and the room only cost £15 a night. bargain !
Our plan was to take a boat from Sibu to Kapit and another on to Belaga (“place of many gathered heads” in the local language) headhunting territory, however the government has recently dammed the river reducing the water level to a trickle further upstream making boat travel impossible, the only alternative would be to go by 4wd 6 hours to Belaga then take another 4wd 4 hours to Kintulu, which we decide is not really practical, so we take the express boat 187km to Kapit to have a look round and have lunch.
Here’s our strange looking boat
We opt for 1st class which costs £5. The film being blared out is “deathrace”, an action thriller starring ex popstar turned “actor” Luke Goss (out of Bros). Watching the scenery through a dirty steamed up window is more exciting.
Further on the journey before our first stop the ticket guy asks if we want to sit outside on the roof to get a better view of the scenery “you can swim” ? he asks, carefully we climb up onto the roof into what appears to be chicken class.
Jo keeps getting pecked on the leg
The views are great
And we pass by huge trawlers
Vast wood carrying barges
Tribal longhouses
And shorthouses
Logs being gathered and floated downstream to the timber yards
The captain of the boat constantly dodges debris floating aimlessly downstream
Eventually we arrive in Kapit
where a visit to the market is a must
full of interesting vegetables and exotic fruits
And jungle bush meat that the sellers don’t want us to photograph
We visit fort Sylvia which is sited a good 30m above the river
Plaques on the side show the high water levels (from top) in 1934,1983, 1961 and 1887.
For the boat back to Sibu
we’re in economy class.
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