e-Bario

Bario is a small and remote community in the heart of the Kelabit Highlands in the north of Sarawak, one of the Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. It is only accessible by air. It's a great place for challenging and adventurous trekking in the forested mountains. Bario offers homestay and local English-speaking guides to provide close encounters with the local cultural, culinary and natural attractions. At its elevated location, the climate is near perfect, neither excessively hot or humid, which adds greatly to the experience, especially for rainforest trekking.

The ideas behind Asian Encounters were formed in Bario after the opening of a telecentre there which provides access to telephones, computers and the internet to the previously isolated community. The internet is used to promote tourism to Bario and the surrounding Kelabit Highlands, which has greatly increased in recent years. This has underpinned the local economy in various ways, not the least from the resultant increase in flights into and out of Bario.

Click here to go to Bario village tourism