Fwd: A quick update on Borneo

Here's my second try at getting this post up.  First one bounced - too big.  This is the second post in an attempt to keep you all up to date with my travels in Borneo.  I received only one comment about my Peninsular Malaysia post - did anyone read it?  C'mon you guys, at least let me know you saw it?  If the writing is too dry, let me know and I'll try to liven it up a bit, or switch to a photo-blog format.  Anyway, Borneo.  So I flew from Penang to Kuching and spent a day planning my next move and checking out the city.  It's a small place by the river and pleasantly peaceful compared to the bigger cities of the peninsular.  You can see the image of the lady standing in front of the green house as an example of the many traditional Malay houses in the area.  The next couple of days I checked out the well-recommended Bako National Park in the hope of seeing Proboscis Monkeys (which we didn't) and Semenggoh Forest Reserve to see Orang-utans (which we did see).  A few pics are attached.

Moving on from Kuching I arranged to go on a 4 day/3 night longhouse trip into something like the real heart of Borneo.  The plan was to stay at an Iban longhouse for a couple of nights and out in the jungle for a couple of nights.  The trip was awesome and included eating, drinking and dancing with the longhouse residents, and eating a range of exotic animals hunted by our guides.  We ate barking deer, civet cat, turtle and porcupine, as well as local-caught river fish and frog cooked over the campfire, fried cicadas, heart of sago palm and wild pineapple.  The leeches were pretty savage!  The trip to get to the long house took most of a day - 5 hours in a van on the road followed by 3 1/2 hours on an incredibly rough dirt road freshly cut through the forest that was barely passable by serious 4wd vehicles (we had to get out at one point and let the trucks attack the hill without us inside!)  Upon arrival we ate and drank into the evening and next day headed out into the jungle for some hiking and swimming, animal eating and sleeping.  Take a look at some of the photos, I think they speak for themselves.  I will post more pics next post.