Crystal Blues - Tales from Borneo

by Neil and Ley Langford on 20 Jul 2008 Crystal Blues is anchored on the Tulai River, near Bintangor in Sarawak, and onboard cruising couple Ley and Neil tell stories of their life with the local people.

Seven weeks have passed since our arrival on the Tulai River. The first few weeks were frantic, including a wedding here at longhouse Rumah Lidam plus the Gawai Dayak celebrations. In early June we were also invited to our first Gawai Antu (Festival Of The Dead), held at nearby longhouse Rumah Labang.

Life settled down just a little after that. With help from local friends Hillary & Jampie we were able to acquire a good quantity of hand made 'laja' (blowpipe darts), and the people of Rumah Lidam turned their hands and lungs to a very unusual competition. This was a first for almost all of them - a blowpipe hadn't been used by these people for more than a generation. After the first day's entertainment several old blowpipes appeared out of the local biliks (homes), though all were warped or damaged, and unuseable. Using Neil's new (& straight) blowpipe, the competition final was held on June 30.

On June 28 the world turned upside down again with the arrival of family friend Diana Farrell and her friend Charlotte. Two 18 year old aussie girls certainly caused a stir on the river, and in the local towns. They were delivered to the longhouse in great style, carried aboard an Iban longboat. That night was the end of Gawai, and the celebrations included dressing Ley and both girls in traditional Iban costume. Thats 'Princess' Ley in the photo at right.

Our friends here keep us well supplied with local foods and are eager for us to sample everything from local river snails to Pangolin and tapioca leaf. The wild mushrooms shown here look red and dangerous to the newcomer, but taste delicious when cooked (lightly spiced).

Last week Jampie cut a large bunch of fruit from the Napa Palm along the river bank. The nuts were separated from the bunch and then cut open on the dock. Inside is a delicious clear milk, just like coconut milk. Surrounding the milk is a clear gelatinous layer that can be scraped out with your finger nail. To our surpise it tastes like Lychee fruit, only milder.

Two days in a row we slurped and scraped our morning tea of fresh nappa fruit, sitting on the dock, with Jampie wielding his long knife to keep everyone fed.

Incidentally, if you want a knife sharpened really well, give it to an Iban ... Jampie has honed our large galley knife to a very fine and dangerous edge. His own long knife knocks the top off green coconuts in a flash.


Our presence on this river sometimes generates an unusual amount of interest - in the past month we've been visited twice by local Chinese language newspapers, who each devoted a full page in colour to our presence here.

The courtesy and generosity of the local people is difficult to describe - I've lost count of the food and drink we've been offered by locals, both Chinese and Iban. Even in local restaurants we sometimes find our meal is paid for before we even finish it .... Sarawak is unique.

The Boatyard in Borneo:

A rickety elevated plank-walk connects the nearby longhouse to the river, crossing wet padi fields and pushing through a jungle margin at the river bank. That jungle is constantly trying to claim back the plank-walk, along with the weeds and grasses in the fallow padi fields.

One afternoon last week the entire male population of the longhouse appeared, all armed with long knives. They slashed their way from the longhouse to the river, clearing a wide swathe through the undergrowth.

Next day the job continued, and only then did we discover what was really happening. It seems that many of the local long-boats have not been out of the water for some time (some for more than twelve months), so they need to be dried out and re-painted.

Our friends were busy clearing a hard stand area, though on this flood prone river bank you'd have to call it a 'soft' stand. The boats will be floated up on a high tide, and then lifted clear of the mud onto simple wooden supports. After several days drying they'll be scraped, painted and launched again. The river tides here are rarely less than 2.5 metres, and often run to more than 5.0 metres, so finding a really dry spot is difficult - even the long houses are built on stilts to allow for the periodic flooding.

These Iban river craft are a curious mix of modern and traditional design. Long and narrow, with natural 'grown' knees re-inforcing the chines, they are easy to paddle and fast under power.

Our good friend Jampie has a nice little single cylinder (4 stroke) Honda engine powering his boat, complete with a 1/4' stainless shaft and 6.5'dia. alloy propeller. However when he set out to build the boat he headed up river to a virgin jungle area - there he selected and felled a suitable tree and sawed the planks in the field, whilst living rough.

After a couple of weeks he was able to head back down river with an almost completed boat .... traditional skills survive. Thats Jampie in his boat at left, showing off the dinner he'd caught for us - that is one monster prawn. Thank goodness for those traditional skills.

To read more about the adventures and experiences of Neil and Ley on Crystal Blues, go to their website.