Ba'kelalan, located on the plateau at the foot of Mount Murud, Sarawak’s highest peak, is a picturesque highland settlement of the Lun Bawang community.
While it provides the serenity of the cool highland, Ba'kelalan offers another attraction apart from the rich culture and traditions of the hospitable Lun Bawang community.
Like any other highland of Malaysia, the Ba'kelalan highland is also ideal for the cultivation of crops that dwell well in a temperate climate. Here, at 3,000 metres above sea level, the Lun Bawang community is cultivating apples of various varieties.
Aerial view of the village in Ba'kelalan
Their initial association with apple growing began in 1986. However, it did not take-off well because at that time no one actually knew anything about apple growing. Nevertheless, some of the local people particularly a prominent headman of Buduk Nur village did not lose hope of seeing apple thriving in their farm. Buduk Nur, which mean Summit of Nur tree (a type of hardwood), is one of the 13 villages of Ba'kelalan.
With fiery determination and family support, Tagal Paran diligently sought all the necessary information and the know-how to grow the fruit which has been known to grow well in faraway cold countries.
Working in the paddy field
A few years later, Tagal courageously embarked on a large-scale apple-growing project. It was a pilot project with 1,000 saplings spread over an area of two acres. This time around he had better knowledge on how best to grow the fruit trees and furthermore, he also had the support of the Sarawak Agriculture Department.
He started to see his labour fruiting in 1990, and it was not just one harvest that year, but twice. As the saying goes, after that first bounty harvest, the rest is history.
Today, even though the people in Buduk Nur have been enjoying good harvests, they are still too low for export, but their sheer determination will see this happening in the not too distant future. They keep themselves abreast with the latest information and knowledge on how best they could enhance their production. In fact, they had been marketing their apples to people living in Ba'kelalan and nearby towns like Lawas and Miri. They even market their fruits in the neighbouring state of Kota Kinabalu.
Besides growing existing apple species like Rome Beauty, Lady William, Apple Anna, Tropical Beauty, Michelle, Kwan Lin and Jonathan, the farmers of Buduk Nur also cultivate their own local specie which had been aptly named as Mana Lagi (literally translated as Where Else).
The Apple is named Mana Lagi - literally translate to Where Else?
The explanation given for the namesake was simple; “Mana lagi (Where Else) can you find this type of Apple? Only in Ba'kelalan”. Fair enough explanation for an apple that looks like the imported green apple available in supermarkets. But the similarity stops short on the fruit colour. Unlike its imported green cousin, Mana Lagi tasted sweeter and juicier with a crunchy texture.
Apple orchard
Besides apples, the people in Ba'kelalan have also tried their hands at planting strawberry, emulating their counterparts at Cameron Highlands. But, unlike Cameron Highlands, Ba'kelalan is not easily accessible. The most common way to travel to this remote place is by flight from Miri or Lawas via MASWings Twin Otter or by four-wheel-drive from Lawas town via an old logging road but the journey takes about five hours and the four-wheel-drive rides are rather bumpy and slippery, particularly during the wet rainy seasons.
Despite the difficult connectivity, Ba'Kelalan is also a popular eco-tourism destination of Sarawak. There are various attractions for those who are game for nature adventures like jungle and mountain trekking. Trekkings to Mulu, Merarap Hot Spring, Bario Highlands and to Indonesia are among some of the interesting out-bound activities of Ba'kelalan.
Accommodation of Ba'kelalan is homestay-style, and it is inevitably the best way to learn about the rich culture and traditions of the Lun Bawang.
To get to Ba'kelalan, visitors have first to fly to Miri before taking MASWings Twin Otter to the highland.
Source: Borneo Jungle Safari Sdn Bhd
