a much-needed breather

Monday morning. I woke up feeling as stiff as an arthritic centenarian, aching from top to the tiniest muscle of every toe, and SO grateful that our next trip to Nyegol had been postponed to tomorrow. There had been a moment of weakness last night when I had begun to consider the repercussions of cancelling the second leg of the expeditions and just idling the rest of the week in Kuching, or possibly even booking an early flight home... Thankfully, that bout of cantankerousness was nothing that a day in the city couldn't fix, and it passed quickly enough.

Part One of the adventure had ended: our new friends left for home early this morning. We haven't said very much about them here to preserve their privacy, but these people are a really cool bunch, and I do hope to come across each of them again sometime in the near future. I can't remember the last time I met a group of friends so passionate and quirky and even (I tend to be skeptical about throwing this word around, but it's definitely appropriate here) inspiring.

If any of you are reading this: Thanks for being such awesome company, and for making the trip so much more fun and memorable than it might otherwise have been!

My favourite picture of the group (if only because of Silicon's hilarious face) :D

So, Monday morning. Chris and I woke up late, made ourselves a stack of kaya and butter toast, then took a leisurely stroll down the Kuching waterfront. We had mediocre nasi lemak and kuey teow for lunch at a shopping mall (nothing beats real hawker food), did some shopping and got caught in the rain.

Around dinnertime, we paid a visit to the well-known TopSpot Seafood Restaurant, highly recommended by many travel websites and even the receptionists at Lodge 121, where we were now staying. It had every indication of being 'touristy', i.e. exactly the kind of restaurant we tend to be rather wary about, but we decided to try it anyway since we had been in tourist mode all day.

TopSpot is basically a rooftop carpark with about six or seven huge seafood stalls lined up along the sides, each of which is like a restaurant in itself. Every stall sells fresh seafood by weight, cooks it however you want, and also serves rice and a variety of accompanying dishes. A firm favourite here is the stall called ABC Seafood, but to first timers like us, every stall can seem nearly indistinguishable from the next! The only pointer one could possibly rely on is the queue at the front of each stall.

This isn't a food review, because it's difficult to order lots and lots of different things when it's just the two of us eating, but this is what we had...

sweet and sour garoupa

stir-fried paku

...and they made for a very satisfying meal indeed.

By the end of the day, another trip up to Ulu Bengoh didn't seem like such a bad idea after all. ;)

Damai Beach and dinner

It didn't take very long to go through the papers for the Nyegol trial, which was scheduled for the following day (Monday). We were let off early - Saw felt like staying to help out with any remaining errands, and the rest wanted to sightsee since it was their last day in Kuching. 

Chris and I decided to give the sightseeing a pass because we were going to be around for a whole week more (and my legs were still protesting at any sort of movement, even ten consecutive steps on level ground). And so we found ourselves hitching a ride with Daveency to Damai Beach, about 40 minutes' drive from Kuching.

A gorgeous view of Santubong hill from the window

Here we are...

Daveency went to meet up with a bunch of his friends who were already there, so Chris and I had an hour or so to ourselves, to enjoy the sunset and the mosquitoes.

Ai Fern and Christian - 'the caucasian guy' of two posts ago - had also been hanging out at the beach, so we met up with them for dinner. Ai Fern brought us to the popular Lim Hock Ann Seafood restaurant in Buntal, a small Malay fishing village about 20 minutes' drive from Damai towards Kuching city centre.

They have quite a wide selection of fresh seafood here, and Ai Fern says it's well patronised both by tourists and locals. It escapes me now what we had for dinner that night, but I do remember that we tried Sarawak or chien (oyster omelette) - it was pretty interesting having it thin and crispy, instead of scrambled and fluffy like Penang's. Each to his own in this case, of course, but I personally like the Penang or chien with their fat juicy oysters more!

Dinner company was pleasant. Christian decided that none of the dishes we had ordered were to his taste, except for the fried meehoon and stir-fried vegetables (the most ordinary and generic dishes at the table, haha). The two guys also spent some time bantering about Monty Python at length; unfortunately most of that was lost on Ai Fern and me.

diversion

The next day was a Sunday. We were all to meet at the office to iron out any irregularities with the Nyegol folks' witness statements, so we grabbed an early breakfast and were at the office at about 10am (on a Sunday, yes - such is the zeal of a bunch of youth in pursuit of a cause! Or maybe our companions were just morning people).

