2018 S.E. Asia: Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

Heavy rain cancelled not our, but the morning flight out of Gunung Mulu, as the in-coming plane could not land safely on the airstrip. Caroline N. Alexander, whom we met at Mulu, was to have flown out on the cancelled flight, and she was at the airport awaiting a new flight when we departed on our delayed flight. The rivers were high and rain poured down on activities until late morning.

Our flight was 20min late, but we arrived safely in Kuching ("Cats") by 3:15pm and transferred by cab to our remote, unique "culvert" accommodation. Our dinner at The Culvert went well, but figuring out our next two days of activities was a bit discomBobYolating. Also, the poor Wifi was discomBlogulating. Bob created a "hot spot" using his phone data, which made up-loading Blog photos more reliably possible. We settled on using a guide for our visit on October 5th to Bako National Park and to do our own activity on the 4th.

The Culvert pods are 7.5 foot concrete culvert sections - reminiscent of our tear drop trailer! Each guest pod contains a bed and 3-piece w/c, and under-bed storage. There are also separate w/c, storage, laundry and administrative pods. A lit-up infinity pool stretches out in front of a row of chaise lounges beside the outdoor kitchen and dining area! Such a clever concept, they "soft-opened" at the end of August 2018 and will have their "Grand-opening" in a few months, once the second infinity pool opens and the rains abate.

The Culvert property is on a cliff overlooking the South China Sea. It is next to a jungle, so the property has viper snake and crocodile warnings. In the night, Bob flushed a scorpion from our room. Happily, just after having rid the pod of the scorpion, we heard the chirp of a lizard and so were able to fall back asleep. Glamping, Borneo contempo-style!

In the morning, we shared a cab as far as the Sarawak Textile Museum and Bob carried on to see Orangutan and Crocodile.

Orangutan and crocodile are Borneo Pua-Kumbu (Warp Ikat) motifs, along with small animal and plant designs, in particular bamboo. Thirty+ years ago, when studying Malaysian & Indonesian textiles, Yolanda's favourite had been Borneo Ikat. Yolanda thus enjoyed reading about and seeing samples from the Rumah Garie Longhouse silk ikat weavers (silk c.1988 - to present). The Longhouse weaving group of 50 women are Iban tribe descendants, from Kapit District, along the River Kain. Their tradition of natural dye on mordanted plant fibre warp transitioned to cotton and in 1988 to China silk, which made their Longhouse famous with textile collectors globally. Nancy anak Ngali and Bangie anak Embol both earned UNESCO Craft Seal of Excellence awards and recognition. Nancy anak Nagali traveled to North America (including Vancouver) in 2003 to give demonstrations of silk warp ikat. In the hours Yolanda was at the Textile Museum, she was pleased to see locals, tourists and a school group visiting the three floors of collections.

In addition to weaving technology displays, the Museum contained a mordant display (ginger, palm salt & oil, and hot water in dug-out tree trunk troughs), and many, many samples of cloth: bark, woven bamboo, warp ikat, weft float image building, and embroidered and lace-edge cloth (with gold couched threads). The role of textiles was celebrated in the exhibits, as was a collection of 412 pieces re-patriated in 2013 from the Netherlands.

Juliana, the owner of the Textile Museum shop, shared that the Iban weaving Longhouse continues to produce work for sale. However, the longhouse is a 4hr-Sibu-riverboat, then a 4hr-Kapit-riverboat, and 1hr-jungle-walk away so she had not been there in a while. Juliana also described a Kushing weaving studio (Tun Jugah Foundation), a 15-minute walk away along the Sarawak River waterfront which flows through Cats (Kuching). Juliana was amidst preparations for a 10-day craft festival so her shop was closed. She had coincidentally dropped by to allow her daughter to pick up beads and Yolanda was invited to go inside and see mat and basket work from the Panan Village we had visited in Mulu, and some work from the Iban weavers. Juliana keeps the older pua-kumba pieces at home and has no silk ones, as they sell quickly. Juliana gave her text message number if we have time to visit her and see the older works and to see her family beading workshop.

In a short two hours at the Tun Jugah Foundation, Yolanda connected with weavers at the studio and was invited to return for two months to weave. "Maybe if I was younger", she told the director. Lily, a weaver of 62yo, had not yet learned warp end plying, and in describing/air.demonstrating to Lily how it is done, Yolanda attracted the attention of the elder weavers, who smiled and nodded at Lily. What a lot of fun and good vibes!

