Day 75: Kuching, Malaysia … Borneo Island

Wednesday, 22 March 2017
At Sea — South China Sea

Stats @ Ship’s Time 8:20p (MST) … UTC 12:20p (22 March)
Temp: 83.2F (28.5C)
Position: 1.55.90N / 110.35.57E

When overseas, you learn more about your own country
than you do the place you’re visiting.
~ Clint Borgen ~

Borneo is the only island in the world that is shared by three countries — Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei.  On this segment of our voyage we will visit two of those countries.  We started with Malaysia today when we called on Kuching, located in the State of Sarawak, and we will be in Brunei the day after tomorrow.  Indonesia, we’ve already been to … but we won’t be going to the part of that country that is on Borneo.

I have one photo to share from today … the only one I managed to get a link to.  I picked this photo as an iconic representation of the wide variety of wildlife that make their home on Borneo.

There are many stories about how Kuching, which translates as cat in the local language, got its name.  Some say that James Brooke, the “white rajah” who was given these lands in return for ridding the area of pirates, was thought to be pointing to a cat when he asked the name of the village he arrived at in 1841.  So, he was told the local word for cat.  More likely is that the city’s namesake is the shortened version of the Sungai Mata Kuching [Cat’s Eye], the stream near which the village was situated.  Either way, it wasn’t until 1872 that the name of the city was changed from Sarawak to Kuching by James’ son, Charles.

Insignia docked at Terminal Senari, the commercial port located quite a distance from the city.  I think I heard that the shuttle ride from the port into Kuching could take anywhere from 35 to 60 minutes depending on traffic.  I have no first hand experience, because we joined Sonia and Boris on a private tour they booked and went into the countryside with James from Kuching Offroad.

Clearing the ship took 20 minutes once the officials came aboard at 8:00a.  But once the all clear was given, we were first off.  At the bottom of the gangway, we were greeted by men and women in indigenous costumes.  They presented us with beaded leis in the Sarawak colors — black, red, and yellow.  Beautiful, warm people sincere in their pleasure of seeing us.

There was a bit of a mix-up with finding James at the bottom of the gangway, but we finally figured it all out.  It was important that we get started as quickly as possible since our first stop — the orangutan sanctuary — was open only for an hour during the feeding of the animals.  Despite the delay in setting off from the port, James said we should be able to stick to our planned itinerary.  But then we ran into some unexpected traffic jams.  So, James suggested jiggling things a bit — skip the “orang hutans” in the morning and move on to the rest of our itinerary.  Going to the afternoon feeding at the center had been the back-up plan anyway, so that worked for us.

Once we cleared the traffic jams, the drive into the countryside was very pleasant.  The lush green landscape was beautiful.  We saw lots of palm plantations — for harvesting palm oil … a good source of income.  The government has now banned large scale plantations, but the locals are allowed to plant them on their own land.  The downside — with each tree that is planted, more habitat for endemic species is being lost.

Along the way, James gave us tidbits of information about the region — some of it pre-taped so he could focus on driving.  I thought it was an excellent way of educating us about the people, land, and culture.  I should have taped these tidbits to refer to them as I write this, but I didn’t think about it then.

We reached our first stop shortly after 10:00a — a remote Bidayuh village named Kampung Gumbang.  Of course, with a paved road now reaching it, the village is not as remote physically as it once used to be, but it stood in stark contrast to the more modern towns and villages we passed on our way there.

The paganistic Bidayuh — the largest population of indigenous people in this country — have mostly converted to Christianity, but they still practice some of the old ways … especially for festivals.  We were greeted by Peter, a now-Christian Bidayuh and shown into the ritual house — a circular bamboo building on stilts.  In addition to telling us about the architecture of the structure, Peter explained that the skulls hanging from the ceiling were, at one time, a status symbol in what used to be a warrior culture.

Next, we were told about the annual Gawai harvest festival that takes place in the village, and in which the ritual house plays an important role.  The house had a hearth of sorts in the center, with the space around it empty except for some benches against the walls.  This, we learned, was to accommodate the people who dance around the hearth as teams of musicians beat drums through the night and into the next day of the festival.  Peter showed us one of those drums, which was attached to the ceiling and went through a hole in the floor to the ground below … remember this house is on stilts, so it was quite a big instrument.

From here we walked a short distance to the store owned by Peter’s brother … just to say hi to him.  The brothers were raised separately — Peter was brought up as a Bidayuh; his brother was brought up as a Chinese.  Unfortunately, the brother, whose name escapes me, was unavailable, so after looking around the store a bit, we continued onto Peter’s house.  Here we gathered around the table, drank isotonic water — not unlike Gatorade — and listened to Peter’s stories about growing up in the area, and how the British army helicopters ferried them to school back in the day … much faster than having to walk through the jungle.

Our next stop took us to a Bidayuh home for lunch.  Our hosts, friends of James, were at work, but a neighbor — Emma — fed us a typical Bidayuh lunch in the dining hut — a covered bamboo structure on short stilts.  Our meal consisted of mountain rice, chicken stir fry with bamboo and ginger, pork roll in a crispy bean curd wrap, fresh baby corn with greens, and another dish of greens … which I can’t remember the name of.  We washed it all down with a cold drink made from rosela.  Dessert was fresh pineapple from the garden.  All yummy.  As we ate, Emma and James entertained us by playing a traditional Bidayuh bamboo percussion instrument known as the pratuakng.  We enjoyed the whole experience.

After lunch, we retraced our route back towards Kuching, stopping at the Fairy Caves en route — free admission, which surprised us once we saw how wondrous it was inside.  Known locally as Gua Pari — the latter word easy for us to translate as it is similar to peri, the Turkish word for fairy — the cave is near an old gold mine … close to Bau and about 25 miles (40 km) from Kuching.