But when we got there, there was no one to be found at the office - the doors weren't even open yet. We hung around the staircase for a while, peered into the hairdresser's next door a few times, meandered about the coffee shop downstairs... everybody gradually drifted, and after about an hour I finally decided to get a haircut, since there wasn't anything better to do at the time. 

Behind me is Ah Tui, the guy who helped me trim two inches or so off my back and shorten the fringe  (a bit short, but I liked it at the time). I asked him about politics, since the Pakatan Rakyat office was just next door, but that wasn't very effective as far as conversation starters go. He asked me if I went clubbing.

Ah Tui had a limited English vocabulary, but what he did know he didn't hesitate to use: anyone who stepped into the salon would be greeted with a deep, sonorous "hellooOooOoe" and later ushered out with an equally comic "buh-buuUuuyye". When he was done coiffing my hair and I expressed satisfaction, he burped out a "goooOoood!". Funny guy.

Anyhow, I was so pleased with my RM17 haircut (£3.40!!) that we came back again on our last day in Kuching, for Chris to get his hair cut.

Before...

On the left is Mike, the salon owner, and Ah Tui on the right.

...and after.

I don't blame you for not being able to tell the pictures apart, but there was a difference! His incorrigibly thick mop of hair became a neat, less unruly mop of hair. For a few days. :P

Satok Sunday Market @ Jalan Satok

Giant banananananas!!!

Liza and Simon wanted to show us the Satok Sunday Market, which is in fact a misnomer since it opens on Saturday afternoons and runs until mid-afternoon the next day. Liza says the market is going to be moved to another location soon because it's grown too big, messy and overcrowded.

It's the kind of really awesome, sprawling street market that sells everything under the sun, from giant bananas to raw meat, to vividly colourful fighting fish to apam balik. Chris and I very happily had two extra-peanutty and extra-sugary apam balik, despite already being uncomfortably full from the hearty dinner at the.Dyak.

the.Dyak

We reached Kuching at about 2pm and piled into a coffee shop for a super-quick lunch. The whole journey down had been a great hurry, because Anwar Ibrahim (leader of Pakatan Rakyat, the Opposition Coalition) was in town and giving a speech at about 3pm, which some of us wanted to attend.

After what felt like the best lunch of my life - I was famished and secretly beginning to feel quite exhausted from all that traipsing around the jungle - Daveency dropped us off at the budget hostel and everyone had a speed-shower. We just made it. 

Anwar was the fifth and last person to speak

Daveency later suggested having an early dinner at the.Dyak. The rest of the group was amenable to the idea, so off we went to sample 'Dayak cuisine prepared with culinary techinique and served on Dayak kitchenware'. 

If you're Sarawakian, you have definitely been here, and if you aren't, you must try it the next time you're in Kuching! The.Dyak just opened in October 2011, but everyone seems to know and rave about it. I gather that the locals particularly like to bring visiting friends here for a taste of genuine Dayak food.

Jani Tunu: three-layered fatty pork char-grilled and served with homemade sambal and cucumber. This was so popular at the table that we (as in the other guys, not me personally) ordered a second plate of it.

petai 

a fish dish... sorry for the lack of descriptiveness

We actually had lots and lots of different dishes, and each was immensely tasty, but unfortunately it seems that Chris and I were so preoccupied with the wonderful company and food that we didn't take many pictures! Off the top of my mind, though, we also had tempoyak (fermented durian, great stuff - you won't believe it till you've tried it), paku kubok gulai kenchala (jungle ferns stir-fried with fragrant wild ginger flowers and chillies), red rice... 

We caught a glimpse of Vernon Kedit, the restaurant owner on his way out.  He's an interesting guy with a very varied career trajectory: he famously used to be the manager of Malaysian artistes such as Erra Fazira and Ning Baizura, and is now into politics, in addition to being a successful restorateur. If you're interested, there's more here, here and here.

