28 Aug - 31 Aug 2009 Batu Niah


Southeast Asia
Flawed-Democratic Federation of Malaysia
Malaysian Borneo
Sarawak aka Land of the Hornbills
Batu Niah
Niah National Park
Forest Lodge +6085737450
Spacious and clean twin room with private bathroom for MYR 42.- or US$ 12.- per night.

Click below for an interactive road map of the Forest Lodge in the Niah National Park, which we would recommend, and for directions:
N 03° 49.46' E 113° 45.66'




 



Spelunking in the (unlit) Niah caves: (i) the Trader’s Cave where birds’ nest and guano traders conducted their business in days gone by; (ii) the Great Cave with its 50 m high and 250 m wide W mouth; (iii) the Painted Cave with rock paintings portraying spread-eagled human figures, probably representing warriors and hunters, some of the animals of the surrounding rainforest, and longboats carrying the souls of the deceased on their dangerous journey to the land of the dead.



Watching fearless and swindle-free climbers collecting birds’ nests from black-nest swiftlets (Aerodramus maximus) under the caves’ ceilings that measure as high as 60 m using long bamboo poles and shaky belian (ironwood) ladders for their dangerous but lucrative job (over US$ 1,000.- per kg for top quality - used to produce birds’ nest soup, highly regarded in Chinese cuisine).



Meeting fellow backpacking retirees Christina & Liau from Kuala Lumpur and dovetailing their Chinese/Malaysian with our German/South-African perspective of travelling off the beaten track in Borneo and promising to each other to touch the lions in front of the Chinese temples thus appealing to the gods to help us to meet again.



Hiring a chauffeured private car (MYR 25.- or US$ 7.- for the ride) from the park office back to Niah Junction and catching the Suria Express bus (MYR 10.- or US$ 2.80 per person) for the 70-km trip through vast oil-palm estates to Lambir Hills National Park (entry fee for senior citizens: MYR 5.- per person), probably the world’s most complex and diverse forest ecosystem with the greatest known level of plant biodiversity on the planet.



Click below for more blog posts about Sarawak's excellent national parks
11 Jul - 01 Sep 2013 Bako
07 Jul - 10 Jul 2009 Bako

Click below for a summary of this year's travels
2009 Map Konni & Matt

 Click below and visit the Konni & Matt online albums
Photos 2009-11 Southwest Sarawak
Photos 2009-12 Central Sarawak
Photos 2009-13 Northern Sarawak
Photos 2009-14 Kelabit Highlands
Photos 2009-15 Mulu


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Destination: ,

19 Aug - 28 Aug 2009 Similajau


Southeast Asia
Flawed-Democratic Federation of Malaysia
Malaysian Borneo
Sarawak aka Land of the Hornbills
Bintulu
Similajau National Park +6086326251
Beach Hostel No. 2
Excellent twin room with sea view for MYR 42.- or US$ 12.- per night. Friendly but somewhat lowbrow local staff.

Click below for an interactive road map of the Beach Hostel in the Similajau National Park, which we would recommend, and for directions:
N 03° 20.72' E 113° 09.21'








Enjoying down-time, having the Similajau National Park (gazetted as a park in 1978 CE) during this Ramadan very much to ourselves, thus relaxing on the clean, casuarina-tree lined beach, swimming in the emerald green, lukewarm water and watching truly spectacular sunsets over the South China Sea.



Hiking the coastal trail of the Similajau National Park along its coastline, a chain of golden sandy beaches, punctuated by small rocky headlands and slow-flowing jungle streams, and bordered by dense tropical rain forest (mixed dipterocarps), spotting a crocodilian in the muddy water of the Kanyau River and identifying it as a Malayan false gharial (Tumistoma schlegelii), an opportunistic ambush feeder - according to James Ritchie’s great book about the Man-eating Crocodiles of Borneo.



Teaming up with like-minded travellers Maria & Tino from Germany and Melina from Argentine for a guided night walk together with native Melanau guide July (MYR 10.- per person for the two-hour walk) and spotting: (i) lesser mouse-deer (Tragulus javanicus), (ii) buffy fish owl (Ketupa ketupu) and (iii) a night-active squadron of unidentified bats.

Exploring the Likau River during a guided crocodile spotting tour at night (MYR 25.- per human head), counting a dozen estuarine crocodiles (Crocodylus porousus aka “salties” - known to attack humans) of various sizes, from 0.50 m up to 2.50 m, and noticing our blood pressure going up when one of the latter almost jumped into our boat.



Hiring a chauffeured private car (MYR 40.- or US$ 11.30 for the ride) from the park headquarters to Bintulu's modern bus terminal, taking an MTC Express bus (MYR 10.- or US$ 2.80 per person) for the 130-km trip from Bintulu to Niah Junction and hiring another chauffeured private car (MYR 25.- or US$ 7.- for the 20-km ride) to the Niah National Park (entry fee for senior citizens: MYR 5.- per person), gazetted as a National Historic Monument in 1958 CE and a National Park in 1974 CE.



