Borneo The Big Adventure: May 2009

Staying with the Head hunters

Our mini adventure started out when we were picked up from the tree house. They even made us a take away breakfast. We met up with the bus & the other 6 people in our group & headed off on the 5 hour journey to the Lemanak River.
I was a bit worried how the kids would cope with the LONG ride but they did brilliantly. After about two & a half hours in we stopped at a small town where we had about half an hour to walk around the local market. Just fantastic, I bought some of the food, a pancake & some donuts & we spent some time in the fish market where the locals were super nice.
A little later we had a lunch stop & some time to buy baskets etc at the local shops. On the way back we also stopped here & bought a blow pipe as we had used on in the Iban Village, this was confiscated at Melbourne airport & we were given a weapons seisure notice, bit scary really. All our other items we manged to keep.

We stopped st this market place on the way, tried some food. Pierre & I loved the food but the kids were not impressed. They did have a great time in the fish market, the people were really friendly.

This is the pancake we tried.

mmm.........

Lemanak River

The only way to get to the Iban tribe we were staying with was by wooden canoe. It took about an hour but was awesome. The seats had padding the ride was smooth & I had planned for torrential rain but we had a beautiful blue sky day. When we arrive they pulled us up to a jetty, not even a muddy slope to climb.

The Lemanak River

At the village they settled us into the guest longhouse where everyone bunked in together. Thank god for Mossie nets although it wasn't the mossies I was worried about. BIG BUGS.
After being shown around the village, we were treated to a delicious dinner & than a night of drinking, dancing & games with the Iban. This went on well into the night, the kids stayed up to experience the whole thing. It was incredibly hot so at the end of the night I thought I'd have a shower, but when I got my clothes off the generator was switched of & I was left in the pitch black. Holy Cow! Pierre came & saved my with a torch, which all the bugs were attracted to.
In the early hours of the morning I crept off to the loo & while I was sitting there a scorpion crawled down the wall. Oh I didn't mention the swam of fire ants we had to navigate around in the kitchen. See why I liked the mossie net.

The Guest's Long House

Sleeping quarters. I loved this it reminded me of backpacking in Thailand.

This is the locals Long House

This old man is actually crushing coffee with his feet. Next time you have a cup of coffee think about it being rolled between this guys toes. Yum...

I took this photo at sunset from the toilet block. I could just get the lens of my camera through a hole in one of the bricks. It was perfect as I need somewhere to rest the camera to get the exposure.

This is my favorite photo from the trip, I'm going to have it enlarged for my wall! (one day)

This is the Chief who is 88 years old. I showed him the photo I took on the back of my camera & he said. "Oh I look so old a wrinkly" He's wearing an Aboriginal bone carved necklace we gave him. I also gave him a yoyo.

The Tattoo on his neck represents a Fierce Warrior.

These are the Skulls that still hang in the entrance in the Long House.

Head Hunters

Prized skull from the head hunting days. There has not been any head hunting since the 196o's but the skulls are a very important part of the long house. The Iban believe that they keep the evil spirits away.

Blow Pipe

On our second day we had a blow pipe demonstration. We all got to have a go but Bailey got the shot of the day, hitting the paw paw clean in the middle. We bought one back to Australia but had it taken at Melbourne Airport with a weapons seizure notice. whoops...