Sibu and Kapit - Dinner with the Chief

Alex and I joined Eoghan and Cian, two Irish guys from Borneo B+B, on the 8.30 bus to Sibu; this in itself was a minor miracle as we failed to set an alarm and were still feeling the effects of the night before, even so we slept through most of the 6 hour journey and arrived not so refreshed in Sibu. Sibu is a relatively boring town and is used mainly as a jumping off point to travel up the Batang Rejang river, which is exactly what we intended to do the next day. As a result the highlight of Sibu was an afternoon swim in a local hotel's pool.

Early the next morning we headed to Kapit, which is a four hour boat ride up the river and the place to go for longhouse visits, which is what we intended to do - longhouses are the traditional dwellings of the Iban people who inhabit the interior of Borneo. It turns out that it is quite difficult to find a longhouse to stay in because cultural etiquette dictates that you are invited into a longhouse rather than just turning up. While attempting to find a suitable longhouse we met a Dutch guy called Thierrey who wanted to use a tour operator to visit a longhouse, this turned to be too expensive for the four of us so he went off on his own, which we were quite glad of because he was one of the most annoying people we've ever met. In the end we asked the tour operator which longhouse it was and decided to do the one thing you're not meant to do: turn up uninvited. So we hailed a taxi and headed for the Bundong longhouse.

We got the taxi driver to introduce us to the chief, or at least the chief's wife and she allowed us to stay overnight, as long as we checked with the chief when he returned. After a few drinks we were left to spend the afternoon wondering round the longhouse and it was a brilliant experience as we were immersed in the daily life of the longhouse. Eoghan was in his element playing wih all the children in the longhouse and we all joined in before heading down to the river for a swim. When we got back to te longhouse the tour group full of Italians and Thierrey had arrived and we all noticed a marked difference in the atmosphere and it was disappointing that the lively nature of the place suddenly disappeared and everything was more subdued with the arrival of 20 or so Westerners. We tried to get away from the group and ended up chatting with some locals and their English and genuine interest in our lives and home were as remarkable as each other. I found this conversation the most interesting and enjoyable because it is one thing seeing where they live but it is so much more worthwhile chatting and finding about everything from their family and religious beliefs to their education and which football team they support (more often than not Man Utd!).

We heard that the chief had returned so we went to seek his rubber stamp on us being allowed to stay and to our horror he asked for 150 ringitts to stay the night so we made preparations to leave because this was unaffordable. Luckily Eoghan's charm and silver tongue got it down to 40 ringitts so we stayed the night. We had dinner with the tour group and then the breakdown of communication with the chief became evident as we were beckoned back into the house and showed to our sleeping quarters, which were two double beds in the chiefs house! To put this in context everyone else was staying outside on the wooden floor, which is where we were expecting to stay. To make matters even better we were served supper of sweet tea and bread with coconut jam and spent the evening with the chief's family. So while everyone else got comfortable outside we slipped under our mosquito net, turned our fan on and went to sleep, result!

Our luck continued as we woke up and were served breakfast by the chief's wife, we have no idea why we got all this laid on but it seems that the chief thought we were asking to stay in his house rather than the standard procedure of sleeping outside. Either way we weren't complaining and had a nice chat with Thierrey in the morning who turned out to also be the most gullible person in the world and we were in our element with him. Some of the hilarity that ensued cannot be done justice in a blog so please ask Alex or myself at the next opportunity to fill you in. We caught a taxi back to Kapit, the chief saw us off personally, and then jumped straight on a boat back to Sibu.

Rob