Junglebluesdream

After three wonderful days at Batu Ritung Homestay I really felt sad to leave.  Supang gave me a farewell present of Bario rice and a rice scoop and showed me, William and Michele around the family museum, a room where Supang and her husband keep heirlooms and mementos.  Including the battered old leather briefcase her father used to use.

After saying our goodbyes Matteo came to guide us back to Bario.  Instead of walking the water buffalo trail it had been decided we would travel by canoe.  This is the route most supplies take to get to Pa Lungan and still involves a fifty minute walk before reaching the boat, then a two kilometre drive at the other end.

It turned out to be an eventful trip as the river level was very low and instead of a thirty minute journey we bumped and ground our way over shallows and half submerged trees for about an hour and a half.

At the end of our river journey we were met by Stephen Baya of the Junglebluesdream Homestay, where we were to spend our last night in Bario before flying back to Miri.  Stephen is an artist, highly influenced by his native kelabit art and culture.  He runs the Homestay with his Danish partner Tine and they have a young son, Noah.

We had another evening of excellent food and spent a long while talking with Stephen and Tine about their life in Bario and the difficulties of running a tourist business there.  Bario is a very special place, but tourist development is problematic because the only realistic way to get there is by the heavily subsidised MAS Wings daily flights, which even at full capacity are going to deliver no more than a handful of tourists a day into the area.  As it is there are about twenty-five Homestays all struggling to get the odd guest.  You do the maths!

On Wednesday morning Stephen and Tine drove us back to the airstrip for the short flight back to Miri where I said farewell to William and Michele, who are travelling on to Kota Kinabalu.  Bario and Pa Lungan and the people I met there will stay with me.  If you ever get the chance to go I'd thoroughly recommend it.  The perfect place to spend a few months writing a book or meditating on the future and at eighty ringgits (20 euros) full board distinctly affordable.