Sojourn in Sarawak

Whee!

After 8 days in the beautiful capital of Sarawak, I'm back home. The city, Kuching, is a nice place... the people there are so friendly that they even stop and talk to me on the streets, and wave. I look quite local though, I am often mistaken for a Sarawakian or either from KL. =) The British influence from the White Rajahs are still a big part of the town, with various colonial elements in the architecture. Some parts of the roads are real cobblestone, which was interesting to walk on. Very few Indians around, the only Indian foodstore was a prata shop with the chef looking suspiciously like a Blangahdeshi. He could speak cantonese; and un-authentically rolled the prata dough with a rolling pin. From the window I could see the rows of shophouses, lining the Sarawak river. The river was huge, snaking its way thru the entire horizon; and across it there is a castle, Fort Magherita; and several malay kampungs. The people here are tall, the Ibans and Bidayuh make up a large part of the community. They have Malay features but are very fair, and big-boned too. The chinese here all come from 'FooChow', they speak hokkien so their mandarin accent is understandable, but most look like the typical ah bengs and lians; probably the educated ones are not found on the streets. There's an interesting type of vegetable not found here; it has curly purplish ends, and when cooked lightly with garlic tastes like a crunchier version of dou miao, its delicious but we got sick of it after eating it everyday. And I ate their freshly plucked durians almost everyday too... Woo...

The highlight of the trip for me was the various breathtaking views of the mountains in the distance, and seeing the orang utans. The Semengong Nature Rehabilitation Centre there provided a few hundred metres' walk into the rainforest, where captured/tamed orang utans are released into the wild. We were blessed to see them; the keeper said there wasn't any during the morning feed earlier, and a lady-shop owner I spoke to a few days after said that she brought her kids a couple of times but couldn't see any. Watching the rusty-brown orang utans swing gently from the trees was amazing, this experience I wouldn't trade for anything! Being in nature takes the city out of me, I guess. There was one mother with the baby clinging on tightly to her middle as she gingerly went to pick some bananas and papayas...The sight just makes my heart melt.

The place was not what I really expected it to be, it is much like Singapore, yet not at all. And not much like any other part of West Malaysia... The closest would be Malacca, but a more 'backward', spacious, untainted version of it. The expanse of sky seems so much more there, as well as the clouds that seem to touch the rooftops of houses. Yea... I think I'll be back there, someday, the way I promised myself to be back in Malacca soon. (Note to self: Prepare to leave in late January.) Somehow although I'm much used to a higher standard of living, the simple life does have its charm to me. The things are cheap, the place is lovely and the food is excellent...