So the party ended around 4am and the family seemed to start to get up around 4.30am!! Our guide was coming back to pick us up at 10am so until then we checked out the chicken and pig houses set behind the longhouse. They were interesting, each family has their own chickens and pigs but all of them are in the same communal area out back, it was a bit like a rabbit warren. There seemed to be chickens and pigs everywhere, some in cages some in pens and some roaming free!
Out the back of the longhouse and down a rickety ladder each family has its own chicken and pig pens, this is one of its residents
At 10am sharp Chris was back to collect us and by this time we were all eager to go which was a real shame I thought. The experience could have been very different and in hindsight each of us said we should have just gone for the day and not stayed over. The experience and tour is billed as staying with an Iban chief and his family in a traditional longhouse and experiencing life as they do, etc etc but in actual fact it was really a home-stay which although very nice in its own way doesn’t really give you the ins and outs of longhouse life.
Another longhouse community in Kapit area
Back in Kapit and time is running out for us on our trip. What yesterday did give us was plenty of time to decide what we’re doing next and as we are running out of time and as Sibu doesn’t seem to have a very good reputation we decided to go by boat back to Sibu and the fly from there back to Kuching this evening.
This time the boat from Kapit to Sibu took just 2 and a half hours and we even upgraded ourselves to business class, although to be fair we didn’t feel very business class all sweaty and filthy after our overnight tour! In Sibu we had just a couple of hours before we needed to make our way to the airport. Prior to experiencing Sibu for ourselves everyone we had spoken to seemed to think it wasn’t a very nice place to stay in which is why we weren’t, but to us just wandering around, it seemed very nice and a lot bigger than you think it is, we came across the market area and they were just setting up for a night market which looked really nice, we even managed to bag a couple of doughnuts on our way round. Wandering around we felt it was a shame we weren’t now staying there the night cause it did look nice, and for all the niceness that Kuching has there doesn’t seem to be any central market or bustling area which I like which is a real shame, nowhere to really head for in the evenings. Oh well though, we had made our decision and made our booking and it was a good idea really, it meant we were back in Kuching by the evening giving us a full 3 days to do whatever we fancied with.
Sibus' Chinese temple
Sibu market
Back in Kuching and heading back into town in the taxi, the driver took us past one of the Chinese Temples which seemed to be very busy with people for the time of night. Apparently tomorrow is the temples ‘birthday’ and to celebrate there’s a huge party going on. Tomorrow we were planning on going to Bako NP for a night but now we’ve decided to postpone it till the following day and join in the celebrations instead.
The Iban Longhouse and the footbridge over the river to reach it
At 10am this morning Alice and her daughter Chris came to pick us up in their van for the start of our tour. Alice owns and runs the tour company and Chris is one of her guides, actually perhaps her only guide, it’s nice that it’s a family run business.
There are 2 more people also staying at our Inn who are visiting the longhouse with us. Ella who is from London and Claus from Denmark, they had met on the boat the day before and like us managed to book the tour when they reached Kapit, it’ll be nice to do the tour with others.
Before we head to the longhouse, Chris takes us to a supermarket to buy some bits and pieces as gifts for the people of the house. The LP always says try not to buy sweets for the kids but it seems this is exactly what Chris is suggesting we buy, oh well I guess she knows best huh?
The Longhouses of Borneo are the traditional dwellings of the indigenous people. The communal dwellings are raised above the ground and can contain up to 100 individual family apartments. There is always a huge veranda of some kind outside all of the apartments which links them all together and this represents the main street of the village and is where all the activity takes place.
All the longhouses in the Kapit area are Iban longhouses and tonight we’re going to be staying with the Iban chief and his family, cool!
On arrival the longhouse looks really impressive. We had seen several longhouses as we came up the river yesterday and they all appeared to be just single longhouses in that there were no other buildings around them. The longhouse that we were visiting was very impressive indeed. There seemed to be the main longhouse where the Chief and the richer people lived (so Chris described) and then there was a slightly smaller longhouse almost attached where the poorer people lived, then there was also some other longhouses in front of the main longhouse where people were also living. It was quite a jumbled and busy looking place which made it even more interesting.
When we first arrived we went straight to the Chiefs house and dumped our gear. The Chief and his wife were out at the market in Kapit but there were several other family members around the house and lots and lots of children.
Chris and Alice showed us all around the community and we visited several people and were told all about life in the longhouse. One of the most popular activities seems to be rice production. All across the outside veranda there were many many mats spread with drying rice and inside there were several ladies and young men processing the rice. The men’s job is to separate the kernels from the actual grains and the ladies job is to constantly sieve the rice; it’s an all day job and there are bags and bags of rice in several stages of the process doted all around the longhouse waiting further processing.
Rice processing
Rice drying
There’s also a small school here where the kids go until they’re 7 years old but today it’s Sunday so they’re all swimming in the river and having a great time. This time the river looks really very inviting, it’s crystal clear and looks so good and it’s sooo hot here, I think later that could definitely be on the agenda.
Cooling down in the river
First though it’s back for lunch and the Chief and his wife have arrived back from market. The chiefs wife seems quite friendly and smiles a hello and welcome to us but the Chief doesn’t seem quite so friendly which is a shame seeing as we’re in his house, it’s not so much he’s not friendly I think, he just doesn’t seem to take any notice of us.
Longhouse life
After lunch Chris enlisted the help of Robbie one of the local young lads to take us jungle trekking and to a nice swimming spot. I think Robbie was from one of the poorer families in the community and was quite happy to give up some of his afternoon to show us around. He didn’t speak much English but of course more than we spoke Malay although Keith has managed to pick up a few words so we silently seemed to delegate him as our spokesperson!
