Yesterday we went to the Semenggoh Orang-utan Rehabilitation Centre. It wasn't as touristy as the Sepilok Sanctuary in Northern Borneo, nor did it have as many orang-utans. We saw a baby orang-utan that hung on tightly to its 38 year old mother. Naomi said he was really really cute.
Oh, we also went to Pizza Hut for dinner. Yes, that's right, 2 and half weeks without pizza was a torture for me. I have only found 1 Dominos, so don't blame me to had to resort to Pizza Hut. Not sure whether I entirely earned it, but it was a great treat.
I was running very late this morning for the 7:30am taxi pick-up for our longhouse trip. We were also 4 minutes late for the 7:45am bus which we were never going to make anyway. But I think some blame-loving people blamed me in silence anyway.
The bus ride took like 3 hours to travel the whole 180km. We stopped in the middle and people started to get off. Not knowing where we were, Naomi woke me up dragged me off the bus insisted that the bus driver told us to get off. I didn't realise that he just wanted us to use the bathroom.
[Hey, at least they stopped for the loo!!! And he did tell us to get off. He was so insistent I thought we must have arrived already, plus the Italians we were traveling with all got off too! - N]
We met our guide eventually at the real bus stop 2 hours later. She was a very small, friendly and chatty lady. She drove this little Xcel-like car and still managed to fit all four of the visitors in the car. Although I did have to balance my 18kg bag on my leg the whole time from the bus stop to her long-house.
[I don't understand how Paul's bag is now 18kg! When we checked in at the Gold Coast, both our bags were 15kg. I haven't seen him doing any shopping. Hmmm.... It caused problems for our internal flights between Langkawi and KL and KL and Kuching because the Air Asia domestic baggage limit is 15kg. Paul had to unpack his bag at the check in counter and take out three kilos of stuff for both flights. Eventually he decided to take out this ultra heavy bag with all his electronics in it. Unfortunately it also had the first aid kit in it. When he tried to go through security with it as carry-on luggage the x-ray picked up the scissors and tweezers in the first aid kit and we had to surrender them – BUGGER!! From now on we will be paying for extra baggage otherwise our luggage will be lost, confiscated or otherwise whittled away piece by piece! - N].
We stopped by a different long house on the way to see some of the human skulls that the Iban people used to collect. The Iban used to be head-hunters in the 1800s before they were converted to Christians by the Anglican priests more than 150 years ago.
[Pretty creepy, especially as you could see the holes from the blowpipe in one of them and one of them still had hair despite being so old. They light a fire under the skulls every week to preserve them using smoke. It seems like people also use the skulls as an ashtray because there were quite a few ciggarette butts sticking out of the skulls! Luckily though we had seen skulls at the museum so it didn't come as too much of a shock. - N].
The long-house where we are staying has 19 families living in it. It's probably around 150 metres long and is entirely made out of wood from the jungle.
[And some concrete and fibro for good measure – he is making it sound so Robinson Crusoe!! - N].
Only the young children and old people live here in this long house now. Most of the young people either work in the city or live in the boarding house outside the jungle. In our section of the long house, there are 3 generations living together – our tour guide (aka “Auntie”), her daughter-in-law and two little children (Julia who is 2 and Jeffrey who is only 4 weeks). Her son works in the city and only comes back on the weekends. It is apparently very common in this long house.
We went jungle trekking to find bamboo shoots in the afternoon. It was absolutely HOT in the jungle, not mentioning humid.
We were given a basket and a machete each. I was too busy using the machete to chop down bamboo branches and other trees/grass to bother finding the bamboo shoots themselves. It was a lot of fun actually using the machete. I chopped down this bamboo branch that was around 2 metres long. Naomi happened to think that I was finally revealing the inner me....Good on her :P[I wish Auntie had never given Paul the stupid machete!! As soon as he went “Cool” and drew it out of its wooden scabbard thing I knew he'd been overtaken by some primeval instinct. He spent the whole time randomly slashing at trees instead of trying to locate the bamboo shoots which were supposed to be our dinner that night. Auntie showed us how to find the bamboo shoots (which were just growing randomly in the jungle), get them out of the ground and prepare them to be cooked. She had such sharp eyes!
I was soooooooooooooo hot and sweaty in the jungle and at first I couldn't be bothered to try to find the bamboo but after a while my need to do everything perfectly overtook and I started to look around determinedly for the pesky shoots. Unfortunately neither me nor the Italian girls managed to find any. Luckily Auntie found heaps or else we would have probably gone hungry. By this time Paul was miles behind randomly hacking down jungle while all this was happening. Ever since then he keeps asking Auntie when we get to use the machete again! - N].
We came back after around 45 minutes in the jungle with our main course – bamboo shoots. We then went to the river down the back of the long house for a swim. The water was freezing cold but clean. I must admit that I am really a city boy and proud of it after 45 minutes of hard work in the jungle and showering down in the river. I am not sure how people survive without air-con and a proper shower in the jungle.
[As for me, showering in the river was just like swimming in Lacey's Creek (when it was actually running) when I was little. In any event, we only ever had creek water to shower in at the house anyway. I tried very hard not to tell Paul how soft he was being but didn't succeed! The only thing I was worried about was the effect of the soap / shampoo that everyone uses on the river system – it can't be too flash for it. Well, I was worrying a little bit about crocs and malarial mosquitoes. The visit to the Kuching museum and a look at the massive crocs they have in Borneo didn't really help that. -N].
Dinner was ready for us after our swim/shower. We ate on the floor with Auntie's family and 6 other backpackers. It is tradition to have the food on the floor and everyone share the food. We had the bamboo-shoot curry and a different vegetables for dinner. There were all home grown here. It was very delicious.
Auntie also made all the backpackers do this Malaysian dance called poco-poco. It's not too hard and it's fun when everyone was doing it. It is like bush dancing, but without the country music.
[Says he who appointed himself official photographer and took photos of the rest of us making idiots of ourselves!!! - N].
Auntie also provided us with the local rice wine “lang-kau”. It is made by her neighbour. It was pretty strong. Auntie insisted that we have a few shots. All the other backpackers seemed to love the stuff and bought 2 more bottles of lang-kau from Auntie's neighbour. Some of these backpackers were also travelling for a year. The other day we heard this German girl said that she hadn't been back to Germany for 2 years. Obviously, it is not that bad travelling between 1 and 1.5 years. So Nerrrrr!
[Apart from the Italian girls the other backpackers were all Brits – they decided that we needed to play a drinking game with the lang-kau. The “shot glass” was actually a mini beer tankard and it was huge! After a few rounds of the game during which I suffered badly I had to retire gracefully – methinks the heat and humidity coupled with excessive amounts of lang-kau do not mix so well, especially when we don't know what Auntie has in store for us tomorrow... - N].
It was a very interesting day. We are living with an Iban family, eating their local food and experiencing their way of life. It is vastly different to what I am used to, but Auntie and her family all seem to be very content and happy with what they have. Other backpackers also all seem to have a great time here understanding the culture etc. - P.
[Or just because they're drunk! - N].
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