The 3rd day in the long house was full of surprises. It felt like I was visiting relatives in Taiwan. We just went to Auntie's relatives place in the morning so that she could show her relatives to us (or show us to the relatives rather). I felt like I was some rare and precious animal in the zoo. None of her relatives spoke any English at all, so it ended up just me talking to Naomi and Auntie talking to her relatives.
It was a bit odd how all her relatives thought that I was an Iban and they all tried to talk to me in Iban. I felt a little bit rude when I had no idea that I was being spoken to until Auntie told me. Apparently I was a bit of Iban, a bit of Malay and a bit of Chinese to everyone. I am like a mini UN. Hopefully I will start receiving local discounts soon.
We went to this local Chinese corner shop so that Auntie could test that I really do speak some Mandarin. Yep, I won :) There were a lot of Indonesian traders around the shop. Apparently they walk 1.5 hours one way every day to sell jungle products to the village near where we stayed and to purchase necessities and take them back to their own village in Indonesia. It is pretty amazing - some of these people are the skinniest people in the world and can carry up to 50kg on their back and walk 3 hours every day.
We joined with two new longhouse visitors in the afternoon to go back to the jungle for another trek. Auntie kept saying that the two UK visitors were fully fat and she could not even tie the machete around their waist. Sure they were overweight, but they definitely weren't that fat by Aussie standards. But it was funny how she just said it in front of everyone and did not care about their feelings at all. I am just glad that I am not fat....(I think).
Auntie is actually very, very knowledgeable about jungle stuff. She knew all the trees and plants growing on her land. Apparently there are four different types of bamboo and they all have different uses. They all looked the same to me, but obviously not to her. She taught us how to light a fire, how to tap a rubber tree for rubber, and how to cut down bamboo to make a bridge etc. I was very impressed that she even remember which year each of her fruit trees were planted. The jungle was pretty muddy after the rain.
She showed us the location of the old longhouse that she was born in. She said during the war against the Indonesians in the 60s, their longhouse was located right between the Indonesian barracks and the Malaysian barracks. They sometimes had to go by 3-4 days without water as they were not allowed to go to the river to get water. They were moved to the current location which is around 3km from the old place.
Life would be pretty hard without water pipes in the old days. I am not sure how some of these people washed their hands after they go to the toilet at night. It is pretty hard going down to the river at night to wash your hands without a torch.
We had another shower in the river after the jungle trekking. The water was very murky and had risen pretty high after the rain. Naomi said she would rather have a shower in the river than be covered in her own sweat. So off we went.
Before we caught our 12 hour bus trip to Miri, Auntie farewelled us with a present. Surprise, surprise, it was lang-kau (Iban rice wine). She shared a bottle with the two UK tourists. I think they would have had a very big night of drinking ahead of them. Before we left, Auntie had two shots and the tourists had three shots each. It was going to be out of control. I am glad that we left before it got too messy.
The 12 hour overnight bus trip was painful. It was definitely the longest bus ride that I have ever been on. Naomi felt sick on the bus. I think it's probably from lack of food. I told her that chocolate biscuits and chips are considered a staple diet in some cultures, but she didn't want to eat them. So I had them myself. It was yum! We also discovered that they can make potato chip chocolates. What an awesome invention! I have to start importing this back to Australia.
We got off the bus feeling like zombies. I managed to squeeze in probably 2 hours sleep while Naomi claimed that she did not have any. Poor girl.
I also discovered that I was sick myself after the jungle trip. I went to the doctor yesterday afternoon (after we got off the long haul bus trip) and apparently I have got a virus. I was really worried as I wasn't sure how I was going to do all the things that I wanted to do. The doctor said it was caused by stress and exhaustion. Today and tomorrow will be my worst days and it will take up to 2 weeks to recover after that.
I was absolutely devastated to hear that. I've got to climb Mt Kinabalu (4096m) again in 7 days. Not sure how I am going to recover on time for that. Worst of all, I have to carry my heavy bag from here up to Kota Kinabalu. I will have to take heaps of rest days between now and then :(
Didn't do much today at all except watched a DVD – "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People". It was actually pretty good. Also spent around 3 hours in the Internet cafe doing blogging and keeping in touch with people.
Oh, the dinner club is still up and running. I have added a few people to be officers. So they will send out invites soon for the next function. Make sure that I am invited so I can do video hookups and eat/drink with you lads and ladettes!
Good night and peace. - P
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