Speaker A
[Music] [Music] when i first went up this river i was sick with love the bad kind the fist around your heart kind i ran far but there was no escaping it it followed me up all the way that was ten long years ago
Anthony Bourdain returns to Borneo's Iban longhouses for Gawai harvest festival, reuniting with old friends, tattoos, lancao and communal feasts a decade after his first visit.
Key Takeaways
- Traditional Iban culture, including tattoos and wandering rituals, carries deep meaning tied to personal journeys and community knowledge.
- Food is central to identity and memory, passed down through family and cooking practice rather than formal instruction.
- Rapid modernization is changing rural Borneo, but core social and ritual life persists.
- Bourdain's return is shaped by nostalgia, personal change, and reflection on impermanence.
What the video covers
- Bourdain begins in Kuala Lumpur, sampling Malaysian and Chinese food and reflecting on his return after ten years.
- He revisits tattoo artist Eddie David in Kuching, where he gets a traditional Iban tattoo hand-tapped in the old style.
- The episode explores Iban traditions, including the bejalai wandering tradition and the meaning of tattoos as records of journeys and knowledge.
- Bourdain discusses lancao, a homemade rice liquor, and its cultural role in festivities.
- A meal at Auntie Ine's restaurant showcases Malay village cooking passed down through family kitchens.
- Bourdain travels upriver by boat to a longhouse, noting how some things have modernized, such as electricity and a generator, while much remains the same.
- Gawai celebrations involve drinking, feasting, music, and dancing, with the community reconnecting over shared rituals.
- The episode includes a pig sacrifice and preparation of communal food, reflecting on violence, ritual, and Bourdain's own discomfort.
- Bourdain reflects on personal change, mortality, and the sense that this may be his final visit to the village.
- The episode closes with farewells and a reflective tone on village routines and the passing of older generations.
Chapters
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
a previous episode of a previous series in a previous life yet here i am again heading up to that same longhouse in the [Music] through jungle beautiful world felt the cool rain on my shoulders [Music] controller [Music] [Music]
Speaker A
[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] last time i saw all this i think it's fair to say i was at a turning point in my life i promised some people i'd come back and i am back my life has changed a lot
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how much have their lives changed [Music] [Music] kuala lumpur happy to be here but brimming with mixed emotions surrounded by all the sights smells and flavors i remember so well [Music] this is where a wandering soul such as
Speaker A
myself can dive right in and get some of that straight chinese food i've been missing [Music] first order business dinner been on a plane for like shout out it was long very long saw like five mark wahlberg films
Speaker A
i can't tell you how excited about the prospect of getting some black pepper crab some chocolate chow and some pork related noodles and a regional beverage [Music] reasonably cold i don't even know what this is i love you noodles
Speaker A
don't want to get all heavy and philosophical at this point like why i'm here what my mission is what i expect to find basically retracing my steps and all that uh we'll talk about that later right now noodles
Speaker A
good wok hey this place is most excellent uh chocolate challenge chocolate shark white child [ __ ] oh look at that greasy fatty yes come to daddy i'm a bad man look at this like random restaurant with like a purloined minnie mouse logo
Speaker A
and their food is unbelievably good oh yeah black pepper crab come right here reveal yourself to me my dad [Music] oh yeah [Music] wow all right the frenzy's over now to eat at a more relaxed face [Music] [Music]
Speaker A
kuala lumpur rises up out of steaming equatorial southeast asian jungle malaysia's capital city a chaotic multi-ethnic multicultural modern metropolis of malay chinese and india this is where you start out when fulfilling a decade-old promise to your ex-headhunter friends to return for
Speaker A
gawai the annual iban rice harvest festival what was interesting last time i was there was the old guys with their tattoos and the rings on their fingers yeah the old people uh a lot of them had passed on i hear no more
Speaker A
skulls they made them put the skulls away the avon once enjoyed a truly formidable reputation as trackers warriors and ritualistic takers of heads they were and continue to be wanderers valuing the bajelli a tradition where every tribe zone was set out from the
