The Nature’s Watchful Eyes.

Land and nature, intertwined together to create a beautiful and almost mystical place called Bario, where the nature always has watchful eyes over you wherever you may be in this land. The Kelabits who are locals of this land named it Bario which gives the meaning ‘wind’. Geographically, Bario is an elevated land is considered to be a highland with the altitude of 1000m above sea level and it is located the east of Sarawak bordering Kalimantan.

Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter 

The journey to Bario itself is an adventure, you’ll be flying on a Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter plane into Bario from Miri. The twin turboprop engines produces a district roar rotating the propeller to slice through the air and move forward. The flight certainly won’t be smooth due to the light weight of the plane, often shifting from small gusts of wind. The flight time is about 50 minutes. If you’re a first timer flying on this plane, you’ll have a sense of relief when the aircraft makes the landing and the engine chokes as the pilot cuts off the fuel.

Walk from airport

Bario is located in a coulee; the horizons are covered with mountains and hills giving a surreal feeling when you just gaze upon the view that nature showers you with. Trees on the mountains and the long strands of grass on hills that dances to the rhythm of the wind is just mesmerizing.  Untapped jungle grows on those mountains and each tree, each animal, each insect, and each plant is part of the nature and very minimal human activity disrupts the balance of the nature. Isolation of this land from rest of the towns due to geographical barriers plays a major role in preserving the environment. The roads leading to Bario are not paved and mostly are logging roads, it takes about 12 hours of driving with a pickup from Miri.

My Tepuq (Tepuq Ribet) in her paddy field.

The misty morning, the sunny sky and the clear night is something that would go unnoticed by the Kelabits or by people who live in Bario, but for someone who comes over from the cities it’s completely a sight that you appreciate and admire. Unpolluted fresh air in Bario makes all of it possible. Every morning there will be cool breeze with mist gushing across your face as you walk, the sun casts its rays of joy and warmth every afternoon and the night sky opens up to deliver a spectacle show of stars planets, and moon.

As night falls, the stars start to fill up the night sky canvas while the moon illuminates the streets. Some parts in Bario gets limited amount of electricity because most of it is generated using a diesel powered generator; 7pm-12 midnight is when we receive electricity. It may seem like an inconvenience, but hey that’s when darkness binds Bario completely and free from any light pollution. As a stargazer, it was my paradise. All the stars are projected so brightly that you can easily recognize constellations that are visible on earth’s equator. Every hour you look upon the sky, a new presentation is put up due to the earth’s rotation, the sky shifts 15 degrees every hour and new sets of stars join.

Hiking is a must do activity in Bario, a twenty minutes’ walk from Bario Asal will lead you to Prayer Mountain. Hiking up Prayer Mountain will get you a step closer to the nature as you move through the jungle as the trees and plants line up on your path throughout the journey up to the peak. The hike up has a moderate difficulty and the steepness of the mountain could reach to 45 degrees as you move up closer to the peak.  The hike is about 1 hour 15 minutes at a slow pace but the view you have from the peak is totally worth the climb and all the exhaustion pays off.

Over the period of 10 days, my definition of Bario has changed from just being wind to the ‘nature’ itself because Bario has so much to offer but my time to receive was limited. I will travel back to this paradise of nature to live it all again.