I AM THE BORNEO EXPLORER 婆罗洲探险者

Star Rainforest Movie Festival @ Sarawak Cultural Village. Let the show begins ;)

The two hours for visiting the culture village is really not enough for me. But the curtains goes up at 7pm, I don’t want to miss out the starting ceremony. The screen is been setup at the stage of culture village, in the middle of the forest. There is a booth that sells a lot of movie merchandise, not just that we can also took our photo with Speiderman, and Master Yoda.

The Nokia booth are just beside the merchandise booth, we can have our photo been printed out free of charge. The Nokia model will use the Nokia N70 to shoot and print out for us. Talk about the Nokia models, they are really pretty, fluent in both Chinese and English, with long hair and fair skin. Ok, Ok, back to our movie. Beside that there are also food stalls that sell burger, French fried, wafer, noodles, rice, drinks, and many more.

If it's rain, the organizer also setup a backup cinema at the hall near the open-air stage. But very lucky that night the weather is just fine, the respond was very good as well. after the first part of the movie finish, we all clap hands. But that night the mosquito are very happy, cause all of a sudden so many fresh blood to drink. Until today I still feel a bit itch on the mosquito bites.

It is a very good experience on watching movie on such environment, but next time I hope that they will show new movies instead of the old one. LOTR 1 – 3 a total of 9 hours, is quite long.

Behold, the first ever cinema in a rainforest at Kuching

Spiderman and Wilson (Me)

Jing, Master Yoda, and Wilson (Me)

Various kind of movie merchandise. There is King Kong, Garfield, Fantastic Four, Kung Fu Hustle, Zoro 2, National Treasure, Pirate of the Caribbean, Lizzy Mc Guire, and etc.

this is when they are just about to setting up all the food stalls

Good weather, good business.

This is where the backup cinema, so if its raining. We all have to shift here instead of outdoor.

First time I actually saw a movie projector with my own eyes.

Starts to get dark, before the movie started the master of ceremony had given us some information if something happens during the movie.

Our snack and drinks

The tent with the orange roof is where the movie projector was.

We sit quite far away from the screen, but the vision is still ok, but the sound is not that clear.

Our late night supper, a very late night supper.

what to eat? With so many choices to make?

Jing had treat me a wafer. After having the wafer I just know that peanut butter had a very high cholesterol, I must eat less next time.

I had a good time there, if they organize again next year, and if the movie is new I will come again.

Star Rainforest Movie Festival @ Sarawak Cultural Village, Part seven of Seven

When visiting along houses by houses, there are also many sculpt work from various sculptor.

Sculptor: Mathew Ngau Jau, Date: 12 April, 2003 – 10 May, 2003.

Bali Intiang Sideng Sinan (Sand Stone). Mathew depicts his people’s traditional motifs, the acestors are the people who guards the community, in the stone. Born in Long Semiang, Baram Sarawak, Mathew is a wood carver and a musician. Mathew had gone solo and joint exhibitions in Australia, Germany, France, Japan, and Taiwan.

Bbehind the two stone sculpture, there is this one tall trunk standing next to the lake. It didn’t have any sign on who the sculptor is.

Here a close up on the tall trunk, it looks like a Ulu people traditional crafting

A quiet lake at the culture village.

Sculptor: Raj Thiagarajan, Date: 12 April, 2003 – 10 May, 003

Mask (Granite). This scholar-artist sees many features in common between the tribal masks of India, Africa and Borneo. “People out on their mask so others may not see their real selves”. Raj designs his stone from Tamil Nadu, Dakshinachitra craft village where the stone carving is an on going tradition.

Sculptor: Ravinder Bhardwaj, Date: 12 April, 2003 – 10 May, 003

Seed (Granite). Ravinder textures the rock to bring it out of the surface and colors in some of his works with a high polish convey and illusion of lightness. The illipenut seed actually “flies” before embedding itself in the ground and sprouting to new life. Born in India, teaches at National School of Drama, Art and Design in New Delhi that captures botanical forms in stone.

This is the Malay house, when reach here it was almost time for the movie to start. So I don’t have enough time to capture details photos on the house.