Speaker A
long house of his birth to travel learn to bring something back each tattoo he gets over the course of his life represents a different experience a different journey basically the tattoos are just to uh signify the knowledge and the wealth that you
Speaker A
brought back to the longhouse what you probably would want to get is uh something like this ah like that yeah since last i saw you and you gave me this and it's still there it's still there ten years ago at his shop borneo inc
Speaker A
eddie david tattooed me with an ebon style or aboris a symbol of a snake eating its own tail life death the eternal ebb and flow i think i was going through a hippie phase eddie does great work and he's known for
Speaker A
traditional tribal tattoos but i'm looking forward to getting it done old school this time hand tapped in the jungle so i need your advice because i'm going back to the same village that i went to last time just be careful
Speaker A
of the uh of the lancao the lanca yes they had it in every type of bottle this is clear sort of cloudy liquid with particles in it sometimes they put all kinds of weird stuff inside them my dad
Speaker A
used to tell me they take a mosquito coil and leave it inside the uh the lancao a mosquito what coil like the pesticide yeah just make it like stronger i guess i would imagine so that's the natural staple uh gawai is
Speaker A
usually uh farting drinking passing out waking up eating drinking some more passing out again and then getting up and drinking some more yeah you're gonna have fun man wow all right [Music] so i'm headed up river again yeah sorry i can't be there
Speaker A
i promised to my guy said i'm going back about nine years late on your promise but nine years what happens with lancao you know promises come liberally it was david moggy who first took me up to the longhouse
Speaker A
on that previous trip we met at auntie ines on the outskirts of kl everything moves exponentially right um it just feels like some things remain exactly the same some things haven't changed at all this place is certainly one
Speaker A
the charming and for lack of a better word fabulous aine was an actor in the malaysian film scene who now runs a very successful kampung style restaurant specializing in beloved village or country classics all of them prepared with a staggering finesse and precision
Speaker A
this is delicious delicious food welcome it's been so long oh my god and you still look as handsome as ever all right so let's pick up right where we left off which which started with this help yourself thank you
Speaker A
well you're going to have the roast beef and this is poached egg and our favorite will be our rendang this is chicken oh so good to be back i love watching you guys eat who taught you to go
Speaker A
who is the good cook in your family when we were small my grandmother would say stuff like i don't care who you are if you can't cook you're nobody to me oh wow yeah they're from there there's no teaching malay
Speaker A
cooking here it just comes from your grandma's kitchen your mom's kitchen and you learn by smelling by seeing that's how i teach my children to cook all these dishes when you do them the aroma just floats around i know exactly
Speaker A
whether the chili paste frying in the pan ready or not it's from here basically it's from here look this food is so perfect i mean the flavors are so perfect it's so delicious [Music] after a two-hour flight from kuala
Speaker A
lumpur i land in borneo third largest island in the world divided between malaysia brunei and indonesia kuching capital of the malaysian sarawak it's a sleepy city with a colorful 19th century boys adventure story history pirates headhunters opportunists the former domain of sir james brooke an
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englishman who came to be known as the white raja for a century generations of the brook family ruled sarawak as an independent kingdom they created their own army the sarawak rangers who also acted as the raja's personal guard
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[Music] tomorrow i follow the pavement as far as it goes and then it's boats the rest of the way but first breakfast unfortunately i know exactly where to go i think i sat at the same table last time
Speaker A
if i look at my life as a continuum a trail of noodles going around and round the world until it comes right back to the same spicy bowl oh yeah that is can i say tumescent on cnn yeah pretty
Speaker A
sure i can [Music] oh yeah baby this is just a magical dish i don't know it's like two types of noodles i think chicken prawn coconut chili you know the main event to this it's the broth the wisdom of the ages is contained in
