Visitation to Kanowit, Sarawak

I went to Sibu with a bunch of friend, then we all drive to Bintagor, along the way we drove pass the Kanowit town. As I never visit the place before, so we decided to take a detour into the town of Kanowit.
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Kanowit is a town and the capital of a district of the same name. It is located within the Sibu Division, Sarawak, east Malaysia and comprises 2,253.5 square kilometers in area. It is built on the mouth of Kanowit River at the bank of Rajang River, approximately 174 kilometers from the coast of South China Sea. It will take 45 minutes to get there by land transport and about an hour boat ride from Sibu. The main ethnic groups are Iban, Chinese, Malay, and Melanau.
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This is the landmark singnature of the Kanowit town, the olive? hmmmm.....
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The town takes its name from the Kanowit, a Melanau ethnic group called Rajang by the Ibans. The language is still spoken. There still are some Kanowit people living in the Kanowit area. However, the language is doomed to extinction.
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The town center consists of three streets of 1930s vintage Chinese shophouses, almost half of which seem to contain coffeeshops, near the waterfront. The biggest supermarket is Hock Tong Seng Supermarket and it meets most of the needs for the locals.
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During periods of celebration, the local karaoke can often be heard from far away with the pounding basslines of trashy 80's hits in English, Malay and Chinese. The best sight seeing can be had by walking along the riverside from town or up the Telecom Hill.
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This is some where near the waterfront area, and beside us the the bank of the Rajang River.
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I've also confirm the name of the river with the people there, they told me this is the Rajang River, and you can use the boat here to go to Kapit.
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The market at Kanowit town. Uhh!! durians...yum yumm
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There is also a Chinese Temple beside the river, although Kanowit is a small town but Kanowit has a decent infrastructure, enough to satisfy the small population's needs.

It has two primary schools (Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan St. Francis Xavier-the earliest primary school in Sarawak, founded in 1883 and Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Yee Ting, a Chinese-run government school), and two secondary schools (Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Kanowit and Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Dipertua Haji Abdul Rahman Yaakub).

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Fort Emma is a fort built in 1859 by Rajah James Brooke, out of timber and bamboo. It was named after Emma Brooke, sister of Rajah Charles Brooke. The fort remains impressive, despite years of neglect. It is now open to public as a mini museum.

Fort Emma was also the site of the last serious challenge to Brooke rule in Sarawak. In 1859, a number of Malay chiefs, led by Syarif Masahor of Mukah and supported by the Sultan of Brunei planned a series of attacks to kill all the Europeans in Sarawak and Dutch Borneo. In June 1859, Brooke government officials Charles Fox and Henry Steele were murdered at Kanowit as the first step of this plan.

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The Tuan Muda Charles Brooke led a force of Iban from Saribas to revenge the attack and to recover the heads of the unfortunate victims. As a result, Mukah was annexed to Sarawak, Sharif Masahor fled to Johore and the "Malay Plot" was the last time the Malays and the Iban joined forces against the White Rajah.

Comments

Agspot said…
Hi your photographs are very old fashion.

Can you take some modern photography?
Unknown said…
old fashion but at least it is genuine
Anonymous said…
Photograph style is not the matter, history matters, dude.

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