Having said that, the modern traveller might be under considerable pressure to find a White Raja, but more of headhunters, impenetrable jungles and exotic wildlife later.

This is Borneo today. It's a jungle out there — a jungle with rivers, a jungle with mountains, a jungle with beaches. It's the third largest island in the world (after Greenland and New Guinea). It consists of two parts, Kalimantan, the southern, Indonesian section, and the northern Malaysian section, Sarawak and Sabah. (There's also the tiny Sultanate of Brunei, run by an obscenely rich sultan, naturally, but we weren't invited for tea so we won't bother with that).

Our concern is Sarawak and Sabah, the good bit. Here we have some of the oldest and finest virgin rainforest in the world, having been there for a hundred million years. The mountainous backbone of the island sends a myriad jungle-bound rivers rushing down to the sea. The jungles, the rivers and the sea contain among the most extraordinary biological diversity of flora and fauna in the world.

But what's in it for the tourist? Well, there are some thoroughly delightful towns, including Kuching (the City of Cats), capital of Sarawak. Everything seems to be in miniature in Kuching, but it is one of the most charming towns in the orient. There is a large Chinese influence on the architecture and much of the culture, but there is also a huge overlay of the cultures of all the other peoples who have made this island their home, including the Dutch, the Portuguese and the British.

Kuching is also the centre for exploring Sarawak (our jungle journey with the cellphone-using head-hunting descendant started here). The Bako National Park is close by, well, a taxi drive, a most delightful ride in a sea-going longboat, then a looong walk and possibly your first experience of Borneo's jungle. Be prepared to sweat it out, but the effort is worth it because the jungle experience is truly remarkable.

Jungle wildlife

Here and in other National Parks you will find, if you are lucky, orang-utans and gibbons, (we found orang-utans in Sabah), the Proboscis monkey, langurs, macaques (also monkeys and we found all three in Bako), Sun bears, the Clouded leopard, flying squirrels, a profusion of bird species, including huge and spectacular hornbills, giant butterflies, crocodiles and snakes, including the world's longest, the Reticulated python.

And wildlife bonus time — if you are very, very lucky, in the jungles of the mountain backbone of Borneo you may just come across some evidence of the presence (please note I do not even hint at an actual presence) of the Sumatran rhinoceros. The Sumatran — also known as the Asian two-horned or Hairy — rhinoceros is critically endangered and the possibility of it having been seen in Borneo's jungles is discussed only in hushed, conspiratorial tones.

The jungle flora is just as spectacular as the wildlife, with Malaysian Borneo home of some of the world's tallest rain forest trees and the world's biggest flower. This is the Rafflesia, a carrion plant that lives off insects.

Rivers and longhouses

Although there is an adequate road network, the way to see some of the best parts of both Sarawak and Sabah is by using the rivers. That highland backbone spawns wild rivers that find their way through the jungle to the sea, specifically the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea.

We travelled up the Lemanak River in a wooden longboat, a thin, flat-bottomed craft powered and steered by an outboard motor and paddled and girl-handled through the many rapids by the cellphone owner who sat up for'ard. The rivers are for the most part shallow, rocky, fast and totally jungle-bound. They are criss-crossed by narrow, rickety swaying bridges linking the many riverside longhouses, and the riverbanks and shallows are filled with naked children enjoying being children

Our girl's name was Minah and we were on our way to her family's longhouse in the Batang Ai National Park in the highlands. A longhouse is like a wooden block of flats sitting horizontally (rather than vertically) on stilts, almost always next to a river. The house is home to a number of families who have their private quarters (kitchen and ablutions) at the back, but who then share the much wider, open front section, which runs the full length of the house, for all other family activity. The system can at best, and at least politely, be described as orderly chaos.

Minah's family are Iban. There are about 200 Dayak tribes in Borneo, by far the biggest slice of the multi-cultural mix of that side of the island, and of the Dayaks the Iban are the biggest tribe in Sarawak. The Iban are also known as the Sea Dayaks, because of their erstwhile habit of undertaking forays down the rivers and out to sea in search of passing loot. They also have the greatest reputation as headhunters, in fact, the last head hunter in Minah's family died just a couple of years ago, well, so it is said.

Minah's longhouse was called Nanga Kesit and we were treated to brunch (sitting in a circle on the floor of the kitchen in the back) and then an impromptu floorshow of music and dance in which the entire community, or so it seemed, participated. This was largely due, I imagine, because copious quantities of the local tuak (the original Jungle Juice made from rice, I think, I hope!) were being served.

They were all delightful people and it was all highly entertaining.

Sabah

The state of Sabah is a short hop away by plane, or a very long hop away by road, from Kuching. The capital is Kota Kinabalu, adequate, but not a charming little city like Kuching, basically because the Japanese flattened it during World War Two. In fact, the Japanese record on Borneo during WWll is not a glowing one and the less said the better. However, one can still see memorials to such events as the Sandakan Death March, when 2700 British and Australian POWs were forced marched from Sandakan in Sabah to Ranau near Mount Kinabalu — there were seven survivors, seven out of 2700.

Next stop was off to Mount Kinabalu. At 4101m this is the highest point between the Himalayas and the New Guinea Highlands. It is probably the youngest high peak in the world and it's still growing, so, if you want to climb it do so this year, because next year it will be 5mm higher.

It is not just a high mountain, it is a spectacular high mountain. There are never-ending views of it from the foothills around it, from the base of the mountain itself and if you are fortunate, from the air (our pilot, with a little time to spare, did a 360º circuit of Mount Kinabalu on route from Kuching to Kota Kinabalu, just for the fun of it).

From KK one can venture into the many National Parks of Sabah, basically by exploring the many rivers. There are also the islands in the Sulu Sea.

Travel advisory
• Getting there: Kuching and Kota Kinabalu are readily accessible from Kuala Lumpur on the Malaysian mainland, which is in turn very accessible from South Africa via Malaysian Airlines.
• Tours and treks: Absolute Tours can help you arrange these from South Africa.
• Accommodation: anything from Hiltons (literally) to overnighting in a longhouse (watch those footballs!).
• Eating and drinking: the seafood is spectacular, the beer is good, mind the tuak.
• Security: like the rest of modern Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah are well run, efficient and very safe.