Into The Lost World of Sarawak

I was elated when my name was short-listed to accompany Dato Dr. Shafei Oyub for his pre-retirement pan Malaysia tour to Kapit and Belaga. It was always my dream to go deep into the heart of Borneo, the place where even most of the Sarawakian never been.

The only way to Kapit and Belaga is by express boat through the liquid highway of the mighty Rajang river. The elongated twin horse engines express boat measured approximately 15 meters long offered 3 different categories of sit ; the first, second and third class. A fully air-conditioned cabin with a large screen TV at the front provides a comfortable and relaxing journey. There are several trips going upstream, the last trip is at 12.30pm.

We started our journey from the Sibu wharf by taking the afternoon express boat towards Kapit. The plan was to spend a night in Kapit and proceed to Belaga the next day. From Kapit another group of MOH delegate would join us to Belaga.

It takes 3 - 4 hours from Sibu to Kapit and another 5 - 6 hours from Kapit to Belaga depends on how frequent the express boat stop to disembark people of the long house to their home which scattered along the river.

Along the way I could have a glimpse of the long house; both the traditional and the modern version. In contrast with the traditional wooden or bamboo made long house the modern one is almost similar to the terrace houses in town.Occasionally we encountered the tugboats hauling massive log rafts from the interior to the downstream timber mill. The murky yellow ‘teh-tarik’ like, muddy water of the mighty Rajang reflects the heavy logging activity in the upstream.

At the distance I caught sight of the log-loading station at one side of the riverbank. I couldn’t help but felt upset to see the bulldozers and huge lumber trucks moved back and forth over the large clearing, arranging the giant logs. The barren ground was soaked with sump oil to keep down the dust and raw, red earth logging roads radiated into the denuded hillsides.

Three hours later we reached the Kapit town. As the defeaning roar of the engine ceased away it nestled in adjacent and parallel with half a dozen similar boats. We have to walk cautiously on the edge of the adjacent boat before able to step on the concrete building of the wharf.

Kapit is the homeland of Iban. It is the largest division in Sarawak . It consists of three districts; Kapit, Song and Belaga. Kapit town itself is the division’s administrative centre. Most of the lands are covered by dense primary forests. The mighty Rejang River and it tributaries; Batang Baleh , Batang Katibas and Batang Balui cut through the division and remain the only means of transportation for the people traveling into the heart of Sarawak. Due to the mountainous topography and under populated area the Malaysian Airlines had stopped the aircraft service to Kapit long time ago.

There are two versions of story telling how Kapit got its name. The first version claimed that the word ‘Kapit’ was the evolution of ‘Kepit’ which means the bamboo longhouse. When people were going to the longhouse they would said; “kami ngagai rumah panjai kepit” which means we are going to kepit longhouse. The second version claimed that the word ‘kapit’ is actually comes from the English word “keep it” during the Brooke’s era.

Iban are the largest ethnic group in Kapit followed by the Orang Ulu, Chinese and Malay. The Orang Ulu refers to a number of smaller ethnic group that settle upriver mainly from Nanga Merit area up to Belaga. They are further divided into small subethnic; Kayan, Kenyah, Punan, Sekapan, Kejaman, Lahanan and Tanjong. (Please note that Punan and Penan are two different ethnics.)

That evening I have a separate agenda at the Kapit Health Clinic while Dato Shafei and the rest of the team went straight to the Sri Balleh government rest house on the top of the hill overlooking the Kapit town where we spent the night.

After dinner we have a chit-chat. We were talking about the famous yet the most dangerous Pelagus Rapid that we were going to pass through on our way to Belaga the next morning. Traveling upstream depends very much on the rain and water level. If there is too much rain, the logs and branch debris make river travel unsafe. Too little rain and the low water level exposing long stretches of dangerous rapids. Even when the river conditions were ideal, accidents could happen as a result of a moment’s inattention. The former Kapit Divisional Health Officer, Dr Rais Abdullah (Krishnan) was telling us that he only trust one boat driver from Belaga if he was to make a trip there. That is because not everybody has enough skill to cruise through the rapids. The boat driver must have a precise knowledge of every single submerged rock of the rapid. Any single mistake may result in catastrophe.

