The Iban are the indigenous people of Borneo. They live in villages along the rivers. Staying in an Iban longhouse used to involve showing up at their doorstep and getting invited to stay the night, but with the increase in tourism, companies have sprouted up offering longhouse tours in newly built longhouse resorts. Of course, some tour companies now offer "authentic" longhouse tours which are deeper inland, far up the river. These trips are amazingly expensive. If you've got time, you might still be able to find some hospitable longhouses that haven't been spoiled by tourism. You'll just need a lot of time and money and an adventurous heart to explore the upper reaches of the rivers in a chartered boat.

Magnus and Per found out about an Iban homestay program at Niah National Park from the National Parks Office that isn't listed in any of the tour books. You pay a fee (RM35, which is a little pricey if you go by backpacking-through-Malaysia standards) to your homestay host and get to stay overnight.

The trail to the Niah Caves forks at one point with another walkway to the Iban village. It's still a good walk from the fork to get there.

You'll spend the day eating rambuttans, salak, peanuts, lansat chips and drinking tuak, an Iban rice wine. Your hosts will warn you not to drink tuak and eat rambuttans at the same time. You'll get sick if you do.

Once everyone has enough tuak, it doesn't matter what language you speak, everything is funny. We talked with our host's brother-in-law for hours. He spoke Iban, I spoke English and Per and Magnus spoke Swedish.