Heard of Bario? Winona? Tiny towns are an escape from excess, and a gift of time

They may be far-flung, but some corners of the world offer the rarity of space to breathe and be.

- Lee Siew Hua

These days, when I feel provoked, I remind myself: "Remember Bario."

Those two words transport me back to the cluster of villages sequestered in the Sarawak highlands—my escape from excess and stress three weeks ago.

I loved the gentle pace. I thought its Kelabit people, one of Borneo's tiniest tribes, were gracious and globally connected.

Sarawak is geographically really close to Singapore, yet it is a discovery. That's so with many isolated places in South-east Asia, tucked-away treasures for wanderers.

For the first time, I stayed in a longhouse. Our host family served freshly foraged ferns alongside hyperlocal curries, stir-fries and roasts seasoned with Bario's fine mountain salt. Despite my carb-avoidance, I'd scoop up Bario's fragrant high-altitude rice that win awards. I'd relish the sweetest pineapples plucked from a nearby plot.

We trekked, star-gazed from our homestay and enjoyed cinnamon coffee by the fireplace after breakfast, lingering with the Bulan family whose second and third generations are now mostly dispersed elsewhere in Sarawak and around the world.

An accident during my time there highlighted the resilience and big-heartedness of the locals.

A monstrous pickup truck, rented by the Bulans to ferry a seasonal surge of visitors but driven one rainy night by a helpful Malaysian city-dweller, backed into a padi field. The Bulans quickly assured the regretful young driver that he needn't worry.

But they were worried. It might cost 10,000 ringgit, a huge sum, to repair the truck. "Why did you let him drive?" a young Bulan quietly asked her father, out of the motorist's earshot.

The next morning, in the kampung spirit, their community gathered to haul the truck out of the mud. It did not have a single scratch, miraculously.

At the end of my stay, a conversation with Ms Rachel Bulan, 38, who was visiting her family in Bario, got me thinking.