Almost every year the rapid claims human soul. Early this year a school teacher from the interior school died after been accidentally thrown away by the wobbly boat into the rapids while he was enjoying the view on the roof of the express boat.

That morning after the dawn prayer I took a walk around the rest house. The extensive spectacular panorama of the greeny mountains and the slow moving river filled my heart with melancholy. I realized that I have strong feeling towards the river, the mountains, the forest and the surrounding people.

While waiting for the express boat to Belaga I paid a visit to the Sylvia Port. It was an administrative centre during the Brooke’s era which has been converted into a museum.

A few hours later the only express boat to Belaga arrived from Sibu. Unfortunately (or rather fortunate) the inner cabin was full with passengers and only few of them alighted to end their journey in Kapit. As a result most of us have to take a sit on the roof-top.

Piled on the roof of the express boat were all sorts of necessary commodities of the remote longhouse people ranging from cooking gas cylinder, furniture, door and window part (for newly built long houses) and electrical gadget such as TV and refrigerator.

I secured a place in between those stuffs near to the roaring engine to give me enough handle to grip should the boat swayed. The overwhelmed excitement overcomes my sense of fear as the express boat speeding upstream. I anticipated the ‘Lost World’ of Arthur Conan Doyle and forgot the dangerous man-swallowing rapids.

Sitting on the roof was actually a perfect place to enjoy the beautiful panorama of the rainforest. The blue sky on the top combined with the murky yellow river at the bottom and the greeny mountains on both sides gave you an almost surreal landscape. I was hypnotized by those wonderful views and forgot the burning skin of my forehead due to the scorching midday heat.

A few hours later we reached the most dangerous spot. As we were approaching the Pelagus rapids I could see a warning signboard on the riverside alerting the boat passengers to put on their safety jacket. Amazingly I could not find a single safety jacket available for the passengers inside the boat let alone for the extra passengers on the roof-top.

The slow moving water suddenly became a terrifying tumultuous turbulence. As the express boat lurched and rolled it way through the boiling rapids I strengthened my grab on the handle while my mouth keeps repeating the Noah prayer. I could felt my adrenaline flows freely as the river and my entire system was fully charged for fight or flight should any bad things happened. But thanks God we managed to cruise through the treacherous rapids safely. The initial terrifying feeling later became an exhilarating experience.


WATCH PELAGUS RAPIDS IN ACTION

We reached Belaga six hours later. The Belaga folks welcomed us with the traditional Kenyah dance. Belaga is such a small town. It has only few rows of shop houses, budget inns, a health clinic and a post office in one small area. Belaga grew up in the early 1900s when a few Chinese traders set up shops and started trading with the upriver people, supplying essentials such as kerosene, salt and cooking utensils.

We were then brought to the Belaga Health Clinic (known as Uma Perah in Kayan; Uma= rumah, perah = sakit) where a brief presentation regarding the health care system in Kapit was given by the Kapit Divisional Health Officer. Later on we went to see the site for the new health clinic where the construction is yet to start early next year.

During dinner there was a big welcome party. Dressed in their traditional costume a group of Kayan ladies performed their traditional dance followed by a solo dance of ‘ngajat’ in synchronize with the background traditional music. Later on, in his speech Dato Shafei thanked the Belaga people for their warm hospitality and reassured them that the new clinic will becomes a reality soon. The party continued with a karaoke session (a compulsory session for the Sarawakian during any party) and it end up an hour before midnight with a traditional dance of ‘Li-ling’ where everybody walked rhythmically in a circle.

At dawn I was awakened by the chorus of azan from the nearby mosque. After having a light breakfast we caught an early express boat back to Sibu. A brief visit to this remote area of Sarawak was indeed a rewarding experience. It is almost like traveling back through the time machine into the Lost World.

To view a full collection of pictures related to this article please visit http://homepage.mac.com/drzainal/LostWorld/PhotoAlbum10.html

Ayam Pansuh (Bamboo Chicken)

Ready to be served

The bamboo is cook over a slow fire in the same position

The top of the bamboo is covered with the tapioca leaves

Mixing all the ingredients with the chickens 

Some of the ingredients used: Bunga kantan, Halia, Bawang putih, pucuk ubi kayu... 