He greeted the table jovially, thanked the Kuchingites for bringing us there and apologised for having to rush off to catch a flight to Miri. Then he shook hands and hurried off, but not before calling out to a waiter: "Free tuak ice-cream for this table!"

Vanilla ice-cream laced with tuak (rice wine) and fermented rice

The spiked ice cream is veryyy potent stuff - I loved it! Apparently all first-time guests receive complimentary tuak mansau (premium rice wine) or/and ice-cream as well. 

I tend to take tripadvisor reviews and ratings with a hearty pinch of salt, but I must say - and I'm sure many wouldn't hesitate to agree with me - that the.Dyak fully deserves its #1 spot out of the 114 listed restaurants in Kuching!

nasi bungkus and Nyegol

The sun went down casting a fiery red in the sky over the misty hills in Bengoh. I took a quick opportunity to peek out of the window and take this shot. We were in Kampung Nyegol, a relatively new settlement of people who were originally from Kampung Rejoi. They had been forced to move to this higher ground after finding out that Kampung Rejoi would become flooded over the next few years by the Bengoh dam reservoir. Pastor Simo, our guide and village pastor, led us to Aheng's house where we would be spending the night.

There was some cooking happening next door and meanwhile, Aheng was showing us his skill at playing the letung: a fascinating bamboo instrument he made himself. I had a go, hitting alternating bamboo strips to make a tune and concentrating very hard. The village people watched smilingly and laughed every time I made a mistake and had to start again. I even managed to pick up the rhythm within a few minutes of trying. They seemed quite impressed at this. Daveency later had a go but gave up shortly after failing miserably. :P

After we showered, Ps Simo called us over for dinner in the house next door.

Ps Simo said grace for us in his thoughtful quiet manner before welcoming us to tuck in. Food was simple but delicious: some vegetable, chicken and sardines with the nasi bungkus we had brought. Once we had filled up we were ready for our task. Saw distributed the half-sodden witness statements to us - two per person. Each of them consisted of about three sides of legal document stapled together, detailing a personal account of their land issue.

 I won't bore you with too many details, but basically their situation is similar to that of the people in Muk Ayung: Much of the land in their old kampung will be flooded by the dam waters and so having accepted their fate they moved up to settle in Kampung Nyegol. They were told to accept 'without prejudice' the compensation for the land that would surely be flooded - which they did. That just means that they do not give up any rights. Now, as in Muk Ayung, they are being asked to leave the area and move to the unpopular resettlement site: Kg Semadang. The company involved also sent people into their land to do "biomass clearing" - which essentially means just cutting down their vegetables and trees. They weren't too happy.

The witness statements were taken about a year ago in preparation for the court case, but it wasn't due until just recently. Our job was to interview each person and refresh their memory about what they had said in the statements and make any corrections if necessary. The relatively simple job was done in about forty five minutes. After that, we spent some time idly chatting with the villagers about things like how to kill wild boars and when durian season is.

We were up at 8.30am the next morning. Eally, Pastor Simo's wife was already making us maggi mee and milo for breakfast. Wisps of low-lying cloud and cool humid air clung to the hills around us after last night's rainfall. I had slept quite well.

For a person who always sleeps with the air-conditioning on, sleeping in a tropical jungle can at first be a struggle. The first night was in Muk Ayung where I slept on an unzipped sleeping bag: incredibly uncomfortable. The silly thing about sleeping bags in general is that they are designed to keep you warm and so are often made of some sort of polyester covering - great for cold dry weather. In the humid and warm tropical environment, the warm material makes you sweat and being that sort of fabric, the sleeping bag sticks to you like a wet plastic bag. It was a nightmare especially since we were sleeping indoors and hardly any breeze could get to us.

For this trip to Nyegol, I ditched the sleeping bag when I saw them pulling out mattresses for us. Stuffed with crumbling foam though they may have been, they were a whole lot more comfortable than my sleeping bag! Rain also meant that the air was cool and comfortable, becoming even chilly in the middle of the night.

