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

Ben Fogle's Sarawak Adventure - A longhouse experience at Annah Rais

In this three minute video we see adventurer and explorer Ben Fogle spend some time at an authentic longhouse about 40-min drive from Kuching.

Escorted by his amazingly knowledgeable guide, Rose, he savours the local brew -- a rice wine called 'Tuak' which is particularly potent, enjoys a delicious chicken meal cooked for him in 20 minutes in bamboo, tries his hand at being a blacksmith's apprentice, discovers the secrets to the blowpipes and how to make the arrows and also listens to some local musicians.They play him some music using bamboo instruments that have been used for hundreds of years, having been passed down through the generations and played by striking, plucking and drumming. Its called 'pratuokng' (pra-tua-k-ng)

Overall it is clear,  as Ben points out at the end, that Longhouse living is a wonderfully communal existence where all the families live together in peaceful harmony.

Ben sampling the 'tuak', rice wine usually served to welcome visitors

Sarawak... where adventure lives

Logos Hope returns to Kuching Sarawak

An international crew of 400 will make Kuching their home base from 12 July to 1st August 2013. Interacting with the international crew is part of the MV Logos Hope experience.

We at Sarawak Tourism Board are pleased to welcome the crew members who come from forty-five countries to Sarawak. We believe the crew will take in the sights and sounds of Kuching that the city is renowned for; the historical quarters of downtown Kuching, the longhouse of Annah Rais, the national parks outside the city, the Semenggoh Orang Utan Nature Reserve, Sarawak Cultural Village and not forgetting the food

A little bit about the ship... MV Logos Hope is the world's largest floating book fair with over 5,000 titles which cover a range of subjects including science, sports,cookery, children titles and much more.

MV Logos Hope will open to the public at Sim Kheng Kong Port, Pending from 12 July till 1st August 2013. Opening hours are from 10 am – 9:30 pm Wednesday through Saturday, from 1 pm – 9:30 pm on Sundays and 2 pm – 9:30 pm Mondays and Tuesdays. Tickets cost RM1; children under 12 enter for free, but must be accompanied by an adult.