Ayam Pansuh

"Pansuh" in Iban means cooking food in a bamboo stem.
In contrast to the Malay in Semenanjung who use bamboo stem to cook lemang during Hari Raya,
the Iban cook all sort of food in the bamboo stem; rice, vegetables, fish and chicken.
Making "pansuh" is not confined during festive seasons only, they make it as they like.
During Hari Raya gathering in my clinic the Iban staffs decided
to make Pansuh Chicken. The taste and aroma of the food was absolutely great.

The First Sarawak FMS Conference

Alhamdulillah the first Sarawak FMS Conference was successfully organised on the 11^th of November with the Sanofi Aventis as the main sponsor. The fact that there were only three of us who were the participants as well as the speakers was indeed interesting. Sibu has been given an honor to become a host. The guest speaker that day was Dr. William Chung, a nephrologists from Normah Medical Centre. He is a Chinese American based in the Mayo clinic and currently working as a contract nephrologist in the private medical centre. Since there was only a small group of us at the meeting it has became an informal discussion and everybody was in relaxing mood. After been occupied with series of lectures and discussion since afternoon, we have our dinner in one of the Melanau restoran. The Melanau cuisine offered a variety of sea food ranging from the famous umai, sago snack, asam pedas and fried ikan kurau in sweat and sour sauce. Later that evening we went for a night tour along the riverside. Everyone was taken aback to observe the tremendous changes Sibu has gone through…from literally a plain, dull ‘cowboy’ town into a modern and contemporary municipality. We were spellbound by the spectacular view of Wisma Sanyan; the tallest building in Sarawak standing bold as the epitome of this hardworking Foochow community. After all the eats and visits were done we went back to wind down in our private corner before catching an early morning flights the next day back to our own destination.

Menyambut ahli baru di Hospital Sibu 

Lahirnya Buah Hati Kami

Alhamdulillah tanggal 22 hb Mei lalu kami telah dianugerahkan seorang puteri seberat 4.3 kg melalui pembedahan Cesarean di Hospital Besar Sibu. Setelah lapan tahun berehat kami diberi pilihan sama ada menjalani kelahiran normal atau pembedahan. Memandangkan faktor usia dan jangkaan bayi yang besar, kami akhirnya memilih kelahiran secara pembedahan. Bayi kali ini memang dijangka besar walaupun tidaklah seberat kakaknya Maisarah (4.45kg).

Sudah menjadi adat tinggal di perantauan jauh dari mak ayah dan saudara mara, sayalah terpaksa mengambil alih tugas memasak, membasuh dan mengemas rumah. Mujurlah ada rakan-rakan dan kakitangan klinik yang sudi menjenguk. Semoga menjadi zuriat yang solehah , alimatan dan amilatan. Amen.

Berakhirnya suatu Penantian

Akhirnya jambatan Lanang yang menghubungkan Bandar Sibu dan Sarekei telahpun siap setahun lebih awal dari yang dijadualkan. Ia nya telahpun dirasmikan oleh Ketua Menteri Sarawak, YAB Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri (Dr) Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud Pada 24 April yang lalu. Dengan siapnya jambatan ini nanti penduduk yang akan ke Sarekei dan seterusnya ke Selatan termasuk Kuching tidak perlu lagi beratur menaiki feri. Beratur menunggu feri kadang-kadang sampai 3-4 jam terutama sewaktu musim perayaan.Walaubagaimanapun selepas ini mungkin terpaksa beratur untuk membayar tol pula. Jambatan ini merupakan laluan bertol kedua di Sarawak setelah jambatan Petrajaya di Kuching. Dengan siapnya jambatan Lanang ini jumlah pesakit ke klinik dijangka akan bertambah ramai.

From Sibu to Mukah,It takes 3 hours by land and 25 min by air. 

A hot non pressurized cabin. Only 2 fans mounted in front.You can see the pilots up front flipping switches and pressing buttons.

 

A tiny sardine can of a plane. 