Kitted out with hard hats and head torches, we set off on our caving adventure.  To get inside, first we had to walk up a five-story tower to the entrance of the cave.  Seeing the old, narrow, moss-clad steps that followed the cliff face — with no railings to hold onto — well, let me put it this way … no complaints from us about having to use the steps in the concrete tower.  Once inside, we followed more concrete steps to a couple of steep flights of metal stairs — more like ladders.  These were followed by more concrete stairs — slippery at times, so we took it slow.  The rope railing was poorly maintained, with the rope dangling free in places, so caution was essential.  How Boris made it up on crutches I don’t know … but his determination to do something when he puts his mind to it is something to be reckoned with.

The WOW moment came when we found ourselves inside a huge cave system that leads out in branches from the main chamber.  The ceiling was many stories above us; huge stalactites and stalagmites were everywhere we looked; the rocks and boulders were decorated with lush green vegetation — thanks to the moisture seeping through the rock and the soil being fertilized by guano from bats and swiflets … and of course, the light streaming in through a natural window in the cave wall.  The window — which I think is the actual mouth of the cave — had big stalactites rimming the edge, and gave us a glimpse of the sky outside.  Since time was short, we did not walk that way; nor did we wander deeper into the cave system.  But what we saw was downright awesome.  James had said there were caves that were easier to get to, but they didn’t have that WOW factor he wanted to share with us.  He sure delivered!  Too bad my photos don’t do justice to what we beheld with our eyes.

Our final stop was at the Semenggoh Wildlife Center, which was established in the mid-70s for the purpose of rehabilitating or providing sanctuary for injured or orphaned wild animals and those kept as illegal pets.  I read that they have cared for over 1,000 animals of varied species over the years.

The reason for our visit was to see the “orang hutans” that the rehab program seeks to reintroduce into the surrounding forest reserve.  The center has been so successful in their “release” goal that the population of orangutans for this forest has reached capacity and the rehab program has been moved to another center that is part of a different national park.  Semenggoh is now used to study the biology and behavior of the orangutans.  It also serves as a waypoint where the animals can come to feed as they sharpen their own foraging skills.  A sign at one of the stations showed how many times each animal had turned up to feed in February.  It was gratifying to see that several of the forest residents came less than half the 56 feeding times … and 6 of the 21 orangutans did not show up at all.  A clear sign that they are indeed foraging for themselves.

These mostly arboreal animals are only found in the rainforests of Borneo and northern Sumatra.  The name comes from Malay — “orang” … meaning person; and “hutan” … meaning forest.  Quite appropriate to call the orangutan a “forest person” as that is their native habitat … and they share over 95% of their DNA with humans … or persons.

Visitation at the center is limited to one hour, twice-a-day … around feeding time.  The rest of the time, the animals have a human-free environment in which to learn — in some cases, re-learn — the skills they need to survive in the wild … with the help of the caretakers at the center.  This is the time for the youngsters to play with each other; for mothers to teach their babies to climb trees … and more.  We didn’t see much of that behavior as it was feeding time and their focus was on the fruits set out for them on platforms.  That’s not to say that the 7 orangutans that came out of the forest while we were there didn’t “perform” for us — although that is not quite the right word.

Ritchie, the 36-year-old alpha male, showed us how he gathers food from the platform … at one point, he was holding three fruits in his mouth and had a coconut clutched in each foot.  Somehow, he managed not to drop a single one as he ate them one by one.  He even showed off his ‘smarts’ by displaying how to break open the coconuts by banging them on a tree branch with all his might.  Then it was time to display his agility.  We’d already seen a couple of orangutans skipping along the ropes — tight rope walking orangutan style, using the opposable thumbs on their hands and feet to clutch the ropes.  But Ritchie swung off the platform where he was sitting to make his way closer to us.  It was a great opportunity to see his facial expressions — quite demonstrative — as he enjoyed his afternoon meal.

After he left, Sadamiah showed up with her 4-year old daughter … Ruby.  We had returned to the feeding area near the HQ building, but the caretakers alerted us that she had come out of the forest.  Back we trekked about 1,000 feet (~ 300+ m) into the forest to see them.  I’m glad we didn’t miss mischievous Ruby who was quite adept at making faces while she ate her fruit.  Momma, at one point, scrambled over and around her, clasping Ruby’s head with one foot … but the youngster wasn’t fazed one bit and kept eating.

We loved seeing the orangutans, and it was a great way to wrap up our first visit to Malaysia.  That we came in the afternoon worked out better I think.  There were no big busses — nor ship’s tours — while we were there.  The crowds we arrived to dissipated quickly and we had a very pleasant visit at the sanctuary.  We made some incredible memories throughout the day with our cultural experiences and our cave visit as well.

Our last stop was at an ATM to pick up Malaysian Ringgits to pay James the balance we owed.  In fact, we made three stops — none of the ATMs would give us money.  Not sure why as the sign showed the appropriate symbols that indicated our cards were acceptable.  So, word to the wise — try getting money at the beginning of the day when going to a money exchange kiosk is still an option.  It wasn’t for us, so we ended up paying James in USD — clearly not the preferred currency hereabouts.

James returned us to the ship shortly before 5:00p.  Drained, of course, from the heat and humidity.  After a refreshing shower, we were ready to watch the sailaway from our veranda.  Then off to the Terrace Café for dinner … a lovely evening with a cool breeze had me itching to sit on the veranda and read for awhile, so we did not dally over our meal.

Tomorrow is a sea day … and yes, I am looking forward to it.

To see more from our day in Malaysia, click here.  Unfortunately, I have not had the necessary internet speed to download the photos James took of us and sent via email this evening … I will share them at another time.

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