Batang Ai
A Reservoir In Iban Longhouse Country That Drowned The Valleys People Lived In, And Now The Only Way To Reach The Communities That Moved Uphill · Lubok Antu, Sarawak
A DAM WENT UP AT BATANG AI IN THE 1980s AND FLOODED THE VALLEYS, AND THE IBAN LONGHOUSES THAT HAD STOOD ALONG THOSE RIVERS MOVED UPHILL. What is left is a reservoir of drowned ridgelines, and THE ONLY WAY TO REACH THE COMMUNITIES NOW IS BY LONGBOAT ACROSS THE WATER - which is a strange and rather melancholy way to arrive somewhere people have lived for centuries. A LONGHOUSE IS ONE BUILDING CONTAINING A WHOLE VILLAGE: a row of private family rooms opening onto a single covered communal gallery that runs the length of it, sometimes for a hundred metres. THE VISITS ARE REAL RATHER THAN STAGED at the better operations - you sleep in the gallery, you are received by the headman, and you bring something. BEYOND THE LAKE IS BATANG AI NATIONAL PARK AND WILD ORANGUTANS, at densities that make sightings genuinely uncommon. Everything is arranged in advance through Kuching or the lake resort, a gift for the headman is expected rather than optional, and the house rules are the house's.
Batang Ai, Sri Aman Division, Sarawak, Lubok Antu, Sarawak, Malaysia
BATANG AI IS ROUGHLY FOUR TO FIVE HOURS BY ROAD FROM KUCHING to the jetty at the reservoir, then a LONGBOAT of anywhere from twenty minutes to two hours depending on where you are going. EVERYTHING IS ARRANGED IN ADVANCE - longhouse stays, the national park and the boats are all booked through operators in Kuching or through the resort at the lake, and THERE IS NO TURNING UP. LONGHOUSE VISITS SHOULD BE BOOKED WITH OPERATORS WHO PAY THE COMMUNITY PROPERLY; ask directly how the money is split, because the difference between operations is large. BRING A GIFT FOR THE HEADMAN - this is expected and is not a tip. RESPECT THE TUAI RUMAH'S HOUSE RULES. BATANG AI NATIONAL PARK needs its own permit and a guide. It rains in every month; the lake level moves.