Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Colour me Iban

Pagi tadik nak gerak kena jerit ngan si Along sebab KO! Memang ngantuk cam beruang tengah hibernate ler aku ni.

Dahler not enough sleep for the past few days...pastuh semalam stayed up until 5am surfing the net sebab beli prepaid untuk surf Internet.

Murah gila punya pasal - RM15 for 24 hours access, aku jadik burung hantu and stayed online downloading stuff and doing this and that online.

Amik ko! Akibatnya...designer luggage! Not even eyebags tau! We're talking humonous eyebags!

Managed to drag my ass out of bed and mandi selama dekat setengah jam to wake me up. Joined the rest of the guys for breakfast sebelum jumped into the coach together with Bob and his family to go to the Sarawak Cultural Village.

Dalam perjalanan dapat ler tengok these amazing sights throughout the half jour journey. Even finally got to see the fame Santubong.

Terasa nak jadik Fiebie lak. Masa aku snap pic Gunung Santubong pon, aku rasa nak jerit, "Theee hillsss are aliveee!!!...with the sound of muuusiccc!!!" Fantasi tul ler....but the sights were simply breathtaking, and they made the whole trip to Sarawak just worth it totally. The colours, the hues of the surroundings were just so vibrant.

It was an extremely bumpy ride, sampai sekor sekor yang melatah tak abih abih bising everytime melayang akibat tercampak.

We passed more sights like the Damai resort yang dengar golf legend Arnold Palmer yang design the golf course...before we finally arrive at the Sarawak Cultural Village.

From the outside, it doesn't look as impressive as I thought it would, maybe due to the hype of what I've heard about it all this while. Billed as the living museum, it definitely has a very simply proclaimation to its presence.

Turun coach...masing-masing cari rokok dulu, berasap.

Not very healthy living...but who cares...bukan Kementerian Kesihatan yang sponsor blog aku kan...

A couple of items piqued my interest...the first was this weird sculpture. First thing that came to my mind were peas in a pod...pastu teringat cam petai lak.

Sampai balik kat hotel ni, aku masih searching for the right word to describe that ukiran. I knew what it looked like, but somehow the word didn't pop into my mind at all. It was a H word. And as I'm typing this...suddenly it dawns on me!

Hemorroids!!! That's it! It looks like a really bad case of hemorroids!

Somebody pass me that jumbo economy tube of medicated ointment!

To some it may look like a vagina ngan kelentit (can I say that word) berkembar tiga (cacat sungguh...but must work great for sex - oh oh my blog is becoming 18SX) but I think it looks like hemorroids, or for those who want a better explaination of the scientific term referring to a painful mass of dilated veins in swollen anal tissue. Also can be defined as a pathological condition in which such painful masses occur. Yes, and it is also called piles! Who says you can;t learn anything from blogs. Note that I didn't say anything useful.

Moving on to something not too crass (which must be unlike me for those who know me better) is this carving yang dok depan the performance theatre.

There were I think about four or five of these carvings, but each differed in character.

This particular one reminded me of Fiebie. Erm...I won't say why but I think you now why, kan girl?

Matilah tak ada angklung nak amik gambar and post in my blog tuk carut Muzaffar.

It was hot as hell...with the searing heat beating down mercilessly. To avoid being bathed in sweat and providing less than appealing body odours, aku dan bebudak lari masuk the air conditioned theatre nak tunggu the launch of Bob's album.

Tengok keluarga Maestro dah pun set up jual CD Bob, Hantaran Hati kat depan theatre.

After a little of waiting, dan sesi mencarut harga barang-barang kat souvenir shop kat Sarawak Cultural Village yang memang sah khas buat orang putih kertu yang mai melawat sebab da senja da selangkah masuk kubur...we prepare ourselves for the cultural show.

Wow...memang power ler persembahan mereka. I love ethnic dances especially and it was definitely mesmerising to see the wealth of culture in Sarawak's heritage of arts. Memang menarik persembahan termasuk tarian Iban, Ngajat Lesung, and several other including tarian pahlawan (matilah Fiebie merembes kalau ada sekali tengok bebudak pakai cawat je)

There was this particular tarian which I didn't catch the name of yang siap mamat ni panjat atas this pole, and balanced himself on it on the flat of his stomach. Pergh! Kuatnya perut....matilah six packs katanya!

And then, like a breakdancer gone wrong, dia siap spin tuh!

Aku suka tul!!! Very the acrobatic show ala international performances.

After that, it was on to the launching of Bob's album, diikuti ngan persembahan beberapa lagu dari Bob. Memang flawless ler persembahan Bob! Semakin mantap vocal dia.

Abih tu je, kami gerak lunch kat restaurant kat premises of the village itself.

Sepatutnya aku wat tattoo aku, tapi sentap sebab mamat yang biasa wat benda tu da balik ngan segala peralatan.

Dalam tension, mamat sorang ni yang aku perasan masa show menari Ngajat Lesung tu sembang ngan aku.

Nama dia Daud, asal orang Miri dan umur 22 tahun.

He told me he's been dancing for some four years now.

Kalau biasa penari ni semua erm...kaum yang lembut gemalai sikit...I found out from Bob that kat Sarawak, there is this thing where more effeminate males are not allowed to take part. Terkejut gak semua penari lelaki mereka betul-betul berupa jantan (matilah gelak sorang... tak kuasa undercover!)