Speaker A
there it's like super complex [Music] i might need more of this [Music] all right i'll have another one of these more it's the broth the bra look at it ah thank you okay now i'm becoming the object of much
Speaker A
amusement people have noticed i'm on my second damn best breakfast ever [Music] so [Music] love that sound oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] before heading out to the longhouse i'm meeting kuching native alex wong at a dockside karaoke joint on the malay side
Speaker A
of town now what's up with the karaoke here i mean it's popular everywhere but this is alcohol-free karaoke yes in my experience you got to be really [ __ ] up to do karaoke but here apparently not no no it's the
Speaker A
spirit you know our people here they can party anytime [Music] so you're coming up river with us yes i am i am excited four days of uh non-connectivity you know that right yes i'm i'm committed to that it's the
Speaker A
drinking i'm worried about that too really seriously because it's i'm way past my drinking days you know yeah but i don't think there's an escape from it so why are you back in kuching after 10 years i mean why kitchen we have got
Speaker A
a lot of other places in borneo it's a good question um i'm revisiting some stuff just some i was in a weird place in my head when i first came here i was personally professionally everything in my life was
Speaker A
was changing i was in this sort of nowhere land between previous life and whatever came next i i'm retracing my steps to a lot of ways to see if it still hurts ah okay and also i said i'd promised these guys
Speaker A
in the village uh the chiefs that i'd come back well i made a promise and i'm gonna live up to it yeah [Music] foreign [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] even the jungle wanted him dead [Music] the spraying river what's the line
Speaker A
snakes through the sarawak jungle like a main circuit cable plugged straight in a somewhere [Music] a place a state of mind i don't know i was a basket case last time i went up this river my mind miles away
Speaker A
is this how you remember it yeah exactly the same huh ten years pretty much yeah so far you pick your way up river like walking up a gradual flight of stairs getting out often to push [Music] with several hours still to go a stop
Speaker A
for lunch oh we're eating right on the beach too all right that that's cool looks like bamboo chicken there [Music] that means delicious yeah how's your uh how's your ribbon it's uh possible i guess all basic words i gather the plan is to
Speaker A
try to get there before dark i don't think it's gonna happen [Music] [Music] hey [Music] all those years ago the man who looked after me at the longhouse was named it tom over 80 years old back then he led
Speaker A
us bounding uphill through the jungle like a young gazelle he still had the marks on his fingers of a man who'd taken heads in a tom's case presumably communist gorillas when he'd fought with the british during the malay insurgency
Speaker A
we drank many shots of rice whiskey together under a bouquet of human skulls trophies from another time and i promised i'd come back for go i a big deal in the ebon calendar when friends and relatives returned to the
Speaker A
longhouse a lot has changed since the abond tracked commies through the jungle and much has changed in the 10 years since i've been here it tom passed away the year before last at the age of 92 and the evidence of how timbering has
Speaker A
depleted much of the forest is everywhere scandalously so [Music] it's dark by the time we arrive but someone has been waiting for us please advise me a protocol [Music] oh yeah just like old times there you go my man
Speaker A
custom must be observed [Music] [Music] okay [Music] [Applause] more cell phones than last time [Music] [Music] it's a great welcome [Music] yes she cannot stand longer [Music] foreign [Music] back in antelope after a lot of years and a lot of miles
Speaker A
i wake up to the sounds of early morning village life roosters call the coughing and clearing of lungs as the elders rise to perform their morning chores the whole village lives here in separate apartments sharing a communal space that
Speaker A
runs the length of the building [Music] some things have noticeably changed the longhouse i first stayed in has been replaced by a somewhat more modern version these days there's electricity from a reliable diesel generator and while there's no cell phone signal
Speaker A
the plumbing works though washing in the river is still way i see it anyway the preferable option [Music] in this part of the world you live or die by the rice harvest less so these days as timbering has
Speaker A
