Feeling that I had seen most of what I had wanted in Malaysia and specifically Kuching, I just planned one activity for my last half-day in Malaysia before heading back to Singapore in the evening - a trip to Sarawak Cultural Village. Though I knew it would be touristy, this park created about an hour outside the capital city attempts to create the traditional houses/living environments of many of the major ethnic groups found throughout the country. After leaving my bags behind at a nearby hotel, I caught the shuttle, finding myself to be the only rider, and I was soon at the park, though I felt bad that I had a few crackers on the ride over and offered some to my driver who reminded me that he couldn't eat during Ramadan; it wasn't a big deal at all, but it would have been better if it hadn't have happened.
The tourist destination actually appeared fairly quiet and uncrowded, and I found out that it is often crowded with Malaysian tourists, so Ramadan kept it calm for the month, which was a good thing for me. Entering the center, you pass through the gates towards a small brown lake, along which runs a wooden boardwalk, connecting 7 dwellings of all different styles. At each stop, there are a few people dressed in the traditional costumes, often performing songs, music or crafts associated with that particular ethnic group. They also give you a cheesy little passport at the start of the park, encouraging you to stamp your passport at each of the different villages/houses. Circling around, the first two were the least interesting to me, featuring a traditional Chinese house and then a colonial Malaysian one, both fairly Westernized.
Next, I moved on to a few of the more traditional rainforest cultures, approaching the massive tallhouse of the Melanau people who only make up about 6% of the Malaysian population. This huge structure sits on high stilts, helping protect it from attack and presumably flooding, featuring a huge interior big enough for a few families and a kitchen, living room, etc. Within the house, the separate levels are connected by narrow 'ladders' that are simply slanted logs with steps carved into it, making the climb a bit tricky, especially for those with big feet that don't quite fit into the little niches. Moving on, I visited the colorful stilt house of the Orang Ulu, a name that means the Upriver People, another group that originally lived in the rainforests of the country. This was not as massive as the tallhouse, but it is also set on shorter stilts, keeping the house off the forest floor below, revealing numerous rooms inside, decorated with black, white and red paint in various swirls and tribal designs, adding a brightness not found in some of the other pure wood structures. The 'local inhabitants' were also busy carving a few logs into traditional guitar-like instruments that I believe are called sape.
Past the Orang Ulu portion, I found the tiny huts used by the Penan people who are still nomadic hunters in the forest, moving around when the food supply becomes low, hence the simple huts made from bamboo, wood and palm leaves. The little huts were very basic, and apparently a large portion of the Penan people (who make up a small portion of Malaysia) still prefer to live away from the modern cities, moving in and out of the jungle as they please. At this hut, I also got to try my skills with the blow pipe again, shooting a few darts at a target hung on a tree about 20 yards away. My aim was slightly better than it was when I tried this back in Taman Negara at the start of my trip, but I still missed the bull's eye.
Twice a day, the center holds a performance featuring songs, dances and traditional costumes of all of the featured cultures, so this was my next stop, though I wondered what ethnicity these people really were, as the same 7-10 people would perform each dance, changing outfits and dance styles depending on the song. Afterwards, I visited the Iban longhouse, one of the most well-known native dwellings in Malaysia, and tourists can often spend a night or two in the real longhouses up the rivers from some of the cities in Borneo, though the experience is obviously not quite authentic, since you have to arrange it through tourist-bureaus. As with the other structures, the longhouse is made of simple wood and bamboo construction, and this one is known for the long, narrow shape with a long common area running down the middle, flanked by the rooms of the individual families. Whole villages can actually share the same longhouse, so this really is where everything happens. My final stop was at the large, circular hut of the Bidayuh people, a group who were once headhunters and displayed some of their weapons and fruits of the hunt along the walls in the entrance to the house.
Being my last day in Malaysia, I hoped for a good lunch, and the cafeteria in the Sarawak Cultural Village actually wasn't terribly overpriced, so I was happy to find a good version of the fried noodles, kway tiao, that I love, and I was also able to try one of the Bornean specialties, jungle fern. The fern is basically steamed and flavored with just a bit of Malaysian spices, and the slightly crunchy green vegetable was pretty good, not all that different from what you'd expect it would taste like. This lunch was also crucial because the day before I had a very average noodle dish, and given my high expectations for Malaysian food that rarely disappoints, I regretted my choice of cafes, and I didn't want to end the culinary portion of this journey on a low note, so I was glad that I found a decent meal for my last taste of the country. Back in town, I grabbed my bags and headed off to the airport, ready to get back to Singapore that evening. I had actually booked two flights from Borneo to Singapore, one from the North end of the island (in Kota Kinabalu) and one at the South end (in Kuching), as there was a sale on Air Asia. The sales, and even normal prices, are so cheap that it was better for me to book both tickets and simply lose one in order to give me more flexibility in travelling through the region, and by booking a week or two in advance, I got each ticket for just about $20 including taxes, so I thought it was a good idea. In fact, the Air Asia flights are so cheap that it makes me wonder about coming back to Kuala Lumpur, the hub, and just using that as a base for traveling throughout Southeast Asia, as their network is pretty good.
With my last week or so in Malaysia, I remembered why I had liked the country the first time around, with its good mix of great food, Asian and indigenous cultures, ease of travel thanks to good infrastructure and English speakers and relative calmness compared to other parts of Southeast Asia. As I said before, the whole country came as a pleasant surprise to me, and I wouldn't mind returning in the future...
