The Simple Life: The Bario Awakening

The Sarawak experience would be incomplete if you did not visit Bario.

Bario is a highland populated by mainly Kelabit, Lun Bawang and Bario Penan tribes. It is accessible mainly by plane, a 50 min journey from Miri. Alternatively, the trip will consume 22 hours by land, and 4 weeks by foot. Most Bario locals have travelled by all 3 means.



Our first twin otter flight experience:

• 18 seater plane (as big as a mini bus!)
• No air-conditioning. 2 mini fans stood in its place
• No lavatory
• No steward or stewardess
• No inflight meals or entertainment (obviously la since there isn't any steward/stewardess)
• No emergency briefing
• No life jacket under the seat
• You can see the pilot and co-pilot
  

When we arrived at the Bario airport, naturally we had to retrieve our own bags from the twin otter luggage pit.

Bario has a population of an estimated 800 people. Seriously. The people of Bario are mainly Evangelical Christians. They grow bario hill paddy, pineapples, and produces hill salt. Other items have to either be flown from Miri, or transported by 4WD or by foot. There is no bank or ATM. There is no cinema, mall or karaoke bars. The Celcom telco tower was just constructed...2 years ago.

They have a primary school, high school up to 9th grade, churches, clinics, immigration, a police station manned by 3 personnel, library, museum, a few shops and a few home-stay longhouses.

Guess what this is?

Answer: Correct. A gas station!

Bario does not have access to electricity or commercialized water treating system. Everything is done manually by the Bario folk. They use generators to power electricity. They hardly use electricity during the day time, and switches it on for a few hours at night. Some longhouses may be powered by solar. Hence, at night their lights use solar energy instead of electricity.

Understanding their limited access to daylight, I deduced that this is one of the main factors contributing to the high success rate of Kelabits. When daylight hours are limited coupled with 0 distraction from sms, 3G, phones, TV and pubs/cyber cafe/video games/etc, the Kelabits maximize their time during the day either working or studying. At night they get proper rest. Hence, many Kelabit become successful. One very successful Kelabit is Idris Jala.

In addition, the fact that most Kelabit had to walk a great distance to school (easily 5 to more than 20km one way) to school in bad road conditions, they know the definition of perseverance.

My friends and I walked almost 20km to the salt spring in muddy roads and had to venture into virgin jungles, and our feet felt like falling off. Salt is produced manually i.e. taken from mountain well, using firewood to heat the pot to get the salt, then transport the salt on foot to town (20km). That's why Bario salt is expensive.

Let's just say there were no rest areas and my friend and I had toI had to answer nature's call...the natural way. Don't worry, I took clean water from the mountains *smiles*

On our way back from the salt spring, after walking another 10 km, we were exhausted. Our feet were numb and we had to take 1 step at a time. When we saw a truck...we decided to hitchhike. *don't do this at home kids* We had a guide who spoke Kelabit. All 5 of us got onto the back of the truck and rode the remaining km to town.

Signing the Guest Wood at our favorite homestay: Jungle Blues Dream
With Tine from Jungle Blues Dream.

Posing with the drawings: Rumors

Our homestay host is an artist. He puts his paintings for sale in his longhouse. He is very talented. He has sold over 70 paintings. His paintings will be exhibited at the Oxford Gallery some time in 2o11.


We paid RM 70/night per pax for 3 meals daily. The lavatory is modern (sitting down) and bathroom is clean.

At night, our lights are solar powered.


What I Like about Bario

1. The productive people
2. The friendly people. People come up, shake your hand and talk to you
3. The fact that there is no crime in Bario
4. The people oppose negative influences and work hard to prevent discos, pubs, drugs and crime from entering Bario
5. The people are very family oriented. They take care of each other. Imagine walking for 20 km and breaking your foot without owning a handphone (before Celcom came), if your family and friends don't search for you if you didn't return home, you're a goner
6. The economic activity is mainly bario paddy, pineapples, bario salt, arts and craft and tourism
7. The hardworking and persevering attitude
8. They are humble
9. Bario is still physically uncorrupted. Let's hope it remains that way.
10. I met the infamous Penan folk. They are nomads. They own no assets. There are evangelists who are trying to educate them and provide them basic education to lead a better life. They are also taught Christianity. These kids walk miles just to go to school.

What I Want to Do

1. Bario folk should not be made to pay for road tax when there isn't any roads!
2. Muslims need to visit Bario. We were basically the few Muslims that travelled here. Most of them thought we were tabligh.
3. West Malaysians need to know of the plight of the Kelabit and Penan. The ''government budget'' should be spent to improve the lives of the marginalized and not build unnecessary palaces and direct entrances to the palace.
4. Muslims should help individuals and communities regardless of their faith

Will you help me?