Sarawak en Sabah

© Dirk Deckx (1995)

2. STARTER

B O R N E O... home of the Hornbill, Proboscis Monkey and the Orang Utang. With it's 746.000 square kms, it's the second largest island on earth (Greenland and New-Guinea on top).
The land is divided into two pieces. Sarawak and Sabah in the north are the Malaysian part, Kalimantan in the south belongs to Indonesia. Between Sarawak and Sabah lies another tiny but extremely rich country, Brunei, an independent Islamic Sultanate.

It's not so easy to choose between the Malaysian or the Indonesian part but because of our rather short stay (4 weeks), we decided to explore Sarawak and Sabah. Perhaps "Mount Kinabalu" (Nr. 1 tourist trap) plays an important role in this choice.

On Borneo the 'Creation' seems to develop in a crazy tempo. Huge, overwhelming, dense rainforests dominate the environment and keep house to countless species of rare and striking creatures. This exuberant flora and fauna found it's origin on the Asian continent, because in far-off days, Borneo was still tied to Java and the mainland.
Hundreds of brooklets and rivers seek their way through the forest, so the easiest way to travel is of course by boat. From a boat you'll have more chances meeting some representatives of the kingdom of the animals. The bigger mammals don't like to show themselves, but still, lots of pitcher plants, orchids, rafflesia flowers (if you're lucky), mushrooms, insects, smaller reptiles, leeches (!), etc... will grab your attention continuously. It seems that mankind is extinct here.
Nevertheless, inspiring stories about primitive headhunters and cannibals used to cause many a man some scary feelings.
But times change fast, no doubt about that ! This is getting clear to us during one of our 'jungle treks', when we ran across a member of the 'Iban' on a mountain bike ! Traditional clothing is no longer common, unless maybe to satisfy some naive tourists. Chainsaws, jeans, fashion sunglasses and more modern stuff already found their way to most of the 'forest people'.
In order to experience something of the more traditional atmosphere you should try to find the semi-nomadic 'Penan', probable the oldest inhabitants of Borneo. They know the forest in a way nobody else does because they continuously move and are also excellent blowpipe-hunters. The Penan don't live in the so called longhouses, they build temporary shelters. Also they intensively fight the systematic destruction of their natural home, the forest, by the Malaysian government. This government shows too much interest in massive export of expensive wood. The traditional values and rich natural beauty of Borneo doesn't seem important anymore.

BARIO in the Kelabit Highlands (Sarawak) is a good starting point to meet this friendly tribal people. To reach an isolated Penan settlement one should realize that it takes tough and long walks through dense primary forest. It also means that several less nice elements of Mother Nature may spoil the trip. Extreme humidity, almost unbeatable paths in case of rainy weather, lots of mud, leeches, mosquito's, etc...
It requires a healthy state of mind and physical condition.

Our story begins in Kota Kinabalu...

...where we are confronted with an administrative rarity. The international airport is situated in Sabah and we planned to catch a straight flight to Miri in Sarawak. At the immigration counter in Kota Kinabalu we receive the necessary entry-stamps in our passports. Everything normal so far but what a surprise when we find out that we have to 'emigrate' again for our domestic flight to Miri. An exit-stamp is placed in the passports when we leave Sabah and another entry at arrival in Miri, Sarawak. Three stamps in one day...great! It seems that Sabah and Sarawak are two different countries and in everyone we have to fill up an immigration document.