Blogs from Sarawak, Malaysia, Asia - page 3

Friday 18th May 2018 Well, as far as throwing paint on the canvas, how about this? Yesterday in the Sarawak Cultural Village at the foot of Mount Santubong, John had a go at using a blowpipe and I got a tattoo! My tattoo is an authentic Orang-Ulu design which is supposed to bring good fortune. More about the tattoo later! The Sarawak Cultural Village is a “living museum” designed to portray the state’s rich cultural heritage in a live form, with seven different ethnic houses around a small lake, where crafts are demonstrated, traditional activities are performed and also there are enchanting dance performances in the theatre. The living museum is geared to indigenous tourism, for Malay people to understand and experience their heritage, in the same way that living museums in the UK are visited ... read more

Tuesday 15th May 2018 On Saturday we left Sibu on the 11.30 a.m. ferry bound for Kuching. It was a gloriously sunny morning, not too humid and the ferry left on time. It was so nice to be on a boat where one could stand on deck to enjoy the passing scenery as we made our way downriver, rather than being confined to quarters inside a cabin full of passengers. O! and what an interesting and varied journey it was! Shipyards, coal yards, timber yards, old rusting hulks of barges abandoned mid-stream or beside small islands (one had trees growing through it) juxtaposed with lush verdant rainforest, wooden longhouses on Penan and Iban tribal settlements and rickety jetties with longboats tied to them, all higgledy-piggledy, providing splashes of colour bobbing on the coffee-coloured surface of the ... read more

Wednesday 9th May 2018 Our flight from Miri to Sibu on Tuesday was on time and we found a really nice little new boutique budget hotel right in the centre of town. The food here is wonderful. It seems that it gets better with every kilometre south that we travel. In both Sabah and Brunei, the food is good, it is mostly halal Malay cuisine, not particularly spicy, whereas in Sarawak, it is far more exotic, spicy and varied. We ate the best Indian ever, the night before we left Miri and our first night here in Sibu we feasted on very spicy Chinese BBQ spare ribs, chicken in plum sauce and fried rice. Tonight, we had crispy duck followed by mango, durian and coconut rolls. Delicious! The town is very busy because it is polling ... read more

Saturday 5th May 2018 When the generator goes off at 1 a.m. so does the solar power, so no light, no fan, just heat! We couldn’t wait for the power to go back on at 7 a.m. so we at least had the little fan again! So, Saturday morning started off rather sweaty; nevertheless, we were eager to get going on our second Mulu day since the first had been so fantastic After breakfast at Kenny’s we got on a traditional longboat (with an outboard on back) from our garden jetty, to travel down river to more caves within the Gunung Mulu National Park. The longboats are the only form of transport here for the Penan; the Sungai Melinau is their highway. We felt snobbishly happy when we encountered a group of twelve tourists from the ... read more

D. 07/08-12 D. 08/08 tog vi til Annahs rais (betyder village på malaysisk). Annahs rais er et homestay, hvor man bor hos en lokal familie, samt vælger nogle forskellige dagsaktiviteter. Vi valgte at blive der 2 nætter, med en jungletur til et vandfald og bamboo rafting. Vi ankom efter 1,5 time med taxi fra Kuching by til en landsby ude i skoven. Her blev vi taget godt imod af to damer, som bød os på byens risvin, som man kun kan smage i landsbyerne, hvor de laver vinen. Risvinen var ikke så slem, som forventet, dog havde man ikke lyst til mere end det ene shot, som man fik. Efter vinen blev vi hentet af vores vært, som vi skulle bo hos de næste 2 nætter. Vi ankom til et fint hus, hvor der stod morgenmad ... read more