All Under One Roof: Day III
Recuperating from the previous day's great outdoors adventure, we decided to take it a little easy and head to the Sarawak Cultural Village, Damai Beach. Breakfast was at the wet market again, but this time we had hand-made noodles. Also delicious. KH tried out Dian Bian Hu-- a Teochew dish that's made out of flour that scraped off from the edges of a giant wok into a broth of pork. Never seen anything quite like it-- eaten with a spoon and has "sick person food" written all over it. It was another bumpy 40-minute car ride out to Damai Beach, Santubong. Was quite a challenge to take pictures of Santubong mountain from the car. There's this legend that Gunung Santubong and Gunung Sejinjang were once extremely beautiful princesses from the Heavens who eventually bloodied each other with a weaving knife and a paddy mortar due to jealousy. Nearly forgotten song. I remember singing it during my primary school days.
Signage was really non-existant. We found ourselves at Holiday Inn Resort with no more road to traverse. POD finally fired up his GPS and we found that it was very-very near. Not a single sign in sight. Really amazing. SCV sprawls across 17.5 acres of land with 7 authentic ethnic houses built around a man-made lake. The houses represent the main ethnic groups in Sarawak-- Chinese, Malay, Bidayuh, Iban, Penan, Orang Ulu and Melanau. Basically, one gets to see how the indigenous people live with examples of games, handicraft, food preparation, song and dance and weapons forging. Each house has a few attendants who are suppose to explain things, but we found that some houses were either empty or the attendants too berat mulut.
The most oustanding service we received was at the Chinese Farm House. Cecilia was our guide and she went through her whole routine of explaining to us the pepper industry (the processing of white and black pepper), birds nest processing (she told us that blood birds nest is due to the high iron content in some of the caves) and the culture of the Chinese immigrants in Sarawak. She had MUCH more to say, but we had to say our goodbyes. It was interesting going around the long houses and climbing up the Melanau tall houses. Such fun using the rough-hewn timber stairs.
In addition, we caught their cultural show which showcased several ethnic dances, namely the ngajat lesung where the dancers dance with a mortar (supposedly 20kg) gripped with their teeth. I can't remember the names of the rest as the commentator talke as though he had a mouth full of tebaloi. But among the more interesting ones had a dancer spinning on a bamboo pole. He must have an iron-clad abdomen. The other hallmark dance involved crossed bamboo poles being brought together and released in a rhythmic manner while dancers step through them without getting their legs caught. Comic relief was provided by a "cocky warrior" (KH hated his posturing) and his fat friend with a blow pipe challenge thrown in with good effect.
The heat was getting to us, so we retreated to the Cat Museum. Entrance was free but taking photos would set you back MYR4.00. A whole lotta feline-themed merchandise, photos and books. Practically a temple dedicated to Bast, Maneki Neko and Doraemon. Interestingly, there's a story that a woman mixed her cremated dead cat's ashes into tattoo ink and had it tattooed on her leg. It rained again soon after we left and we found refuge at tHe Spring (the capital H is a mystery). Parking was an obscene MYR3.00 by Kuching standards. Usual mall fare. Dinner was on POD's mum. Brought us to Restoran Fook Sing. Had an interesting dish of "checkerboard duck"-- yam puree wrapped with duck meat.
Supper was at another wet market where we sampled a famous kway chap. Nic loved the whole herbal-y and innard-y goodness. I managed to buy a piece of Teochew Kueh (savoury glutinous rice in a flour casing) there too. I had searched high and low for it in KL. Was seriously full that night but we managed to work it off later... :P
...Next: Museums and last minute shopping...
Signage was really non-existant. We found ourselves at Holiday Inn Resort with no more road to traverse. POD finally fired up his GPS and we found that it was very-very near. Not a single sign in sight. Really amazing. SCV sprawls across 17.5 acres of land with 7 authentic ethnic houses built around a man-made lake. The houses represent the main ethnic groups in Sarawak-- Chinese, Malay, Bidayuh, Iban, Penan, Orang Ulu and Melanau. Basically, one gets to see how the indigenous people live with examples of games, handicraft, food preparation, song and dance and weapons forging. Each house has a few attendants who are suppose to explain things, but we found that some houses were either empty or the attendants too berat mulut.
The most oustanding service we received was at the Chinese Farm House. Cecilia was our guide and she went through her whole routine of explaining to us the pepper industry (the processing of white and black pepper), birds nest processing (she told us that blood birds nest is due to the high iron content in some of the caves) and the culture of the Chinese immigrants in Sarawak. She had MUCH more to say, but we had to say our goodbyes. It was interesting going around the long houses and climbing up the Melanau tall houses. Such fun using the rough-hewn timber stairs.
In addition, we caught their cultural show which showcased several ethnic dances, namely the ngajat lesung where the dancers dance with a mortar (supposedly 20kg) gripped with their teeth. I can't remember the names of the rest as the commentator talke as though he had a mouth full of tebaloi. But among the more interesting ones had a dancer spinning on a bamboo pole. He must have an iron-clad abdomen. The other hallmark dance involved crossed bamboo poles being brought together and released in a rhythmic manner while dancers step through them without getting their legs caught. Comic relief was provided by a "cocky warrior" (KH hated his posturing) and his fat friend with a blow pipe challenge thrown in with good effect.
The heat was getting to us, so we retreated to the Cat Museum. Entrance was free but taking photos would set you back MYR4.00. A whole lotta feline-themed merchandise, photos and books. Practically a temple dedicated to Bast, Maneki Neko and Doraemon. Interestingly, there's a story that a woman mixed her cremated dead cat's ashes into tattoo ink and had it tattooed on her leg. It rained again soon after we left and we found refuge at tHe Spring (the capital H is a mystery). Parking was an obscene MYR3.00 by Kuching standards. Usual mall fare. Dinner was on POD's mum. Brought us to Restoran Fook Sing. Had an interesting dish of "checkerboard duck"-- yam puree wrapped with duck meat.
Supper was at another wet market where we sampled a famous kway chap. Nic loved the whole herbal-y and innard-y goodness. I managed to buy a piece of Teochew Kueh (savoury glutinous rice in a flour casing) there too. I had searched high and low for it in KL. Was seriously full that night but we managed to work it off later... :P
...Next: Museums and last minute shopping...
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