Today we hired a car, and headed for this little town, which lies to the east of Miri. Not far to the east, actually, but it's a bit of a mission to get there.

In the old days (which are not that long ago), you would make your way to the mouth of the Baram River, north of Miri, and take the boat, which would chug around a large number of big loopy curves until it got there. That ferry service, like so many others, is now defunct.

So, you can now fly from Miri (it takes 20 minutes on a little plane). Or you can drive, which involves heading south from Miri on the Pan Borneo Highway (which, we were very surprised to note, is NOT finished up here, leaving quite a long stretch of single-carriageway for you to convoy along), and then branching off to tackle the 42-km wiggly-squiggly, hippety-hoppety road that winds up over some picturesque hills, and eventually drops you down to Marudi.

It's slow going, but very scenic:








And finally, we're there...

I don't know why you take to some places more than others, but we took to Marudi a lot.

It has a great river situation for starters. The Baram is one of those broad, powerful, awe-inspiring Bornean rivers that you can't help marvelling at, and it was flowing very fast today:





The little town has a laid-back charm, as though someone has made a bit of an effort, but not made too much fuss about it:





The longboat and the sape are both emblematic of Marudi:






Fort Hose was constructed in Claude Town (Marudi's original name) in 1898, for the purposes of keeping an eye on potential rebels, and bringing the region under Brooke administration.

It was just six years earlier that Sarawak's northern border had expanded to include the Baram basin. And it was still an unquiet land at that point. According to Valerie Mashman, Kenyah leader Tama Bulan played an important (and generally under-recognized) role in bringing peace to the warring groups of the area in the late 1800s, while at the same time learning to engage with "the new power-brokers of the Brooke government in the Baram, who had replaced the influence of the Brunei Sultanate". Tama Bulan regularly mediated between his own followers and Hose, whom he kept informed, and whose access to upriver chiefs and villages he facilitated. In return, the Resident lobbied for his appointment to be extended to cover all the Kenyah in the Baram. Tama Bulan's cosmopolitan and open-minded outlook encouraged him to take a pragmatically long view of change: "He did not see government as something imposed and distant but an institution to be embraced and brought into his own realm." And he learnt to navigate the uncertainties between two eras, "before and after head-hunting", again showing pragmatism and a spirit of compromise.


Mashman argues: "It is possible to make a case that without Tama Bulan, Hose would have been unable to cope with escalating violence within the Baram basin." However we allocate credit, the upshot was that a series of peace-making meetings took place in the region, culminating in a big event in Marudi in 1899 that was attended by 6,000 people. This peace conference led to the institution of the Baram Regatta, which is still held today, and is regarded as the "mother" of Sarawakian regattas.




The fort is an interesting place to visit, offering snippets of history, and displaying many artefacts from the surrounding cultures:




Two other things to mention about Marudi. First, food:




Second, the wonderful Tua Pek Kong temple, which stands just back from the river:










The weather closed in a bit as we headed back, and we constantly had to battle that tropical scourge of misted-up windows (a product of an aircon/vent combo that you realize is wrong, but can't figure out how to put right).


Then, on the way back to Miri, we stopped off for a drink at Tim's Seaside Hideout, as has become traditional on Miri trips.




Excellent day out.