The picture perfect panorama of the highlands just above Kampung Long Tanid and lush green adan rice fields.
WHEN it comes to going off the beaten track in Northern Sarawak, Lawas is usually not the first on many people’s list of destinations.
Better known for its logging, timber and agriculture industries, the undulating hills of this small district which shares borders with Sabah, Brunei and Kalimantan, Indonesia, has been often overlooked by tourists and backpackers in favour of the highlands of Bario and Ba Kelalan.
However, the improvement of the road connecting Lawas town to Ba Kelalan in recent times has been a boon to the fledgeling local homestay and ecotourism industry, cutting down travelling time between the two destinations and opening more economic opportunities for locals as they take advantage of the improvement in road connectivity and increasing traffic.
Among them are operators of Metalan Homestay, Tom Imang Anyi and his wife Mariana Palong.
Originally, the thought of setting up a homestay business did not cross the couple’s minds. In fact, it was more by chance they came to acquire the property on which now stands a modest two-story building large enough to house up to 16 guests at one time.
“The previous owner was very insistent on selling the land to us, even after we had turned them down a number of times. The land was swampy and there wasn’t anything there which appealed to me at first,” Mariana recalled.
However, when the husband and wife team had the opportunity to take a closer look at the property, she fell in love with it, particularly the scenic clear water Matalan river which runs through it.
“The atmosphere by the river is so peaceful and beautiful. Our visitors have told us they like to sit by the riverbank to soak their feet in the water as they find it calming listening to the sound of riverwater running over the rocks,” she said.
They bought the property a few years ago, filled out the flooded and swampy areas and slowly began adding to it for their own use – first a small resthouse right next to the river then a garden.
Mariana, a traditional handcrafts maker, added a small workshop which also doubles as a small convenience store selling toiletries, snacks and souvenirs to tourists and visitors.
At first, it was just friends and family who stayed there but as word began to spread, more and more people approached the couple about renting the place.
Seeing the interest and after learning more about what a homestay is and what it would entail, they decided to set up Metalan Homestay, less than two hours’ drive from Lawas town.
The river is not the homestay’s only attraction. The surrounding area is teeming with wildlife, ranging from hornbills and macaques which often come out to feast on fruit trees in plain view just a stone’s throw from the front porch, to wild pigs and deer, so favoured by hunters.
Even though the homestay is not officially opened for business yet, the couple have already had a number of enquiries – from visitors from Brunei wanting to stay for the weekend, and church groups and government agencies, interested in conducting retreats, to outstation workers working on nearby oil and gas pipelines interested in renting rooms for a few months at a time.
This has convinced Tom and Mariana to continue expanding their property. Among projects in the pipeline are planting a greater variety and number of trees in their fruit garden and building a longhouse, public toilets and a hall to accommodate larger groups of visitors.
The husband and wife are also attending as many courses as they can to improve their knowledge and offer more services.
Tom, who works full-time in the civil service, has attended a homestay course while among the many Mariana has attended include entrepreneurship skills and aromatherapy and massage skills courses.
“Our goal is to offer products, services and experiences which other homestays don’t offer – like grapes and buah salak, cultural performances, fishing and hunting, padi planting and even buffalo riding. But we still need to train the buffaloes,” Tom shared with a grin.
“We are in a good location as it is only half an hour’s drive from Limbang and three hours from Brunei. I believe they are attracted to come here for the cool weather and also the activities such as wildlife watching and jungle trekking.
“Lawas’ biggest assets are its natural attractions,” he said.
The scenic Sungei Matalan which runs just besides Metalan Homestay.
Natural attractions
Indeed, there is more to Lawas than just its beautiful mountain panoramas, lush rice fields which produce the fragrant adan variety, and scenic riverside villages.
Just a short drive from Metalan Homestay is the Merarap Hotspring Lodge which has long been a popular stopping point for travellers seeking to soak away the aches and pains which come from long hours of travelling over bumpy gravelled roads.
Just over an hour’s drive from Lawas town is Kampung Long Lidong, known for developing a unique tagang system which has successfully tamed the expensive wild ikan semah to feed from a baby’s bottle (see thesundaypost May 5, 2013 for a more detailed feature).
Further away, about two hours’ drive from Lawas town is Payeh Maga, a veritable but as of now, still relatively unknown treasure trove of biodiversity.
Initial findings from the first big expedition to the area in 2010, organised by Forest Department Sarawak (FDS) together with local and researchers, suggested high levels of biodiversity of flora and fauna. This has sparked a number of scientific expeditions, surveys, studies and field trips in the four years since then.
