We had a relatively late breakfast today at 0800, preceded by our usual pre-meal grace. At 1000 Maureen, Badau and I (along with all three dogs) set off for a walk to Sungai Muda, a nearby stream/river.
Along the way, we stopped near the apple orchards and was shown the Ice Cream Bean pod. It opened up to reveal very sweet fragrant pulpy lumps which wasn’t too juicy. I imagine it would be nice made into a shake.
Text continues after this gallery.
-
- Moggie the cat sleeps in the ashes from last night to keep warm.
-
- My choice of footwear in Papua and rural Borneo are these Croc copies. Softer than the real thing and one tenth the price. Perfect in mushy conditions.
-
- However local swear by the “Adidas Kampung” or village Adidas, shown on both sides of my footwear. The plastic on the Adidas Kampung seems harder and I think the get don’t breathe as well.
-
- The Ice Cream Bean. Mushy pulp with sweet fragrant flesh. Not too juicy
-
- The Ice Cream Bean. Mushy pulp with sweet fragrant flesh. Not too juicy. The seed is shown here.
At the stream, it was a bit too cool to swim. We collected river snails which were like shellfish. Badau found a bamboo shoot. Both would be ingredients for tonight’s dinner. We picnic’ed with fish satay (a Thai product I grew up with) and packaged pickled kedondong fruit from Ipoh.
Text continues after this gallery.
-
- Picnic in Sungai Muda. Collecting river snails which are like a river shellfish.
-
- Dinner of river snails (which is like a freshwater shellfish) and bamboo shoots.
-
- Bamboo shoot.
-
- Delicious pickled kedondong fruit.
We packed up and headed into Buduk Nur (town) for lunch of mee goreng before continuing to Long Langai. A sick dog was whining in the drain. There wasn’t much we could do without a vet in town and hoped it would either get well soon or just pass on.
Wefie with my hosts over lunch.
At Long Langai, just as in Buduk Nur, there were lots of dogs (not strays but owned by people but not always in the best shape). We saw the school. There wasn’t so much to see specifically but it was just to appreciate the nearby village. The walk between the two villages was pretty though with padi fields and a couple of modern swinging bridges.
At dinner, I had trouble with the snails. There is a technique to sucking them out from the open end. They had broken the tip off the pointy end to facilitate this. Despite plenty of advice, I gave up after failing on three out of four snails. I didn’t want to waste any more of their precious hand-gathered snails.
Over dinner, I had a bad thought about my departure tomorrow. If my flight was cancelled due to weather I could travel down to Lawas by 4WD. But from there, if flights to Miri were full, I’d be somewhat stuck. I didn’t bring my passport to travel by land through Brunei. That would leave me only with the option of flight/land transport to Kota Kinabalu to get back to Kuching (being domestic I can use my identity card instead of passport). I tried not to think about it too much and moved on to other subjects.
Dinner of river snails (which is like a freshwater shellfish) and bamboo shoots.
I asked Maureen if their house construction required any kind of council approval and whether they have insurance. No to both. Just draw the plans and build, then hope there’s no disaster. As for whether there were local builders, plumbers and electricians … Yes.