We are all so used to our highways that we tend to think of them as the only means of transportation. So it is quite a thrill for our guests taking our Borneo Highlands kayaking trip to encounter the local bidayuhs on their traditional wooden boats using the river as a primary mean of getting from one village to another.
However instead of using a double blade kayak paddle, they deftly use a simple bamboo stick to ‘poke’ their way down the river! So instead of paddling, they are literally ‘poking’ their way down the river much to our amusement and I can imagine that they must be equally amused to see us - these tight-ass uncoordinated city folks clumsily making the way down the river on our fancy brightly coloured sit-on-top plastic kayaks. We could not be any more contrasting!
Some of the boats do have a small outboard motor engine which is needed when going upstream against the flow of the river. We would be happy to fix one too to our kayaks if we want to do the same!
So how was your commute to work today? Obviously not as delightful and picturesque as these folks making their way down the river. So who wants to go ‘poking’ down Sungai Sarawak Kiri with us this weekend? It’ll be fun and I’ll promise not to ‘poke’ fun at your balance and paddling! Hehe!
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
ur gonna poke someone’s eye out!
Wow, the river looks busy. How come we didn’t meet that many people last two weekends? Maybe it was a Sunday Morning. People were either at church or in bed.
Row row row your boat
Poking down the stream
Merrily merrily merrily merrily
life is but a scream…
Sing everyone!
Fh2o, Poking sounds a bit rude. How about punting? I remember punting from the old movie “My Fair Lady”.
From Wikipedia:
Punting refers to boating in a punt. The punter generally propels the punt by pushing against the river bed with a pole.
Punts were originally built as cargo boats or platforms for fowling and angling but in modern times their use is almost exclusively confined to pleasure trips on the rivers in the university towns of Oxford and Cambridge in England and races at a few summer regattas on the Thames.
wuching - that can only happen to someone snorkelling or diving in the waters!
agus - yes, we started late and only got on to the waters at 11am. I’m singing …
but u gotta change one of the word! (see below)
batukawa - Poke rhymes with Stroke! But I doubt whether the kids reading this blog ever heard of “My Fair Lady”!
Punting is the correct word! Less prickly too. Thks!
The subsequent time I read a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I mean, I do know it was my option to learn, but I actually thought youd have something attention-grabbing to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about one thing that you can repair if you werent too busy in search of attention.