Actually, most Kelabit live in separated houses now. The trouble with longhouses is that if one of the units catches fire, then they all tend to go up, so the authorities encourage people to develop separate houses instead.Before I went to Bario, I believed that the mountains running through the centre of Borneo formed a more-or-less impenetrable barrier that created a natural border between Sarawak (Malaysia) and Kalimantan (Indonesia). But while there, I found out that the Kelabit language is closely related to the languages spoken by the Lundayeh people who live in Long Bawan over the border in Kalimantan and also the Murut who live closer to the coast in Lawas and Limbang in Sarawak as well as in Temburong, which is part of Brunei.
The languages spoken by the Kelabit, Lundayeh and Murut people can all be regarded as dialects of the same language. My informant told me that the three just differ in their melodies, which presumably refers to their intonation.
In fact, there is substantial coming and going of the people over the border between Sarawak and Kalimantan; and to get from Bario to Ba' Kelalan, which is also in Sarawak, you actually have to walk through part of Kalimantan. There are no roads — it's a two-day trek along forest paths, but that doesn't stop local people making the journey.