It has been discovered that out of 52 endemic bird species found in Borneo, so far 27 of them have been confirmed to be in Payeh Maga. In fact, the area is widely known within the Bornean and international bird watching community as presently the only place where the black oriole (Oriolus hosii) can be found.
Raut Kading (front) and his wife.
Many challenges
For the past two years, Balan Berauk from Kampung Long Tanid has been coordinating homestay visits to Long Semadoh — an area made up of 11 villages before Ba Kelalan, including Kampung Long Tanid, about three hours’ drive from Lawas town.
Among the many cultural and historical attractions found in the area are earth crocodiles (buaya tanah) and ancient graveyards.
Balan sees much potential for Long Semadoh to play a larger role in the local tourism and homestay industry because of its close proximity to Long Pasia in Sabah and the improved road connection to Ba Kelalan.
Local homestay and tour operators can coordinate with each other to ensure there is continuity in travel, accommodation and tour arrangements along certain routes, he suggested.
“For example, the Sabah side can coordinate activities for tourists coming from as far away as Kota Kinabalu up to Long Pasia before handing over the visitors to our side in Long Semadoh, where we can then show them our local attractions and they can stay a few days if they wish.
“If the visitors are planning to go all the way to Ba Kelalan or Lawas, we can coordinate with the homestays there. That way, all have their part to play and will be able to share in the benefits,” Balan said.
However, the concept of homestay is still something new to many villages here and many do not really understand how it can benefit them, he opined.
“I have been trying to get more people to open their minds to the idea but it has been a slow process so far.
“I find the younger generation more open while the older generation more reluctant. Lack of knowledge of the standards expected by visitors as well as lack of professionalism can also form barriers.
“Some people do not understand why they need to make certain renovations or expansions to their houses to meet requirements set by government agencies like the Ministry of Tourism,” he noted.
The promising potential of eco-tourism has encouraged owners Tom and Mariana to continue to expand Metalan Homestay.
Poor infrastructure
Perhaps the biggest challenge to Lawas’ growth as an eco-tourism destination is the need for better infrastructure. While there is no lack of natural, historical and cultural attractions in the area, poor roads and practically non-existent telecommunications outside of Lawas town are definitely weighing progress down.
Raut Kading, who helped to pioneer Long Lidong’s tagang project and remains one of the key figures in its continued success, said the road between Lawas and Ba Kelalan needed to be further improved as does the small Lawas airport to cater to greater numbers of travellers and to facilitate the creation of more eco-tourism products such as jungle trekking.
“It would also be of great help to have more funding for government agencies like fisheries and also agriculture so that they can offer more allocations to projects like ours to build more facilities and infrastructure. Sometimes we have to wait for years before enough funds can be obtained for certain upgrading work.
“For our tagang, we also need greater protection and safeguards from logging and oil palm activities – which include the gazettement of our water catchment areas and surrounding areas to protect the water quality of our river,” he added.
Meanwhile, homestay coordinator Balan lamented the lack of telecommunication and high-speed Internet.
He operates a small canteen just outside SK Long Semadoh with a limited open wifi network which he uses to check his Whatsapp for messages.
“It can take up to three weeks, sometimes more, to coordinate a single visit as I can only freely return email or receive calls when I am in Lawas town,” he said.
Lack of road and telecommunications infrastructure is a significant challenge to the growth of Lawas’ fledgeling homestay and eco-tourism industry.
Room to grow
Heart of Borneo (HOB) programme coordinator and FDS executive forrester Michael Ngelai would like to see more local communities benefit from tourism activities in Lawas and play a more significant role in the development of the state’s eco-tourism and homestay industry.
While he was optimistic about Lawas’ potential to establish itself as an ecotourism destination, he pointed out that there is still a lot of ground work to be done to lay the foundation for the industry to grow.
“The homestay and tourism industries are complex and one must seek to understand the needs of the market and how to cater to the different target groups.
“It’s not enough to just build the facilities and infrastructure to attract visitors – there must be products and services to sell which complement its natural and cultural attractions. The local operators must also be keen to improve their knowledge and skills,” he said.
Building connections and relationships with reputable tour operators and agencies who have wider networks of contacts will also help local homestay operators to increase access to bigger markets, especially those overseas, he added.
“Right now, many homestays only use the Internet and Facebook to promote and market their services. It’s not a bad thing but because their capacilities are small, their reach is limited. They should think about either marketing or promoting themselves as part of a group or to work with tour operators and agencies,” he said.