Longhouses Old and New

 The communal veranda.

 The alley between the front and rear longhouses.

 Part of the enormous roof.

 Dogs are everywhere.

 The spirit that protects the longhouse from evil spirits.

 Breakfast.

 Two Iban women bringing stuff to cook our lunch.

 Selvam shows us how to use the blow dart tube.

 Our guide on the farm walk.

 Two young boys who enjoyed having us around.

 Our traditional lunch is prepared.

The resort's main veranda.

 The view from the resort.

One of the resort's 12 hallways.  

Louis and Selvam talking in the lounge.

Friday, June 22^nd.

I woke up at 4:30 to the chorus of the roosters and had to navigate my way through the strings of the mosquito nets to get to the door for the outside toilet. The community has provided a separate toilet block outside on the veranda with one western toilet, a shower and a sink for the comfort of the tourists but the facility is still very basic. I went back to bed until light and then went for a walk around the longhouse. I had to find my way around and avoid the dogs. I went around to the longhouse behind and a woman showed me how to get past the yapping dogs. I walked through that shorter longhouse and down to the docks where I watched a few men loading up their boats. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to talk to these people as they have very little English, so we settle for ‘hello’ and smile a lot. Then I went back for our group breakfast.

We went on another little hike to see some of the crops that the longhouse people grow. We were loaded up in the longboats to be shuttled across the river. We hiked over very hilly ground and saw some of the rubber trees, pepper trees, cocoa plants and other things that they grow. We watched as one of the farmers hacked down a palm plant to harvest the palm heart which they eat. After walking around for an hour and a half we wound up at a little clearing by the river where the local people were preparing us a lunch. They barbequed chicken and pork over a fire in a barrel and boiled rice and pumpkin, and cooked chicken, palm heart, and rice in the traditional way- inside pieces of bamboo. I much preferred the chicken done that way than the barbeque, it was much more moist and tender as opposed to dried out. I loved the pumpkin, and the palm heart was also good.

Then we said goodbye to our hosts and were shuttled down the river and across the lake to our next destination. I loved the ride across the lake in the sun. It really reminded me of Ahmic Lake. After about 45 minutes we arrived at the Aiman Batang Ai Resort and Retreat. This facility was built by the government here to compensate the Iban people for the loss of their land, which is under the lake and to provide some employment for them. It is a huge complex consisting of about ten longhouses of rooms for tourists. They are built in the traditional fashion of rooms side by side, with a common long hallway and an outside veranda. I loved the place. It had a large reception, restaurant, lounge complete with two pool tables, ping pong and a large outdoor swimming pool.

We checked into our room and most of us made our way to the pool quickly to cool off. I spent most of the rest of the afternoon in it or lounging beside it. Many of the others had massages.

We met up again for dinner at 7:00 where we sat on the veranda overlooking the lake. The food was good and we had a good time. What a great place. Then off to bed.