I'M IN SINGAPORE, AGAIN! But this blog will be my final week of adventure in Borneo, so that's what Ive tagged it as :) SO last time I wrote I was mainly having beautifully lazy days in Kuching; sleeping, eating, getting throughly addicted to coffee. Blissful. Since then I have had three major adventures with more of the above in between. Here's the chapters...
MEN OF THE JUNGLE
So I finally managed to drag myself out of bed early enough to get the first bus to Semenngoh National Park - home to 37 semi-wild Orang-Utans (translates as Man-Jungle). Sorry Mum, no Gorillas! At 9 o'clock the park rangers give a speech to the eagerly awaiting tourists like myself, mainly scaring us all to death with how dangerous Orangutans can be if provoked or upset. There are so really gruesome pictures up of injuries inflicted by 'Big Mama'the alpha female who gets really mean if you upset her. She's born in 1985, like me :) Ever-so quietly we crept up the jungle path to the feeding platform, which the rangers leave fruit and milk at twice a day. We were lucky to come in the right season, because if the wild fruit is ripe the beasts just stay in the forest and never come close to the park centre. Straight away we saw two young males playing in the trees, and then the real treat came - Ritchie. He is a fully grown alpha male with a huge flat face. Probably weighs about 20 stone. He was incredible. Even though the platform is about 20 meters away you can sense how powerful he is. Ritchie is a grumpy old man, and it was an honour to see him as it's not often he graces the feeding platform with his presence. He's very senstive to noise, and we all had to keep really quiet. However, despite the well behaved tourists, Ritchie had other plans for his morning feed. Basically, he went on a ramage into the centre, because he saw a picture of his old nemisis rival male who got moved to another park. He tore down and sign and made a big mess. Needless to say, we kept well out of the way! We also saw some adorable mother and babies, who were also trying to keep out of Big Daddy's way by the look of things. We share 96.4% of our DNA with these guys, and you can see it. A great morning, and such good value. 3 Ringgits (about 60p!) entrance fee, for a really amazing experience.
HARI RAYA
Friday came round and I hadn't managed to go to the longhouse, again because I was enjoying my life in Kuching a little bit too much! And also because of a very special night in Malaysia - the end of Ramadam - Hari Raya. I bumped into the Danish girls from Bako and they invited me along to a Hari Raya open-house with a Malaysian who had befriended them. This was a real treat, it's not often you get to see this kind of celebration in a Muslim country and have such open access to the festivities. We took a specially comissioned boat - just for us! - across the river to the 'malay' side of Kuching (its not really that ghettoised more of an old tradition really). First we visited the house of the man who drives the boat, and his adorable family fed us loads of delicious Hari Raya delicasies. Curries, Bamboo rice, the famous Kek Lapis of Sarawak (an extraordinarily difficult to make, brightly coloured cake!) and many other tasties. Then we went next door to the next ''open-house' next door... then another... then another! All feeding us complusively and delighted to chat in some broken English about where we were from, if we are studying, football teams, if we are married... haha! By the last house we were so stuffed, I don't think I've ever been so full, but it is rude to refuse food so... we manned-up, and ate. hehe. This is such a wonderful tradition, I really can't think of anything we have in our culture that matches it for hospitally, generosity and sociability. Welcoming complete strangers, who don't even share your religion, into your home and showing such warmth. I was blown-away by it... And I didn't need to eat for a good day afterwards!
