Long Bedian - A Trip to Remember

A trip to remember eh? Why? You'll find out shortly.


Since I felt that my expressing ability is kinda deteriorating, I'll stick to less explanation and let the pics explain for themselves.

Part 1

"FIVE HOURS!???, WHERE does THAT leave me!?? Back in KK??", was what I thought, when I heard that our trip to the long house would take 5 hours.

Anyhow, the inevitable came..... and after a troublesome morning of phone calls and sms messages to and from us, our group 5 OC (Organising Chairperson, Ms Aileen), and the Longhouse people..... we finally managed to depart on our "Journey to..... ..... uh...", at loss of words....

But not before a "Transit" at one of Miri's Bus stop..... where we sat, next to the Rambutans and their owners, which all of them had the same thing in common, "Manis ka?" (Is it sweet?), "Ya! Ya! Manis punya, RM3 satu kilo aje" (Yes! Yes! Sweet, RM3 per kilo only)..... Whether they really were sweet or not, I really couldn't help but wonder.

Figure 1. The Transit station, rambutans to the left.....
there were more to the right too.


Figure 2. A "Useful" notice at a "Useless" place....

Something just felt kinda weird when I saw this notice..... I doubt anybody really saw it..... needless to say call the number on it.

Figure 3. The Air purifier beside the "transit station".

During the whole 2 - 3 hour wait at our "transit station", beside us laid a 1.5 meter wide air purifier. How does THIS work? Well, basically, all you have to do is throw anything you feel is of no use, or anything that you don't like it's smell into it, and it'll work to produce a new fragrance by jumbling up all the mumbo-jumbo everyone threw into it.

The Result, is a Light Headed 2 - 3 hour wait....... which kept my stomach feeling full the whole while.

Figure 4, 5. Our "Mass Transport" vehicle.

Toyota HiluxS'..... FOUR of them, it was actually five, but one's tyre got punctured and had to turn back. FOUR four-wheeled vehicles.... to bring 11 people to a place 5 hours away..... (it's said that busses won't go that far, and the road is toooooo "off-road" style).

At the same time, my mind was like "Why do WE need to go all the way to their place to do charity work when they have the money to afford these kind of cars!!?? Even my mom can't afford such a car....., I really wonder how many there are......"


Anyway..... I then realised the reason for the Hiluxes....

Figure 6, 7. Jalan Lapuk, the name of the road....
No, I didn't make it up, it REALLY is Jalan Lapuk!

(Pardon the tilty photoshots.... because taking a proper picture while sitting on a Hilux Rodeo ride was Mission: Impossible 5)

From the pictures, the road doesn't seem too bad...... but in reality!!!! (YES, 4 Exclamation marks!!)...... it was like.... "the ultimate test to car sickness" there was:

• Level 1 - Butt Massage, session length, 30 minutes
• Level 2 - Butt Massage and Vibration, session length, 1 hour
• Level 3 - Whole Body Vibration Session, session length, 1 hour
• Level 4 - G-Force Simulation and Full body 1 second "Air-time" simulation, session length, 30 minutes.
• Level 5 - Teh Tarik production using stomach: Pre-requisite - must have drank Teh-C before the first 4 levels, session length, 1 hour.

Figure 8. But anyway, on the way..... there were some cool things to look at

Figure 9. Err..... Ferry? "Why couldn't they just make a bridge??"


Figure 10. Self Explanatory..... ah, nevermind.... us going onto the ferry.....

At 6:30pm, after a head-dizzying stomach-lurching ass-splitting bone jolting balls shaking 5 hour ride...... we arrived....... at Long Bedian

I was light headed.... thanks to the lunch skipping because of the fragrant air purifier.... and the Teh-C turned Teh Tarik inside me was bursting to come out of my mouth..... which I left for the microns in Long Bedian's side drain to consume....

*Writes in notebook* - reminder - "If my mom is pregnant and went to Long Bedian, the baby will come out along the way"


Tired.... I retired to my foster family, which were going to 'keep' us for the time of this trip.



Night came, along with 5-hours-away-from-town Darkness..... and the gigantic insect species left untouched in the forests, they collided into walls and windows..... flying blindly.....

Being such a long distance from town, electricity was no where to be found. But thank the clever Kayan people (I forgot to mention, Kayan is the race of the people living in this Longhouse area).... they prepared generators, and used them to supply the current to their houses....


That night, we had our "orientation" about the Kayan tribe and some of it's simple history..... which, would be too long to tell here. So I'll just keep the best parts to myself.

Out of good fortune.... we had with us that night, some Penang borned Sarawakian..... Mr James Ritchie..... whom it seems was a journalist.... who happened to be there when we were.

Figure 11. Mr. James Ritchie, doesn't look local does he?

"Who is this guy??" I wondered when I first saw him. "His English is excellent..... even though he's a kampung guy?" And THEN, he spoke Malay! "What the hell......??" and then Cantonese! "What's next?? Japanese!?"...... fortunately.... that was his limit, it seemed.... Anyhow.... he proved to be an interesting character, which I wouldn't mind meeting again in the future, really....



Next was....

Figure 12. Wild Boar Leg

The cheapest source of meat in the kampung..... the price of a bullet and the petrol needed to carry it around. Yes, they use rifles..... on the contrary to what most people think...... they no longer wear a piece of cloth around the waist and use sumpits to shoot down prey..... "The guns are easier, BANG!! and we have meat...". But after seeing the Hiluxes'.... I guess this isn't a surprise anymore...

Figure 13. Well.... somewhat gruesome.... but well, you get to learn new things...

And after finishing up our "orientation", we all flunked home to get some sleep for the next day since it was already quite late..... 12 at night.....



I didn't expect this post to actually be so long. So I'll post a Part 2 later.

Happy Reading!, uh.... a bit late to greet now I guess..... you must've finished reading already, anyway.....


Later.