Sarawak Cultural Village : An Open Air Living Musuem

Land of The Hornbills.

Where Adventure Lives.

More Than Paradise.

These are names given to Sarawak. All of which I wholeheartedly agree.

I always believe that the cultural village of any country is good; it is impossible for us to venture throughout every single country and learn their history, culture and customs.

After visiting plenty cultural villages - both local and abroad - I realized that our very own cultural villages is at par with those I’ve seen. And I am truly impressed and in love with Sarawak Cultural Village (SCV), located at the foot of Gunung Santubung. Rich in history, culture and heritage, rewarded with beautiful natural wonders, blessed with charming heartfelt warmness, Sarawak boasts a complete package that every traveller can only call paradise.

Sarawak Cultural Village is an open air living museum portraying the cultural and heritage of Sarawak’s main ethnicities, showcasing handicrafts, food, weapon, fashion as well as dances. The houses that one can experience here are the Orang Ulu Longhouse, the Melanau Tall House, the Bidayuh Longhouse, the Iban Longhouse, the Malay Kampung House and the Chinese Farm House. Every house has its unique characteristic and ethnic showcase, hence no two houses are the same hence I advise that you allocate few hours if you plan to visit this enchanting place. Another thing you should check out is the local food being served at the cafeteria, from ayam pansuh to umai to uban goreng belacan; the food here will surely excite your palate. 

My first experience of the Sarawak Cultural Village was awe-inspiring. The first thing that came to mind was the museum I visited in Romania. I tend to travel with minimal planning, letting my feet carve my path. That's what happened in Romania, taking me to a living museum. And since then, my benchmark for cultural villages is Dimitrie Gusti National Village Museum in Bucharest, Romania. The one in Stockholm couldn't really compete. These are my thoughts on a living museum of which Sarawak Cultural Village met the mark.

• The SCV team were friendly & knowledgeable, which is key as visitors will have a lot of questions to ask and they have to be fed with accurate information.
• The longhouses and tall houses in SVC were modeled as close to an original authentic home, as how it should be; the closest best.
• Having the locals to represent their ethnic homes, heritage and culture nailed it.
• SCV keeping it to 5 main ethnicity was a good move : Iban, Bidayuh, Ulu, Melanau, Penan, as well as Malay and Chinese home.

Bidayuh Longhouse

SCV educates visitors on Bidayuh's custom & culture. 

Iban Longhouse

The art of weaving beads that enthrall us.

Penan Hut
SCV taught us on Sarawak's jungle nomad: Orang Penan.

Orang Ulu Longhouse

We learnt from SCV on Orang Ulu's sword craftsmanship.

Melanau Tall House

It's Melanau Tall House not longhouse, we found out at SCV.

Malay Kampung House

It portrays the simplicity of Malay kampung house with local delicacies.

Chinese Farm House

It is a farmer’s house with the usual oriental décor and the only home here that is floored by the earth.

And at Sarawak Cultural Village (SCV), your visit will end with performance which will blow your mind away. The SCV mini concert should not be missed!

So, my verdict on #Sarawak Cultural Village?

... A must-mandatory-compulsory place to go if you are in Kuching.

Entrance Fee

RM 60.00 (US$20.00) - Adult

RM 30.00 (US$10.00) - Child : 6-12 years old

Free for Children aged under 6 years old

Sarawak Cultural Village

Pantai Damai, Santubong

Kuching, Sarawak

Email: enquiry@scv.com.my

Website: http://www.scv.com.my/

Jerunai; a hanging coffins and burial poles at Lamin Dana, Sarawak

Creepily fascinating or fascinatingly creepy? You be the judge.

Bridging the past and the present, the old and young, the world and Mukah, Diana Rose passion drove her to embark in a fulfilling journey to share Melanau wonderful heritage with the world by introducing Lamin Dana on 14 February, 1999. A sense of ownership to her beloved Melanau tribe, Diana Rose is a living prove that where there's a will, there's a way. Now it is internationally known, news coverage came from local, national and foreign medias the likes of History Asia - Hidden Cities, Wild Asia talking about Lamin Dana, Mukah iconic traveler destination.

Lamin Dana Cultural Boutique is located at Tellian Village in Mukah hinterland, a 3 hours drive from Sibu town. Mukah can also be reached by flight via MASwings from Kuching or speedboat via Dalat from Sibu, either route would be enlightening as Sarawak scenery is known to be very diversified and soulful.

