Many settlements in Sarawak are strung out along the rivers, and even today are reached not by road, but by boat.

For example the fishing village of  700 souls we saw on a river trip. It now, we were told, has electricity. No running water yet (some pipes were installed after the last election, the villagers are hoping they might get water after the next). It has both a kindergarten and a primary school. Oh, and a sports pitch. In the dry season it’s used for football. And in the wet season when the river floods?  As the driver of our boat told us, it’s used for water polo: “…and the crocodile defends the goal”.