Day 1 (07/01/2005)
Kak Ma and I took the 5.45 ERL from KL Sentral to KLIA and we boarded the plane around 7 a.m. We arrived in Kuching International Airport close to 9 a.m and proceed to Holiday Inn Kuching. Luckily, Pinie didn’t forget to leave the hotel key at the reception counter and then apa lagi.. membunkang ler aku ngan Kak Ma. At first, we thought that we would have lunch with Pinie but then decided against it and not until around 2.30 p.m that Kak Ma and I went to Satok. After we had lunch well.. late lunch, we just went to explore the Wisma Satok area and decided to wait for Pinie to finished work. Raining!! I don’t know why, but I think that whenever I went for a holiday, it always raining, even for awhile.. huhmm..!!
At 6 p.m baru ler mak cik Pinie tu call. Dah la call dia susah nak dapat asyik masuk voice mail jer.. (bateri kong), anyway, she took us inside the bank and Gopi and Andy were quite surprise to see me.. hehehehe, just the other day that Gopi asked me to go with them and I said I had no money but what he didn’t know that I already bought the tickets to Kuching. We went back to the hotel and had our dinner at Sarawak Plaza and then bought our tickets to Damai – Sarawak Cultural Village at the base of Mount Santubong. It cost about RM55.00 (transportation to and from as well as the entrance fee of RM45.00)
Day 2 (08/01/2005)
It was a wet morning, outside it was drizzling. We took off at 9 a.m and arrived there 45 minutes later, we took our passport at the entrance.. yup, they will give you a green passport and went you went to visit the houses they will chop the passport and verified that you have visited the houses. Neat!! As soon as we stepped inside the cultural village, the view was breathtaking and magnificent. The morning flowers were in bloom, the air was clear and fresh, you can see Mount Santubong partially covered with mist and you can see the lake and houses nestled at the base of the mountain. First destination.. Bidayuh Longhouse, then Iban Longhouse, the Penan Hut.. uii seksi.. hehehehe, muka mamat sorang tu macam muka classmate aku kat Kelantan dulu, muka Awe (apa mamat tu buat skang ni?), ka situ jugak ada la orang yg try guna sumpit tu.. eeeii.. tak nak la aku dah berpuluh-puluh orang guna menatang tu, geli aku walaupun memang dia ada guna antiseptic to wipe sumpit tu. Lepas tu pegi plak umah Melanau. Tinggi rumah dia. Tiang pun guna batang balak yang tak dipotong so, can you just imagine, they’re using one whole tree to make the base of the house and I think the house is about 20ft high or probably more and it’s a 3 story house with lots of small rooms for the families. At the back of the house, there is a sago hut, a place where they process the sago tree to make sago flour which is the staple food of the Melanau’s since rice is not their main diet. And of course don’t forget the big, fat, white sago worm.. I can’t remember what they called that thing but one of the tourist, a Chinese did try the delicacy which is quite unsettling since it’s alive and squirming.. ewww!! The sago flour is also used to make a traditional crackers or something called “Tabaloi” which I cannot describe the taste. You have just gotta try it yourself. Our journey stopped there at the Melanau House and we rushed to the theatre since the cultural show starts at about 11.30 a.m and we don’t wanna be late. We managed to get a very good seats at the centre and our view were not blocked by those mat sallehs since you know la those people tinggi sangat. J .
The performance started with a welcoming dance and then followed by Ngajat Lesong, a performance by two warriors clad in their national costume (you know.. cawat and all.. hehehe) but, one of the dancer caught my eye since he looked like Xie Zhi of 5566 but his face a bit more prominent than Xie Zhi. His performance’s very convincing and I was mesmerized by the strength of his character. It seems that I’m not the only one, by the look of the faces around us, everybody seemed enchanted by him too and the other dancer seemed insignificant. Not to say Kak Ma.. she was so excited since he is the only skinny person that she felt attracted to..hampess!! Then, they danced this one dance using a few poles and things started to get interesting, not because of the dance but rather the dancers forget their moves and things started to look comical, with the dancers all tersengih on the stage (including kembar Xie Zhi). There’re a few more dances and there’s this one dance by Orang Ulu called Kanjet Ngeleput, where it potrays the warriors on a hunting trip with his spears and sumpit .. ok, during the performance, we are allowed to take pictures and during the dance, there’s this one girl took a picture of the dancer and the dancer went to the edge of the stage and aimed his spear at the girl and looking so ferocious and of course with a deadly intend. The best part is we know that it’s an act but still if somebody aimed a deadly weapon at you, you’ll find yourself in a very awkward position, with all eyes were on you and you don’t know how to react. You can hear some people let out a nervous laugh. Pheww.. luckily it’s not me and then they invite a foreign tourist up on the stage (the rock!!) she’s quite good using the sumpit. Anyway, the performance ended with the song Malaysia Truly Asean and invited the audience to dance with them on the stage. Overall, it was a performance to be remembered.
