Suji Homemaker : Monkeys, Monsoons, and Mee... Part 1

"I don't sweat, I sparkle"

-Unknown

The above is a complete lie, I do sweat. Especially when it is 104 degrees in 90% humidity, which was every day in Malaysia. For the past 10 days I have had the amazing adventure of exploring the island of Borneo.

Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is comprised of 2 states of Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak), the country of Brunei, and one state of Indonesia (Kaliminatan). I was able to visit the two Malaysian states and Brunei.

To put it in perspective my first flight was from Seoul to Kuala Lumpur which was 6.5 hours and then another 1.5 hours to Kota Kinabalu.

My first stop was Kota Kinabalu in the Malaysian state of Sabah. The first thing I did in KK was go to a cultural village. This was a really good introduction to Borneo. In the whole island there are around 200 tribes. This village highlighted the 5 largest tribes in the state of Sabah.

The first house was from the Lundayeh tribe. This tribe was known as the farming tribe with their main crop being rice.

Borneo is the island where the headhunters are from. For the Lundayeh tribe they did not actively headhunt but if someone was to steal their rice the punishment was death and the skull was put on display to deter future thefts.

The rice was used for food but also used to make rice wine.

Which we were served shots of.

Next up was a bamboo cooking demonstration. The chicken is put inside the bamboo which insulates it and keeps the moisture in.

Next up more rice wine.

The next demonstration was on how the tribes used beeswax and honey. Thankfully these were stingless bees because they were everywhere!

The next house was a longhouse from the Rungus tribe. Some people from this tribe still live in modern longhouses today. Basically it is a single story apartment building with a communal gallery in the front.

This is the communal gallery where everyday life would take place. Each family has their own room on the left side of the building.

I don't remember which tribe lived in this house, sorry.

The tribes are traditionally animalist, especially worshipping the crocodile which would have been the tribes biggest threat in the rainforest.

Then to make up for the alcohol that they gave us they made funnel cakes! or deep fried cakes made of rice flour and honey.

This house is from the Bajau tribe. This tribe is known as the cowboys of Borneo because of their use of horses. They were also the first tribe to use trade as a source of income. Because of the trading, they were the first tribe to have dyed cloth.

This guy was supposed to be a Murut warrior. The Murut tribe is the feared headhunter tribe. This tribe went out and fought with people just to get heads. Headhunting was banned during the British Colonial period but resurfaced in the 40's during the Japanese occupation.

At the end of the tour there was a cultural performance of dancing and drumming. The performers looked like they would rather be anywhere but there.

It amazed me how similar this dance was to the Hawaiian Hula.

After the performance we went back to the final house that we didn't have time to see before the performance. This house has a built in trampoline!

Here are the "warriors" jumping on the trampoline in slow motion.

The second day I met up with Joshua, one of my co-workers who was also in KK, we went to some islands off the coast. Neither one of us really wanted to swim so we just walked on the rocks and saw this giant lizard. This is a monitor lizard, a cousin to the kimono dragon.

We then attempted to go to a lookout point to watch the sunset. Thank god for the zoom on my camera otherwise we would just be seeing buildings. It was not a great lookout point.

And then I went as saw orangutans!!!!! These two were found as orphans and brought here to be taught how to climb trees and fend for themselves. They will live here until they are 6. Then they will be moved to a different center where they will be able to mate and fend for themselves. They were the cutest things I have ever seen!