Ben Fogle's Sarawak Adventures - Tribal Arts and Food Adventure

In this video we see adventurer and explorer Ben Fogle experience a tai chi class. Master Wong, who has been teaching tai chi for 20 years, believes this martial art is a great way to maintain your health and shows Ben some moves. Ben also pays a visit to the Sarawak Craft Pavilion, an art gallery and restaurant which represents the local Sarawakian culture.  Ben is introduced to Mary who works within the Pavilion demonstrating how to weave. Just one item can take up to three months to make! One thing’s for sure, whether it is dry or wet, there is always something to do in Sarawak.

Ben Fogle having a go at Tai-chi at the Civic Center Kuching

 Sarawak Malaysia Borneo... where adventure lives

Sarawak's Lun Bawang Festival - IRAU ACO LUN BAWANG

This festival is the largest gathering of the Lun Bawang community at any one place in Sarawak. It is traditionally a celebration of the rice harvest but now it showcases a variety of Lun Bawang (an Orang Ulu sub-group) culture in Lawas; the northern most town of Sarawak.

This event takes place end of May every year.  Their counterparts; the Lun Dayeh from Sabah are also invited to the festival.

You will be entertained with the the community's cultural dances, 'nguip suling' (bamboo flute band), 'angklung' performance, and also modern day band performance. There are handicrafts and traditional Lun Bawang cuisines for sale and telematches; traditional and modern.

Lun Bawang Bamboo flute band (nguip suling)

The iconic emblem of Lawas, the last town in north-eastern Sarawak before crossing the border into Sabah.

The beauty pageant is a crowd puller at the festival.

The men are not to be left out, donning their splendid Lun Bawang costume

The Merarap HotSpring Lodge by the Trusan River, located 70-km from Lawas

Other tourist attractions in Lawas include Merarap Hot Spring, Bakelalan Apple Farm and the coastal region of Kuala Lawas, Punang and Tagang 'Fish Spa'.

Sarawak... where adventure lives

The Natural History of Sarawak and Alfred Russel Wallace

The picture of Alfred Russel Wallace may not be instantly recognisable to many Sarawakians but he is a 19th century British naturalist who had put Sarawak on the map with his book 'The Malay Archipelago' AND his monumental paper 'Sarawak Law'. This paper prompted Charles Darwin to publish his ideas on 'The Origin of Species'.

Two mountains outside Kuching are synonymous with Wallace's work; Mt. Santubong, Damai Peninsular and Mt. Serambu at Siniawan, Bau. Both these mountains and the areas surrounding them are now a part of our natural history attractions. 

  

Mt.Serambu is also where the remnants of James Brooke's summer cottage can still be seen. Located at Bukit Peninjau at 424 ft above sea level, it was built by the first white rajah of Sarawak to escape from the heat of Kuching. Bung Muan, the former site of three ancestral villages of the Serambu ethnic Bidayuhs in the Bau Distric of Sarawak is located halfway of Bukit Peninjau.

The 2nd International Conference on ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE will take place in Kuching from 7-8 November 2013. If you wanna be part of an exciting conference/tour/scientific expedition, here's how.  

Top 5 things to do in Kuching, Sarawak with your family

RaisingExplorers.net gives you the run down of the top 5 things to do in Kuching city itself.

These are all within the city itself. 

1. Relax by the riverside - Shady pedestrian pathways, overhung by trees, and decorated with flowerbeds, become fairyland at night, the colourful lights reflected in the river below.

2. Check out Kuching’s Cat Statues - It’s coincidence that in Malay ‘kucing’ means ‘cat’, there are three main cat statues around town.

3. Take a stroll through Chinatown - Kuching has an old Chinatown, centred around Jalan Carpenter, and a new Chinatown, which is a busy commercial area, along Jalan Padungan, which is worth a visit for its markets.

4. Take a river cruise - Whether you get on board the tiny, putting sampans that ferry people to and fro across the river, take a fast boat out to the mangroves downriver, or do one of the many touristy sunset cruises on offer, it’s worthwhile to get out on the water.

5. Kuching’s museums - covering all things natural, historical, artistic, anthropological and ethnological.

The Kuching Waterfront with Mt.Serapi in the distance.
photo credit: raisingexplorers.net

 
Read and view the complete interesting article and photos at Raising Explorers.

Sarawak... where adventure lives