Where are all the orang-utans?

After much deliberation, and a lot of researching, we headed to Borneo to check out the national parks, possibly visit a tribal longhouse, and maybe meet some orangutans. Unfortunately, because of rainy season much of what we wanted to do was out of the equation, including the Mulu National Park.  So we settled on Kuching on the southern tip where we would be able to visit other national parks.

In our Kulala Lumpur entry I may have mentioned that we stayed in our worst hostel yet - we hadn't seen anything yet.

We checked into our hostel late at night to find that they had allocated us a room without a private bathroom.  After a bit of moaning they finally gave us one with bathroom but no air-con (air-con might sound like a luxury to you guys back home, but here it's essential to survival).  Anyway, we agreed as long as there was a fan, and went up to our room...  When they said the room had a toilet and shower, we hadn't realised that they meant the toilet and shower were IN the room itself with only a shower curtain separating it - nor had we realised that they meant ONLY a toilet and shower... there wasn't even a basin to brush our teeth! In addition the shower was actually over the toilet which meant either you would have to stand on the toilet, of would have to contort yourself in ways I don't think are human.  There were no covers on the bed either so it was open air sleeping only.

Anyway, we very fast decided we couldn't stay here and immediately went out to find somewhere else to stay.  We had paid the five pounds for the night, and being travellers we couldn't afford to forego that (although we did consider it) so we would move the following day.  We came across a rather nice looking hotel (well, compared to our hostel) and thought we'd run in just to check it out.  After some negotiation they agreed on the equivalent of eight pounds a night - bargain!  We told them we'd be there early in the morning and went back to our hole to get some sleep.  Without covers on the bed I was open to the elements.  Yaz had the sense to pull out one of out sleeping sheets to cover herself.  You find when you sleep in places with so many bugs that a cover sheet is not for warmth, or comfort, but for protection.  After a couple of hours of not being able to sleep, I felt something crawling across my foot.  It felt big.  I jumped up and woke up Yaz in case it had gone in her direction, almost fell over trying to turn on the light and looked over to find the biggest cockroach on the pillow right next to Yaz's head.  Yaz had the shock of her life...!

I think I managed to get rid of it, although roaches have a habit of creeping in again, and after many, many hours of paranoia, finally got a couple of hours sleep.  We woke up ridiculously early, looking forward to getting out of the hell hole.

The following day we went to an agency to book our tours.  Unfortunately it was too wet for them to guarantee a trip to the national park, and so we booked on to a two-day, one-night longhouse trip.  Longhouses are populated by tribes of up to eight or nine families which decades ago would fight against each other.  Each tribe had head-hunters which would go out and kill the members of conflicting tribes and bring back their heads as souveniers.  The tribes still live as they did, but the head-hunting has been stopped by the Malaysian government.  The longhouses have a chief who runs the place, and local rules, traditions and rituals apply to anyone who visits. Sounded pretty scary to me...

So the following day we were picked up from the hotel by our guide and the two of us were taken on a four hour drive through villages and jungle.  The longhouses are in the middle of nowhere and so there are no roads leading up to it.  The only access is via a river, which meanders through the jungle, on a longboat.  It was amazing.  We reached the longhouse, a little nervous, and quite relieved to find a couple of other tourists there.  We were shown to our room which was actually a huge room with small compartments containing mattresses and a mosquito net.

After this we were taken to the longhouse itself...  It was quite a site! If any of you have seen the movie The Beach you will know exactly what this place is like - it really is a long house.  Well actually it incorporates a number of house type things on one side (one family in each) and then a main area in front of the living areas where everyone just chills in the evenings.  No tables, no chairs, just a vast expanse of nothing-ness.  We entered the huge area with our guide, and were somewhat shocked to be confronted by a number of human skulls hanging from one of the posts.  Apparently these are real skulls from a real head-hunting expedition some years ago...  As you can imagine, we were a tad intimidated.

Our guide explained the layout of the place and some of the culture, and then we were seated round on the floor with some of the Iban tribe.  They were actually incredibly friendly, and very hospitable.  After a few minutes, they brought out some homemade rice whisky and pured some for everyone including Yaz and I.  One sip of it and I was flying - to give you an idea, it's like tequila, but stonger (otherwise known as moonshine in the States).  Anyway, after one glass Yaz had had enough and turned down any other offers.  I, however, couldn't get away with that, and they kept insisting on me having more.  In the interest of not insulting our hosts, I obliged.  Needless to say, the walk back to our quarters was a little wobbly.

We spent much of the early evening with our guide and some of the Ibans in the kitchen while they prepared what turned out to be a feast for us.  Once prepared, we had to literally force the Ibans to sit with us to eat, they were treating us like royalty.  For dinner we insisted that the rice whisky was way too strong for us so they brought out a weaker version - rice wine.  This was actually quite nice.  After the feast we were taken back to the longhouse for a traditional welcome ceremony.  The chief was present for this, as was his father, the former chief, who is now retired.  As I said earlier, the tribes no longer head-hunt, but during the chief's father's reign, it was still active, and estimated that he beheaded quite a number of people.  they even brought out the sword he used for this...

Anyway, the ceremony was a little monotonous, but interesting all the same, and again we were plied with more and more rice wine.  After the ceremony, we were invited up to try the dance ourselves - we now understood the significance of the wine...  The entertainment continued for quite a while, including a number of games (you'll see pics of us jumping over wooden sticks - kind of like double-dutch, but if you miss, it hurts!).

The party was over by about midnight and some of the group retired to bed.  Yaz and I, and a number of others sat up until the early hours having a laugh with the Iban tribe.

The following morning we were awoken early, and with a slightly sore head were seated for breakfast.  Again, a full-on feast, including noodles and fried rice - which we stayed away from at that ungodly hour.  We were then taken down to the river for a cock-fight demo, and some target practice with a blow-pipe (kind of like a long pea-shooter, but with long, sharp arrows - in the past, these would have been tipped with poison).  Somewhat worrying is that Yaz was surprisingly good at this....

Finally we were taken back on the boat for our return trip to Kuching.  During the long journey back we received some sad news of a death in the family.  We would be flying to Toronto, Canada as soon as possible for the funeral.