Borneo 2015 – day 02

Tuesday 30th June

This morning, we met our guide from Kuching Caving, James, in the hotel foyer at 08:15.
He’s an Englishman who used to be in I.T.
He was sent to Sarawak, the southernmost of the two Malaysian provinces on the island of Borneo, to work on an I.T. project 11 years ago. As he tells it, he didn’t chose Borneo… Borneo chose him. He ended up leaving his job and started his company Kuching Caving, running day trips with all manner of activities…
Our itinerary today included:
* visiting a Chinese village called Siniawan,
* stopping at a local produce market at Bau,
* then heading off to a tiny village called Gumbang where we were shown through a round house-like structure used for religious ceremonies. Although James told us the name of the type of building and the name of the ceremony that traditionally takes place therein, I had nothing on which to write those names down. The structure was made of timber, with floors covered in large mats made from interwoven bamboo strips. Apparently, the number and size of the mats in a residence is an indication of the prosperity of the owner.
We were introduced to a local named Peter, a spritely 65 year old who told tales of having to catch a helicopter to get to school back in the late 50’s before the road was put through between Bau and Gumbang.
The five of us, accompanied by a couple of mangy dogs from the village, headed into the jungle on a 40 min trek to the Indonesian border. At what appeared to be a completely random point in the jungle, James halted, pointed to some markings painted on a giant boulder and announced that we had now officially stepped out of Malaysian Borneo and into Indonesian Borneo (Western Kalimantan, to be precise). I have always imagined that there must be places like this, where you could cross from one country to another away from any manned border crossings, but this was the first time I had encountered such a place for myself.
James was eager not to linger too long near the border, as the appearance of any Indonesian officials could quickly become a prickly situation, although I suspect that the likelihood of such an encounter happening would be very slim indeed.
We grabbed a couple of photos, then started our return journey to the village.
* Next stop was lunch at a little village called Pisa. Kampung is the Malay word for ‘village’, and all the places we visited today are preceded by Kampung. A local girl, Emma (presumably not her local name), had prepared an absolutely stunning spread for lunch. I don’t recall the names of all the dishes (one of them was a beef rendang), but every one of them was spectacular. Then, she brought out a couple of tuned drum-like instruments, and her and James entertained us with a piece of traditional Borneo… well, ‘music’ is probably a little generous, as it was really just a rhythm track, but it was great to watch and to listen to none the less. Then, it was proposed that one of us should have a go. Max wasn’t keen, and Cath proclaimed her lack of rhythmic ability, so it fell to me to take up the drum and give it a bash.
As we drove off to our next destination, James asked us how old we thought Emma was. I said 28-30 (secretly I was thinking 30-35, but wanted to err on the side of caution). He then told us she was 47. Look at her in the photos (she’s playing a drum) and tell me you wouldn’t have said the same thing! Clearly, the rural lifestyle, the living off home-grown produce, the lack of sitting in front of a computer all day, all add up to a much healthier lifestyle than us Westerners can lay claim to.
* Next stop was the Fairy Cave, roughly 5km from Pisa. The journey began by climbing a 4 storey tower of stone steps, and that just got you to the entrance to the cave! Once you got to that point, you then had another series of steps, ladders and various other inclines to get into the main cavern. Once inside though, you realised that the gruelling climb was totally worth it! The cavern was somewhere in the vicinity of 100 metres from floor to ceiling at the deepest part. Photographically, this place was a dream come true. I could easily spend a whole day in there just taking images. This was not your regular underground cave where all lighting was electrically supplemented. This cave has a massive opening which is easily 50 meters off the ground from where the car was parked. The soft diffuse light pouring into the cavern was a photographer’s dream, and James, by now understanding my love for taking photos, mentioned that he has been considering designing a photography-centric day tour to add to his product range. I have no doubt such a tour would be very popular with locations like this on offer! One of the best parts of visiting this cave was that it was completely guide-less. You paid your money, and you walked the cave at your own pace. As a photographer, this was a dream come true, as so many caves are guided tours, and the ability to stop and take your time setting up the exact shot you want is extremely curtailed.
* Leaving the Fairy Cave, we headed for another small village, this one called Tringgus. In this village, we strolled between local houses, James chatting with the locals while we just smiled, waved and said “Hi”. At the end of the village, we came to a bend in the river where the locals have their own little sandy beach, with a rustic bamboo footbridge across the water.
* The final part of the day was to do a little 4 wheel driving off-road. This saw us pass through the remains of a once-thriving gold mine, and heading up into the limestone mountains where James has found more caves and has spent many a weekend abseiling the mountain face. To be honest, this part of the day was rather bland, but we didn’t mind. We had had a fantastic day, and James, in his 11 years here, has built up a stunning collection of stories and anecdotes about the country, both current and historic. His commentary never got boring, at least, not to me. Can’t say the same for Max.
By this stage, it was well after 6:00pm and we had been on the go for almost 10 hours. We were all fairly well exhausted, and looking forward to getting back to our hotel for a shower. We had decided in the morning that for dinner, we would go to a highly-regarded Indian restaurant just around the corner from our hotel. This proved to be a good decision, as we were thankful not to have to walk too far after our day of activities.
Tomorrow, we are heading out to Semenggoh Wildlife Conservation Park to check out the orang-utans.