Nice People Abound (Kuching)

January 1 and 5 - 8
Our New Year's Eve was spent on a bus from Brunei to Kuching. Not really a way to bring it in with a bang but neither of us have many memorable New Years experiences anyways. So, we arrived early New Year's Day in Kuching, the capital of Sarawak (the western province of Malaysian Borneo). While trying to find a place to stay we met a Canadian traveler, Marty. He was an experienced backpacker who traveled 3 months every year when he took time off from work as high end remodeling contractor. He has traveled throughout Latin America and SE Asia for the past 15 years. He became our companion for a few sights in Kuching and our next destination at Bako. Marty was a great source of information for our further travels and also a welcomed 3rd wheel for a few days after spending so much time only the two of us.

Bringing in the New Year
A few days earlier, Marty had met a nice Indonesian architect, Herman, who was living in Kuching and when we arrived Herman was planning to take Marty to the nearby Sarawak Cultural Village and was kind enough to ask if we wanted to join. We decided to tag along for the free ride and extra company. The cultural village is a park where the houses, crafts and traditional lifestyles of the many ethnic groups of Sarawak are displayed. It is sort of a living museum where people belonging to all of the different ethnic groups including Malay, Chinese, Orang Ulu, Penan, Iban and others are employed to teach the visitors a bit about their traditions and culture. It appears that Sarawak as a province has made it a point to foster the arts, crafts and culture of the indigenous people much more than we saw in Sabah or Indonesia. While the park was touristy, it did provide some good background information about the people of the region and did not seem to be exploitative of the people. There was also a well done and enjoyable cultural show which displayed some of the dances of the different groups of people showcased in the village.

After walking around the park for the afternoon, we were treated to dinner by Herman and he provided us with some interesting conversation and ideas. He was raised in Europe by a Indonesian diplomat family and moved back to Indonesia in his twenties. He lived in Jakarta for a number of years but became frustrated with the Indonesian officials who were not interested in a sustainable vision of peace for the future of the country. Herman told us of his dreams of a peaceful world and the work that he has been trying to do in Indonesia and now Malaysia to promote peace through architecture. He moved to Malaysia about 10 years ago and now works for the Kuching government where he feels that some of his ideas are more accepted as compared with Indonesia. It was very interesting hearing his viewpoints and especially his background from both the West and the East. I think that he is doing a good thing and doing his best to promote his dreams of peace in his corner of the world. It was also refreshing hearing some of our thoughts regarding the East being vocalized by an Easterner.

Upon returning from Bako (see previous entry), we met up with some other American expats who are living in Ecuador. They own a fruit farm and run an internet seed selling business and were on a seed gathering expedition in Borneo. They had gone out to the market to find new species of tropical fruit for the their farm. They returned with many varieties of durian, rambutan, lansats (lanzones) and other assorted fruit that we had never seen before and whose names now escape me. They asked for help eating the fruit since they only wanted the seeds for transport and we happily obliged. It was a nice fruit tasting adventure and our snack was topped of by a nice Indian dinner at a local restaurant.


An Interesting History
Sarawak like the rest of Borneo was at one time inhabited and ruled by many different indigenous people, many of which were infamous head hunters. The largest native group in Sarawak is the Iban who live downriver and are known for their extensive longhouses and Pua Kumba textiles. The Orang Ulu (literally 'upriver people') include many groups such as the Kenyah and Kayan (the same tribes as in Long Jelet in Indonesia) and are known for their intricate beadwork costumes and sape music. There are also the Penan who are short nomadic people famous for the poison blow darts that they use for hunting. Unlike the Amazonians, the poison for these darts is made from the sap of a tree. We were told that it won't hurt you to touch it unless it gets under your skin (through a scratch or the like). The Melaniau who live near the coast are known for sago processing and dolls (somewhat like voodoo) used for healing purposes.

Starting early in the last millennium, island of Borneo was influenced by Chinese, Arabic and later European traders. Eventually Malays immigrated to Borneo and at one point Kuching and the rest of Sarawak was under the control of the Brunei sultan. In the 1800's, when the Sultan of Brunei appointed an unpopular governor, the people of Kuching revolted. In order to quell the revolt a British trader, James Brooke, came to the aid of the sultan and was appointed as the Rajah (king) of Sarawak. The Rajah soon became powerful and started claiming more territory for Sarawak from Brunei and increasing European influence in the area. A well organized governmental system was established and Kuching became an important international trading center. Chinese immigrants were lured to the area by Brooke and helped to establish many of the businesses which continue to prosper today. Today the Chinese influence in Sarawak is quite strong and their population is the highest of any ethnic group in the area (about 30%). Two more white Rajahs followed James Brooke, continuing the British influence in the area. Sarawak was later turned over to England as a colony and in the 1950's it joined Sabah and Malaya to form the country of Malaysia. Sarawak and Sabah are quite different from neighboring peninsular Malaysia in a number of areas however. Probably most evident is the difference in population dynamics with Malays holding a minority (only about 25% in Sarawak for instance) and large Chinese and indigenous populations which continues to shape the lifestyle and going-ons of the region.



An Interesting City
Kuching (or cat city) is a nice, clean and ethnically diverse city of about 500,000 with a good, free museum system, a nice riverfront and many natural attractions in the surrounding area. As to why it is called cat city we are not exactly sure but they do have a cat museum with everything about cats you could ever want to know and more (we did not have time to visit unfortunately). We tried to make the most of our short stay and found the city to be a great place. We visited a textile and an art museum that were both well done and each contained many products from the different ethnic groups of the region. The ethnology museum had an extensive collection of carvings, handicrafts and other artifacts from indigenous tribes. We also visited the weekend market, which spread over several blocks and got some great deals on delicious fruit.

Our final day in Kuching was spent with an American biologist and wildlife photographer who has been living in Kuching for the past 11 years, Chi'en, and his girlfriend Madeline, a Kulua Lampur resident who works with women's issues. We met Chi'en and Madeline in the beginning of our trip in Sulawesi and looked them up in Kuching. They took us out for some rock climbing and another friend of theirs, Kate, a British marine biologist, took us caving at Fairy Cave about an hour outside of Kuching. Casey had never been climbing before and Laura only a few times but Chi'en urged us to try and was very patient in showing us how. We both had a bit of a go and while it took us quite a while to get up, Laura made it to the top of one route and Casey most of the way. It was fun and although we were both sore afterwards and had cut up hands, maybe it is something we will try again back in the States. Perhaps we need to work a bit more in the gym first though. After the climb Kate took us through an adventurous cave where we got wet and muddy. She brought her dog along which made for an interesting experience as we had to hoist it over a few walls using a rope but the cave was gorgeous and a nice way to end our adventurous afternoon. One of the most exciting parts of the cave was the "birth canal" where we had to squeeze through a small opening sideways with our hands over our heads like we were being reborn. In the evening we were treated to a great seafood dinner with Chi'en, Madeline and Kate which was nice to talk with some people who were living and working in Borneo. By the end of our time in Kuching and our last night in Borneo we both agreed that the area had been a great place to spend the first week of the New Year and that Borneo had been an amazing island and everything that we could have hoped for and more.