Tribes of Borneo

Big guy Richie just daring anyone to come near his hoard

 

 

The little village of Santubong proved to be a lovely spot  As we wandered along the well maintained streets, the people shouted out their welcomes and we were constantly asked where we hailed from.  The anchorage was quiet with only the sounds of some interesting birds breaking the silence and had the beautiful Mount Santubong as a backdrop.

Despite the fact that Sarawak in Borneo is part of Malaysia, we were still obliged to check into the Immigration, Customs and Port Captain offices which took a good proportion of a day.  Had we not been bussed to the various offices in Kuching, I think it would have taken several days as the buildings were so inaccessible for anyone without wheels.

Mom & baby

Once this was all resolved, we were taken to the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre which is a huge national park dedicated to the rehabilitation of a variety of previously captured animals, primarily orangutans.  

Although this didn't have the aaahh factor of our time in Kalimantan, it was still fabulous and so nice to see the effort made to ensure the survival of these gorgeous creatures.

 

We visited the nearby city of Kuching, a surprisingly modern town with some intriguing architecture and lovely gardens.  Town planning, which is so often totally neglected or non-existent in most of this part of the world, seemed very much in evidence here and the care taken in keeping the streets and public areas clean and well planted was a delight.  It had a terrific Chinese quarter as well as a street called Little India, both which had incredible collections of fabrics, carvings and, of course, the usual colourful plastic junk, but all very clean and neat.

 

Later in the day, we were treated to a marvelous evening of food and ethnic entertainment at the cultural centre which lies in a beautiful setting with longhouses devoted to the various tribes that make up the indigenous peoples of central Borneo.  

These tribes are referred to as the Dayak but are made up of dozens of different peoples with their own languages and their own cultures.  We were hosted by the Iban tribe, some of the famed headhunters of past times.  It was hard to imagine them as such as they were truly lovely people.  Headhunting was still in evidence until relatively recently however removing a head was not considered murder but rather an offering in ceremonial and special circumstances such as weddings.  It wasn't indiscriminate slaughter but carefully selected heads that they lopped off. They weren't actually cannibals as they didn't eat their victims, just saved the heads but I guess having no head is dead no matter how polite you are about removing it.

Their traditional costumes were decorated with very elaborate bead-work and embroidery with an array of fancy headdresses.  Our dinner was served as we sat on the floor around enormous round tables and consisted of an array of local cuisine, very different and very tasty.  We did not go away hungry.  While we ate, a troupe of singers and dancers kept us entertained with their colourful costumes and movements.  We were truly spoiled.

We left Santubong to head up the northwest coast of Sarawak to the town of Miri making one stop along the way at a little island, Pulau Lakei, a very pretty spot that should deserve a longer stay but we had to move on.  As we departed the river mouth, we saw a few large pale pink dolphins, almost albino in appearance or a bit like an Englishman on his first day of a tropical holiday; lily white with a hint of sunburn.  Most unusual.

After leaving Lakei, it was a double overnighter to Miri where we, again, passed many oil rigs and offshore platforms.  For half the time, we had some excellent winds which, with the incredibly flat seas of this region, made for some wonderful sailing. At one stage we had half a dozen small long-nosed dolphins come to play around our bow.  This always makes our day; we stood at the bow and watched them for ages until a sudden unseen, unheard signal and they were all gone.

PHOTO GALLERY:

Richie

Show off teenager

Iban costumes

Our anchorage