Sculptor: Adam Barnes, Date: 12 April, 2003 – 10 May, 003

Caterpillar (Stand Stone). Adam is an artist in the hands on tradition. The son of a blacksmith specializing in traditional wrought iron furniture and fittings learnt that the craft of smiting.

Stonework and pottery from artist and craftsmen in the adeleide area. He spends some time at art college but he generally design while he works.

Star Rainforest Movie Festival @ Sarawak Cultural Village, Part six of Seven

My last stop is the Chinese people. When the Chinese first come to Sarawak most of them are farmer, they grow white paper, coco, and vegetables. The Chinese are very hardworking, and very good in doing business. So that’s why until today Chinese are still very calculative.

Chinese like red, red means good luck, and it can scare away the demons. Some of the Chinese did put antithetical couplet on both side of the main door, this is to hope to get a good fortune for the whole year. That day when I visit the cultural village, most of the door was lock. That includes this Chinese home, too bad.

Information on the Chinese culture

A very old style Chinese house

Couplet written in red paper, and stick on both side of the door. And in the middle the word “Fu” means Good Fortune, Blessing, or Happiness.

Shrine

The side view of the Shrine

This got nothing to do with the Chinese culture, I spot this when I’m on my way to the movie.

Star Rainforest Movie Festival @ Sarawak Cultural Village, Part five of Seven

The Melanau village, some facts about them that I copy from the sign board.

The Melanau mainly living along the coast, between the Rajang and the Baram Rivers. They can be boardly sub-divided into a pagan, a Muslim and a Christian group. The Melanau are fearless fisherman and competent boad-builders. Their staple food is sago, the starch of a tall palm that can be grown in the brackish water of river. The villages look very much like the traditional Malay kampong found all over Sarawak. In the past, some Melanau built tall longhouses as a precaution against enemy attacks.

Their daily food is sago, the starch found in the pith of the sago palm. The tall palm is felled at the right stage of maturity. The trunks are floated to the village, stripped and split. The wedges of sago pith are rasped into a coarse, wet mash. The sago mash is pilled on strong mats over shallow troughs. Now it must be trodden to force the starch ino the containers below. Work usually done by women in riverside huts specially built for the purpose.

The starch is left to settle in the bottom of the troughs. Then the water is poured off, the thick starchy paste further drained, kneaded, and dried, into the rough “sago flour”. The product is further refined before it is processed into starch, glue, foodstuffs or condiments. Traditional Melanau sago products include dry pellets, grits, and several kinds of biscuits baked on clay hearths.

Information board on the Melanau people

Tall longhouse, to prevent the attack from enemy and dangerous animals.

This looks like a swing, and a training ground of some kind.

Jing and I went to visit the house, this is the path that lead us to the house

Here a close up look on the house, I can see that the wall is made from bark, there are two entrance, and a lot of windows

The Melanau people must be like swing, as there is another swing on the house.

This is like a traditional dance, two person squat on each end of the bamboo, hold on both end, simultaneously place the bamboo left, right, left, right.... And a dancer will be dancing in the middle while preventing her feet from being clip by the bamboo.

After that we visit their kitchen to see how they made the delicious sago

But unfortunately no one was at the kitchen

I got in to the kitchen and snap a few shoots.

Found out that the clay hearths are still very hot. It looks like they had just finish backing a sago cake.

This might be the tools that they use to get sago from the sago palm

Star Rainforest Movie Festival @ Sarawak Cultural Village, Part four of Seven

Next is the Orang Ulu (upriver people). These people are also found in adjacent Kalimantan, Indonesia. In Sarawak, the Orang Ulu accounts for 5.3% of the population. Formerly animists, but now many Orang Ulu had converts to Christians.

Most of the Ulu people had tattoo on the back. According to traditional this signified that he had taken a head. They believed that a tattoo would serve as a torch in the underworld. They like to tattoo almost all their bodies, with design variously know as “dragon”, “scorpion”, “dog”, or ornamental scroll work. Women usually confined themselves to simple wrist or hand decorations.

The Ulu people are among the most skilled wood carvers in Sarawak. They embellished their houses, boats, tools, musical instruments, and personal ornaments with various kinds of designs. A sculpture called the “dragon dog” with along snout, curling fangs and horns, and bulging eyes plays an important part in the traditional religion for the Ulu people. It is also been used as a tattooing design.