THE LONGHOUSE OF MUJAT
The time came for me to pluck up the courage to do my final and most adventureous trip in Sarawak. It was with trepidation that I headed out early for a bus to Serian, a little town in the middle of nowhere that would hopefully open the door to an authentic Borneo Longhouse experience. I'll fill you in with the background of this particular tale. In the orignal B&B I stayed at (the damp and dreary one), I met a lovely German girl who had spoken to the live-in malay guy about a traditional yet modern-day longhouse where some friends of his lived. He had give her a list of quite exact instructions to follow to get there and stay with the malay people. Now this kind of trip you can do with big tourist groups and they put on a big show and everything, but that'll set you back about 400Rm for a night. Budget-buster, and not really REAL Malaysia. But this DIY trip would only cost a fraction of that - a contribution to the family, edible gifts for the longhouse and transport there and back. The German girl had done it sucessfully, and facebooked me saying it was great and I should do it. So, I did. Managed to blag a minivan out of Serian to the village of Mujat, the driver seemed doubtful, which set me thinking, but I was too busy trying to get him to not marry me (I really need a fake wedding ring!), to worry too much. I arrived successfully, and followed the script - "Is Purita here? Nik has sent me". A man took me to Purita, just as she had been described - "two teeth like a vampire!" (Nik said this!). Now this was a real longhouse, with 36 'doors'and over 600 people living under its roof. I reckon it streched about 150 odd meters, and was made from bamboo, wood and corragated steel. First Purita seemed confused, and wandered off, leaving me to stand around looking pretty stupid. Lots of people gawping at me, children laughing, etc, etc. But she made up her mind and made us a drink. Already sort of at a loose-end, I asked Purita if I could go to the waterfall. She said yes and pointed to a man who would show me the way. An hour later, as I trekked into the jungle behind a very serious man with a huge machete strapped to his waist, we came to a beautiful waterfall. Literally like something out of a Herbal Essence ad, I swam in the crystal clear, and deliciously cold water while Mr-Machete sat on a rock smoking, looking serious. I'm not sure he liked me so much. That's fair enough, probably sick to death of having to show stupid white people where the waterfall is. After that, there didn't seem to be a whole lot to do in Mujat. I saw a porcupine in a cage. Purita said they would eat it. I prayed that wasn't to be tonight. We ate the yummiest peanuts I've ever had, sat on the floor of her sisters house. I ate juicy papaya. Then I fell asleep on a wooden floor with lino on it for two hours. Testament to my growing skill of Sleeping-Anywhere. Purita awoke me, and beckoned to follow. The language barrier was acute. She spoke a small amount, and everyone else spoke none. I was summoned to village meeting, the head-man's longhouse 'door'. We all sat on the floor, and I witnessed a heated debate between village members. I think I was about me, they kept pointing and looking at me alot. I'm not sure it was good news, and I was feeling very uncomfortable at this point. It was a lot like being a school foriegn exchange; never quite sure what was going on, or what was going to happen next. Then everyone spontaneously broke out into song, and prayer and more song. I sat mesmirised. After all that drama, Purita treated me to a delicious dinner of Bamboo Rice, Bamboo Chicken, Bamboo shoots and Bamboo sticky rice. It was really good. Pandas have got it right I tell you! And then she proceded to try to marry me off to her three sons. We listened to Lady GaGa too. Surreal. I slept in the one room of their house, they insisted on sleeping on the floor of the main room. Deafening rain woke me in the middle of the night and it was so dark I thought I had gone blind. In the morning I awaited the minivan with Purita, throughly exhausted by the experience, but pleased with how much I had learnt about how rural Malaysians live. Their family were so sweet and again, welcoming. I felt very priveledged to have stayed with them.
GOODBYE KUCHING
My last two days in Kuching I spent time with Bindi - the owner of Threehouse where I was staying, and made more friends. A South African guy and some Americans this time, who had been WOOFING. Yes I know it doesnt sound good... but its actually this really cool Working On Organic Farms project you can do all over the world. I might be trying this out at some point. Again it felt like I had known them for so long in just 24 hours, and sad again to say goodbyes. So many goodbyes, I really hope to meet these people again at some point. We celebrated with some beers and Laksa. Good times.
Left very early this morning and flew back to Singapore. Staying at the nice hostel instead of sleeping in the airport this time (thank you John!). Tomorrow its is off to Bali, for some sun, surf... and who knows what adventures....
Ellie