Click below for more blog posts about Sarawak's excellent national parks
11 Jul - 01 Sep 2013 Bako
07 Jul - 10 Jul 2009 Bako

Click below for a summary of this year's travels
2009 Map Konni & Matt 

Visit the Konni & Matt Online Albums and order high-res travel photos


Recommended books - click below for your Amazon order from the United Kingdom
 
For all your Amazon shopping from Germany, please click here 
For all your Amazon shopping from the United States, please click here 
For all your Amazon shopping from Canada, please click here
Destination: ,

18 Aug - 19 Aug 2009 Tatau


Southeast Asia
Flawed-Democratic Federation of Malaysia
Malaysian Borneo
Sarawak aka Land of the Hornbills
Tatau
Tatau Inn
Basic twin room with air-con for MYR 40.- or US$ 11.30 per night.

Click below for an interactive road map of the Tatau Inn in Tatau and for directions:
N 02° 52.72' E 112° 51.13'



 


Exploring the rugged trading town of Tatau (basically an extended round-about with dirty twin-cab four-wheel drives which were double-parked in front of the Chinese wholesalers who were selling the rice by the 10-kg bag, cooking oil by big cans and eggs by stacks of cardboard crates) where the Trans-Borneo highway crosses the Tatau River, the main artery for many longhouses and logging camps further upriver on the Tatau River and its tributaries.

Taking a shared van (one way MYR 8.- or US$ 2.30 per person) from Tatau to Bintulu and hiring a teksi  (MYR 45.- for the ride) from Bintulu to the Similajau National Park (entry fee for senior citizens: MYR 5.- per person), about 30 km NE of town.


Click below for a summary of this year's travels
2009 Map Konni & Matt

Click below and see more Konni & Matt Pictures
Photos 2009-12 Central Sarawak


Facing Borneo
© Konni & Matt


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Destination: ,

17 Aug - 18 Aug 2009 Nanga Mayeng


Southeast Asia
Flawed-Democratic Federation of Malaysia
Malaysian Borneo
Sarawak aka Land of the Hornbills
Nanga Mayeng
Longhouse Sujang anak Jemang
Double mattress inside the headman’s apartment, free of charge.

Click below for an interactive road map of the Longhouse Sujang anak Jemang in Nanga Mayeng and for directions:
N 02° 41.73' E 113° 05.35'









Meeting friendly Jonathan anak Sujang, the remarkable son-in-charge of the longhouse's headman aka tuai rumah, being introduced to his hospitable Iban family and to all neighbours, dining with the family on egg fried rice and lekker braised vegetables from the "rainforest supermarket", washing down the delicious food with the ubiquitous rice wine aka tuak, strolling over Jonathan’s private land and learning about his profitable cash crops: (i) 1,500 young oil palms (Elaeis guineensis, originated in Guinea, Africa, and introduced to Malaysia, then the British colony of Malaya, in 1910 CE by Scotsman William Sime and English banker Henry Darby, but nowadays bought from a nursery in Bintulu), (ii) countless mango, banana and rubber trees and (iii) two fish ponds stocked with fast-growing tilapia fish (Jonathan's sales price for 1 kg of fish: MYR 17.- or US$ 4.80).


Taking the rugged M.L.Long express boat (one-way ticket for MYR 20.- or US$ 5.60 per person) down-river back to Tatau, a non-descript riverine country town where Iban, Kenyah and Bukitan are the main spoken languages, spotting en-route dozens of modern and traditional longhouses on the river banks, surrounded by a spectacular jungle scenery, and every so often a carved Ibanese burial pole aka keliring, constructed to house burial jars and usually made from Borneo ironwood aka belian, and listening to the skipper's yarn that belian wood acts as a protective talisman to avoid attack from tigers and elephants.

"The river is everywhere.”



Click below for more blog posts about longhouse visits in Borneo
13 Oct - 14 Oct 2009 Kudat
 10 Aug - 14 Aug 2009 Kapit
08 Aug - 09 Aug 2009 Nanga Bangkit
03 Aug - 06 Aug 2009 Kanowit
30 Jul - 03 Aug 2009 Sibu

Click below for a summary of this year's travels
2009 Map Konni & Matt

Visit the Konni & Matt online albums and order high res travel photos
Konni & Matt Travel Photos
 

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Destination: ,

16 Aug - 17 Aug 2009 Tatau


Southeast Asia
Flawed-Democratic Federation of Malaysia
Malaysian Borneo
Sarawak aka Land of the Hornbills
Tatau
Tatau Inn
Basic twin room with air-con for MYR 40.- or US$ 11.30 per night.

Click below for an interactive road map of the Tatau Inn in Tatau and for directions:
N 02° 52.72' E 112° 51.13'





  




Reading in the daily newspaper (The Borneo Post) about the government’s official vision of turning Malaysia into a “developed country” by the year 2020 CE and wondering about the number of commission-grubbing Sarawakian tour guides and travel agents which have to be re-trained into skilled plumbers in order to achieve this challenging goal - come rain or come shine.

Leaving our backpacks at the Tatau Inn, taking the Liang Yu express boat (one-way ticket for the 50-km ride: MYR 20.- or US$ 5.60 per person; Konni in cabin class and Matt in roof class) up-river on the Tatau River and on the Kakus River from Tatau town to Nanga Lana (Lana Log Pond) and hiring an Iban perau with 15-hp outboarder further on up-river on the Kakus River to the Longhouse Rumah Sujang anak Jemang near Nanga Mayeng.



Click below for a summary of this year's travels
2009 Map Konni & Matt

Click below and see more Konni & Matt Pictures 
Photos 2009-12 Central Sarawak


Recommended gear - click below for your order from Canada

For your order from Germany click here
For your order from the United States click here
For your order from the United Kingdom click here
Destination: ,
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