My First Longhouse Visit

November 12th-13th (Saturday-Sunday)

Time to split up. Nicholas and Josephine headed back to HQ while Bart, Olga, and I continued up through the headhunter's trail, then a boat ride to the longhouse.

This trek was not too interesting, especially because we were screaming through the forest trying to keep up with our guides, one of whom had a bad leg but was still faster than we were!

And the leeches! Eww. Today, I knew what to look for, and they were all over my shoes and socks. Maybe about five total, though luckily none on my skin. Lucky for us, our guides had their boat at kilometer 8, so we didn't have to do the full 11 kilometers.



Our boatman, who ended up being our host as well, was Encik Payong. An old man with nine children and twenty-three grandchildren, he couldn't speak a lick of English. But, he and his wife are pleasant enough, and they have a nice comfortable place to stay and the food was pretty good. I especially liked the bakis (fern) and sayor (bitter vegetable). This was also my chance to practice what little Malay I've learned on my trips. In many ways, this was the culmination or the climax of my trip to Malaysia. After the longhouse visit will be the sad denouement.



Quite a lot of people come through here though, maybe once a week or so, so it isn't exactly a unique experience. I highly doubt they remember many of the tourists who come through, stay the night, and head off the next day.

I too was a bit bummed because it just seemed like they were expecting us to come through, stay the night, and head off the next day. So, I went off and did what I enjoy the most. I went off and found the children. The older boys invited us to play soccer, and Bart joined in. Boy were the kids good.



The longhouse was a single structure, with a huge long, wide hallway and a long porch shared by all. The individual living units branched out from the common hallway out back, and these were built one-by-one, but shared walls with their neighbors. Lots of dogs and chickens and pigs all around in the fields of corn and rice. The place has quite a communal feeling, and I believe most of the families there are related to one another. There were also maybe seven or nine longhouses in the area that shared the school and clinic.

OK. So, the games began and the smaller kids started appearing out of the woodwork. They especially liked the look-down/look-up game, and they taught me a game much like duck-duck-goose, but in which one could throw a ball. It was glorious fun, but alas, my camera was on the fritz because too much moisture got in. *sigh* The highlight of my trip and very few pictures to show for it. All the more reason to come back and visit again!

And I do hope to visit again. This was what I enjoy the most, to just spend time with the people.

One thing I am quite embarrassed about was that I assumed that they didn't have internet access. Now, knowing that they do, I hope to get some emails from them soon!



For anybody planning on coming to Borneo, I do highly recommend visiting a longhouse, and to try and immerse yourself into the people there. The people of Borneo are genuinely friendly and warm. They are the highlight and the treasure of Borneo. Corny, but true.

Oh, by the way, they call corn, "lego" after the blocks. Cute, ey?