A Cultural Lesson on Borneo

There are four main sections of Borneo. There is Brunei, which is its own well-oiled machine of a country, and is so small that it takes only an hour and a half to drive from one end to the other. There is Kalamatan, which is the southern Indonesian side of the island of Borneo, far less touristic and therefore less tourist accommodating, and then there is Malaysia which is split into the two states of Sabah in the northeast, and Sarawak, in the northwest. All of Borneo is a rainforest lovers dream. It has it all. On the north and eastern coasts of Sabah are majestic paradise beaches - perfect for diving to see authentic underwater wildlife. All over central Sabah, and all of Sarawak are the most lush green rain forests that I have ever seen. There were waves of green stretching out as far as the eyes can see, home to rare wildlife, some of which can only be found on the island. An untouched and unexplored land - a well respected and preserved land. Here is one of the only countries I have been to in Southeast Asia that fights - hard - to keep their jungle sacred.

Religion-wise all Malaysians, are pretty much Muslim, and many of the Chinese-Malay are Buddhist. However, much like when Singapore broke off from Malaysia to be its own country, Sabah, and Sarawak have cultures, languages, and traditions of their own. They even require their own immigration stamp when entering or existing the states. The Sabahans and Sarawakians are very proudly separated, ethnically, and culturally from their mother in West-Malaysia. Although development is slightly better in most parts of West Malaysia, all of the money that fuels the Kuala Lumpur Shopping Mall fire comes from the tourism, jungle, and oil resources in Borneo. Sabah, and Sarawak could easily be independent of Malaysia, just as Singapore now is, however that would leave their Malay brothers fending for resources to export. There are ongoing talks of this desire for independence and how to achieve. Usually it is front page news on the Borneo Post newspaper. 

The proud Sabahans have 32 tribal communities in the region. There are at least six main languages that are widely understood, Bahasa - which is how locals refer to the Malay language in both Indonesia and Malaysia - also Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Kadazan-Dusun, English, and many other languages. The average person speaks three languages. In Kota Kinabalu, where I spent most of my time in Sabah, the most common tribal language was Kadazan. It was completely different from Bahasa, and every time I got a ride from locals I had a lovely Bahasa versus Kadazan language lesson. Religion-wise, Sabah is still dominantly Muslim, however they are far more laid back in their traditions than in west Malaysia. Prime example, at the harvest festival I attended, the main event was drinking. Malaysia doesn't even have a national beer because of its religious status. Sabahans had to resort to local rice wine and imported Tiger beer.

Sarawak has a whole life of its own as well. The people are Muslim, Christian, Taoist, Buddhist, Confucius, and there is an array of tribal groups collectively known as the Orang Ulu, essentially meaning "locals." The Iban culture makes up the largest ethnic group in Sarawak. Ibans speak their own language, and are mostly Christian people. In fact, in my opinion, Sarawakians tend to speak the best English because there is so much mixing of tribes and languages that it's not uncommon for the language spoken at home to be English. Common ground. I had the pleasure of learning about the combination of ethnicity and religion that created the Iban festivals, like the harvest festival (Gawai Dayak), festival of the dead (Gawai Antu), and hornbill festival (Gawai Kenyalong). I had the pleasure of celebrating Gawai Dayak during my rural experience in the rainforest of Mulu. All of the country of Malaysia celebrates the harvest festival - how it is celebrated can differ dramatically between ethnicities and religions. 

Of Borneo, I traveled around Sabah, staying at locals houses, hitchhiking my way from day to day, visiting orang utans and probiscis monkeys in the jungle, island hopping one day, whitewater rafting the next. The nature and wildlife adventures in Borneo are broad and endless.

White Water Rafting down Level IV rapids on Padas River in Sabah (I'm the one in the front with my eyes closed)

My little oasis for a day on Palua Manukan

Visiting the Orang Utans in Sepilok, Sabah

Seeing these sexy Probiscis monkeys in Lebok, Sabah

The Gawai Dayak/Harvest Festival in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

The hospitality of Malaysia does not stop with Sabahans and the Sarawakians. If anything, they kick it up a notch. I stayed at a guy named Fez's house for a whole week in Kota Kinabalu (KK), in between traveling to Sandakan to see the wildlife there, and returning back. I hitchhiked daily from his house to the city center, even to the airport the few times that I was taking domestic flights. The conversation during my hitchhikes was never short on comparing Bahasa to Kadazan and discussing local practices.

I was privileged for Fez to take me to the harvest festival on my last night in KK. He wanted to show me how the Sabahans celebrate. The festival was a carnival with tents of people singing karaoke and enjoying laughter and long conversations. I was invited to join a local family where they fed me one beer after another, and hooted and hollered with me when I sang a karaoke version of Adele while toasting loudly in Kadazan.

The celebration in Sarawak was very different than in Sabah. Arriving in Mulu, it appeared as though the plane might have landed on the jungle itself, with no cleared patch of land in site. It was so small, that while I was waiting for my flight on the day that I was leaving, my friends invited me into their home across the street where we watched Finding Nemo until we heard the airplane land. Once the airplane landed I casually strolled through security and hopped right on. 

The look of the land upon decent into Mulu, Sarawak

The smallest airport known to man, helped me to arrive at the smallest "tourist" village I have ever seen. No wifi. No electricity. No running water. Just pure jungle and cave adventures for the next four days. The harvest festival here was small, maybe 20 people and no one dancing or singing karaoke until my friend, A, and I worked to get the party started. We drank local rice wine and ate wild boar. It was the first time I had ever seen a kind of pig served in a Muslim country, simply emphasizing that I am now in the Christian part. Most of my meals consisted of sautéed wild fern, or crushed tapioca leaves. By the end of my stay I had become friends with every local and every tourist in town. On the last day, when the festival took place, my tourist friends and I shared a bottle of rice wine, given to us by the National Park manager, with a group of local guys consisting of the firefighter, the airport security, the church musician, and the freelance tour guide. My friend the airport security guy, was named Aidel, so of course I sang Adele for him during Karaoke, followed by lots of toasting and hollering in Iban - "oooo haaaaa!"

The typical sunset from the rain forest in Mulu, Sarawak.

Incredible wildlife and insects seen during a night walk in Mulu, Sarawak.

The mountain scenery of Mulu, Sarawak

Swimming in a lagoon in the rainforest of Mulu, Sarawak

Being completely disconnected in the rainforest was possibly one of the highlights of my experience in the last several months, and I have had an amazing and wild ride. Between trekking through jungle, flicking off leeches, swimming in waterfalls and lagoons in the middle of the rainforest, hand climbing through caves with my headlamp guiding my way, and enjoying the peaceful sound of nature on my solo-walks through the trees. I hadn't felt so at peace in such a long time.

Adventure Caving in Clearwater Cave in Gunung Mulu National Park in Sarawak. Notice the enormity of the cave's mouth and how small the bridges are from this distance.

Now I am making a stop in one more Sarawakian town, called Miri, before driving to Brunei and inevitably beginning the next month of adventures in the Philippines!