Ba'kelalan

Ba'kelalan is a cluster of villages in a highland valley at around nine hundred metres in the far north-east of Sarawak, on the Kalimantan border and over the ridge from Bario, inhabited by the Lun Bawang. Two things are made here that should not obviously exist in Borneo. The first is apples: the altitude and the cool nights let temperate fruit set, and orchards planted from the 1970s produce small apples sold as a highland curiosity. The second is salt, boiled down from brine springs in the valley over wood fires and packed in bamboo tubes wrapped in leaf, a practice that predates any road and still supplies the region. Wet rice is grown in the valley floor terraces, buffalo are kept, and trekking over to Bario takes two or three days with a guide.

History

The name comes from the Kelalan River and ba', "wet lands" in the Lun Bawang language. About 1030 people lived here in 2003, growing rice and, in the cool climate, temperate fruit such as apples, and taking salt from the nearby hills (Wikipedia, Ba'kelalan).

What you'll find

• Apple orchards at the equator - temperate fruit set by the altitude and cool nights.
• Bamboo-tube salt - brine boiled over wood fires and packed in leaf-wrapped tubes.
• Valley rice terraces - Lun Bawang wet rice with buffalo on the floor.
• The trek to Bario - two or three days over the ridge with a guide.

When to go

All year; drier March to September. Three days, allowing for flights.

Before you go

Access is a small aircraft subject to weather or a very rough road - delays are normal. There is limited power, no bank and patchy signal. Accommodation is homestays. Bring cash.

Nearby

Bario is over the ridge; Lawas is the road head on the coast.

Key facts