Mukah Airport 

An eyebird view from the plane 

A delicious Sagu worms 

A trip to Mukah

Last week I made a trip to Mukah. It was a part of an official job, visiting the clinics in the central region of Sarawak (Sibu, Mukah , Sarekei and Kapit divisions). Due to the large coverage area, it’s just like covering 4 countries!!! Sibu to Mukah is about 160 km away, but because of the bumpy road, a land trip will take almost 3 hours. So I decided to take a flight which only takes 25 minutes. Since there is only one air trip per day , so I have to spend a night there.

The only airplane available to Mukah is the twin otter plane, the smallest aircraft in the MAS series which only accommodate 19 persons at one time. The cabin is non pressurized and there is no A/C. But there are two small fans like what cabbies will sometimes mount on their dashboards. So you can imagine how hot it is inside the cabin. There is no barrier between the passenger area and the cockpit, so you can see the pilots going through their startup procedure in the cockpit, flipping switches and pulling levers. I felt little bit scared and nauseous when the plane trembles due to turbulence.

The nice part of flying in a small plane like that was the view: I could see the Sarawak wilderness spreading out below me. Mostly, we were flowing over the vast stretches of peat swamp that cover much of the lowlands.
As we approached Mukah, I could see oil palm plantations, laid out in orderly blocks. They were a gridded network of drainage canals and roads ran between the blocks. Interspersed with these were what appeared to be palm-dominated jungle, but with narrow, shallow water ways that seemed too regular to be natural streams, but were far less orderly than the oil palm estates. I later learned those were traditional Sago plantations.

Mukah Division was newly declared as the Tenth Division of Sarawak on the 1st of March 2002 by the Chief Minister of Sarawak YAB Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri (Dr) Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud. It is an ancient trading and fishing port, situated at the mouth of the Mukah River adjacent to the South China Sea. Historically, the town was an outpost of the Sultanate of Brunei. It became part of Sarawak in 1861. Mukah used to be a trade centre and an important port during the times of the Brunei Sultanate Government in the mid 19th century. It has direct trading with China, Singapore and the neighboring areas. Time has changed and now other cities and ports such as Kuching, Sibu, Bintulu and Miri have taken over as a peaceful and developed trade center.

The majority of the Mukah population is from the Melanau tribe. They are considered by the anthropologists to be among the original settlers of Sarawak, legend has it that the name "Melanau" was given to the inhabitants of the coastal swamp flats and river banks of Central Sarawak by one of the Sultans of Brunei. The original religion of the Melanau people was Liko, meaning "people of the river". In the Liko religion, life and the environment are one. Followers worship the spiritual world, including the superior ‘tou’ spirits and the lesser ‘belum’ spirits that cause sickness. The pagan Melanau use effigies of sickness spirits when practicing healing. These healing are called berbayoh and berayun. Many Melanau today are Christian and Muslim, though they still celebrate traditional festivals especially 'Kaul'.

Melanau ethnic speaks in their own dialect which is totally different from the local Sarawak dialect. If you can make an intelligent guess from the Iban dialect, it is extremely difficult to do so from Melanau language.

One of the famous foods among Melanau is what they called ‘Umai’. It is a raw fish which is cut into small pieces. A lemon juices is added into it after which you can eat with a special spicy source. It is said that Umai was first introduced by the Japanese during the occupation era.

There are total 4 hospitals in Mukah divisions but only the one in Mukah district itself has doctors, others are run by the MAs and Nurses. Hospital Mukah is a small, old fashion building which incorporated the inward-patient and the outpatient department under one roof. There are 4 doctors (MO) working in the hospitals. In addition to the workload in the Mukah Hospital they have to visit other hospitals and join the Flying Doctors Service (FDS) when required.

After a short visit to the Mukah I went back to Sibu the next day to prepare for the next trip.

Hospital Mukah 

Arif ICT

Terimakasih kepada En Azli Paat kerana sudi mewar-warkan laman blog saya ke seluruh Malaysia melalui program Arif ICT di Nasional FM jam 7.30 pagi tadi. Saya memang peminat setia Arif ICT sejak setahun lepas. Walaupun hanya 10 minit tetapi cukup berisi. Laman En Azli boleh dilayari di http://azli.dapat.com/.