Flying to the highlands

Getting going

I had set the alarm for 0600 and  asked the frontdesk to call me as well just in case.  But I woke at 0430.  Realising that there was no phone, I figured that the receptionist would have to walk up two floors to wake me.  So I WhatsApp’ed them to say I was up.

I Grab’ed to the airport arriving there 1h30 prior to my 0835 departure for Bakelalan.  For Twin Otter flights, passengers are weighed at check-in with hand luggage (and checked-in baggage separately).  My weight with hand carry was 74kg but before my breakfast of bubur pedas (spicy congee) washed down with coffee.  Yummy!  But it wasn’t cheap.  Actually the other eating choices at Miri airport were even pricier, eg. Starbucks and Coffee Bean.

Over breakfast I pondered how people in Miri seemed to speak very good English, even amongst the races you’d expect to speak English less (as in some other cities).

The Twin Otter flight

It felt like a long wait till my departure.  We were led downstairs for a brief wait before boarding the new Viking Twin Otter initially to Lawas.  Inflight announcements made by the pilot were so inaudible due to the engine noise I didn’t realise they were being made.

Soon after take-off we crossed into Brunei where the forest was untouched.  We exited Brunei past Limbang airport before entering the smaller portion of Brunei and then turned to land into Lawas’ airport by the river 40 minutes after departure.

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It was a requirement to disembark at Lawas.  Transit passengers including myself collected a transit pass, walked landside and back to the departure lounge.  There was a metal detector but no x-ray machine.  The security guy there wasn’t really doing anything.  I suppose that is OK as in New Zealand, aircraft three times that size aren’t subject to any security screening at all.

The flight from Lawas to Bakelalan was about 40 minutes as well taking us inland over beautiful untouched jungled mountains in parts.  We descended and appeared to aim for the padi fields ahead before doing a right turn to land at Bakelalan’s runway around 1030.

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Introductory chat

The airport terminal was small but not the humblest I had seen.  But the airport fire station was the cutest I had ever come across with a motorcycle-powered fire engine of sorts.

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Maureen from Owl Homestay greeted me and we went to the cafe next to the airport for a nice long chat.  Things I learnt from her included:

• Bakelalan’s airport has the shortest runway in Malaysia and is the only one with a one-way approach/take-off.
• Many things about the people and languages of the highlands including Bakelalan, nearby Bario and neighbouring Indonesia.
• She did a Homestay course organised by the Ministry of Tourism before opening her homestay.  Things she learnt included what not to ask guests!  Eg. locally it might seem OK to ask what people do for a living, whether they are married or have kids but some westerners find it too private.
• Bario rice is often from Bakelalan and also the Indonesian side.  There is a shed near the airport holding a supply of rice bound for Bakelalan on the weekly Thursday flight.
• Rice here is wet padi, grown with no artificial fertilisers.  There’s only one crop per year so that the land rests in between crops.

I was being eaten alive by the mosquitoes at the cafe but I was later told they were sandflies.  While they didn’t become big oozy lumps, they were itchy for a few days.

To my homestay

We left for the house through the padi fields when Jemry (Badau) who would be my guide finished his work at the airport.  He worked for the airline MASwings as check-in and load control.

I had chosen this homestay because they replied.  Subsequent to committing myself, some (but not all) of the others I had tried to communicate with responded with cheaper prices.  The full-board price was much higher than others.  They said that local rules didn’t allow me to go on hikes by myself.  And the excursion prices seemed very high.  To top it off, they suggested payment by bank transfer immediately.  I was very apprehensive of the high price and being painted into a corner.  But I think I ended up at the best place in town and was extremely well looked after.

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Maureen started making lunch while I looked at some of the coffee-table books they had.  Her husband Andy Paul is a bird photographer with some beautiful published books.  It was a pity he wasn’t here.

Over lunch, we chatted again.  It was evident that we got along well and had lots of interest in each other’s knowledge and background.  The endless chats was something that would continue till the end of my stay!

I learnt that:

• The Bakelalan white rice has a smaller grain and a slightly stickier texture.
• Nowadays, nearly no one here drinks alcohol whereas before Christianity they drunk like mad.  There is a book called “Drunk Before Dawn” which touches on this.
• Highland people were also headhunters.  Somehow I thought it was only the lowland people like the Iban that were, since they keep skulls still in longhouses … while highlanders don’t appear to have any such remnants.
• Highland people live in individual houses now but also lived in longhouses before.  Again, I had thought that it was only the lowlanders that lived in longhouses!

My first hike

After a rest, Badau took me for a walk up to the Pa Sarui viewpoint.  It was a 35 minute walk through a variety of terrain:  some muddy, some with long sharp lallang grass, some slippery.  But all the same, it wasn’t a route any visitor could have figured out without help.  Hence I understand their email about how I can’t go do any of these walks solo.

The homestay’s three dogs came along for the walk, sometimes leading the way.  They rested with us at the shed where we spent about 50 minutes chatting:

• School teachers here are usually from the peninsula.  They get more allowances here compared to back home.  Despite the remoteness, some seek extensions after their initial term.
• The Indonesian side of the area is actually more developed.  I was disheartened to hear that they have doctors (sometimes specialists), vet, better roads.  In contrast, Bakelalan has a medical assistant.
• The government staff here from the peninsula get on quite well with locals.  Some even go wildboar hunting and quietly eat pork at times.  There is no mosque in the village and the village hasn’t approved the construction of one.  In any case, the number of Muslims here is just limited to the few government officers.
• While there are no foreign missionaries here, there are many American ones across on the Indonesian side.  I told Badau about how some of them preach intolerance and hate in the same way as some Muslim clerics.  We shouldn’t allow people like that from both religions to destroy harmony and mutual respect.

We walked back down to the homestay after.  I did surprisingly well downhill as I expected some difficulty with some of the slippery slopes.

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More chats

We were greeted to an afternoon tea of banana fritters accompanied with more chats:

• During WWII, two American planes crashed in the area.  The pilots were harboured by the locals despite warnings of strong repercussion by the Japanese.
• There was a time when the village built a makeshift bamboo runway for Americans to land.
• When the war ended, some Japanese committed suicide rather than surrender.
• Many cars on the Indonesian side have no plates or only Malaysian plates.  They are stolen from Malaysia and driven across.
• While the language of minorities live on here, on the Indonesian side people speak their national language more.

After our snack, it was time for a wash.  It was a bucket and scoop bath, with cold water from the town’s water supply.  Sourced from the river, it was more than slightly coloured.  But I’ve had worse water than that.  The locals are still alive and kicking bathing and drinking the water (after boiling) so I put my concerns behind me and felt better after a refreshing wash.

We had dinner around 1830 which was when the generator came on.  We chatted for around three hours till bedtime.  I learnt that Andy works in an advertising agency and that explains his slick reply to my enquiry, with everything I needed to know and more.

With the genset turned off, I fumbled around in my room to get ready for bed.  I walked into a pillar but was unharmed.  With thick cloud cover outside, there was no sight of the milky way let alone any twinkling lights from the heavens above.  It was so dark I couldn’t even see my hands lying in bed.  But I could hear planes flying high above as the area seems to be on the flightpath for some longhaul planes.

It had been an awesome day with very nice hosts.  I was glad to have chosen to stay with them despite initial concerns.  I expect to be incommunicado for three days.  My telco Celcom didn’t seem to have the mobile internet working here despite a 3G network.  The other telco Maxis seems to work intermittently for my hosts.