Sent on Jan. 9, 2003 from Kuching.

US $= about 4 Ringgits.  
Ringgit is about 28 cents US
Brunei Dollar = 2 Malaysian Ringgits.

Kuching on Sarawak Malaysia is 13 hours ahead of EST USA.

KUCHING and Sarawak Malaysia on Borneo.  I should point
out that 2/3 of Borneo belongs to the KALIMANTAN province
of Indonesia; the rest is all Malaysia, except for the
small piece of land belonging to Brunei.  The Malaysian
Borneo has 2 provinces: the SABAH up north, the SARAWAK
south and west.  Kuching is on the northwestern shore of
Sarawak Borneo, at 2 degrees north Latitude, thus almost on
the Equator. (Kota Kinabalu in the Sabah province was on
the northeastern shores.  Most of the population is of
Chinese stock, though there are some MAYANs in Sabah. As
far as the general info on Borneo, the parts I included in
my pervious report from Kota Kinabalu and later from Brunei
also apply to here.  Info specific to here is in this
report.  Historically, in 1838 James Brooke, a British
adventurer, arrived here and found the Sultanate of Brunei
in trouble by the famous Borneo pirates. And, as in Papua
and a few other places in these parts, the local tribes
were headhunters.  He helped the Sultanate to be rid of the
pirates and tamed the local tribes.  In return, he was
given large land holdings and became the white RAJAH of
these parts.  The family dynasty continued to World War I.

b) THE CITY.  Lonely Planet rates Kuching as a pleasant and
the most modern city on Borneo.  This may be, but the
vibrant, pulsating, alive Phuket, Kuching felt like
American suburbia!  The setup of the city is like that of
the USA, with lots of dead and empty spaces between things,
so that walking is useless, though OK in the center of the
city and along the waterfront. It is not likely that you
will come to Kuching, but if you should, check into the
LONGHOUSE hotel in the middle of the city.  It has a better
location that the River View Hotel recommended by Lonely
Planet, for about the same price (55 Ringitts for Double =
$17).  After you get out of the hotel, turn right, pass the
restaurant at the street level, turn right again to find
several lively blocks of the city.  If you continue to the
right, you will be at the water front in about 5 minutes. 
It is better to walk along it during the day.

c) SITES.  You should see the SARAWAK Museum in town.  The
part in the old building is much richer than the contents
of the new building.  From there it is a short walk to the
river front.  Walk as far as the Holiday Inn, which will
put you near the Longhouse Hotel. There are also several
national parks around Kuching: the NIAH, BAKO (20km north
of Kuching), GUNUNG GADING, KUBAH, and METANG Wildlife park
(orangutans).  The MULU National Park is near the city of
MIRI up north, near Brunei, too distant from here.

d) OUR EXPEDITION. Having already visited the Mt. Kinabalu
Park in the Sabah province earlier, we thought visiting the
national parks here would be redundant and so we focussed
on the SARAWAK and RAJANG rivers, the jungle along the
rivers, the frontier towns of SIBU and KAPIT along river
Rejang, and the indigenous DAYAK tribes, who were famous
headhunters in the past.

The express boat ride from Kuching along the Sarawak river
(about 1 hour), thru South China Sea (2.5 hours) brings you
to the delta of the REJANG river and 2 hours later you are
in SIBU.  One very depressing sight along the latter 2-hour
ride along the Rejang is the huge piles of timber
accumulated in 100s of places along the river, being
carried on huge barges, or being cut into lumber at dozens
of mills.  Otherwise, the scene is unique to what you see
in the tropics here, in Africa, or S. America: very dense
foliage, brush, trees with roots that look as if they are
trying to walk across the river and bury the river in a wet
forest, similar yet also different to what you see in  the
Everglades and Big Cypress in Florida, the Atchafalaya and
Henderson swamps in Louisiana and Texas.

From SIBU it is 130km or 3.5 hours upriver--only 2.5 hours
back down river--by fast boat to the smaller town of KAPIT. 
Ad far as the DAYAK tribes, there are 3 main tribes: the
IBAN, BIDAYUH, and ORANG ULU, the Iban being the most
populous.  The unique feature of DAYAK villages is in that
entire communities live in one continuous building called
LONGHOUSE, the number of doors of which conveying the
number of families living under one roof.  The building
also has a common community room, a head room. (You can
picture the longhouse like a single-row motel in USA.) 
Unlike the tribes in South America, who moved their
villages periodically, the tribes on Borneo apparently
stayed put at one location.  We visited one such community
10km from KAPIT.  It looked like one long project housing,
with tin roof, etc, a long way from the original longhouses
which were of bamboo frame, bark walls, straw mat floors,
and thatch roof, as we saw in the Sarawak museum in
Kuching.

I had mentioned that the weather had been nice thru our trip
since Dec. 3. Not quiet: It rained on Dec. 31 in Delhi--Jan 1.
very nice--and it rained cats and dogs on Jan 10 in Kuching.
Kuching means Cat in the native Mayan dialect and indeed there
are several large sculptures of cats and cat families in town,
also a Cat Museum.  The population is about half
million--Sibu about 250,000, Kapit smaller--and the layout
of the city is very American, including most business signs
and billboards, though very few people speak adequate
English.  The English signs have been a common denominator
all over SE Asia, also in Phuket.  By the way, you must pay
500 Bahts--about $12--as exit tax from Phuket.

I should add that the boat ride on the RAJANG river (in
Borneo) is considered as one of the true adventure trips
left around the world.  Indeed, it was neat.