第二天早上，在Marriott吃了豐富的早餐後，我們精神奕奕地出發。這次採水路，坐長舟沿著梅林瑙河往其上游的風洞和清水洞，途中參觀本南族的聚集區和當地的手工藝品市集。本南族原是姆魯一帶的少數民族，生活在原始森林裡，屬於游牧民族。每逢農耕換季和家族裡有人離世，就搬遷一次。1976年，政府為保護姆魯國家公園範圍內的原始生態環境，把本南人勸遷到政府規劃給他們的區域，開始定居生活。在打獵和遷農的活動被拘束後，本南人多進了國家公園和旅遊業服務，或在接受教育後離鄉背井到城市裡去工作。本南人的聚集區以老人、婦孺居多，來姆魯的遊客都會來參觀並買些手工藝品讓他們增加生活補貼。在姆魯國家公園的成立和現代文明生活的衝擊下，本南人已喪失了他們的傳統生活方式，從居無定所到不屬於他們原有文化的長屋，再過三、五十年會不會連本南語和本南習俗也消失了？
The next morning, after buffet breakfast at Mulu Marriott Resort, we continued our journey to Wind Cave and Clearwater Cave. We were travelling from Marriott to the caves, following Melinau River to its upstreams by long boat. On the way, we visited Penan Settlement and its traditional craft market. Penan people used to have nomadic culture, moving from one to another place in the nature forest. In 1976, the goverment started to protect the area of Mulu National Park, thus, Penan people had to leaving their forest and moving into the Penan Settlement or outside of the national park area. Insteads of hunting and planting here and there in forest, they are staying at long houses which are never been a part of their culture. They learn to have modern lifestyle, start to work in the national park or in tourisum. Their young generation is well educated and some of them move to cities to have even better life. When visitiors come to Penan Settlement, they meet modernized Penan people which most are old people and kids. Buying their handcraft may support their financial a bit, but it’s still a sad story to see how their culture is vanishing in this modern world. Continue reading →