As we had our breakfast, Aheng sat by the back door indulging in his chewing habit. It's a combination of daun sireh (betel leaf), pinang (some sort of nut) and powdered river snail shell which is supposed to be mildly psychoactive and they believe makes their teeth stronger. In reality, chewing the it produces a blood red mixture and stains the teeth - many village women have this tell tale black teeth and very red lips. Aheng told us gleefully about a white tourist who once tried it and had a shock because she thought her mouth was bleeding!
 

It was soon time to leave for Kuching. I took a picture with Aheng, thanked him and said we would be seeing him again soon. Indeed, our following journey brought us back to Nyegol.

The caucasian guy, if you've noticed him, is Ai Fern's good friend from Switzerland who was interested in seeing the bamboo bridges.

Along the way we passed the school buildings of SK Semban, the nearby primary school which is also going to be flooded and destroyed when the dam is functioning.

It felt somewhat a privilege to be walking through this beautiful landscape that is soon going to be flooded completely by the dam reservoir. We trudged on through muddy soil and hilly terrain - I felt sure the trek out was much harder. The only motivation was the prospect of a nice warm shower and a proper toilet!

change of plans

We were supposed to stay two nights in Giam, but by 11am the second morning we had found out all that we needed to know and interviewed all the people we wanted to meet. Wandering around speaking to random people wasn't much of an option either - the people in this area seemed to be a little more guarded and less forthcoming with opinions. Something to do with the slightly more urban demography, maybe?

Just before lunchtime, the rest of the bunch dropped in at Victor's place en route to Kampung Nyegol, where they were to spend the night. Ai Fern, Daveency, Chris and I decided within ten minutes to join them. I'd left my rubber shoes in Kuching, so I popped out to the shops with Ai Fern and got myself a new pair... we got back just in time to wolf down lunch, and then off we went!

In front of me is Gavin from Nyegol, carrying about 6 gallons of fuel home for the electricity generator.

We took about three and a half hours to get there, and the last hour or so was in heavy rain. We squelched into the home of Aheng and his wife at about 6pm, muddy and sodden. They very kindly piled on the firewood for everyone to hang their things out to dry - Si Cheng and a few of the others had not a single dry shirt left.

The both of us were OK though (perks being over-prepared, heh): Chris had packed all his stuff into a large black binliner before putting it into his haversack, making it effectively waterproof. I did it the lazier way - I just put on a huge plastic poncho over myself and my whole bag the moment it began to rain. So the only things we had to dry out were the clothes we had been wearing, caps and bags etc.

I found it quite funny how the next day everything smelled of firewood: it wasn't at all noticeable in Bengoh, but my ash-scented clothing suddenly became quite conspicuous in the sterile B&B room in Kuching.

Chris' camera bag hanging by the fireplace

The plank that connects Aheng's home and the house next door, where we had dinner later

Speaking of dinner.... watch this space, folks! ;)

gallivanting in Kuching

Liza had enlisted the help of her friend Ai Fern to take us around Kuching in our free time before the Kampung Giam trip. Here are some silly pictures:
 

Outside Square Tower, Kuching

The shiny new Dewan Undangan Negeri on an island - you can even pay 50 sen for a sampan ride across to visit the Malay villages there; something like a traghetto

Bob Marleh in Kuching

Crazy people, especially Silicon. :P

Kampung Giam: pt 3

The area of Semadang actually comprises  6 villages, including Kampung Giam and Kampung Git. As of 2010, 7261 hectares of land in Giam (according to Harrison, the headman) have been signed off to be used as by the government for resettlement.

Victor had asked if we were interested to have a look the designated resettlement areas, so in the evening we went on a half-hour-long drive through Semadang. The building of alternative accommodation hadn't begun yet, so we just saw stretches of cleared land, some greenery, and what looked like abandoned farmland...

The truth of the matter is, Chris and I missed out on any commentary because we felt like trying out the back of Daveency's awesome pickup truck. Hohoho.

Later on, after dinner, the four of us were offered some wild landak (porcupine) stew: the meat was grey in colour, tough and rather bitter. It had funny bits of cartilage in it and each different cut of meat was, to me, indistinguishable from any other part. Victor's son had just caught it the day before; apparently it's quite rare that anyone manages to catch landak anymore, and it was his first time. The hunter was a large, muscular man with a very taciturn impression, shoulder-length hair and several tattoos on his upper body... definitely not someone you'd wanna mess with!

