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...

Aug 20, 2009 - Visit to Niah Caves in Niah National Park

We are flying to the Kelabit Highlands in Sarawak's interior tomorrow morning, so we filled our day today with a visit to the Niah Caves in Niah National Park, some 115 kilometers south of Miri. Some of the Niah Caves number among the largest caves in the world, and a 5½ kilometer walk leads hikers through some of the caves open to the public. There is also at the national park headquarters an archeology museum built in the Malay architectural style. Our visit to the Niah Caves lasted around 9 hours, including our return trip back to Miri....

Aug 19, 2009 - Musings from Miri, Sarawak

“Welcome to Sarawak!” read the sign shortly after we passed through the immigration controls in Sarawak after disembarking from our AirAsia flight from KK. Because there are no direct flights between Tawau and Miri, today we flew first to KK and from there caught a connecting flight to Miri. Sarawak may be a state within Malaysia, but entering Sarawak from Sabah at Miri’s sleek modern international airport seemed indistinguishable from entering an entirely different country. Upon landing at the airport, each passenger must pass through...

Jul 9, 2009 - Kuching

Kuching ist meine einzige Destination in Sarawak und bietet vor allem kulturellen Einblick in den Vielvoelkerstaat. Neben dem ueblichen Mix von Malaien, Chinesen und Indern kommen hier noch eine unglaubliche Anzahl Volksstaemme hinzu. Diese stammen aus dem Dschungel, sind teilweise Nomaden oder leben in sogenannten Langhaeusern, wo eine ganze Grossfamilie unter einem Dach wohnt. Wegen diesen Staemmen wird Sarawak auch das Land der Kopfjaeger genannt - denn frueher musste jedes maennliche Familienmitglied einen Kopf eines Feindes erbeuten,...

Mar 17, 2009 - Miri and the Niah Caves

There was a little bit of an adventure involving arriving in Miri via a 4 wheel drive, a coach and finally a local bus (why is always the last mile that is the most frustrating?) but we got to Miri in the end. Our reason for stopping in Miri was to use it as a travel hub for visiting the Niah Caves where the oldest record of human life in Borneo has been discovered dating human existence on the island at 40,000 years ago. Today the caves are also used to harvest birds nests which the Chinese are happy to pay large amounts of money for. We...

Mar 14, 2009 - Belaga and the longhouse adventure.

Belaga has been our destination since we took the first of the boat trips into inner Borneo and now we've finally arrived. The final leg of the boat trip had its memorable moments including the Pelagus Rapids where the water was fortunately high enough to allow us to pass, and of course there were many longhouses on the riverside en route that wetted our appetite for adventures ahead. One of the more depressing sights is the extent of the logging, of course economic realities mean that logging will always take place but in Borneo corruption...

Mar 13, 2009 - Kapit

Its another boat trip up the Rejang River as we continue our journey inland. Kapit for most travellers is another town in which to spend the night on the way to more remote destinations upriver. We arrived about midday and so spent the afternoon exploring about town. There's not much to see apart from the fort but the people seem friendly enough.

Mar 12, 2009 - Sibu

We took the ferry to Sibu which took a memorable 4 1/2 hours, memorable for the first glimpses many longhouses we were to see in this island, and for the sunburn I managed to catch whilst sitting on the roof! To be honest there isn't really much to see in Sibu for most is a transit point for further trips into the heart of Borneo, unless you're in the market for pirated DVD's which every other shop seems to be selling.

Mar 11, 2009 - A day trip to Bako National Park.

Bako National Park is about 40 minutes bus ride from Kuching and is the first of what will no doubt be many wildlife parks that I visit in Borneo. Its 27 sq km of unspoilt forest and shoreline and well worth a visit. After the bus ride there was a memorable boat ride upriver, the tide was low so we ran aground as expected and had to paddle knee deep in water on the mud flats maybe 200m to the shoreline and then walk a kilometer or two to the park entrance. The sun was up and the day was getting hotter so we decided on walking the circular...

Mar 8, 2009 - Kuching

Kuching, the capital city of Malaysian Borneo, is a very relaxed city, in fact is doesn't feel like a capital city at all. Apparently Kuching means 'cat' in Malay and the absence of dogs wandering the streets in favour of cats makes a change. I've flown in on Islamic New Year so all the shops and most of the sights are closed. I spend the first day looking at the Sarawak Museum which had its interesting moments and follow that up by a walk along the riverfront and a look about town, which it must be said is rather small. Eventually bump...

Jul 5, 2008 - Kuching - Iban Longhouse

We're sitting in the airport waiting for our flight to Penang - yet another ride on Air Asia! It has been a few days since we last wrote and since then there have been some adventures. Let's put it this way, I am so proud of Christine. With KL behind us and my freak out sessions under control, we arrived in Kuching in the Malaysian province of Sarawak on the Island of Borneo (you may remember this from Survivor, and oh boy did we relive the experiences). We found a very basic hostel called the B&B Inn which every trip advisor said was great...