Part of our jungle trekking route
The whole longhouse community seems to be surrounded by shallow river systems so it was a case of alternating a little bit of jungle trekking with a little bit of river trekking as we headed out, a great way to cool down. After about an hour walking we came across a nice little waterfall and plunge pool area where we cooled down for a bit before heading back and this time I went in.
Me and Keith cooling down in the river!
Once back at the Chiefs house Chris and Alice had already gone home for the night and it was a littleunclear on the protocol to be honest, they hadn’t told us what we were supposed to do or not do or what we could do. Robbie was keen to show us his house and family so after a half hours sit down on the outside veranda he was back to pick us up and take to his house. First though we sidestepped into another house where there were several ladies wanting to sell us their wares.
It’s Easter Sunday here today and although traditionally the Iban weren’t Christians some have now converted due to the arrival of missionaries and in some parts of the community there seemed to be some kind of celebration going on. Robbie took us down to the river where there was a large group of men and boys playing a game called Tuak which apparently they only play on special occasions; it was played with a rattan ball and seemed to be a cross between football and volleyball! He introduced us to several members of his family who all seemed to be a little worse for wear on, what we can only assume was, rice wine! It didn’t seem to be the norm in the community though to be drinking so early on so we could only guess that either it was because of Easter or some other celebration going on that we knew nothing about.
One of Robbies relatives weaving
One guy we met wanted us to meet his wife and took us to his house and gave us water, he told us perhaps 25 times that the water he was giving us was boiled water! Well judging by the amount of times he told us we can only assume it actually was.......lets hope so! :-|
Back at the chiefs house and the four of us kinda hung around a little like spare parts. There were some kids watching TV and a couple of small ones around 4 or 5 who must have had too many ‘E’ numbers cause they were seriously hyper! :-) After about 40 mins wondering what we were supposed to be doing the chief called us into the kitchen area for dinner. Dinner, in a similar fashion to lunch, was rice, chicken and fish and was taken sitting on the floor of the kitchen area. The kitchen was very large and although not dissimilar to what we have back home it wasn’t the same either and there was plenty of room to be seated on the floor around the food and instead of the whole family eating together people would just come and go as and when they wanted.
The kitchen in the chiefs house
Again the chief didn’t really speak to us or even really acknowledge us and after dinner the four of us went back into the lounge area and sat looking at each other wondering what next!! About a half hour later the chiefs wife placed some mats out on the veranda area and all of a sudden a village meeting was in progress. This made things even more difficult for us, as the meeting was going on right outside of the front door making it pretty impossible for us to leave the house. For two and half hours we sat there chatting amongst ourselves thinking the whole thing a bit strange and actually a little uncomfortable. In due course, beds were made up for us upstairs and in the end deciding there was nothing else we were going to be doing this evening we headed off to bed, the thing is there seemed now to be some celebration or another going on a few doors down and this went on till 4am!
This morning we’re heading inland along the Batang Rejang a 640km river system which has been dubbed the Amazon of Borneo. We’re actually heading for Kapit which is a small town and the main upriver settlement in the hope of trying to visit one of the Iban longhouses.
The first leg of our journey is an express boat from Kuching to Sibu which takes around 4 and half hours. In actual fact it took 5 and half hours but only due to the many stops along the way and the rough seas we had to cross before heading down the river. Although we are on a bigger boat than I’ve been on so far this trip there was still a couple of times during the journey that I thought it would have been easier to fly or even walk perhaps!
Everything goes on top of the boat including our bags and a couple of tourists
Sibu is just an industrial port town from what we could make out, a gateway to the Batang Rejang and as such is not a terribly nice place to stay in, so we’ve been told. We were also told they hire out rooms by the hour in a lot of places in the town and seeing as if we were gonna stay we would want it for the whole night we decided to try and get another boat straight to Kapit. After a very quick dash into the shop for food and drink supplies we managed to get a ticket on the next boat. For each of the boats we went on we had seats in economy class which although was fine it was very very cramped and you really couldn’t get up and wander around without disturbing everyone else in the row, and to be honest there wasn’t too many places to wander to! They did have business and first class but for some reason we weren’t offered those! On the first boat and after my sub-zero temperatures of the ferry from KK to Brunei I was a bit wise to the procedure and made sure we had plenty of clothes to wear to keep warm, even with all our layers on though by the time we reached SIbu we were freezing! Fortunately the next boat we took was a bit warmer. It seems to be the norm here to try and freeze the passengers to death!
Kapit can only be reached by river, there aren’t any roads that go there, there is an airport (as such) but they don’t have any planes and certainly no flights in and out so the only way there really is only by boat. Apparently they built the airport in anticipation of a busier time but as of yet it hasn’t been used, perhaps in the next 4 or 5 years we were told. I think though if and when they ever do get the airport up and running it will take some of the charm out of the town and surrounding area.
Kapit boat terminal
It was a long time spent on the boat but finally we were there and after finding a nice Inn right near the boat terminal and taking a quick shower we headed out to the night market for dinner.It didn’t seem like many tourists visited this market either which seems a great shame as it’s where all the local people eat so it’s got to be good right? We picked a stall that looked pretty busy and made our order. The guy serving us forgot my drink and the snacks we had ordered but the main meals were lovely. Every other food stall in the market had a tv screen and guess what was playing?? Manchester United and Chelsea live!! So after a quick glimpse and then successfully dragging Keith away we wandered around to see what else Kapit had to offer.
I had managed to find a phone number on a couple of forums on the internet for a lady called Alice who offered tours to Longhouses so when we sat down for a drink a bit later I gave her a call and we’re now booked up tomorrow morning for an overnight tour to Gerakan Daya Wawasan Longhouse.
