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SCMP Reporter

'I think you've seen nothing of  Semporna,' says Joseph Yapp Yuk-tong, proprietor of the Floating Restaurant. I've dropped in  after a six-hour exploration of  Kampung Air,   the biggest water village in the  area surrounding the town of Semporna.

'Wait,' he says, walking away then returning with some photographs. They show clusters of spindly, box-shaped, thatched stilt-houses built over the sea  and the  Bajau  people who live in them.

'Are they around here?' I ask.

'I'll take you there tomorrow.'

'That means I'll have to change all my travel plans.'

'Change them.'

Semporna is  in the far southeast of the Malaysian state of Sabah, which constitutes the northern part of the island of Borneo. It was founded as a trading post in 1887 by the British North Borneo Chartered Company, whose agenda was to tax the thriving local trade in turtle eggs,   sea cucumbers, dried fish, birds' nests, shark fins and pearls.

The  region, which is close to the Sulu Islands of the Philippines, was once a haven for pirates and slave traders, and for the boat-dwelling nomads - the  Bajau Laut - who were suspected by the company of plying both these industries. A sizeable fleet of Bajau lepas (house-boats) used to be moored seasonally in Semporna's harbour but, with the gradual abandoning of the seafaring lifestyle, the lepas have all but disappeared. In their place is a network of kampung air - or 'water villages' - such as  the aforementioned, and descriptively named, one, almost all of which are connected by rickety, raised wooden walkways.

Everyone who ventures along the plank-walks  encounters the hospitality  of these people.  In my case it's an invitation for coffee from the Amang family  and a tour of their huge and well-furnished home, as well as the honour of  witnessing a marriage celebration at the Boneh family's  two-storey house. This is a spectacular event complete with a traditional dance performed to the rhythm of   drums,  cymbals and xylophones.

The domain of the Bajau Laut stretches out from Kampung Air towards three islets known collectively as  Pu' Bangau-Bangau. It is here that Yapp wants to take me, to the village of Kampung Bangau-Bangau and, even farther afield, to Kampung Halo.

What sets Bangau-Bangau apart from nearby villages is the vibrant life and colour  along  the kilometre-long walkway that leads to and from it and the islets. The 'path' is lined with  shops and stalls. However, the farther  along it you venture, the  fewer the stalls - and  planks.

By the time  I reach the first of the Bangau-Bangau islets I am  hopping (and hoping) from one spindly cross-strut to the next.

Semporna's Bajau Laut  have buried their dead  on one of these islets for centuries. The graves are now Muslim, in line with the conversion to Islam that most of the sea folk have  undergone. To the land-dwelling Tausug-speaking peoples of the Sulu Islands, the sea folk were once outcasts - pagans with no status  or home. For  more than 1,000 years, the lot of the Bajau was  to roam the seas.

The gypsies journeyed far,  exploring an area of more than  10.2 million square kilometres and touching many  shores: Palawan to the north, Mindanao to the east and, to the south, Sulawesi, Kalimantan,  even Timor and Flores.

But the lives of the Bajau have  changed. Drawn into Semporna's cash economy, they are increasingly sedentary. About 140,000  live in stilt kampung, from which they have access to a hospital and mosques.

A primary school is on another of the Pu' Bangau-Bangau islets. While visiting, I inadvertently   distract the children from their lessons. The islet's outbound plank-walk feels  too bouncy for my weight so I  crawl, accompanied by a shrill chorus of children's laughter.

About 100 metres from the shore of the cemetery islet is Kampung Halo, the subject of Yapp's photographs. It comprises two clusters of thatched stilt houses and is home to  recently arrived refugees  fleeing political unrest in the Sulus and hard economic times. It is the only kampung not accessible by the walkways and Yapp informs me I may be its first foreigner visitor.

As we approach by boat, Kampung Halo's isolation is evident. There are no electric cables and no attachments to the land. I certainly feel like the first outsider to have stepped onto its shaky plank-walks.

The children pile out  of their homes, looking    confused and apprehensive. When reassured, they run amok, showing  how deftly they can negotiate the  spindly boards. There is nowhere I can aim my camera without them being in the frame. They seem to treat every house as their own, running in then peering  at me from the windows and doors. Women sit on landings shredding tapioca and cleaning fish. A small stall sells cooking oil and sweets. The huts seem exceptionally crude: a small box for possessions,  a cooking hearth and woven mats are the only furnishings.

The villagers are clearly happy I have come and  want me to stay. Unfortunately, I have a plane to catch. How  can I tell them that? As I take my leave, some adults join the children to see me off:  20 gleaming faces and 20 robust sets of lungs.

'Hey, go tell the world we're here!' they scream.

Getting there: Cathay Pacific flies from Hong Kong to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Malaysia Airlines flies daily from Kota Kinabalu to Tawau. Semporna is a 40-minute drive from Tawau; taxis, minibuses and rental cars are available.



Walk the planks