These days, I take a train to get anywhere. While watching KL rushing by from outside the window gives me this almost atavistic sense of belonging, there was a time in Bario when my feet could take me anywhere. All I had to do was grab a friend and walk down those familiar, creaky steps.
On the first day itself, we had to walk from Bario airport to Bario Asal. Our little walking bus was pretty euphoric for people who had just gotten off a flying tin can of a plane. As we walked, we passed by sights that would eventually become more familiar to us than we expected. We walked and chatted with a noise that must have disturbed all the buffaloes we passed. Our tourist-ey "oohs" and "ahhhh"s would eventually die down in the following weeks but our awe and love for Bario only grew from there. I can assure you that my volume never died down. (I've been told you can hear my laughs from the other side of the longhouse, much to my dismay)
For a while, Tepu Uloh had gone off to Miri and I was left to float around with my friends and their ladies. After spending a day or two with some of the ladies in Bario Asal, I decided to join Jess with her lady for a bit.This lead me on my first walk to Arur Dalan. It's a trail that I miss taking, though for the first day, I spent most of my time watching the muddy ground and keeping my balance. It's a fifteen minute walk that immerses you in gorgeous scenery. We were chatting along when the Arur Dalan regulars suddenly told me to look up a hill.
"Look, Felice. That's our friend!"
I couldn't see anyone amongst that dense shrubbery. I was pretty perplexed.
"There!" They said. When I looked again, I realized they were pointing a tough, burly, grey buffalo.
Turns out, this buffalo would be there at the same spot, at the same time, every day.
"I'm gonna name him Bob!" I said.
"Why?" Dan had to ask.
"She names everything Bob." My classmates know me too well.
At the end of the day, Dan tells me that after talking to Aunty Dayang, he found out that the buffalo's name really is Bob. Go figure!
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Our weekly excursions to church are also pretty fun. It's an early morning walk that leads you to a blue building with a cross on it. Mass is always upbeat and fun, with lots of singing. Once, we even got an awesome meal at the end.
With all the cheerfulness that you leave with, it's not surprising to meet new people on the way back. On one of our trips, it started drizzling lightly. As Xara and I were sharing an umbrella on our way, we noticed this old lady in a beautiful Kelabit outfit walking in the drizzle.
Knowing that we couldn't let her walk in the drizzle like that, we offered to walk her home with her umbrella. She was extremely chatty and friendly, with a sweet, toothy smile. She asked us where we were from and what we were doing in Bario. She told us about her children in KL and how she also owns a pineapple farm. We chatted with her all the way back to her home.
It was really pleasant how we could just be walking and so easily meet new people on the way. A friendliness you wouldn't find in KL!
That wasn't the first time we had to walk in the rain though, and it certainly wasn't our last. In fact, that was probably the only time I got to walk with an umbrella!
Vio had the misfortune of always being caught in the rain after she washed her hair. This happened again when we were heading back home from Joe's Cafe, our favourite (and only) spot to get ABC and noodles. Vio, being Vio, managed to convince us to pick up a piece of scrap metal to cover her with. It probably didn't help that Dan accidentally stepped on the Daiso slippers everyone complimented her on and it definitely didn't help that instead of rushing to help her, we all burst into laughter.
That was probably one of the most entertaining sights to see....
....though, I have to say that Jon won most ridiculous alternative for an umbrella.
Of course, while all the walking is good and fun, it doesn't stop us from cheating every once in a while! It seems that if you have a car in Bario, it has to be a four wheel drive with a convenient place to chuck all the hitch hikers you pick up.
Like I said, the people of Bario are so welcoming, you can get a ride almost any time. At one point, while we were in the back of a truck, the guy who was sending us home shouted from his window in the driver seat "Are you people rushing back?"
Assuming that he had to pick up some stuff from somewhere else, we said no and that we wouldn't mind following him. What he really ended up doing was taking us on the long way round where we got to see so much more than we would ever have seen otherwise. The view was so breathtaking, it made me really thankful that he did that for us because he really didn't need to. It just shows the little bits of kindness the people of Bario are used to performing.
Maybe it's something in the air or the cheerfulness that spans throughout Bario, but I realize I was never tired from all that walking. If you set me on those familiar roads again, I think my feet could bring me anywhere.
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