Aug 22, 2009 - Day Trek on the Outskirts of Bario

Having had to abort our plan to do a multi-day jungle trek from Bario over to Long Bewan in Kalimantan, the Indonesian portion of Borneo, we are intending to try and fly back to Miri tomorrow morning on standby. The flight today had no available seats. Tomorrow getting seats is questionable, but we have our names on the waiting list. Given that we were essentially stuck here today, we went with our Kelabit guide Richard, who had shown us around Bario and its environs yesterday, on a hike to a salt mine some 10 kilometers away from here....

Aug 21, 2009 - Trip to the Kelabit Highlands

It is evening and pouring rain outside of the Nancy & Harriss Guesthouse, our homestay in Bario, the main town in the Kelabit Highlands. Vikki and I, along with a German student and a French couple, are the only guests here at the guesthouse. So like most of our evenings here in Malaysia, it has been a pretty laid back one. The Kelabit Highlands rank as one of the more remote regions of Sarawak, accessible only by prop plane, a dirt road from Miri - some 8 hours away - or by trails through the jungle. Tribal peoples populate the Kelabit...