Fiji

Borneo 7^th March 2010

We awoke to a bright sunny morning in Borneo. The third largest island in the world, shared by three countries, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. The northern part, which we reached by sailing around from the eastern side is part of Malaysia. We tied up in Kota Kinabalu originally port which was developed by the British and destroyed in WW2.

Our expectations were based on what we had seen in ports in Fiji and Samoa. How wrong could we have been. On the port side of the ship we were tied up to a modern container port with a city complete with high rise buildings in the back ground. High mountains emerging through a warm moist haze made the backdrop. Across the bay on the starboard side of the ship an expanse a water with islands and a shore lined with small dwellings on stilts in the water. The shiny gold dome of a mosque appeared amongst the muddle of houses on the shore to remind us that the official religion was Muslim in Malaysia. We were in newly rich Malaysia. As was took a tour of the city later in the afternoon we came across two huge new mosques. When was the last time a huge cathedral was built in the west? Is this a sign of what’s to come as the Asian tigers China, India and other Asian economies overtake us? The new government buildings and universities had a distinctive Arabic influence and were built to a high standard of excellence in well laid out space. So the Borneo of my imagination, the land with the one of the most diverse species on the planet, indigenous hunter gatherers and wild tribes of headhunters was going to be lost. Apparently yes, the tropical forest was being replaced by palm oil plantations, a non sustainable mono culture.

Worse still, there were massive building projects for high end housing and expensive condos, expensive hotels, restaurants and boutiques surrounded by shanty towns. Kids could leave school at twelve and nobody cares! It was obvious that there was a huge gap between rich and poor, there ere no obvious plans to change this. The rich were definitely in power here and planned to keep it that way. The country switched kings every four years among the four states that make up Malaysia making it difficult to mount any opposition or move towards democracy.

Poor Borneo, a victim of colonialism for centuries, Indians, Chinese, Arabs, Dutch, British and finally Indonesia and Malaysia have tried to settle and strip the area of its natural resources in successive waves. It is now tourism that will change it forever just like it happened to Hawaii.

In the afternoon we took a tour bus to see the ‘Headhunters’ This involved riding through the city out past the shanties and slums to the rural area where we came upon the Monosopiad Cultural Village of the Kadazan tribe of Dayaks. Monosopiad was a famous headhunter three hundred years ago, a leading member of a tribe of which there are over 300 in Borneo. His descendants created the cultural centre to commemorate his skill (?) and keep the traditions alive.

Firstly, headhunters are not cannibals but believed that taking an enemies head and preserving it gave the hunter special powers. The more heads you collected the higher your status. Women and children’s heads were not acceptable as trophy heads. It is believed there was some cheating with dire consequences. The Monosopiad descendents we saw were very attractive looking people, brown skinned, slim and athletic looking. They were wearing native costumes and danced and played their instruments, mainly tuned gongs and drums. We saw examples of there farming implements and weapons. The houses, some long houses were important and substantial, were made from bamboo, hardwood logs and reed matting roofs . These people were not nomadic but farmed as well as hunted with blow pipes.

We had a good talk from an Australian anthropologist who now lives amongst them and understands their various customs, history and languages.

One of their staples was sago. Sago is a food made from tree trunks! A special palm tree where the outer covering is discarded and the trunks ground up with a saw made from a board with lots of nails in it. This fearsome looking saw is drawn across the trunks making lots of large saw dust bits which are soaked in water. The wood floats and the sugars sink to the bottomed along with some natural gelling agent. This is collected and makes little glutinous balls which make a good pudding. As children we used to get it for desert. We called it frog spawn but ate it anyway. The guide said ‘Oh the British loved sago pudding but without he grubs’! It turned out that the natives used to leave the tree trunk to become infested with wood eating grubs which they ate with relish. We refused to try one but we were assured they tasted like cheese and cream. The grubs were huge and an important source of protein when hunting was bad. No they did not eat the head.

We had a try with a blow pipe. A tube about four feet long with a spear head tied at the end. The dart was a thin stick with a bit of cotton wool like head instead of flights. When given a sharp blow they fly straight and quick but not very far. However in the hands of a stalker and with a poisoned tip they are deadly.

We left feeling that these tribal people were very likeable and attractive. and had lived in this way for twenty thousand years in a sustainable way in what appeared to us to be beautiful island treasure gradually being converted to be just like anywhere else such as the Philippines or Hawaii.