phase 3

Dear travel journal,
Left the peraya longhouse today. Up for breaky, got packed, over the bamboo bridge and met Alvin in the peraya village. First stop was up to the traditional bidayu land where the 13 tribes originated. From the original village (longhouse and village are apparently quite interchangeable terms) the 13 tribes spread out and moved back down river. They started down river and as the iban and Chinese moved in during the 1800s they slowly moved up the mountains and away from the rivers which their enemies thought if they block off and trap the bidayu up the mountain, they will win. But the bidayuh are clever and excellent at living of the land. There are areas up in the lime stone mountain ranges where the water never dries out. The bidayuh people had lots of knowledge on the supernatural beliefs of the iban and other enemies and they used that. For example there is a tree called a fire plant. That when the leaf of the plant is rubbed on an area where they know people Will be leaning etc, and it makes it feel Like your skin is on fire. There are also some tribes that are carnivores or drink blood, also things that would spread through word of mouth and keep people away from tribes. We are here to look through the village and talked a lot about the traditional head hunters. The peraya village people - binyewa tribe- have moved away from the head hunter traditions and although they remember the traditions of the tribe warriors annually taking the skulls through all 13 villages and over the roofs of every house in each village within a 24 hour period as form of unity and remembrance of the old traditions they no long conduct the ceremonies or have the head houses sealed. To preserve the skulls they would submerge them in the river for a few weeks, then boil the skulls before placing in the skull houses. Out the front of each head house is a small platform that is used to place an offering to the spirits of the owners of the skulls. Other tribes such as the sadong tribe that Christina belongs to have a sealed headhouse that is only opened once a year when their annual skull ceremony is done. Its complete taboo to open the skull house or show the skulls to outsiders. After seeing some of the site of the old village we jumped back in the van and headed to kuching. Back at basaga we went through our bags and collected things we had all run out of (mostly drugs and money for everyone) and then into kuching for lunch. Back to the sahabat cafe for naarn bread with lental dip and chicken for lunch. Then lots of pictures with the guys in the store and back in the van headed to phase 3. It rained pretty heavy while we were leaving the restaurant and one of the guys from the store walked us out to the car with an umbrella which was awesome of him. Waved goodbye and we were on our way. The weather cleared up heaps on the drive and we had to cross on a little barge which only took about 10 mins. Which was awesome. What wasn't so awesome is we did see a local at one point walking along the road with a macaque tidied to a piece of rope who was pulling and trying to get away. A couple of hours later we arrived in a small town and all piled out at a little pier. The Malay chief meenad of the telok serabang village greeted us. We then Packed all of our food stores and bags into two speed boats and headed off across the south China sea to telok serabang. The sunset from the boat was amazing. As we got to the beach front we jumped out and collected our stuff and walked up to camp. The water was absolutely amazing. It was soon warm, like warm bath water. As we are walking up the beach we could hear chanting. The religion here is Muslim and there is a mosque not far away in the main village and chanting can be heard whenever they are preying, usually this time of day. Our camp has two bamboo/wood longhouses. The one on the right has a wrap around veranda with chairs out the front and a tap at the front steps to wash your feet. When you walk in there are two rooms, one either side where Alvin and the chief sleep. Past the rooms to an open kitchen area with little toilet area off to one side. Opposite the first house is a second that has 10 rooms, each which can house 2 people, with a veranda at each end, open tops of the walls and curtains as doors. Split off into twos again got our stuff in and all sat down at the long table that's between the two houses. At the front of the table Is a little raised open hut and behind the table is a little outdoor sink and kitchen and 2 toilet / shower blocks. 4 showers (including one outdoor closer to the beach) and 3 separate toilets. As we all sat down at the table the chief cut the top of a coconut and stuck a straw through the little hole, and we all sat around and were introduced to the chief properly and chatted about our plans for our beach stay. This area is literally a short journey to the Indonesian boarder and open to the south China sea where turtles and terapins are frequently laying their eggs along the beaches and being poached. The hope is that by increasing Volunteer presence in this area that poachers will be deterred from coming to the beaches. And if they do we should invite them in for a meal and have a chat about conservation and sustainable hunting. After our chat we had dinner, cleaned up, showered and went for a walk along the beach front. The tide was out so we got to have a good look through the rock pools and saw the fishes and crabs and shells and all sorts of cute little things. Then all of a sudden calam comes over with his hand in the air and blood running down his arm saying he cut his finger. So back up to the beach huts and callam tells alvin whose response was 'wheres amie she will fix it' lol. Turns out I'm the group medic. Which is kinda true, I have fixed cuts, removed splinters, handed out creams, panadol and antihistamines. We washed callams hand and cleaned his wound, covered it with opsite spray and I put a cover over it. Then a few of us sat around chatting for ages. While we were chatting this cute, very healthy ginger tabby, who is super vocal came over and said hello to everyone and we had big cuddles. Its like midnight so its time to crash. I then got myself sorted for bed and cleaned my feet and realised that when I kicked my toes on the beach I had actually sliced my toe as well. Patched myself up, got my mossie net sorted and climbed into bed.Baca selengkapnya