The tourist destination actually appeared fairly quiet and uncrowded, and I found out that it is often crowded with Malaysian tourists, so Ramadan kept it calm for the month, which was a good thing for me. Entering the center, you pass through the gates towards a small brown lake, along which runs a wooden boardwalk, connecting 7 dwellings of all different styles. At each stop, there are a few people dressed in the traditional costumes, often performing songs, music or crafts associated with that particular ethnic group. They also give you a cheesy little passport at the start of the park, encouraging you to stamp your passport at each of the different villages/houses. Circling around, the first two were the least interesting to me, featuring a traditional Chinese house and then a colonial Malaysian one, both fairly Westernized.
Next, I moved on to a few of the more traditional rainforest cultures, approaching the massive tallhouse of the Melanau people who only make up about 6% of the Malaysian population. This huge structure sits on high stilts, helping protect it from attack and presumably flooding, featuring a huge interior big enough for a few families and a kitchen, living room, etc. Within the house, the separate levels are connected by narrow 'ladders' that are simply slanted logs with steps carved into it, making the climb a bit tricky, especially for those with big feet that don't quite fit into the little niches. Moving on, I visited the colorful stilt house of the Orang Ulu, a name that means the Upriver People, another group that originally lived in the rainforests of the country. This was not as massive as the tallhouse, but it is also set on shorter stilts, keeping the house off the forest floor below, revealing numerous rooms inside, decorated with black, white and red paint in various swirls and tribal designs, adding a brightness not found in some of the other pure wood structures. The 'local inhabitants' were also busy carving a few logs into traditional guitar-like instruments that I believe are called sape.
Past the Orang Ulu portion, I found the tiny huts used by the Penan people who are still nomadic hunters in the forest, moving around when the food supply becomes low, hence the simple huts made from bamboo, wood and palm leaves. The little huts were very basic, and apparently a large portion of the Penan people (who make up a small portion of Malaysia) still prefer to live away from the modern cities, moving in and out of the jungle as they please. At this hut, I also got to try my skills with the blow pipe again, shooting a few darts at a target hung on a tree about 20 yards away. My aim was slightly better than it was when I tried this back in Taman Negara at the start of my trip, but I still missed the bull's eye.
Twice a day, the center holds a performance featuring songs, dances and traditional costumes of all of the featured cultures, so this was my next stop, though I wondered what ethnicity these people really were, as the same 7-10 people would perform each dance, changing outfits and dance styles depending on the song. Afterwards, I visited the Iban longhouse, one of the most well-known native dwellings in Malaysia, and tourists can often spend a night or two in the real longhouses up the rivers from some of the cities in Borneo, though the experience is obviously not quite authentic, since you have to arrange it through tourist-bureaus. As with the other structures, the longhouse is made of simple wood and bamboo construction, and this one is known for the long, narrow shape with a long common area running down the middle, flanked by the rooms of the individual families. Whole villages can actually share the same longhouse, so this really is where everything happens. My final stop was at the large, circular hut of the Bidayuh people, a group who were once headhunters and displayed some of their weapons and fruits of the hunt along the walls in the entrance to the house.
Being my last day in Malaysia, I hoped for a good lunch, and the cafeteria in the Sarawak Cultural Village actually wasn't terribly overpriced, so I was happy to find a good version of the fried noodles, kway tiao, that I love, and I was also able to try one of the Bornean specialties, jungle fern. The fern is basically steamed and flavored with just a bit of Malaysian spices, and the slightly crunchy green vegetable was pretty good, not all that different from what you'd expect it would taste like. This lunch was also crucial because the day before I had a very average noodle dish, and given my high expectations for Malaysian food that rarely disappoints, I regretted my choice of cafes, and I didn't want to end the culinary portion of this journey on a low note, so I was glad that I found a decent meal for my last taste of the country. Back in town, I grabbed my bags and headed off to the airport, ready to get back to Singapore that evening. I had actually booked two flights from Borneo to Singapore, one from the North end of the island (in Kota Kinabalu) and one at the South end (in Kuching), as there was a sale on Air Asia. The sales, and even normal prices, are so cheap that it was better for me to book both tickets and simply lose one in order to give me more flexibility in travelling through the region, and by booking a week or two in advance, I got each ticket for just about $20 including taxes, so I thought it was a good idea. In fact, the Air Asia flights are so cheap that it makes me wonder about coming back to Kuala Lumpur, the hub, and just using that as a base for traveling throughout Southeast Asia, as their network is pretty good.
With my last week or so in Malaysia, I remembered why I had liked the country the first time around, with its good mix of great food, Asian and indigenous cultures, ease of travel thanks to good infrastructure and English speakers and relative calmness compared to other parts of Southeast Asia. As I said before, the whole country came as a pleasant surprise to me, and I wouldn't mind returning in the future...
(One of the aptly named tallhouses. I believe this one is used by the Melanau people, but I could be wrong.)
(This is a traditional longhouse used by the Orang Ulu (up river) people. Though these are re-creations, they are exactly as you'd find them throughout the country, though you probably wouldn't find all the different styles so nicely situated around one small lake.)
(The workers put on a show for us with a few different dances and songs from the showcased cultures of Malaysia.)
(Loin cloths even made an appearance, though fortunately color-coordinated spandex help keep it safe for the kiddies watching. Actually, there were surprisingly few people at the village. We were told that because of Ramadan it was pretty much only foreign tourists, and it's usually crowded with Malaysians on holiday at other times.)
(One of the huge longhouses on display at the village. Many of the houses were filled with people dressed in local costume, making food or crafts typical of that ethnic group. I had some crackers made from ground flour from the sago tree - not too bad.)
(A specialty of the area - jungle fern. It was pretty good, not much different than some sorts of spinach or similar greens.)
(Here's the setup - the houses are situated in a circle around the small lake, making it easy to explore each of these cultures in brief 15 minute periods, though I get the feeling I didn't quite learn everything there is to know about the 7 featured cultures during that time.)
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