Never get out of the boat

Not just a great quote from Apocalypse Now, it was the law in Sarawak until WWII. You had to stay in your boat when trading with the various tribes up the Rejang river. This was mostly to protect the various tribal peoples of Sarawak, but it also helped the Brooke dynasty maintain control of their kingdom for over 100 years.

I just left Sarawak for the bizarre little Sultanate of Brunei, but I have some catching up to do now that I have cheap internet again.

When I last posted, I was stuck for an extra day in Kuching since my laundry took longer than everyone else's. To help kill time, Richard, the hostel owner's brother, offered to give Ash and I a ride out to their luxury hotel in the countryside for the day. Supposedly the Prince of Monaco is planning to rent out the whole place in a couple weeks:

All 3 remaining stragglers (Ash, Kevin, and I) managed to catch the boat to Sibu early the next morning. It was a pretty rough ride for the first couple hours as we went parallel to the coastline. Ash spent most of the trip looking green with his head over the side (though never quite fed the fishes). He really regretted saying "Why take a bus when you can take a boat?"

We parted ways in Sibu, with Ash and Kevin catching a bus further up the coast to do some caving, while I caught the first boat up the river to Kapit. Other travelers had advised me to spend as little time in possible in Sibu (known for cheap prostitutes, loud karaoke, and high probability of getting robbed).

The ride up the river by express boat was kinda fun. They're basically a big bus (more like an MD-80 fuselage) with a keel that goes really fast. Since the Rejang is like one big lumber mill, they're constantly having to dodge logs floating downstream (every boat has a log spotter). During the ride, I got to know James and Alice from England, who I'd met briefly back at Bako National Park (you tend to keep running into the same people in Borneo).

Having arrived a day earlier, Balthazar met us at the dock in Kapit and showed us to the only reasonable hotel in town (all the ones mentioned in the guidebooks were 2-3x more than advertised). Though there's not a whole lot worth sticking around for, it's hard to avoid spending a night or two here. The only boat up the river leaves first thing in the morning, but you have to have a special permit to go beyond Kapit. The office that gives that permit is a few miles outside town, and it only opens a few minutes before the boat leaves. So, we saw Kapit really thoroughly.

The only historical site is Fort Sylvia, the last Brooke outpost up the river:

In the evenings, Kapit's entertainment options included drinking with old Chinese guys, karaoke, or snooker. Snooker seemed like the safe bet, but it turns out it's way harder than pool (and I'm not very good at that). We modified the rules to offer bonuses for squashing the various insects scurrying around the table. Balthazar kicked my ass in what may be the longest game of snooker in history.

With permit in hand, we braved the chaos to get a seat on the boat, ignoring other travelers coming off saying "no more seats!". French Canadians are particularly stubborn.

Finally, after 3 days travel up the river, we reached the village of Belaga. It's the last settlement on the Rejang, so even though it's really tiny, you can still buy pretty much anything you need here. It's also the best spot to organize trips out to see the longhouses. Unfortunately, one guy seems to control the tourism industry up here. The guidebooks all say not to use him, but there wasn't a lot of choice, and at least we knew what to expect. Balthazar and I opted for a day trip, while James and Alice went for a full 3-day, 2-night experience.

Longboats provide the only means of transport beyond Belaga. Though I got a few photos of them from shore, I didn't get any photos while riding one since my hands were fully occupied holding on for dear life. This German traveler has some decent photos of the experience here. They're kind of like a canoe hand made from planks attached to an outboard motor with way too much horsepower. Their only stable positions seem to be listing 30 degrees to the left or right (almost to the water line, or plenty close to it on the turbulent, eddy-filled Rejang). By shifting my weight slightly, I could get it upright, but only for a second or two. Worse yet, water gushed between the planks on the left side anytime we leaned that way. Nobody else seemed bothered by it, even though we had like 2 life jackets between the 6 of us. Oh yeah, and we're dodging logs coming down river constantly with the help of the log spotter at the bow. On one trip, that was a deaf/mute woman with a ~10 word invented sign vocabulary. She did well, but there wasn't much chance of "man overboard!" having any effect!

The longhouse experience ended up being a lot of fun. Parts of it felt a little artificial, as it seemed like some things were being done just for show. However, it was clear the locals got as much, if not more entertainment value out of us, so I didn't feel too bad. The old ladies just about died laughing when they got us to try betel nut, a complicated, nasty-tasting experience that involves eating a betel palm nut, a leaf covered in snail paste, and something else I didn't quite catch. It supposedly has a minor stimulant effect somewhat less than a cup of coffee, but the main result is red foaming at the mouth. I have a couple photos of the other's expressions on first biting into it here.

The longhouses themselves were surprisingly spacious. The ones we visited housed 500-600 people, with completely separate condo-like houses within for each 10-12 person family. They seemed to have all the basics of modern life, with a tv/stereo in the living room, separate dining room, and detached kitchen out back (to avoid burning the whole place down). Each family (and any guests) slept together in one big room upstairs. During the day, all the families come out onto the huge veranda they share, and the kids just run amok while the adults do their crafts, repair their nets, etc.

The highlight of the day was Iban, a charistmatic elder at the 2nd longhouse. He just loved having his picture taken and would stop whatever he was doing to see how our photos of him turned out. We brought a small bottle of rice wine to share with him, which was his favorite. He said it'd been a month since anyone had visited. We shared a lunch of mouse deer (tasted kinda like rabbit) followed by Iban demonstrating his various skills (blowdarts, stringed instrument, nose flute, drinking, and copping a feel of young women when nobody's looking).

We finished the day with a trip up a side river to a gorgeous waterfall. No pictures, I'm afraid, as we had to jump out of the long boat into the river to wade upstream. We also had to trek through the jungle barefoot for a km or so (not quite as scary as it sounds). We had a great swim at the falls, not spoiled by watching the whole thing through a camera lens or stopping to pose for photos. If you're really curious, I think it may be this one (hopefully I don't get in trouble for linking to it - buy his photos!), though we'd had a lot more rain, so imagine it being much more beautiful!

After a last night in Belaga, getting to know a few more insane locals (what is it about end-of-the-line places?), we were eager to move on. Instead of going back down the river, the four of us caught a ride on a 4x4 over rough mountain logging roads back to the highway along the coast, then a bus onto Miri, the last city before you get to Brunei. From there we caught a flight inland to Mulu National Park, Sarawak's most famous sight. That update will have to wait for tomorrow, though photos from that are included in the new batch, starting on page 27.

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