Emerging from the jungle to an area of rolling grassy hills marked our arrival in Long Danno. The area surrounding the longhouses was grazed by wild cattle, and across the wide meandering mud-river were a few well kept rice paddies. A few minutes walk took us to the bridge crossing, the sign on the opposite bank welcomed us, "Selamat Datang". The village had the feel of a fairytale land, situated in such lush surroundings, such a slow pace of life, such small people... We were warmly welcomed by Reddy's friend there and after peeling off our horribly dirty and bloody socks we made our way up the staircase to the longhouse. Leaving spots of blood whereever we stepped, we greeted all the nearby inhabitants, including some elders with the traditional Kelabit ears and tattoos. We enjoyed a few cups of 3-in-1 coffee, made from boiled river water, and explored the area, introducing ourselves to the locals in the main longhouse, busily weaving baskets and mats from palm leaves and rattan. So far, the Kelabit people must be the friendliest people I have met so far in Asia.
I went for a bit of a walk in the pastures, past the cattle and a domesticated 'reindeer' doe, tethered to a tree in the field. I had a quick nap, exhausted from the recent doses of exercise.
Though the hosts did not speak much english, we still enjoyed trying to communicate. Most locals speak Kelabit and Melayu, few speak english. It's the lucky few that do that can guide the rich tourists around, making a fair bit more money that most others in this subsistance-based culture.
Our dinner was mostly vegetables cooked in various sauces, and some smoked 'reindeer' given to Reddy by a hunter we met along the way. After dark, around 6pm, we visited a bit before retiring to our private two bed room.

The next day Daniel wanted to go hunting with one of the locals; his forte was dog hunting, presumably with a spear, but he showed up around 8 with a shotgun. Expecting it to be a short hunt I tagged along. Unlike the trek to Long Danno, hunting means deffering from the beaten path, and Gabriel to Dan, reddy and I up the ridgelines of the short mountains surrounding the longhouse. With a pack of about a dozen wildish mangy dogs running ahead, behind, and at our feet, we slogged up and down, over under, and though. As I had discovered the day before, the area above 5" off the jungle floor was a treacherous one. Reddy did his best to clear the vines and branches and thorns from the path ahead, and he and Dan managed to clear the spiderswebs down there, but above 5 feet was still wild, ungroomed. Rattan vines, notorious for their sharp spikes that catch you as you walk by, would grab my eyelids and hair. spiders, their fresh catch, and their web, would all be dragged down my my face. Stumps not noticed by the shorter leader would surely be noticed by the top of my head. I would have to make a point to look up more often, rather than concentrating on where my feet were stepping.
After a false alarm - the dogs went nuts over what would turn out to be a mouse deer - and a few hours of climbing I had had enough. We kept on going.
finally I think we started to head back, until the dogs took off and so did Gabriel. Turns out they found a wild boar. Reddy, Dan and I stayed where we were for awhile then tried to catch up with Gabriel and the dogs, which had raced through the valley bottom and seemed to be in the next. A gunshot sounded victory for the hunting party, demise for the pig. reddy's shouts were echoed by Gabriels in the distance until we found him standing over the corpse of a massive wild swine, ugly as you could imagine. It was gutted, most being fed to the dogs, then quartered and tied to Reddy and Gabriel's backpacks. Reddy and I were both bitten by the wildish mutts, overprotective of their kill; we established dominance with help from our boots.
We heavily trekked back to the longhouse, miraculously finding our way back. The light was just dying as we returned home, some 7 hours after we left. A bit more than I signed up for...
Dinner was delicious. Combined with the three mouse deer and one barking deer harvested by the Kelabit man we were staying with, the fresh boar added to the delicious feast of meat.
As there are no refridgerators here, though they do ahve solar power for lights provided by the malaysian government, the meat has to be smoked or otherwise dried to preserve it. We would take some of this meat on our walk the next day of trekking.
We had intended to visit Pa Dali, a longhouse a little bit off the beaten path to Ramudu, but morning rain delayed our trip until after noon, so we headed straight to Ramudu, a larger community of longhouses.

