Kelabit Highlands multi day treks · Multi Day Treks in Kelabit Highlands
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Multi Day Treks in Kelabit Highlands
Multi Day Treks in Kelabit Highlands
There are many tracks which criss cross the highlands, and even the most well trodden paths (for instance, the popular Bario Loop, also known as Kelapang Loop) require a guide.
A good guide will talk to you about where you would like to go. Note that with a couple of day hike exceptions you cannot follow these trails on your own. The trails that you follow tend to connect different local villages, and there are many branches and tracks crossing, none of which are marked. Various stories abound, including a Swedish girl who had walked the trail 12 times with a guide, tried it alone the 13th time and mistakenly took the trail to Indonesia and got lost for four days. And the Belgian guy who at one of the branches took the wrong fork (the bigger path) and was found three days later suffering from dehydration. He had to be airlifted to hospital in Miri. Get a guide!
There's a guide licensing system in Bario - the guides are licensed by the Sarawak Government as wildlife guides. The licensed ones we had dealings with seemed great and to know the surroundings very well. They also have insurance should anything untoward happen.
The price for a guide (as of September 2010) is 80RN per guide per day for day treks, overnight camping will cost 100RN per night. A 10RN per day tip is appropriate if you feel the guide has done a good job. If you'd like them to provide food & cook for you, it's 25RN per person per day. This is highly recommended as as well as bringing provisions they will collect food from the jungle for you to eat in the evenings (mushrooms, sago palm hearts, etc). Note that these are fixed prices set by the guides' association. Attempts to bargain will not be appreciated! Expeditions to Gunung Murud and Butu Lawi require two guides for security reasons.
A recommended guide is Irwan. He is very knowledgable about the jungle, has a good knowledge of English and is a very entertaining person. Contact him at [email protected] for bookings.
There are then two types of guide you should avoid:
Unlicensed guides from Bario, who will probably not know the area well. They appear to cost the same as a licensed guide
Guides provided by travel agencies in Miri. These tend to be city guides who will not know the trails at all. While we were there some hunters met a city guide with tourist who had been lost for two days and had run out of food! They pointed them in the right direction and gave them some food. Licensed guides would both be able to feed you from the jungle and know the way home! It's recommended not to book through a travel agency in Miri - it will be much more expensive and you will not be able to ensure your guide is licensed.
A popular multi day trek is:
Bario-Ba Kelalan: (Difficulty 3/10) 4 days hiking 3-8 hours per day. The trek from Bario will pass through Pa Lungan (4hrs), then you will head over to a Kalimantan village such as Long Medang or Tanjung Karya (~8-9hrs) and continue to Long Bawan (4-5hrs), before crossing the border to Ba'Kelalan (~6hrs walking or 1,5hrs motor bike (RM80)). The trek passes through a long stretch of primary forest but includes dirt tracks as well. People are very friendly (you will shake a lot of hands) but hardly speak english in Kalimantan, Malaysian ringgit are accepted. Accomodation will mostly likely be a homestay (RM50). You have to report to the Immigration office in Long Bawan (you guide will arrange that for you).
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Kelabit Highlands Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.