En route from the Tun Jugah Foundation, the Kuching Waterfront vibrancy was soon apparent.

At the West-most end is a mosaic honoring the gentrified-out riverboatmen and fishing trawlers, and slightly further West is the meandering suspension footbridge. At the East-most end a small collection of the trawlers rest. Spotted in-between on jetties, riverboatmen offer tourists sightseeing rides and locals taxi shuttles.

 

 

 

The waterfront itself is a mosaic of high-end hotels, beautiful little shops and cafe stops. Stylish posters announce the Waterfront community offerings, such as music festivals, the craft festival Juliana had mentioned, and a playful Children's cardboard box festival starting two weeks away.

Back at the Textile Museum again, Yolanda, awaiting Bob, realized she needed to go to the bank. Juliana's daughter & husband were waiting for Juliana to collect things for her craft festival display, and upon being asked by Yolanda where to find a specific bank they told Yolanda to hop in their car and they would drive her there and back. Such kindness!

Together again, and on the drive back to the mountains from the Textile Museum, Bob told Yolanda about his day with driver Mr. Jong and the visits to see Orangutan & Crocodile sites. They had spent 7.5hrs together and Mr. Jong had waited outside the sites for Bob.

The first stop, Semenggoh Orangutan Nature Reserve was just closing for the morning, so Mr. Jong suggested going out 15Km further to the next closest attraction, Jong's Crocodile farm (relative?).

The Crocodile Farm was an expected, old-style reptile zoo with animal pits, so not Bob's choice of sites. But, there was an expanse of the Farm for incubating crocodiles which had a part that public could access and that had boardwalks that allowed Bob to view some local fauna that weren't restricted by fencing. Three hours and a canteen ice-cream cone and chocolate chip cookies for lunch later, Bob and Mr. Jong headed back for the afternoon open hours at the Orangutan Reserve.

The first of the two Orangutan call-in areas was about 1.5Kms from the reserve entrance into the jungle. At that area, one young male and one young female slowly emerged from the canopy a little before 3pm. They ate a variety of banana, sugar cane chunks and whole coconut. The volume of food was more like they had dropped in for a snack and not a meal. [NB: Our cab driver the next day said sometimes they go for months not seeing any Orangutans when trees in the jungle are plentiful with fruit.] Before going to the second call-in area, a huge, mature male swung out of the jungle from behind Bob's group. He took a few snacks and once he settled in the canopy with a whole coconut he was breaking, Bob's group carried on down the trail that had been occupied by the male.

Another 150meter jungle trail over exposed roots opened to the second open area where the Reserve staff took considerable time calling in the next group of Orangutans. The first to appear was a mother with baby clinging to her side. About 10 minutes later, what appeared to be a young adolescent arrived, very cautious of the feeding arrangement and he would not take food until the staff left the area. The adolescent quickly moved off when the mother descended to choose some food. As Bob's group was leaving, the huge male decided to sit down on the path out. Bob thinks the senior male had learned how to get an extra lovely coconut out of the event. A coconut placed on a post is what moved him off the path. The viewing time of the six Orangutans from start to finish was 1.5hr - the senior male extended the viewing by 5min!

Bob bought another souvenir t-shirt on his way out, and Yolanda bought the ikat text "The ties that bind" on her way out.

When Mr. Jong dropped us at The Culvert, he had given more than 8hrs of time, including 2.5hrs on the road. He must have enjoyed his day, as he gave Bob a pat on the back and smiled as we said Selamat Jalan! and Terima Kasih! We moved to a new pod in the evening, one with functioning hot water and then had dinner and shared more stories and photos.

Our final activity in Borneo was a boat visit with guide to Bako National Park, outside of Kuching ("Cats" - meow, meow). Our cab took us from our Culvert accommodation to the Jetty at the edge of Bako National Park, where we met our guide and boatman. It was a half hour rough ride across the surf to the Bako Park Registration office. We were at the edge of and in the jungle for about three and a half hours and saw many jungle animals and birds, such as Silvered Leaf Monkey, Proboscis Monkey, North Philippine Temple Pitviper, Crimson Sunbird, Bornean Bearded Pig. It was a great outing!

We will miss Malaysian Borneo and all that we did and learned, but we are looking ahead now to arriving in Indonesia next: first stop Ubud, Bali.