The other day in Tringgus

After almost a year of absence, I decided to visit Tringgus last Saturday. A Bangladesh linguistic researcher who’s doing fieldwork in the area came along with me that noon. While he was busy doing his interviews, I was roaming the village visiting some friends who I’ve not seen for a while. Most of them were surprised to see me and thought that I’ve lost interest in their company. Yeah, right!

Almost naturally, there emerged the drink, langkau (rambutan flavor) from nowhere, and they smiled at me: “Nah, saya tau kamu mau ini“, while handing me the two Coca-Cola bottles. I adamantly refuse their kind offer….NOT! Of course not laa…So, we sadong the drink among us (blame the Iban for this method), they made jokes about me, I made jokes about them, we made jokes about politics and politicians, discussed the price of rubber, pepper, farming difficulties, etc., and after a couple of hours, the two bottles went empty. We looked at each other as if to ask “What next?”, and before I could say anything they said: “There’s no more langkau in Tringuss, we finished it last night!” My heart almost leaped out of my chest upon hearing that woeful news. I told them it is only right that we should get out arses off the floor and search for this drink. They told me that we (meaning “I”) could drive to Ledan Gumbang and get more supply from that village.

Without another precious moment to waste, we got into my vehicle and hastily made our way to that mythical land where it was said langkau flows abundantly from this man’s house. We arrived in Ledan Gumbang after crossing above the rapids of Nguan, scaled an unnamed mountain and trodded on the treacherous unmanned path less than 10 minutes later. There, the man greeted us with a huge smile and spoke Gumbang to my Tringgus friends. Of course, being an individual absent of multiple linguistic skills, I just followed orders. The man’s order, as translated by my friends, was to go enter his house and join him for a drink or two. I had no problems with that rational suggestion.

Inside, we were served with langkau, Stella, tuak and a ‘cherry’ drink. While the langkau and tuak were served sadongly, the other two kinds of drink were permanently rooted to the table facing each individual. In other words, at any one time, each person has four drinks in front of him waiting to be gulped. How very nice…

While they were busy talking in their incomprehensible language (on my part, of course), I decided to ask the man on the techniques of brewing this drink that I liked so much. He abstractly explained to me with his intricate hand movements as a manner of description, with the occasional mention of langkau jargons that were not intelligible to me, and with detailed chronology of the correct mixing formula. I nodded my head after I understood the first and second stages of the process, while the rest of the description just prompted me to absently nod my head without any form of understanding penetrating my brain. In observing my absurd facial expression and incapability to grasp his explanations, he sighed and decided to take me on a fieldtrip: “Ok, come with me and I’ll show you what I’ve just explained”.

Next to the kitchen, he showed me his langkau-brewing factory, comprising of a large jar filled with rice soaked in water. This was located in the bathroom. On a hallowed ground behind his house was placed a water-filled unused drum barrel. He also showed me the sacred brewing paraphernalia — carefully wrapped in a plastic bag — used to channel the processed langkau juice into a bottle. For me, this is an equivalent experience to Charlie’s visit to Wonker’s famous Chocolate Factory.

Langkau factory

After spending a couple of hours in Ledan Gumbang, we decided to return to Tringgus with the three bottles of newly purchased langkau. Along the way, we stopped to buy some ‘pig forest’ meat for BBQ to deliciouscize the taste of langkau. By the way, BBQ-ing and beers do not go together! It is absolutely essential that BBQ must go with langkau or any other form of liquid that contains alcohol over 20.6% (this criteria excludes those fancy cocktails that you find in one of those yuppie pubs).

And to top it off, a smoke would be nice. If you happen to smoke cigarettes like Dunhill, Malboro, Salem and its kinds, then you should just save it for another day. The essential smoke ingredient in such BBQ settings would be the rolled ones like Shag tobacco. Otherwise, cigarettes like Rave (Rokok Ada Vitamin E), Parkway, Vess, Era, etc. would do just fine. But the best of them all is the huge bong-look alike equipment! That is already a dessert in itself.

Now, that is contentment!