"A BORNEO ADVENTURE" State of Sarawak by BerniShand

When my mum had a bad hair day she would look in the mirror and say she looked like the wild woman from Borneo and for the rest of the day Id plague her with questions - who was this woman? why was she wild? did her hair stick up too? where was Borneo? and that was the only question she could answer so from an early age I knew that Borneo was full of jungle, orang utan and houses on stilts so as Best Beloved said he wouldnt mind a wild woman or two off we went

KUCHING TO BATANG AI

The flight to Borneo from the UK seemed to take forever, we changed planes at KL and by the time we reached our hotel room it was 23 hours since we left home, but we would return tomorrow given the chance

Kuching is a small lively city with the blend of cultures that typifies Malaysia, and after a short `wash and brush up` we set off for a city tour. First stop was the Sarawak museum, with its longhouse display and collection of wierd and wonderful body piercing impliments, there are also very good flora and fauna exhibitions and displays giving insight to the endemic peoples of Sarawak. From there we saw government buildings, many left over from the days of colonial rule.

One of the most striking is Fort Margarita and our guide arranged a ride across the river on a sampan to it, which cost the princely sum of 2p, our introduction to the low, low prices we found everywhere, then as a rainstorm threatened it was back to the hotel, and the fight to stay awake and avoid the jet lag.
The next day we were left in peace, to sleep, swim or to wander through the city and see the sights at a leisurely pace.
We were blessed with our guide, Emong Tinsang, anyone who has read Micheal Palin`s `Full Circle` will recall his name being mentioned, and he is a mine of information not just about the places we visited, but about the people and culture of Malaysian Borneo.
The next day we set off for Batang Ai, stopping on the way to visit a pepper farm, where we had a wander round and learned about pepper cultivation, while there I bought a kilo of black pepper which cost me 80pence, a real bargain. We also made quite a few unscheduled stops, to look at interesting plants or scenery along the way, and visited a small town Serian where we wandered around the market and saw many things we would love to eat, and quite a few, including spectacularly large grubs, that we wouldnt.
There was a small garden next to the market, very well tended and clean, with a tiger statue.
Eventually we reached Batang Ai, where we had to transfer to a boat to cross the lake and reach the hotel. The lake was formed by the dam for the hydro electric power station, and is very beautiful and peaceful.

Children at the Longhouse

BATANG AI NATIONAL PARK

After a peaceful night at the Longhouse resort, I was woken by the sound of birds and squirrels in the trees, I love the early mornings when there are no people around and wandered around the resort enjoying the birds and looking for coffee.
After breakfast we set off for out trip into the national park, I must be honest, my heart did sink a little when I saw our transport, the boats were long and narrow, and very rickety looking, but once we set off I loved it, they were so FAST! It was the most exciting boat ride I have ever had !
We stopped at a fish farm where our guides bought fish to cook for our lunch, then it was off again.
The boats were very shallow and as we approached the rapids we were becoming very wet, eventually we all helped to bail but it came over the side faster than we were throwing it out, as it happened bailing was unnecessary as the boat rocked so much the water tipped out eventually, and it was so hot we dried off quickly.
At the park headquarters we got out and were met by a ranger who took us on a trek through the jungle, this was for us quite demanding, the humidity was terribly high and we were climbing uphill for most of the way, but it was very beautiful and our guide was so interesting and informative it was worth the effort, eventually we started to descend and could hear the sound of the river till at last we came to a shingle beach where the boatmen were cooking lunch. Never have I appreciated a cool river as much as then ... we all ended up in the water to cool down before lunch
On the way back we called at a longhouse, where we were made welcome and given tea and beer by the headman and his wife.
Longhouses have a long corridoor for community use and rooms off for families to sleep in, it was interesting to see how the communities work, they have little in the way of material goods but seemed more contented than we do in the `modern` world. It was nice that we were never asked for money or expected to buy anything, the tour company supports the school so the longhouse community is happy to welcome visiters.
Then it was back downriver to the hotel,the swimming pool, the bar and dinner, leaning Batang Ai the following morning for the airport and our flight to Kinabalu in the province of Sabah.