BARIO, MALAYSIA — "At one time or another, I imagine that we have all dreamed about how wonderful it would be to live in a Shangri-La where the climate is ideal, food is plentiful and the girls are beautiful." -- W.M. Toynbee, Canadian schoolteacher and author, on Borneo's Kelabit Highlands
Toynbee's words became a neon news crawl through my brain as my puddle jumper arched over the mountain into the heart of Borneo. The Baram River wound its way through the countryside like a giant anaconda.
Inside the plane I could feel a temperature change. Gone was the suffocating humidity of the Borneo coast, where I could barely find respite lounging at a luxury resort. In came cooler, clean air as the plane climbed to a lush land 5,500 feet above sea level.
I was flying to what Australian anthropologist and World War II hero Tom Harrison called "the last frontier of the tropical world." The Kelabit Highlands are home to descendants of headhunters, and they're among the most isolated places on Earth, reachable only by plane.
As I gazed down from seemingly just above the towering treetops, I spotted one mole on the Mona Lisa that Toynbee tried to paint. Crude dirt roads cut through the forest, but I noticed the roads didn't connect. They were built merely to roll into the jungle and roll lumber out.
After five days in the Kelabit (pronounced Kel-AW-bit) Highlands, I can confirm that Toynbee's observations ring true 40 years later. I trekked through mysterious jungles, slept in the Kelabits' 200-foot long houses in a village surrounded by majestic peaks and ate some of the best food in Southeast Asia. And, yes, the girls are beautiful.
But there is trouble in Shangri-La. The massive logging industry is encroaching, waiting to pounce like some of the ghost leopards that used to roam these jungles. The modern Kelabits, a people so gentle they rarely talk above a whisper, feel like shouting.
"The Bario Loop is one of the most famous treks in Borneo," said Ridi Lio, my jungle guide. "Since logging came in, half the Bario Loop has been destroyed."
The other half is alive and well. So are the Kelabit Highlands. For now.
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If the planet could have a prototype village for escaping the real world, Bario would be it. About 120 Kelabits live along a few roads that lead into the surrounding jungle and highlands. On daily walks I'd pass rice paddies, climb grassy knolls and smell fields of the sweetest pineapple I've ever tasted.
