Photos

The acrid smoky interior of a Bario salt making wooden shed in the forest of Kelabit Highland near Pa' Umur, 2 hours trek from Bario.

Bario salt is highly sought for its organic value. Unlike normal table salt, Bario salt is riched with other minerals especially Iodine.

At left are the two steel vats for boiling dry salt water fetch from a salt spring and on the right by the raised wooden platform, two family members are packaging the dried salt into leaf wrapped rolls.

MASwings serves 2 flights every day to Bario, a highland village about 1300m ASL on the Tama Abu mountain range and considered to be the remotest part of Sarawak. This mountainous region is also home to the Kelabit and Penan, 2 of the minority ethnics of Sarawak. Another two ethnics nearby are the Murut and Lundayeh within the mountainous forested region up north around the area of the tri-border of Sabah, Sarawak and Kalimantan.

The other ethnics of Sarawak are the riverine Kenyah, Saban, Punan and Kayan generally found along the rivers and tributaries of Rejang and Baram.

Ethnics living along the coastal areas are Iban, Melanau and Bidayuh.