It was a little hard to wake up this morning because it was very overcast and rainy. From our air conditioned room it looked deceptively cozy and cold outside. But I knew as soon as we stepped outside it would be a different story. So I grabbed my rain poncho and headed out.
The hour it took to drive to the cultural village flew by. The scenery was magical. The fog enveloped the rainforest and the Santubong mountain loomed in the fog majestically. I realized I've missed mountains. It would be nice to come back another time and climb it. We drove with the mountain on one side and the beach on the other and next thing we knew we had arrived.
We visited longhouses for six tribes
Iban
Bidayuh
Orang Ulu
Penan, Melanau, and finally the Malay tribes
Dr. Perumal tried to match-make each of us, except for Jenna who is already taken, with one of the tribe members. If he ever gets tired of teaching biology he has a bright future as a matchmaker.
Because I am studying the Malay people for my research paper I took a special interest in the Malay longhouse. I should make a quick side note that there is a difference between Malays and Malaysians. The Malays are an ethnic group and Malaysians are people born in Malaysia regardless of ethnicity.
The Malays were a costal tribe and the first to come into contact with foreigners. The Arab traders brought Islam and musical influences and the Indian traders brought spices, silk and henna.
Ramadan just finished this past week and the Malays celebrated "Hari Raya maaf batin", a two day festival, to mark the closing of Ramadan. The picture below shows paper artwork that were traditionally filled with sticky rice for goodluck.
This picture is an example of a Malay wedding chamber.
Once we were finished with the long houses we went to watch a cultural dance show. It was beautiful. A lot of the dances imitated birds or things from their environment. The Malay wedding dance was my favorite musically. It was heavily influenced by Arabian music and had that mysterious middle eastern flare.
For lunch we ate at a Malay and local fusion coffee shop. The Kasturi juice with salted plum was delicious and refreshing.
After lunch as we walked by a the slice market and vendors I saw a huge rat in a live trap. As I pointed it out to Zoë and Jenna a man walked up to the cage with a blowgun! We sped out of there before we could see the results.
When we were shopping I bought a little keychain for my student and it was only one ringot. I handed the money to the cashier and as I walked away he called and made a noise. Apparently it was a coin from Singapore not Malaysia. I felt really bad. The workers in the shop whispered to each other and starred me out the door.
Late in the afternoon we took a river cruise in the Sarawak river. We all had the idea it was going to be a leisurely float down the river so when a small little boat with rows pulled up we were all surprised. The gentleman manning the boat started the engine and lit a cigarette and before we knew it the oxygen in our boat was running low. But someone suggested that we all take turns rowing the boat and before we knew it we were having a blast and getting a work out!
We made a quick stop in our river cruise to a cute Malay village in Kuching.
Once we were done with the river adventure Dr. Perumal arranged for us to make a visit to Sunny Hill ice cream shop where I saw a literal ice cream sandwich for the first time. Ice cream inside of bread!
Because food has been very important on this trip we had to visit the food festival. It was incredible! It reminded me of the 66 market night in Arcadia on steroids. We even found a vegetarian delicacy stand.
The most rare thing I tried was charcoal ice cream, which was charcoaled bread with green tea ice cream in the middle and of course, some delicious durian ice cream.
Yes, I had quite a bit of ice cream today. If you know me, you know ice cream makes me happy. It was a great day.
Tonight we have to get some rest because tomorrow we head out for Sarikei at 6:30am to stay in a long house for four days. I am very excited! I don't have any expectations; I'm just looking forward to being a part of their daily life and being a little bit less of a tourist. I won't have wifi during that period so I will catch up on my blogging when we arrive in Penang.
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