Kampung Giam: pt. 2

The story

In 2008,  a license was issued to a company to build palm oil plantations over an area of land encompassing 21 villages at the foothills. This included Kampung Giam (where we were) and Git (just next to Giam).

The villagers, wishing to protect their land from this invasion, applied to the Land and Survey Department (LSD) for formal certification of their NCR land. However, while the LSD had received the application, they also issued a new timber license for the very same plot of land!

Victor showing Ai Fern the areas affected by the plantation and logging licenses

Interviewing Kidat, the headman of Kampung Git, he told us representatives had approached him alone to sign an agreement for the timber licence.  He felt that the timber company was not really after his kampung's land but rather, looking to obtain signatures from leaders within the area for the logging to proceed on a larger scale. In addition, Kampung Giam serves as an entry point for the loggers as it is near the road and on the periphery of the licence.
"There isn't much timber in our land - are they going to log our fruit and rubber trees? I don't think so," Kidat said. He also said he refused to sign the agreement without consensus from his villagers.

There was no incident for a while after, until the company turned up with tractors, trucks and chainsaws in tow. In the ensuing conflict, villagers blocked the workers and contractors from entering. The company claimed they had the right to enter based on a list of signatures in an agreement - but upon inspection of this, they found forged signatures and even those of long deceased villagers! The villagers lodged a report with the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commision. Since then, the loggers have come three times, and each time they were barricaded out and denied entry.

The villages are faced with a tough situation: their NCR over the land is seemingly disregarded, the loggers are trespassing and using corrupt measures in an attempt to exploit the villagers. Despite this, the two leaders felt it was not right to take the judicial route and sue the state in court. They are quite happy handling the situation 'guerilla' style on the ground - stopping the loggers as they come. However, it is crucial that they realise the importance of securing their native customary right over the land, because ultimately, their fate is in the hands of those in power.

Kampung Giam: pt 1

The very next day, the whole bunch of us split into two groups. Daveency, Chris and I were headed for Kampung Giam, while the others were to spend a night in Kampung Krokong.

No hiking for us today! Giam is at the foothills and thus accessible by road. Daveency drove us there, and with us was Ai Fern, the spunkiest journalist I'd ever met.

We stopped for lunch at an apparently famous kolo mee stall at tenth mile.  Ai Fern warned us that the mee here was more expensive than tasty (RM 6-12 instead of the regular RM3-5), but Chris and I decided to try it anyway. As it turns out, she was right. Each bowl came with three huge prawns, but the noodles were more bland than all the others we'd tried so far.

My fourth kolo mee since arriving in Kuching four days ago!

We arrived at Victor's house, where we were putting up for the night, sometime mid-afternoon. Victor, a bespectacled retired headmaster, spoke to us in English the whole time we were there. He was also the person in charge of all matters pertaining to land in Giam, so he seemed like a good starting point to find out more about the NCR situation in the area - more on that later.

After a little chat and some tea and biscuits, the four of us went to check out the river behind the house.



We wandered upriver, coming across a quaint little homestay house and lots of villagers filling buckets of water for their homes (there is still no water supply to houses in this area, although it seems that the pipes have been installed for a while now - people smile wryly and give good-natured shrugs as they tell us).



Ai Fern chatted with a couple of tattooed local men carrying fishing guns, even exchanging phone numbers with one guy who offered to bring us to the caves the next day (for a negotiable price, of course). I marvelled, not for the first time, at her extraordinary ability to warm up to people and get them talking in any language: English, Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka, Malay... guess that's what good journalists do!



Many of the folk we spoke to told us cautioned us against playing at the nearby waterfall. There is now a NO SWIMMING sign posted near it, but there have been countless drowning cases at the small but pretty deadly waterfall, mostly involving tourists. The latest incident was just in May last year, when two picnicking Kuchingites were sucked into the bottom of the waterfall. The second guy, a doctor, had jumped in to save the nurse... Clearly no lack of drama in the inlands.



After an hour and a half or so, Victor phoned and said the headman was waiting to meet us at home (we had requested an interview with him). So back we went, to begin the serious stuff.