After awhile, trekking in the jungle loses it's initial appeal, and after 3 days it becomes quite tiring. The trail is often muddy and the footing is slippery; up and down. The path to Ramudu had a few river crossings without bridges, the result was some chilled wading.

About three hours passed and we reached a car park on the bank of a verylarge river, on the opposite bank was a farmed area and the glare of sunlight danced of the silver roofing of longhouses in the distance. We found the bridge and crossed, entering the small village made up of two or three longhouses built end to end. We met our host, a local married to a Chinese business man, who used Ramudu as a temporary residence during rice harvest time.

The evening was spent eating well, as we had ever since reaching Bario, and visiting with the elders in the longhouse. Most longhouses so far have been eerily quiet: the schoolaged kids leave to go to school in either Bario or Marudi, sometimes Miri. Those that graduate embrace the fast-paced and lucrative world outside the traditional longhouse. The result is an aging lonely population of traditionalists, content to live the same way that they always have. That said, ASTRO, the local satelite provider, is prevalent in even themost remote longhouse. Most of the elders, deaf and some blind, can be found cheering for their favourite footie club on a saturday night... at least until the solar power dwindles. It's very interesting to witness this culture, because it will surely be gone in a few years time. Only photographs and memories will remain of a time that was. I can say that I hung out with former headhunter warriors for a few days in December 2004.

After one night in Ramudu we got an early start for the ambitious hike straight back to Bario. We were to be taken to a junction in the main logging road to be picked up and taken to the trail head, apparently an hour's drive away. Bored of waiting the three of us made our way inthe direction of the path. Reddy was hesitant about walking, claiming that he did not know the way by foot. It would turn out later that he had only driven this way twice before. He wasn't sure which road to turn off on. We walked for abit and came to a major junction, though the road to the right hadn't been used recently. We decided to wait here for the truck, but after almost an hour of sitting and discussing Reddy became more and more convinced that this was the right way. Hesitantly Dan and I followed. about 45minutes later the road ended, and there was not trail. Frustrated with our guide we marched back to the road to resume our wait. I fell asleep under the blazing sun, a sarong covering my face. Realizing the absurdity of waiting for transportation in the middle of nowhere, and time running out to make it to bario (sun goes down very quickly; dusk seems almost non-existant here), we made our way back to ramudu. we had been wandering or sitting around for almost 6 hours. From Ramudu, Reddy (who was a little embarrased) refilled our water bottles and we set off back the way we came to Long Danno. so much for the Loop part. We reached Long Dano intime for dinner, with a different host this time (our former hosts went to Ramudu for a wedding the following day; not craving boiled fat we decided to decline the invitation). Enjoying dinner, and the football match afterwards, we retired to private rooms to recover from 9 hours of walking. The next morning we had last nights dinner, and only after I had filled up my plate did I discover the cockroach in the bowl of wild boar. He must have died in bliss. I made no mention of it, worried that I'd embarrass the hosts. I ate my pork. No body takes much notice of the common insect, here less a nuisance than in the city. At least these roaches are clean. Cleaner anyhow.

The next day we retraced out steps back to Bario, intent on making the 8hour journey in only one day. We met many people along the trail; people from Bario, Kalimantan, and other villages in the region - all going to Ramudu for the wedding. Surely all told there would be a few hundred people there! The high traffic rendered the trail especially gooey, and it was slow going - especially being sore from the day, indeed, week before. My fatigue was exhibited as clumsiness, and on several occasions I slipped or tripped. I snapped one bridge with my newly aquired immense weight - one too many nights gorging on rice and meat. One one particularily hairy bridge I was too focussed on eating my dried cookie/cracker treat and not nearly observant enough for the level of difficulty the crossing required. My left foot slipped a bit just as i was almost across and i grabbed for the bamboo 'railing' which eagerly snapped under my weight. I was sent down the ravine, slidding down the dirt wall on my stomach; my nose digging into the soil to provide enough friction to eventually stop me. Blowing the mud and leaves from my nostrils, and climbing up out of the ravine, I found my leg to be very sore. A massive swollen bump had formed on my shin bone, the likes of which I had never seen. Blood dripped painlessly from my forearm, making it seem like a leech had exploded it's contents, but I eventually found a nice hole.
A few minutes of rest allowed me to finish the cracker taht I had been eating (i had made sure not to drop it). Mopped up the blood and poked at my shin a bit. then we were off. My walking stick had shattered and so I made a new one. I hobbled the rest of the way.