"Lamin Dana means traditional house in archaic Melanau" is what Diana Rose wants to do, conserving and reviving her Melanau heritage. Built as a boutique guesthouse with proper local activity packages, its main objective is to ensure Melanau culture and history are well preserved for future generation and made known to the world. Traditionally a fishermen, padi and sago farmers, Melanau are among the earliest settlers in Sarawak, previously known as "A-Likou" meaning 'people of the river' until the tribe name Melanau was given. Sago being the staple food here, are normally systematically planted and cultivated for its produce.

A 2-minute walking distance away from Lamin Dana stands a tall totem pole that is a few hundred years old. This totem pole is known as Jerunai; a burial pole. I was told that Jerunai is reserved mainly for Melanau aristocrats (bangsawan) here in Mukah, Sarawak. It is made from the Borneo ironwood tree or pokok Belian, full of intricate animal and plant motif carvings to symbolize their status and level. The aristocrats' bodies would be left in a hanging coffin for a year before its remains are transferred into a Jerunai. Every aristocrat will bring 2 human sacrifices with them into the afterlife, one male slave and one female slave around 12-13 years of age. The male slave will be placed at the bottom below the aristocrat and the female above, both tied to the Jerunai and left to starve to death. This is an ancient practice some 175 years ago before the light of Islam arrived on Sarawakin soil.

There is a famous story of a royalty whose death asked for multiple human sacrifices and it's jerunai bears the scars of the rescue effort by the sacrifices' loved ones? This, and many other jerunai stories, can be found from the Sarawak Tourism Board.

Each Jerunai stands at around 10 to 15 meters. It requires 15 to 30 locals that must be of Melanau bloodline; a descendant. A blessing ceremony is held for commemoration when erecting a Jerunai.

Diana Rose has taken the initiative to beautify Kampung Sri Tellian's jerunai for the convenience of her guests and tourists visiting Mukah. Her vision and dream of making Melanau known to the rest of the country and the world has started to show results.

Able to accommodate family and single travelers, Lamin Dana ensures that guest experienced the best of Melanau heritage and Mukah scenes. Providing guest with "Sago Experience" where guests are exposed to how and why Sago is made, boat ride along the river and mangroves at sunsets, basket weaving hands-on experience or learning simple traditional Melanau culinary are some of the activities offered here. Wanting to share Lamin Dana with the world, Diana has also prepared a "3D2N Student Culture Package" where she can cultivate the younger generation to love our culture, heritage and history. Her gift to Melanau tribe, Sarawak and Malaysia.

I hope that this Melanau history and heritage will never be forgotten, for those who forget their roots are those bound to repeat their regrets.

DiGi's Amazing Malaysian 2005 has selected Diana Rose as one of their award recipients. Her mission to conserve and promote Malaysia's natural and cultural heritage has honoured her as "The Knowledge Keeper of Sarawak". Amazing Malaysians is part of DiGi's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme.

Songkor. Bubuk. Belacan - Bako, Sarawak

What makes a Fam Trip fun for me is the easy access of information.

I am a curious lot.

Ahaks.

Learning that Sarawak having the most national parks in Malaysia, boosting at 22 in quantity and awarded with accolades such as UNESCO sites, the biggest cave etc gave them the right to brag, and I would not deny the fact that theirs are the best if not amazing. And I am honoured to get the opportunity to visit Bako National Park, located half an hour drive from Kuching. If Gunung Mulu National Park owns the right of having the biggest chamber that could accommodate about 40 Boeing 747s, without overlapping their wings, not to mention the Deer Cave being the largest single cave passages in the world, and Niah National Park boast the important of prehistorical site where human remains dating to 40,000 years, Pleistocene chopping tools and flakes, Neolithic axes, pottery dating to the Iron Age (nothing to do with Iron Man, just so you know). Well then, Bako National Park owns this brag right in Sarawak; the smallest national parks in Sarawak, so beat that you guys! *smile*

Bako National Park is one of those park that allows you to do a day trip, with its 16 walking trails; Tanjung Sapi 30 minutes (0.8 km) trail being its shortest and Telok Kruin 7 1/4 hours (10.5 km) trail being its longest, certain draws quick getaway tourist that is looking for a little bit of nature during their stay in Sarawak. It is also one of the most popular parks amongst the local here.

With great wonders comes great heritage, so they say in Spiderman (well, kinda). I was being enlighten with a new form of fishery, shrimp or krill catching to be exact. Shrimp or krill paste, known to the local as belacan is one of Bako’s famous produce, the villagers livelihood centres around this; it is their life style, culture and now Sarawak’s uncelebrated heritage.

