Are we there yet? Wait, where is "there"?: Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo

Talor: By the time we were feeling better, we were needing to move quickly and cover some ground since we only had about a week before making our flight to Bali to meet Kappy. So we set our sights on Sibu, a city on the Western side of Malaysian Borneo. There we hoped to make a trip upriver to visit longhouses. But to get there wasn't going to be easy... we took a 2-hour bus ride west to a town called Seria then changed buses for another half-hour ride to Kuala Belait. From there, we boarded a bus for a 10-minute ride to a boat for a 5-mi

nute ride across the river. On the other side, there was a bus waiting for us, which took us to the border. After formalities on both sides, we got on yet another bus for a 1 ½ hour ride to the town of Miri. We were finally in Sarawak, but rather than stop there, we decided to go for the record... killed a few hours then boarded a night bus for a 10-hour ride to Sibu. We finally made it, but we were a mess!

The bus pulled into Sibu a couple hours early (imagine that!), and we were dropped off at the bus-terminal at 5:00 in the morning. Bleary-eyed, we got a cab to the Hoover Lodging House, checked into a tiny windowless room and immediately passed out for several hours. Upon waking, we moved to a larger room with a window then went downstairs to the corner coffee shop and realized we were smack dab in the middle of Chinatown... aaaah! Our favorite part of town! Spent the next couple of days finding out the boat schedules for the trip upriver and just checking out the town. Visited an impressive 7-tired Chinese temple where we were given the keys to climb up to the top for great views of the city. Went to a night market and gorged ourselves on street food then took in a free concert in the park. We also found, just down the street, a hawker stall with the best plate of keow tuoh (broad rice noodles) ever... spicy, smoky and a little bit sweet, served with roast pork and a fried egg... we couldn't get enough of it!

Then it was time to try our luck upriver... we decided against going with a tour because we wanted something a bit more authentic than a packaged tour so we took a speedboat to the town of Kapit on the Betang Rejang (river) and started asking around. A woman at a hotel suggested we go to the market and there, once again, we asked people about visiting a longhouse. Unfortunately, most didn't speak English. We were beginning to feel dejected and wondering if it was a mistake coming without a guide when I saw Akau, a man with a kind face. So I decided to try one more time and hit gold! His English wasn't very good so we weren't quite sure what we were getting ourselves into, but decided to trust our instincts and take a chance. Turned out to be one of the most memorable days of our entire trip...

We got into his boat and took a short ride to a longhouse, where we were welcomed in and immediately served refreshments. A longhouse is just that... a long house... with a row of individual apartments for each family and a shared veranda out front that runs the length of the house. That is where all the socializing happens. Whole communities live in these longhouses with a leader, elected by the people, who oversees things and settles disputes. Despite the individual apartments, most things are shared by the community, including labor, creating a harmonious environment. We were invited to lunch and then to an “end-of-mourning” party at another longhouse later in the day.

After lunch, Akau took us to the other longhouse where the party would be (and where we would spend the night), and along the way, we stopped to take in cockfights. I was both repulsed and fascinated by this ancient past-time that has been going on for centuries. Later we found out that in their animist beliefs, the people held the cockfights in order to appease the war gods who would then allow for a peaceful party later on. Afterwards, we were led to a river to cool off and bathe where we were greeted by kids shouting, “Hello!” Then it was a steep climb up to the longhouse, where once again, we were welcomed in, no questions asked, and immediately served rice wine and snacks.

Soon the men were back from the cockfights, the loser cocks were cleaned and put on a bbq, and the party got underway... for the next 24-hours! The Iban tribe we were visiting have a tradition of mourning a death for a year, then they throw an end-of-mourning party attended by all the longhouses in the neighborhood. For 24 hours, people eat, drink and celebrate while drums are beating and mourning songs are sung. We never experienced hospitality like that before... though we were strangers, we were welcomed in and treated like family. We were invited from group to group to share their food, drinks and anything else they had. After several hours, we couldn't eat or drink anymore, but couldn't say no, which would have been an insult. By 10:00, we were simply exhausted! According to tradition, no one is supposed to go to sleep, but they took pity on us, and cleared some space on the floor of the leader's house where we eventually passed out. At 5:00 in the morning, Akau woke us for yet another round of food and drinks before taking us back to Kapit where we boarded a speedboat back to Sibu, arriving yet again, absolutely exhausted. But this time, we were happy-exhausted and couldn't stop thinking about, and talking about, our experience. It was truly amazing!

We checked back into the Hoover Lodging House where the kind old men who run the place saved us the same room #104 with a window. The AC and warm shower felt like heaven! Spent the day resting and recovering, then got ready to move on. The next morning, we boarded another speedboat for a 4 ½ hour ride to Kuching, the capital of Sarawak. Settled into a comfortable room at the Kuching Waterfront Lodge in Chinatown, then spent the next three days walking around the city sightseeing.

Couldn't believe we had been in Malaysia for seven weeks! Though I bitched and moaned a lot during that time about crappy lodging and unwalkable sidewalks, I felt sad to leave. I'm really gonna miss the hustling bustling chinatowns, the wonderfully flavorful food, and especially, the friendly smiling faces... sigh.

Erik: Yes, the Iban longhouse party was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. I've never met people so welcoming and generous. We felt almost a part of the community, and smiling faces kept pulling us from one door of the longhouse to the next, to share in each family's celebration, food and drink...and drink...and drink. It's impolite, bordering on offensive, to refuse an offer of food or drink, and I being a man, was constantly being offered the latter – palm wine and the much more potent, black arak – a bitter/sweet liquor many times more potent than the palm wine. It seemed that every few minutes a new glass of each was shoved in my hands, and I soon became adept at kindly accepting it, then misplacing my glass – otherwise I'd have been done for before night fall. As it was, with a great deal of polite restraint, I only managed to remain conscious until 10pm or so, and I can only remember the last few hours of the evening with the aid of T's many photos. The worst part was that when Akau woke us at 5am, there were all my friends huddled around a huge Johnnie Walker bottle, having been up drinking the entire night, and they were now eagerly awaiting me to continue the party! I've never quite experienced anything like that one day upriver in the Iban longhouse. I just wish that I remembered more of it!