Sarawak - Borneo - page 338

Getting There & Away
BOAT
Express boats to Sibu (RM20 to RM30, 2½ to three hours, once or twice an hour) depart
between 6.40am and 3.15pm from the Kapit Passenger Terminal (Jln Panglima Balang;
) , which has wi-fi that attracts whatever the river equivalent of road warriors is, and a
nice verandah cafe with breezy river views.
Water levels permitting (for details, call Daniel Levoh in Belaga at 013-848 6351), an
express boat heads upriver to Belaga (RM35, 4½ hours) from the Kapit Town Square
jetty (two blocks downriver from the Kapit Passenger Terminal) once a day at about
9.30am.
One express boat a day heads up the Batang Baleh, going as far as the Iban longhouse
of Rumah Penghulu Jampi. It departs from Kapit at about 10am and from Rumah
Penghulu Jampi at 12.30pm.
VAN
A small road network around Kapit, unconnected to the outside world, links the town to a
number of longhouses. Vans that ply these byways congregate at Kapit Town Square.
BELAGA
POP 2500
By the time you pull into Belaga after the long cruise up the Batang Rejang, you may feel
like you've arrived in the very heart of Borneo - in reality, you're only about 100km (as
the crow flies) from the coast. There's not much to do here except soak up the frontier
vibe, but nearby rivers are home to quite a few Kayan/Kenyah and Orang Ulu longhouses.
Sights
To get a feel for the pace of local life, wander among the two-storey shophouses of the
compact, mostly Chinese town centre , or stroll through the manicured park - outfitted
with basketball and tennis courts - between Main Bazaar and the river. Along the river-
front, a wooden bridge leads downstream to Kampung Melayu Belaga , Belaga's Malay
quarter, whose wooden homes are built on stilts. Although there's 24-hour electricity
(provided by a generator - Belaga is not yet connected to the Bakun Dam grid), pretty
much everything closes by 7pm.