Borneo

We didn’t think we were going to make it over to Borneo on this trip, but after our time in Indonesia was cut short due to the volcanic eruption, we realized we were a bit ahead of schedule and decided to work it in.  We only spent a couple of days there and didn’t head all the way out east, but felt like just the little we saw was worth it.  Our first night, we took a relaxing walk along the waterfront lined with stalls of people selling beadwork, carvings, calligraphy, and more than anything kek lapis – a buttery layered cake found all over the area.

The next day, we took a bus up to the Sarawak Cultural Village. This is a place where they’ve built longhouses that represent each of the major tribes from the western part of Borneo and you can tour through and learn about the various styles of homes, a little about their lifestyle, and sometimes taste the traditional foods or learn a traditional dance.  Colin got to try his hand at blow darts and we had a nice time listening to folks take turns sharing their skills on the sape – a 4-stringed guitar-like instrument.  Before we left, the staff gathered to put on a performance of the traditional dances from each of the region’s tribes and they brought out a guy with some impressive blowdart skills.  Our favorite dance involved a man climbing to the top 12 foot of a pole that was held up by 4 others.

We had hoped to make it up to Bako National Park for a night, but when we looked into it, we found that it was rather inconvenient and expensive – especially since all the dorm style housing was already full and we would have had to pay for a whole cabin to ourselves.  Instead, we went down to Semenggoh Rehabilitation Center where, in addition to being a research facility, they have been helping to increase the number of orang utans in the wild. (Note: They split orangutan into 2 words here meaning people of the forest: orang – meaning people and utan – meaning forest.)  We decided that rather than go with a tour group, we would rent a car (they were out of mopeds) and go on our own time schedule while saving a little money.

We woke up early and started to make our way down hoping to be there for the 9am supplemental feeding offered by staff that tends to attract some of the orangutans, but soon we were completely lost and after asking for directions 3 times, realized we weren’t going to make it and just went back to the hotel.  After a brief nap, we pulled up Google maps again, but this time used satellite view so that we could see when a regular intersection was labeled a roundabout or when they sent us off onto a road that wasn’t there.  Feeling much more confident and slightly more awake, we hopped back in the car to try again.  This time we got there with no trouble at all. We were SO glad that we tried again because whereas some of the people we’ talked to hadn’t seen any orangutans or only saw one or two, we saw several!  

First, there was a mother and her child that came down, shared a couple coconuts and then spent nearly an hour play wrestling. Then a large male came and just hung out in the trees until an adolescent tried to go in for some bananas and he decided to lay claim.  Eventually, we walked down another trail where we came upon 4 more orangutans out in the trees!  We watched them for quite a while until it was time for the park to close up for the day.  

After our hot day out in the rainforest with the orangutans, we decided to walk to one of the plethora of bars with karaoke around town.  Everyone else was singing songs in Chinese, and we were afraid they wouldn’t have anything we knew, but after several failed attempts at finding a song (they didn’t have a book; you just had to put in a request and then wait for them to come back and tell you they didn’t have it) we finally found one – James Taylor’s “You’ve Got a Friend.”  

Colin got to talking with the manager, who introduced himself to us as “Johnny Be Good,” and when he heard we were from the US, he quickly called over a waitress who introduced herself as “Baby” and told her she should sing a song for us in English.  She broke out some current pop songs and then insisted that Rachel join her for several more.  She kept bumping songs she wanted to sing with Rachel up to the top of the queue until the other patrons gave up and left for the bar next door.

Now we are back on the mainland and heading north to the Cameron Highlands to cool off a bit.  It’s supposed to have highs only in the upper 70s and we can’t wait!