A kelong-like structure called songkor made of pokok nibong or mangrove palm tree is where the fisherman use it to catch bubuk (krill) of which easier to handle; effortless. Songkor is also known as ‘bank’ by the Bako locale. This vertical structure is set at the riverbed where a gunny sacks net is fixed to trap krill during high and low tides. Usually krill is harvested at noon. There are approximate 50 songkor along Bako river, being pass from one generation to the other and goes as far back as 30 years ago, or even longer.

The krill are later being cleaned, dried and made into paste (belancan) to be sold at the local market. The koperasi help and educate the locals on funding, training, marketing and management skill – running a small scale homemade industry in order to boast the villagers economy and enhance their skillsets.

This interesting songkor and bubuk catching can easily be seen as one takes the boat out to the Bako National Park, do like what we did, stop and ask the fisherman on the techniques and processes. If you are lucky enough, you probably get to try it out, or even visit their shrimp (krill) paste homemade industry. *wink*

* For more photos, please click HERE.

Jom Jelajah Koperasi Sarawak Media Fam Trip is in collaboration with Surahanjaya Koperasi Malaysia (#SKM) with #GayaTravel as media coordinator

Back to nature : Sumiran Eco Camp, Kuching

Towel – Check
Sunblock – Check
Sport attire – check
Sport shoes – Check

Am all set. Back to nature.

When I saw the word ‘eco camp’, I go “hemmm…. Let’s google this place and get myself mentally (and physically) prepared” so say one who hates pacat. Being a good sport (and not wanting to be a dolly), I packed all sort of ointment to ‘prevent’ pacat-invasion and to my relieve, no pacat to be found (tak lembab and bersih giler kot! Pacat pun ‘don’t feel at home’ kat sini. Hahhahahhahahaaa). Upon investigating on Sumiran Eco Camp (bukan Dikin seorang jer terrer investigate tau [rasa dia baca tak blog entry nih?]), I found out they have this 3 activities that I dearly love – flying fox, trekking and kayaking. So here’s my plan, I’ll start with trekking, followed by flying fox and lastly kayak. I even plan to be as kiasu possible, ie: being the first fox flying, keh keh keh… 

Yeah! None of my plan materialized, I do have ample time to experience at least 2 of the activities but my body was against it. Screaming no. For a simple reason :

1. Excitedly the Sumiran Eco-Camp team yells “ZUMBA!!!!”
OK, I never tried Zumba before but from the sound of it, anything that starts with ‘Z’ and rhymes with ‘Pumba’ (Pumba = fat) is never good. True enough… it’s similar to aerobic with latino music at a faster beat, we felt our body were vandalized after the first song; drenched with salty jantan sweat #eh. Woe betide, that first song…. was NOT our last song. Every time we finished one dance, they say one more (tak kan nak stop sebab tadi kata nak sporting kan, excuse pacat tak boleh digunakan sebab semut pun we all tak nampak).

We were served with the most delicious Laksa Sarawak, apparently Sumiran Eco-Camp is also involve in catering business. Talk about family unity in Koperasi. Respect.
Little did we know… the yummeh Laksa Sarawak was a bait.

2. “You guys have been divided into 3 groups”
Eh!!! Apa pulak ni? What group? What activity? 
“You guys will be playing FUTSAL!!!!”. The guys were ecstatic (masa nil ah tunjuk and buktikan kejantan mereka!) and the girls; nonchalant. 
The biggest joke was went the organiser announcing “You guys will be playing futsal in a SARONG!”. We burst into laughter, this is so going to be fun. I have to give Sumiran Eco-Camp credit for planning and keeping us pump up, one after another, all great fun.
You know what? Fun is an understatement, we have Nuar holding the ball instead of kick the ball (aside from him taking selfie while guarding the goal post, and being the funniest referee), kain terlondeh tak yah cerita lah kan, Kak Puteri the undefeated futsaler (Maradona pun kalah hokkay) and obviously, the failed Mexican Wave.

3. “Tutup lubang! Tutup lubang”
Telematch can be fun, but this one is not just fun, challenging and weird too. I felt like I have been teleported to one of those Korean/Japanese game show or something. We each got a multiple hole pipe where we need to fill it up with water and get the ping pong ball out. The task is to ensure the pipe’s bottom are sealed, and all the holes on the side are closed (obviously using our fingers lah kan), and to our joy, Mawardi volunteered his tummy as the pipe “sealer”. As we fet on with the task, we can hear “sakit perut, tutup lubang, sikit lagi, jangan tekan and jangan dok ambek gambar, tolong tutup lubang ni”. All these while screaming and laughing like a lunatic. Giler-giler jugak yek media nih.