Talked about tattooes. Makan hati tengok tattoo dia.

He explained to me the difference of his tattooes.

Contohnya, yang lengan kiri, yang thicker strokes is tattoo Iban, manakala yang belah kanan tuh, tattoo suku kaum Orang Ulu.

Also discovered ada satu yang bulat bentuknya kat area bahu tu, dipanggil bunga terung, which is basically a headhunter, when he...erm...brings a head home. Kalau yang wat kat tekak tu, tu maksudnya, "Don't you f***ing mess with me!!!" cause that means banyak sangat pala kena penggal da.

Sembang punya sembang, Daud kena gerak sambung kerja, so aku pun join balik event yang pas lunch, switched over to the press conference. Sempat tukar nombor ngan Daud sebab dia kata kalau leh, abih rehearsal malam ni, dia leh datang hotel buatkan tuk aku tattoo! Sukanya aku!!!

Harusler original tribal punya!

Anyway, the heat was getting worse as the scorching afternoon sun seemed merciless. Takde mood nak lunch sangat so makan sikit je. Sambil tu kaco si Hazel Maestro ngan these little cocktail umbrellas they had stuck on coconuts they served us.

Merasalah handbag Hazel tiba-tiba ada accessories additional.

Abih je semua tu....we were dragged along on a tour of the Sarawak Cultural Village. Wow! Now I
know why they call it a living museum.

We were brought to all the houses, actual constructions of the residences of the major ethnic races in Sarawak. Aku malas nak elaborate lebih pasal these pics I took, but if you're interested to find out more background, click je kat Sarawak Cultural Village and go over to their website gallery with explainations of each home.

But aku amik ler pics gak untuk kenangan...it was all nothing short of amazing!

Tapi yang seronoknya masa sibuk melawat rumah orang Iban, Bidayuh, Melanau dan sebagainya, singgah rumah orang Penan tu, tiba-tiba ada orang panggil aku.

You see, the staff of the village ni, semua ada multiple roles dalam kerja-kerja mereka seharian..

And I only found out that bila aku jenguk betul-betul, tengok yang panggil aku si Daud.

Rupanya, dia dok kat rumah orang Penan, erm..kira berlakon sebagai pahlawan Penan ler or something like that.

Dia dok panggil aku dari jauh da, rupanya nak confirm malam ni abih je rehearsal abih je, dia akan call aku, pastu mai hotel.

Dia bak member dia sekali yang akan tolong buatkan tattoo aku. Yeehaa! Sukanya aku! Terus amik pic seksi mereka yang bercawat saja.Boleh?

We had a short chat again, and some history lessons in the culture behind Sarawakian body art.

If anything, it made the whole trip worth it just learning about how intense the local culture here is in expressing themselves through various facets of arts and performance.

But one thing aku nak point out which I found quite an interesting trend.

Kalau rumah-rumah kita kat sini ada benda yang ala ala menjadi centerpiece that becomes the point of focus, seperti lampu canggih beli kat IKEA ker haper jer la...the most predominant accessory of Sarawakian homes back then was none other than tengkorak.

Yeap...the human skull was all the rage back then, and no decent home would be seen without it hanging in a noticable spot of the main room.

Well...actually there's like only one room anyway....in most of the local ethnic housing I've seen... but you get my point. Aku snap satu, tapi meremang bulu roma pikirkan it was a real skull.

Mamat jadik tour guide kita ni kata it was on load from the museum and the shrunken skull ni dated back over a hundred years. Tu sebab nya da kecut.

I kinda think it's funky, but definitely freaky, In one of the ethnic homes, better still, they hang a WHOLE BUNCH of skulls. We were told it also marks that the home it hangs in has a warrior.

Not so cool!!! It's actually kind of nasty lah when you think about it. I'd imagine kalau aku penggal pala orang, the last thing I wanna do is keep it as a trophy. Eeew!!!Bayangkanlah masyarakat tuh masa tuh camna bab nak show off. Imagine makcik jiran mai bertandang ke rumah.

"Eh Tipah, cantik tengkorak yang tu..."

"Yang mana satu? Oh...yang tu. Hah...si Leman bak balik semalam. Mamat tu ada body odour, so Man pon penggal pala dia.

Actually, alasan jer sebab bentuk pala dia very the kena ngan my tempayans....ada continuity kan...."

Mamposss!!! Gelak ni terbayangkan.

Anyway, kata our guide ni lagi...masa meka wat village and letak benda alah semua ni jadi props. siap kena wat upacara sebetulnya tuk mengelak kecelakaan berlaku.

The shaman had to literally stay in the huts for a month to appease the spirits or something.
Eh...ok ler...nak gi dinner ni pastu malam ni ada dinner show Bob.

Pas abih malam nanti kalau jadi aku buat tattoo, aku amik pics dan posting malam ni gak kalau leh. Apapun, khas buat waiem dan peminat-peminat Bob, ni pic Bob pas launching album dia nun kat atas tuh..

And then, one more bersama dengan keluarga tercinta dia yang turut hadir masa event tuh siang tadi.Ok ler...

Hope you guys enjoyed my little traipse about in Kuching as much as I did.

Be blogging soon...

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