After the show, we had our lunch at the restaurant and the guy from the Penan Hut (I’ll post the picture later) which also happened to be one of the Kanjet Ngeleput dancer happened to be there too and he looked different wearing a short and an orange T-shirt, hehehehe.. he greeted us, I think he remembered us from the Penan Hut and also because we rejected his invitation to dance on the stage. After lunch, we went back to visit the Malay House and the Chinese Farm House, nothing much to see there and I went to the restaurant to buy a mineral water and there’s this guy wearing a white shirt and a black track bottom said hi to me and I wondered where I met this guy and then it hit me.. toingg!! The guy who danced the Ngajat Lesung!!. So different!! He looked so young.. macam adik-adik jer.. and I told Kak Ma and when we went to the prayer room, we saw him playing ping pong inside their recreational room. Memang macam adik-adik. Hampess!!
We decided to take a walk to Holiday Inn, Damai Lagoon, which is quite nice, only 5 minutes from the Sarawak Cultural Village and then decided to wait for our transport back to Kuching at Holiday Inn, Damai Beach.. yes, those two inns are different and we walk almost 1 km to Holiday Inn, Damai Beach. Nyesal tul, but I liked this one better than the lagoon. The waves were quite high which reminds me of the tsunami that just happened recently. It’s beautiful but at the same time frightening and I’m awed at the strength of the waves and at the glory and magnificent creation of the Almighty.
We went back to our hotel and I received a called from Saifull, amboii, cepat jer bebudak ni tau aku ada kat sini, before that I got a call from Hizril. Saiful nak ajak minum, tapi aku penat la. He asked me to call him back if I changed my mind and of course after that they’re going to for a karaoke session somewhere in Kuching. Tired la. Around 6 p.m we went for a walk at the Water Front by the riverside, they paved the river side and there’re food stalls there so that you can enjoy you drinks and foods while enjoying the view by the river side. Terjumpa la pulak si Saiful tgh minum ngan one of the guys from Finance but I can’t remember his name. Jalan sampai ke hujung pas tu konon-kononnyer nak naik tram ke Satok tapi balik ke Hotel dulu la, kul 8 cenggitu tunggula tram, dah naik dah tram ni pusing-pusing Bandar Kuching rupa-rupanya tram kul 8 mlm ni tak ke satok.. hampess!! Turun ler balik pas tu makan mee kolok kat riverside tu pas tu balik lepak ka hotel.
Day 3 (09/01/2005)
Bangun lambat, maklum la penat berjalan semalam. Since today is Sunday, we went to Satok market. We found a lot of stuff there, from crafts, t-shirts, fruits veggies, seafood and stuff that you’ve never seen before. It’s raining again.. very hard this time. We went back to the hotel. After lepak for awhile, decided to explore the craft shops not far from the waterfront. You can find all kinds of thing, from miniature sape, spears, shields, sheepskins, rattan bags, keychains, all kinds of mats, T-shirts, vases, sculptures and lots more. Bought a few souvenirs and t-shirts but cannot afford to buy much, nanti yang mampu makan batu ngan kayu lak. We went to Satok again, to one of the Bank’s staff. She invited us for dinner at her house. She got a few cats and I was wounded during a battle with a very cute cat named Ginger. J .
Day 4 (10/01/2005)
Pinie had to go to work and Kak Ma and I went to Crowne Plaza and then raid the craft shops again. And we ate maggie mee since there’s nothing much to eat there in Kuching, not really accepted to our tastebud actually. Evening, we started to packed our things since our flights was at 9.25pm. got sms from Air Asia informing that our flight was retimed to 11.25p.m. Called Air Asia to confirmed, at first she said it was 12.25 a.m then when I asked her to checked again she said it was 11.25 p.m. Went to the airport around 10 something and guess what?? The flight was retimed again until 12.50a.m. Bengang betul tu tak kira lagi perangai dia punya staff. Hampess kelapa tul. Aku dah la hangin satu badan pas tu siap cakap kat aku suruh beratur, memang la aku tengah beratur, dia ingat aku tgh makan hangin ker hapa. The plane took off around 1 a.m and arrived at KLIA almost 3 a.m. My sister and her boyfriend picked us up and arrived home around 4 a.m.
Besoknyer.. tak gi kerja.. hahahahahaha. Tak leh bangun beb.
