t think very much of it is filtering down to these people.
I expected to see vegetable gardens but apart from a few tomatoes and some hot chillies in some of the gardens there didn’t appear to be anything else, only a few ornamental shrubs. A variety of green veggies would easily grow here, especially snake beans and some of the cabbage family.
The women, and some of the men spend a good deal of time weaving mats, baskets and many other items that they either use at home or try and sell at handicraft markets or to visitors such as us.
One evening we were entertained with some dancing. This consisted of only a couple of basic steps repeated over and over again whether or not it was the man by himself or the man and the woman together. The woman’s costume was a long dress decorated with a great many silver discs, whilst the man wore a feathered headdress and a cotton loin cloth, his body is covered in tattoos. The music was provided by 3 musicians using wooden and bamboo instruments that they tapped or banged. Not especially harmonious:
An hour’s boat ride upriver brought us to the school and clinic. The school has about 150 kids from several longhouses attending. Most of the children have to board and only go home every 2nd weekend. They start when they are 7 years old and finish at this school at about 13. Then they have to go further away to secondary school and only go home one weekend a month.
The clinic has a small 5 bed hospital attached with 2 nurses who mainly deliver babies. There is also a paramedic resident here. On the day we visited it was very quite with nothing at all happening and that’s the way it usually is apparently. Our host collected a load of medicines for others at the longhouse while we were here. The paramedic can prescribe drugs and keeps plenty on hand to dish out as required.
During our stay there had been a lot of heavy rain and our trip back downriver was very fast with the water higher than it had been and flowing more swiftly. The rain was tipping down yet again when we arrived back at our hostel in Kuching. We had all really enjoyed our longhouse stay and would recommend this particular one to anyone who is interested; Labang longhouse on the Skrang River.
The next day we caught a morning ferry to Sibu some 5 hours away. This was quite a pleasant boat trip that took us up the coast then along the estuary of the Batang Rejang (Rejang River). It was calm along the coast and once we entered the estuary we passed a lot of logs being floated downstream from the logging sites in the interior. Many sawmills are sited along this estuary where we could see massive stacks of sawn timber.
Sibu doesn’t really have much to recommend itself. It is mainly used as a base for people going upriver to the interior. The population is predominantly Chinese and a fairly modern, and quite pretty, 7 tiered Chinese Pagoda stands on the river bank. As we were fast running out of time we didn’t head into the interior but continued northwards and another 5 hour journey, this time by bus put us in the little town of Batu Niah where we spent a day visiting the caves in the National Park.
Here we met an English chap whom we’d met briefly back in Sabah. We all went to the NP together. We walked to the NP, then took the boat across the river, no bridge, and made our way directly to the small museum where we saw some interesting exhibits found in the archaeological dig in Great Cave and some of the paintings from Painted Cave. A replica of the skull that is claimed to be several thousand years old is on display here. Under the eaves of the building we saw some of the bats that had been the reason for our visit.
Then set off on the 3k walk to the caves. This was very easy walking on a good boardwalk. Along the way we saw many bright orange/red millipedes on the hand rails but that was just about the extent of the wildlife until we reached the caves. All the literature we’d read said that the caves were full of bats and that at sunset they emerge in great clouds so that is what we’d come to see.
These caves are massive too: The old archaeological site by the main cavern entrance is where the skull had been found. We had come prepared with torches to explore the interior of these caves.
There was a great deal of up and down very slippery steps inside the cave. We could here the noisy swiftlets chattering away in their thousands and watch them as they swooped around outside catching insects on the wing then returning into the cave but we couldn’t see any bats. Great long ropes hang down from the cave roof, these are used by the ‘birds nest’ collectors in the collecting season. These are the nests used in birds nest soup. The most highly prized ones are the white ones with the yellow ones selling for a lower price. The swiftlets make them from saliva.
This might be a National Park and the swiftlets supposedly protected but not only are many of the nest collected but we also saw a couple of people collecting guano. Yes, these caves stank just as badly as the ones back near Kuching. There are some stalagmites and stalagities but only the very large ones survive, no doubt anything at all fragile has been broken off by the nest collectors.
We were mighty glad we’d taken our torches especially when it came to making our way towards Painted cave as we had to pass through an absolutely pitch black passage a couple of hundred metres long. We could hear a stream running far below.
In Painted cave, a much smaller but still huge cave, we saw the paintings but they are very faded and indistinct though they do cover quite a large area along one wall of the cave. Some of these paintings have been cut out and taken away to be exhibited in distant museum: I walked through and out the other side but the trail went no further. These limestone hills are full of caves but there are only a few that are open for visitors
We waited around until dusk to see these bats but if there were any they didn’t make an appearance for us and we were very disapointed. It was almost dark when we started out on the return trip along the board walk so I was very glad that it was an easy walk. When we got back to park headquarters and across the river, the boatman was still on duty, we found that the gate at the entrance to the foot path back to the village was locked so we climbed over that and set off along the path. On arrival in the village we went straight to the little restaurant and had a lovely hot meal of noodles and veggies while the sweat still streamed off us. Surprisingly few mozzies and other night insects flying about:
Our next stop Miri:
© Lynette Regan 12th May 2008
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