A sentimental trip
FIRST of all, I wish everybody who celebrates the Yuletide, a Merry Christmas. Tomorrow may be a wet day but still merry, not blue, I pray.
Over the past weekend, I was in the Ulu Ai. Where’s that? Answer: in the upper reaches of the great Batang Lupar. And where’s the Batang Lupar? Look for it yourself on the atlas.
Part of the Ulu Ai is where the first lake in Sarawak was made by men – planned by the Sarawak Electricity Supply Corporation (Sesco) together with consultants from the Snowy Mountains Corporation and built by Japanese engineers in the late 1980s.
The land for the dam consisted of the traditional (pulau galau, pemakai menoa and temuda) belonging to a score of longhouses of the Iban of Lubok Antu. When their rights over the land were extinguished, and compensated by cash and kind by the government, the people were resettled downstream in new longhouses.
We stayed in something that looks like a longhouse but is in fact a hotel – formerly a Hilton, now called Aiman Batang Ai Resort and Retreat. We were the only guests in the block until the next night when a few more visitors from China joined us. Plenty of space anyway.
This resort hotel and retreat by the lake and built on a 20ha site beside a rainforest is showing signs of wear and tear in certain sections of the blocks/ longhouses, but still is a pleasant place for relaxation, offering facilities normally offered by any good resort hotel elsewhere. Its compound was well planted with ornamentals, and real jungle on the hills behind. All very nice, though I have one complaint: there is not a single Bougainvillea to be seen, and that happens to be my favourite.
The staff of the resort are mostly locals; they offer excellent service to the customers like their counterparts elsewhere in a resort of this category.
From the vantage point on our veranda, I could see many islands. Once upon a time, these were the tops of mountains. The bigger the islands formed on the lake, the higher those mountains or hills must have been.
I must say I enjoyed the trip – away from the hassle and noise in Kuching. Being deprived temporarily of the necessity to read newspapers was a good change for me. I did not bother to read online alternatives, yet had enough information of the troubled world outside from a transistor radio.
While many people in Miri and Limbang experienced foul weather, in Ulu Ai it was fine most of the time as if it was tailor-made for the customers of the resort at this time of the year.
The sunset on the first day was gloriously red. As the sun began to set over the saddle dam, it slid slowly from sight, turning the calm turquoise blue of the lake into ever deeper tints of violet till it was all dark.
The first day my grandson, Joshua, wanted to fish and insisted that I go along to take snaps of fish. Just to show off on Facebook to his cousins in Australia and New Zealand. For those of you who didn’t see it online, here’s the report: the really big ones got away, but we had a lovely lunch of two fine Tengadak (Puntius bramoides), courtesy of the fish farm owner now on holiday in Melbourne.
And here’s a sad story of how silly fish can be: apparently, the Tengadak are attracted by the food meant for the Tilapia inside the cages. The greedy fish slip into the cage, where the staff of the fish farm can simply pick them off. That’s how the Tengadak ended up on our lunch table.
There are many fish farms on the lake and next time you feel like having fish fillet, go to a restaurant in Kuching and insist on Ulu Ai Lake Fish!
The dam, obviously, was not built to provide fish fillet for Kuching’s gourmets and gourmands. It produces electricity for Kuching and other towns in Sarawak. Switch on your TV now; the electricity that enables your set to work comes from the water of the Batang Ai Dam.
In the 1980s, I was working for the Sarawak Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (Salcra) that was developing oil palm schemes below the dam site. I was also a member of the Steering Committee, which was responsible for resettling the people affected by the dam construction on land below Lubok Antu town.
On the way from Kuching, I decided to drop in at a longhouse to introduce members of my family to the late Rambu’s family at Merindun. His widow was not in, but we were welcomed by the people who were at home at the time. I was glad to see an old Gin Rummy friend, Albert Unggat, and the ladies, none of them growing any younger (well, could say the same about myself).
It was good to see that the present generation of the community is living in a comfortable house of 46 doors with modern facilities such as treated water and regular supply of electricity. And more importantly, there’s regular income derived from the produce of their plantations. Quietly, I was happy to see how these people have made the grade, having made a bold move to improve their economic conditions by trying new sources of income – oil palm. In the past, they had relied solely on the sale of rubber and pepper at their old house at Tanjong Empaling, besides growing what padi they could for their own use.
I would like to find out how other people of the other longhouses have managed economically. Although one can see from the main road that their houses look new, yet houses are not the only indication of how people are faring. What about education for their children, health, social well-being, facing the challenges of the future generally? Their land has just been replanted with palms at the end of the first 25-year cycle.
A total of 450 families participated in the Lubok Antu schemes under the auspices of Salcra during my time with the authority. There must many more participants now.
Someone should undertake a follow-up socioeconomic study of the Merindun community, which was placed under Salcra in 1974 to see if there is indeed an economic improvement of the people who were resettled to work on their own plantation. An initial study was made by Dr Peter Kedit of the Sarawak Museum in the 1970s, mainly serving the implementers of plans on the ground.
We drove home again after three days in Ulu Ai, in howling rain on slippery roads mucked up, oops, improved. The Great Borneo Highway is not a cup of tea for elderly just now, but work is proceeding. Trucks of fresh palm fruit bunches, construction materials and equipment, and the like kept traffic crawling in long queues, a hard trial for impatient young drivers.
But it was worth it for the family so see a new area; for me it was a sentimental journey. As soon as the road is in pristine condition I’ll do it again!
Comments can reach the writer via columnists@theborneopost. com.