Nalan, nalan

in this latest edition, i have the privilege of writing you from malayisa, although we are stuck here for the moment. against our wills. but this is neither the time nor place to discuss such things. nate and i are back up to 100%, and we have bested the jungles of borneo. this one is gonna be a long one. i have quite a bit to share. first thing though, i have uploaded a few pictures to ofoto. rather than give you the address now, those diligent readers will find it at the end.

so, we left the diving mecca of semporna right before an annual festival. we didn't have much choice because we hadn't booked accommodations in advance so we found ourselves out on our touchases. this was okay by us. in keeping with the kip/nate tradition of spontaneity and flying by the seat of our pants, we just showed up at the airport. we got there at 9:20am and discovered a $20 flight at 9:40am. normally time would be a problem. but the beauty of the malay domestic flight is that the security is loose. well, loose isn't quite right, try nonexistent. no one even glanced at our passports.

after two legs on a ghetto airline, nate and i were relieved to be alive and on solid ground. baru, a lun bawang tribesman and friend of my dad's from his peace corp days, had agreed to meet us at the airport in miri. miri is the second largest town in the sarawak province of southern malaysian borneo. anyways, his son, jonathon, had studied at the university of washington, in seattle, and stayed with my parents for two days last summer. usually, i would be nervous about meeting a new family in a foreign country. i mean, we stink. our clothes are terrible, we both have excessive five o'clock shadows (to put it nicely), in fact, when asking about tickets at the airport the people nodded and then said, "well, the budget airline is at the other end." we had only asked if they flew to vietnam. so, our appearance is less than welcoming and certainly inappropriate for meeting new family friends. but, my dad had said that baru was "like my brother." so i had no worries. the whole family came out to greet us. baru's wife, supong, is chinese and the chinese mother i never had. apparently the chinese are just like the jews. pushy, overbearing, and extremely motherly. it was great. she took us by the arms and marched us to a nice hotel. they put us up in a place with AC, hot water, and a tv! we were in heaven. also, she snatched our disgusting laundry from us and announced that it would be cleaned by tomorrow. there was nothing we could do. for a little woman of 85 pounds, she sure packs a wallop.

baru was on his phone before we could sit down. he planned out our next week. early to rise. too early, as usual, but this time, the breakfast buffet put me in the right state of mind. cereal. real cereal and milk! delicious. also, at this point, i have developed a need, nay, an addiction, to rice. they eat it with every meal, and now, so must i. so, i had my rice for breakfast too. yum.

baru had booked an adventure in mulu national park, and jon would be joining us. in the airport, we met a tribeswoman with ear lobes down to her chest. she had gold weights in her ears, and jon explained that this signified royalty and status in her tribe. it made me wonder if i hung myself by my toes, would i stretch as much? mulu is best known for the pinnacles, a difficult climb, and the head hunters trial. due to our limited timeframe, we planned to spend two days exploring caves rather than the week long treks. the mulu rainforests were exceptionally humid. the sights, sounds, and smells of the jungle are very special. the jungle has a pulse. the smells are wonderful, dense, and new. the air is so thick that you struggle to breathe it in, and sometimes, you can almost eat it. every time you go on a trek, you are guaranteed to see an insect or animal that you have never seen before. those pictures will come shortly.

inside the first cave, the surreal formations are hard to comprehend, especially when you realize that it takes 100 years to form 1cm. huge stalactites and stalagmites grow up from the ground and hang down from the roof of the cave. the second cave we visited is the biggest in the world. you could fit something like nineteen 747 jets in it. also, the smell of guano was overwhelming. it stung. it smelled like windex. but this cave housed an estimated 3 million bats, so it was useless to try and avoid schlepping through it.

after mulu, baru and supong had planned a road trip through the kingdom of brunei, to limbang, to lawas, to long semado, to bakelalan, and over to indonesia. so, including thailand, cambodia, malaysia, brunei, and indonesia, that makes 5 countries so far. not bad. anyways, brunei is a small, clean, safe, and well maintained country. the sultan gives away a lot of money and makes sure things are plush. every year, he opens up his palace to the community and gives everyone who waits in line $50 and a free tour. needless to say, a crowd of more than 10,000 patiently wait each year. as we approached the border back to malaysia, i noticed many people carrying plastic bags and walking across. alcohol is illegal in brunei, so this was happy hour. many people buy booze in malaysia and bring it across. so, the border was kinda like a tailgating party with people in lawn chairs drinking beers out of coozies. made me feel like home.