We returned in Bario at a decent time, around 2. The trek had only taken 6 hours, even with my slowing the pace down. We left Reddy at his longhouse to clean up and made our way to the internet centre in town; Dan had to decide whether he was going to take a job back in Brisbane or keep travelling, i had to reschedule my Bali-Tokyo flight.

We headed back to Reddish's lodge in town and gathered our things; I was intent on going back to Miri the next morning and heading either to Kuching or to Kota Kinabalu, while Dan was probably going to stay a little longer. The whole trip we had been playing with my idea to build a raft and travel down the river to the sea, coming out somewhere near Miri. We reached a point of agreement and were intent on doing it, convinced by a drunken local guide. When I flew over the river system on teh way back toMiri, though, I realized that it would likely take months - the river is painfully slow once it leaves the highlands. would have been a spectacular trip. would have done a number on my mother though. Lucky for her the plan has fallen through.
Back in Miri I met with an Indian engineer living in Amsterdam - together we took a taxi to the Highland Backpack lodge where I had stayed before. It was early and I was able to gather my things and do some errands before my 6pm nightbus left the longdistance bus depot north of town. A hot shower, a shave, and a repacking of my bag. I washed my horribly dirty and bloody boots. I dressed my still bloody leech wounds.
Around 5:30 the manager of the guesthouse, a Kelabit himself, drove me to teh station. On the way we stopped at Canada Hill, where the oldest oil drilling platform in Borneo is enshrined. not sure why it's called Canada Hill. Nothing to do with my country, I'm almost sure.
I boarded the night bus, which was nearly full of Malaysians heading to destinations dotting the southern coastline. At Niah a group of younger Kuching residents boarded, filling the remaining seats. I enjoyed speaking with them about various things in Malaysian news, learning about what college here is like. They had been returning from Miri in one of their fathers cars when the radiator cracked, or something like that. Aircon might have over heated the engine or something. They were forced to bus the 14h trip home, reluctantly i might add.

The ride was hell. Teh road surface is sealed, but incredibly bumpy and narrow, winding through the relatively flat seaside jungle. It is very clear that Sabah and Sarawak produce most of the exportable products for Malaysia, but the Peninsula pockets the wealth. The roads there are incredibly modern expressways.

I didn't sleep at all, mostly because of the horrendous bumps that could easily wind an unsuspecting traveller. It was anticipation of the bumps that made them tolerable. That and the aircon was too cold. I wore shorts and a tank top, though had a sarong. Still I was uncomfortably cold, shivering in fact. At on stop I made the bold move that no other travellor had yet made: I asked them to "make it less cold". Still the driver didn't understand, or maybe he did, and he replied with a laugh. I opened the cargo hatch on the side of the bus and got out as many clothes as I could, bundling up in my Thai pants and a couple shirts.

The kids fromKuching got out at Sibu, I stayed on for another 6 or so hours. miserable.

I arrived finally in Kuching, or so I thought. I asked the driver if we were in Kuching, and he replied yes. As everyone else was getting off the bus I felt no reason to disbelieve him. I got my bag and wandered off to find the waterfront and some food. I desperately needed a Teh Terak to boost my spirits. I couldn't make sense of the map in my LP, and no roads seemed to be on the small detail of the roads of Kuching. I finally asked a local who laughed heartily and pointed. Turned out I was in a town not too far from Kuching - about a 45min taxi ride. I was pretty peeved, but took it in stride. I could either wait for another bus, which I would board for free come hell or high water. I asked a taxi driver how much he'd charge, though and it was only 6RM. I was happy to jump in.