Sarawak and Borneo
In May 2007 a had a short trip to
Sarawak
As usual I started off at Kula
Lumpur a good place for shopping; but I did take time off to revisit the
vast bird garden. Its the worlds largest aviary with thousands of free
flying birds under a vast area of netting which covers a hill side. Its
a great place for bird portraits;
Toucan
Red Hornbill
Peacock
Parrot
Cattle Egret
After a bit of a bad start. I
couldn’t get advance tickets for the Miri Jazz festival online or even
in KL. It was a good thing in a way as my afternoon Air Asia flight was cancelled
so didn’t get to Miri until 9:30pm so missed the first night anyway.
I wasn’t too impressed with Miri at first; in fact I thought it was a
soulless new town with no character.
The place I stayed was
excellent. It was run by a New Zealander who had some pretty good
tours to jungle, rivers and fantastic caves. The Highlander lodge was so
good I didn’t want to leave.
The Festival was held at the a big hotel on the
beach. it was we well run with excellent music. The Dirty dozen Brass band,
(New Orleans) Habana Sax (Cuba), Son2Nos UK, Venezuela) were the highlights.
For more info on the Miri Jazz Festival
see
www.mirijazzfestival.com
The Niamh caves are 2 hours from
Miri; they are among the worlds largest and are an impressive sight.
I had a jungle boat trip up the
Bakong River; through an area which had a fatal crocodile attack a few
weeks before.
I didn't see any crocks but the
experience was very enjoyable. We had a small group and a special
mention of David the owner of the Highlands Lodge is deserved as he is
doing a similar thing in Borneo as we are doing here!
We finished up with a visit to a
Longhouse,
As you can see its very long with
80 or more wooden houses linked in a terrace
The rice wine went down well. So did I
when I tried to get up after several glasses!
Moved on to homestay out in the
country run by a Orang Ulu musician an artist Ngau Jau . Had a
great chill out time there staying in a simple thatched house. I
felt like one of the family and returned there for
the Rain Forest Music festival in July.
I love Kuching and stayed in a
fantastic backpackers lodge run by a brilliant photographer Donald and
his wife Marina . It was a real blast staying there.
The Singghasa lodge
is an exceptionally smart and stylish place in the centre of what is one
of my favourite cities in Malaysia (if not Asia!) It also had cheap beer
too!
Don, Marie and myself in their rooftop bar
The Cultural village was a very nice
place to visit. Set in a spectacular location it has the genuine village
feel as the houses are occupied by the ethnic craftsman who work there.
The Cultural show was very
interesting too; here are a few of the performers on and off stage
the hunter
getting in a spin
Overall Sarawak was great. I’ll be back
again in 2008
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