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.
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