Headhunting in Borneo

I get bored easily. This is why I travel, for the most part. I figured out yesterday that I have less than a year to go on this trip. Ridiculous. So much to see and so little time, relatively speaking of course. And so on to Borneo, something I’m very excited to be typing. Indonesia was a great experience but I felt as if in the last 10 days I’d seen what I needed to see and was killing time on Bali, specifically Ubud. Nice place to kill time, sure, but there are only so many times you can do loops of Monkey Forest Road and visit the monkey sanctuary without pining for the road ahead.
Borneo promises much more of a walk on the wild side. I’m visiting Malaysian Borneo - the island is split between Malaysia and Indonesia with the Indonesians claiming the majority of the island - known as Kalimantan.
The Malaysian part is split in two also - Sabah to the north and Sarawak to the south. I’m basing myself in Sarawak, starting off in the capital Kuching for two nights, moving on to Miri which is a necessary evil if you want to reach Sarawak’s big two sights - Gunung Mulu National Park or - where I’ll be headed - the Kelabit Highlands. Bario is my base for hiking in Kelabit. I’m excited to visit it if for no other reason than the directions from the airport to the settlement of Bario - there is no town - is to walk for about half an hour from the airport and turn left at the T-junction. There are no ATMs, wi-fi or any of that technological nonsense in Bario so I can’t wait to base myself there for 5 days.
Borneo’s also famous for two other reasons. Firstly it’s known as the ‘Land of the Headhunters’, and it’s no myth. It’s a tradition which only died out as recently as the 1840’s. Today, Christianity largely holds sway with most of the indigenous tribes which is good for me as it means that I probably won’t suffer due to the fact that Ramadan has just begun. Secondly, Borneo is home to the longhouse tradition. Basically a longhouse is a traditional residence of the indigenous population of the island. The longhouse is a large communal dwelling built on stilts to raise it above the jungle floor which can house up to one hundred individual families. It’s a tradition which hasn’t died out and hopefully I’ll have a chance to visit a couple when I get to Kelabit.