THIS year’s Gawai would be a bit of an adventure as my family had been invited by my brother-in-law’s in-laws to visit their longhouse in a remote part of Marudi, Baram.

It’s also our first in Sarawak since 2019 before the pandemic.

So, while I was excited with the potential adventure, my wife and I had to also prepare a slight extra mile since we would be bringing our twin eight-year-old children with us along.

Our twins are pretty well-traveled for their age – they were both born in my wife’s hometown of Bintulu and flew to Kuala Lumpur for the first time barely three weeks into this world.

They would fly back and forth from KL to Bintulu three to four times a year at minimum to spend time with my in-laws – made affordable because my wife works in the airline industry which allows us access to staff prices.

My brother-in-law informed us of two options – either fly to Bintulu, rent a car, drive for about two hours to the wharf in Marudi or fly to Miri, then take a Twin Otter plane for 20 minutes to Marudi town, and rendezvous with him at the airport where he’d pick us up to the wharf.

We decided immediately with the second option and were also very aware of the fact that flights into Bintulu are way more expensive with only two-daily in-and-out flights by our budget air carrier of choice.

Still, our flight to Miri was still early on at 6.30am which meant that we had to wake up at 3.00am and be at the airport by 4.30am earliest to beat the long queue. This always flabbergasts me but the adrenaline was on.

Another must when you travel back to Sarawak is to make sure to buy plenty of Gardenia bread of any variety – my favourite to bring are the Toast’em.

Apparently, the godfathers of bread in Sarawak never allowed this popular peninsula brand entry into the local market but power to them. So, now you know who’s travelling to Borneo if you see them lugging plastic bags of Gardenia.

To my relief, our rush into the boarding hall was smooth because we were early and the queue at the 7-11 was short. Now with two bags of Gardenia in my hand, my kids seated comfortably and snacking, we were good to go while we waited to board.

Fast forward to the afternoon in Miri, this was the part I was looking forward to: taking the Twin Otter plane to Marudi town. This was also the first time for our kids and I’m still impressed how they are such good travellers.

As we flew over the undulating rivers through the forests, palm oil estates, farms and eventually the town of Marudi, the landing of the Twin Otter was also exciting in its abruptness.

Even more amusing was the Marudi Airport – the smallest airport I’ve ever been to. 

My brother-in-law and his father-in-law greeted us – with warm but firm handshake “Selamat Hari Gawai” immediately at the tarmac exit, which immediately led to the small car park and all loaded ourselves into his pick-up truck with our luggage, a new small refrigerator, and the two bags of Gardenia in the back.

One more mode of transport to go – by boat – at a small wharf in Sengkabang about 20 minutes from town.

In the searing afternoon heat, we unloaded everything into his father-in-law’s small boat and off we went through the small, calm, but winding Sungai Selejau that I could not find on Google map.

My brother-in-law told me a tree had fallen across the river to the longhouse and it would be interesting to see if we would fit with the refrigerator in tow. Thank goodness, we did fit.

It was at least a 40-minute peaceful yet also wary ride – we were told to keep our hand off the side of the boat as the roots of some of the trees on the riverside were thorny and poisonous.

Nevertheless, we finally made it after a day-long of traveling. The tide had risen and we had to get off in ankle deep water and my waterproof boots were no match to the slippers my brother in-law and his father-in-law had on.

We were now off-line.

My kids were still steady as they walked behind them and it was another 10-minute walk through the jungle canopy but on a concrete path before we finally reached the longhouse in the middle of nowhere – Rumah Nyala in Sg Belasoi.

As the longhouse folk greeted us, my wife and I looked at our kids – who still weren’t flustered but excited reacquainting with their cousin again – with a smile she said, “Anak Iban, of course steady.”

Ooohaaaa! – June 7, 2024.

* Azmyl Yunor is a touring underground recording artiste, and an academic in media and cultural studies. He has published articles on pop culture, subcultures and Malaysian cultural politics. He adheres to the three-chords-and-the-truth school of songwriting, and Woody Guthrie’s maxim “All you can write is what you see”. He is @azmyl on Twitter.