Thursday 19th February, Gunung Mulu Nati

It’s really fun talking to locals about my story, and showing my photos – Granny Mac and her family, the Changkat Serdang estate location map, and all. We had a yummy fruity breakfast in a vegan café (see Luca enjoying his first mouthful. It’s the place with the monstrous scobies from the last blog), adjacent to a lovely old-style-modernised hotel, and the eager young receptionist lad was so interested, it quite made my day. Turns out this is the sister hotel to the Marian Boutique Lodgings, where we are staying: a 19th century Chinese-built mega house sold to a boarding school in the 1930s and then to the local Diocese in the 50s; now a private hotel. Steps up off and away from the road, well-tended greenery surrounding a lovely pool, and a terrace of individual rooms each with its own covered tiny courtyard with ceiling fan. The shared guest spaces like reading room and eating area are cool and light and, well, ‘colonial’ in feel. Even if they were not, really. What I think is colonial is probably a mix of myth and memory and movie moments, and may just be a ‘back then’/‘over there’ sort of thing. The book cupboard contained an eclectic mix of very old and tatty children’s reading books – Enid Blyton’s Chalet School (‘Sandra Koon from Grandma and Grandpa 1972’) - outdated travel books, and some fashion or local magazines from only a year or two ago. I almost thought there might be some clues for our ‘mission’ hidden on the shelves – I’m on the look-out everywhere I go! - but Sarawak is not reeeeeally likely to be preserving any family mysteries. But both properties had a similar décor-vibe, with old suitcases lined up along the walls, exposed brick and solid wooden furniture (vintage or retro or just with a certain tropical (?) look), local woven and carved crafts, old newspaper articles framed and displayed on the walls; and, here, tiffin carrying boxes on the shelves.

[Time for more of the family story: My grandmother’s grandfather was called Charles Emmerson, and he married Maria, the daughter of the previously described Mark Moss. Charles was quite an entrepreneur, and apparently quite a character. He was a vet – graduated from the Royal Veterinary College in 1860 (confirmed from London in an email last week!) – and worked for 20 years in a practice in Raffles Place, Singapore. “However, he is better remembered as the founder and operator of Emmerson’s Tiffin Rooms, a popular restaurant regarded as a local institution in Singapore in the second half of the 19th century. He was also the proprietor of two hotels, one of which was a forerunner of the Raffles Hotel.” https://www.nlb.gov.sg/main/article-detail?cmsu…
Fun fact: Charles was also a member of the local am-dram and comedy improv scene!]

Notice the connection? Seeing these vintage tiffin boxes rang a bell!

We wanted to complete the self-guided walking tour for Kuching recommended in the guide book, so went over the impressively designed loopy bridge, and along the river promenade towards, well, nothing in particular it turned out, apart from a panda and a pink-nosed pussy cat, both on their backs, one in despair and one in bliss, as you see. There was then no other bridge to walk back across to the city side, so we stopped on a walkway near someone else who was clearly waiting for something or the other, which luckily turned out before long to be the river ferry. Cheap as chips, simple as simple can be, quiet and steady, over the murky muddy yukky water.. I crossed over with Luca and the other chap, for 20p each; Luca had to go elsewhere to sort out some questions about our ongoing travel, so I decided to continue up river, back to the loopy bridge, to wander about in the interesting old streets with their 2 storey houses in cramped rows and little craft shops squeezed thin but extending long. My own private river taxi for £1! The ferry man chatted when it was just me alone, and I showed him some photos of the Basel Fähri which has a similar shape (ish) but works off the river’s flow to traverse in both directions, and does not need a motor at all.

The Borneo Cultures Museum has a great reputation – absolutely justified, as we later found out - and we had agreed to meet there at some stage in the afternoon. En route there, St Thomas’ Cathedral unexpectedly leapt out at me, gave me quite the surprise. Especially because there was an Ash Wednesday service actually under way, at 1pm, with so many people in the congregation that many were sitting way outside the main sanctuary on additional chairs. I was the only European among them, but I am glad I was brave enough to step into the throng. (And that I arrived at the very end of what must have been a very lonnnnnnng sermon!!). So alongside several hundred Sarawak Christians I was ‘ashed’; I bore the mark on my forehead for the rest of the day, which felt good in a context where the almost ubiquitous outward sign of faith, the hijab, is worn by so very many women. On the other hand, I experienced as strange and difficult the religious tradition of the Anglican liturgy - the peculiar formality - which felt out of place and out of time. I suppose I have to admit that I often feel the same about church practices in the UK, both the traditional/conformist approaches and those that aim and claim to be modern. It is also true to say that I find/found, as usual, some beauty and strength in the familiarity of the goings-on; what I am reminded of, what I sense, what I enjoy while experiencing the words and activities that are ‘done’ around me, reorients me, encourages me, is life-giving. Odd mixture, I admit. But that’s okay; that’s how life is at times, and it doesn’t make it wrong or bad.

Thursday, and another internal flight, over eastwards to the jungle, in a small, old aircraft owned by the newly created AirBorneo company. A three day trek lies before us, including overnights in a longhouse! We will be guided by Larry - it is compulsory to do this particular trek with a local guide - who was recommended to us by someone we chatted up over breakfast in Kuching. Prof Rob Ogden works in international conservation, genetics, animal crime prevention and wildlife forensics - how awesome is that?! And, obviously, a nose-to-the-ground expert on who to ask to help, how and where and when. And Larry turns out to be the 'government appointed assembly head of about ten tribal chiefs of the Limbang region' (thanks for the phrasing, Luca) - an area of Sarawak that proudly splits the city state of Brunei in two. And an open-faced, relaxed, charmer of a man, who is going to be an absolute ace-trekker-leader for these few days.Read more