Village Rantings - Where is my kampung?

I'll be home for Christmas...... so the song goes.

This year Christmas was spent at my hometown along the Trusan river in Lawas, Sarawak.

It's a little bit difficult to pin point where exactly my kampung (village) is. You see, my parent's family and relatives have moved several times over the past 30 years for many reasons - erosion of riverbanks and village disputes, to name a few.

So where is my kampung? Long Bidang, was what i told someone recently, who tried but failed to find it on GoogleEarth. It's rather insignificant considering that some villages can be as small as just 4 houses. But it would have a ketua kampung (headman) and in most cases even a church (in most cases a Sidang Injil Borneo or SIB church).

So where is my village (otherwise also known as 'long')? I was born in a village called Tang Lepadan, then my both parents' families moved out to Long Bidang and then my dad's family moved out to Long Sebatu.

Then I have relatives scattered in villages far and near. We tried to visit as many as we could during this Christmas trip, but with too many potholes on the road and muddied after the heavy rain, we only managed a few.

But for simplification purposes I'd tell people I'm from the highlands of Borneo, from a generation of headhunters - so.... Don't mess with me!