changed well everything out here but traditions run deep with the aban and gowai the harvest festival was and remains like christmas and new year's rolled into one [Music] [Music] we will need pork for gawain and unfortunately that means a pig must
Speaker A
die [Music] more awkwardly custom and my personal history in this village demands once again that i do the job [Music] down by the river i shot my baby what did neil mean by that why would he do that shoot his baby
Speaker A
unless baby was a delicious delicious pig [Music] ah [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] i'd like to tell you that this is never easy that i felt this time like i did the first time sad
Speaker A
nauseated complicit aware that i'd crossed a line been changed by the violence in the blood and the awful noise but that would be a lot this time i plunged the spear in without hesitation or remorse when the pig dies
Speaker A
finally gives it up i feel only relief i have been hardened by the last 10 years i don't know what that says about me but there it is [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] far up the scrang river the countdown to
Speaker A
gawai is on and i can't help but be struck by one particular upgrade since my last visit [Music] karaoke as i come to learn constant karaoke never-ending karaoke [Music] from a limited playlist of favorites nearly 24 hours a day accompanied by
Speaker A
copious amounts of beer tuak and other strong spirits [Music] it should be pointed out go i isn't just about consuming potentially blinding amounts of alcohol it's also about food and one would be well advised to eat a lot lay down a solid base for the
Speaker A
torrent to come oh thank you i feel so guilty no no not at all actually should not so delicious i don't know it's good all right that's the event tradition uh you know put rice on your plate yeah
Speaker A
yeah yeah good delicious [Music] [Music] [Music] okay [Music] [Applause] welcome back thank you cheers [Music] all right [Music] as the revelry kicks into high gear there is nowhere to hide i know only that if i sit still anywhere
Speaker A
within range of hospitality there will be a river of booze beer tuak which is rough handcrafted local rice wine and its more lethal distilled bigger brother lang cow then somebody's pouring you johnny black or jd or vat69 then blank cow again then
Speaker A
who knows you only know it keeps coming until you sag face down onto the hand woven mats and pass out perfectly acceptable practice by the way [Music] gonna be back in paradise i wake up i go to sleep i wake up again
Speaker A
the parties move down a few doors but it's still going this is an experience that will repeat itself again and again for the next three days one time it's the ladies still standing partying like it's 1999 dancing and
Speaker A
drinking another time it's the old dudes the village chiefs and elders then everybody elders women children visiting relatives and their families from kuala lumpur and kuching and abroad wherever circumstances or the magella i took them the party expands and contracts
Speaker A
according to mysterious patterns that i am in no shape to discern [Music] one two three [Music] morning routine wake up feed the chickens rake the pepper drying in the sun then it's time to rock the bike people and it starts all over again
Speaker A
[Music] while the party continues up at the longhouse i've got an appointment [Music] if you were wondering by the way if this hurts two guys hammering away on my sternum with a bamboo club sharp needles yes yes it hurt a lot and you can be damn
Speaker A
sure if i wasn't on television while it was happening i'd be whimpering and yelping like a gut shot poodle okay right there stand up all right good very happy guys thank you happy go away all right let's party
Speaker A
another tattoo is never going to make me younger or tougher or more relevant it won't reconnect me ten years from now with some spiritual crossroads in my life no at this point i think my body is like an old car another dent
Speaker A
ain't gonna make a whole lot of difference at best it's a reminder that you're still alive and lucky as hell another tattoo another thing you did another place you've been [Music] a final long gaze at the river take in
Speaker A
probably for the last time in my life the slow rhythms of the village [Music] one more thing to do say goodbye to an old friend [Music] he was a very strong man yes i remember him well running up hill
Speaker A
faster than all of us [Music] so what do we do we leave him a beer some cigarettes [Music] first cigarette in two years for you man [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] you
Topics:Anthony BourdainParts UnknownBorneoIbanGawaiSarawakKuala LumpurLonghouseTraditional tattoosMalaysian food