Upon completing the activities (no, my team lost), we were allowed to try out the flying fox, kayaking and trekking. Well, this fox ain’t flying dude, penat kot! Hahahhaaa…
Sumptuous dinner was served and karaoke kicks in, bonfire were lighted, stargazing conducted. Nothing was short of fun here at Sumiran Eco-Camp, they were professional and yet fun, not to mention great working attitude. Kudos.

Price stated is for local Sarawakian.

Accommodation Type 
6 Person Hostel
4 Person Tent
Campground

Activities
Flying Fox
Adventure Trail
Futsal Field
Volleyball Field
Kayaking
Mountain Bike Trail
Natural Water Confidence
Campfire

Price stated is for local Sarawakian. 

Programs
Teambuilding (corporate)
Leadership & Prefect Training
Family Day Retreat & Birthday
Zumba Outdoor
Bootcamp

Basic Facilities
Convenient Store
Cafeteria 
Surau
Shower Room and Toilets
Clean Water
Wifi

* For more photos, please click HERE.

Sumiran Eco-Camp

Jalan Rantau Panjang

off Jalan Batu Kawa

93400 Kuching

Sarawak

Email : sumiran.ecofarm@gmail.com

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/sumiran.ecofarm

Encik Sudaryo Osman

Camp Chief

Tel : +6012 8811952

Jom Jelajah Koperasi Sarawak Media Fam Trip is in collaboration with Surahanjaya Koperasi Malaysia (#SKM) with #GayaTravel as media coordinator

Kek jantung pisang : the origin of Sarawak's kek lapis?

Can kek jantung pisang be the origin of Sarawak's famous kek lapis?

Earlier, I experienced Bidayuh’s customs, culture and their koperasi activities, today I get to socialize and experience the same with Kampung Tebakang Melayu; located 80km from Kuching near Serian Town, bordering to Tebedu. Homestay and sundry shops being koperasi’s most active source of income, I am not surprise when we were taken for a kampung (village) field trip during our visit here. Here, we went on a boat ride on Kayan River where we get to see how the Kampung Tebakang villagers showcase their key homestay products to the outsiders. I wasn’t thrilled at first, but as usual, boat trips never seems to fail me. I guess they got me at hello *smile*.

We took the long boat to karangan or sandbar where the locals demonstrated the process of cooking ayam pansuh (bamboo chicken(, kek jantung pisang (banana bud/flower cake) and taught us on how to fish using net (not as easy as it looks).

Not only that, I was told that udang galah or giant fresh water prawn is also being fished here regularly and the best thing is that, they have 2 methods of catching the prawn; using fishing rod (obviously) and the other, using a shrimp gun (this, I am curious). Prawns are normally being caught after the monsoon season.

  

I have tried ayam pansuh or bamboo chicken before this at an Iban longhouse but never got around seeing how it was made and lucky me, I get to see it here. Ayam Pansuh is prepared by cooking chicken meat in a bamboo and stuffed with water (which later will be the soup), seasonings and covered with tapioca leaves from the cassava plant. It is light in taste and almost soupy type of dish, it is best eaten on its own or with hot steaming rice. Lapar lah pulak.

Kek jantung pisang or banana bud/flower cake is believed to be the origin of Sarawak lapis cake (so they said). Upon mixing the flour, butter, eggs, baking powder, vanilla essence, granulated sugar and condensed milk together, the mixture will later be cook layer by layer to the desired size thus creating a banana bud or flower look alike.

There were 19 homes participated in the homestay program of which we visited as it was still Raya month, according to the locals the crowd peaked during summer time in northern hemisphere countries. They would want to experience the villagers way of life and visit the National Parks nearby, some coincide their trips to the Rainforest World Music Festival.

We were later introduced to the more local food of which I failed to ask the name, leka makan sebab sedap sangat! Hehhehehheh….

Kampung Tebakang Melayu
Suruhanjaya Koperasi Malaysia Negeri Sarawak
Daerah Serian
Lot 938, Serian
94700
Sarawak

Homestay Coordinator
Pathe Bin Abdul Rahman 
Tel: +6019-8343182

* For more photos, please click HERE.

Jom Jelajah Koperasi Sarawak Media Fam Trip is in collaboration with Surahanjaya Koperasi Malaysia (#SKM) with #GayaTravel as media coordinator