in lawas, we all piled into a heavy duty 4x4 truck. it was essential. no road existed to long semadoh or bakelalan. after a rugged ride, we arrived in long semadoh, baru's birthplace and father's home. in the afternoon, we went trekking through the jungle. we came across the lun bawangs' building a long house for a wedding celebration at the end of the month. one of baru's cousins had just retired from business in miri, and had moved back to this village. away from the greed, desire, anxiety, bustle, pollution, and all together, painfulness of urban life to the peace and quiet of the jungle. we took a brisk dip in a nearby waterfall and returned home to find the success of the hunters. they had killed two deer and were carving them up in the backyard. pictures to come. so, we had deer for dinner and some boar that was killed previously. yum. of course, it the meat still had the skin and much of this fur still on it. yum.

thus, another day in the 4x4 in mud and bumps combined with the kosherness of the previous nights' dinner had left my stomach in shambles. like the soft american that i am, i threw up. a lot. for the rest of the morning. my pain was seen as comical by baru and his tribesman. i guess i would have laughed at me too. nate did. jerk. anyways, i was embarrassed but horribly sick. luckily, my chinese mother, supong, was there to baby me. well, she was there to baby me after she finished giggling.

after i tossed all of my cookies, i was ready for the rest of the day. we finally arrived in bakelalan. just say bakelalan out loud. isnt it fun? ba-ke-lalan. especially the lalan. anyways, while visiting these villages, we learned a little lun bawang. nalan, nalan means to walkabout. this was a primary activity. but, we decided to make a break for the indonesian border. baru's uncle had friends that worked at the border, so he came along to make sure everything went smoothly. crossing for a day without a visa isnt exactly legal, in fact, it was called an "official" illegal visit. so, we had a military escort. or, to put it another way, my moto driver wore a camouflage mesh shirt and said something about the army. the raod was steep, bumpy, and fun. even the moto couldn't make it up some of the hills and we were forced to push our metal steeds.

indonesia was lovely, and we ate yet another meal there. this one i was able to stomach. supong called everything in the villages "organic." to me, this meant, generally diseased meat, see stomach section above. on the ride back, which took about an hour, i switched drivers and landed on the crazy dude's moto. sweet. once on, he turned to me and asked, "do you like to gamble?" before i could respond, he pealed out. as i clutched on for dear life, i realized that when he asked if i liked to gamble he didnt mean with cards, but with life. he was a moto racer and was just recovering from a spill. the roads and his speed had me bouncing around like a rubber ball. there was constant fish tailing and at one point i found myself on the ground. the adrenaline rush compares to other near death experiences. my driver explained that besides driving a moto, he was into such humanitarian and important community events as cock fighting. ladies, he is single! better get him while he still has all his teeth.

after all these tribal adventures in the villages of interior borneo, we crusied back through brunei and stopped to see the sultan's national mosque. it had large gold domes, not gold plated, but genuine gold. quite impressive. a door was open, so we peeked in. a glorious chill of AC enveloped us, a majestic elevator and a jeweled dome caught our eyes, but security guards quickly spotted us and began circling. we escorted ourselves out.

tomorrow we are off for vietnam. finally. in malaysia bargaining is nonexistent and people dont try to rip you off; however, vietnam is infamous for the art of "rip off white man," so nate and i are preparing our bargaining master facades. we do a little good cop, bad cop. one of us suggests a price and compromises, while the other one looks unhappy and finally throws out his arms in disgust. at this point, the vendor/driver either accepts our offer, or we head to the next guy down. we are always loud enough for the other vendors to hear us so as to cut down on unnecessary negotiating time.

so that’s it. hope all is well in the US. i am impressed if you made it this far, but you will be rewarded. here is the website with my pics. enjoy. thes are only a few because uploading takes time. unfortunately, i still dont have the elephants on CD yet, so you will have to check back in next time. http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?showSlide=true&Uc=ixb2es9.2cf818at&Uy=nhiyi1&Upost_signin=BrowsePhotos.jsp%3FshowSlide%3Dtrue&Ux=0

much love.

the coveted shout out list: birthdays, soko you are a rockstar; dave, stay young; caroline, im sorry i couldn’t be around dc to celebrate; and Elaine, i wouldn't forget!