First day out for lunch and we walk into a parade!Kuching is known for cats and for the Lion dance – two people one head on tail. I asked and found out is was the birthday of a Chinese temple. Because it is the year of the fire dragon they made a huge dragon that they were going to burn at the end of the parade.But also you get incense and stick it into the dragon so it is smoldering the whole time.I asked the waitress where we ate how often these happen and she couldn’t say but when I said more than 12 per year she said oh yeah like it might be twice that. But this was a particularly large temple so more impressive. There is a lot of pride in the diverse cultural heritage in Borneo. Better view of lion dancers. This got really impressive with the lions on four pedestals. The back person helps the front place his feet to stay stable. I wish I’d taken video. The way their heads move is really cool. Entrance gate to Chinatown near where we stayed. With cat and dragon. It went on into the night with fireworks (from our balcony). It was a few different areas setting them off fairly intermittently. Less about watching. More like repeated happy surprises 🙂The storefronts with covered sidewalks make a lovely place for art and decoration. This was an illustrated story all the way around the public bathroom…On my birthday I tried to go for a hike but they don’t let people go if you don’t come in the morning. And in my usual fashion I didn’t get out until the early afternoon. So I went to a wildlife sanctuary called Matang that was nearby. It was not as open and free as I had hoped. But the baby orangutan was very cute. And I had never seen a binturong before and they are so beautiful. Though I can’t fathom why they could possibly want that much fur in this heat!And they had a nice river walk nearbyWith a cool suspension bridge. Another cat statute in KuchingAnd another We took a sunset cruise the next day when Zarah was feeling better. I love all the fishing boats. They had performance of different traditional Sarawakian dances And a traditional instrument, made electric for better sound on the water. In Malaysian Borneo, I think people identify more as from their state than their country in a way. The Sarawak flag is everywhere. Especially at the state capitol building. It does seem a different feel of the culture. More diverse, even more accepting of multiple backgrounds. Mosques are still dominant, and from this boat ride we could hear three different calls to prayer happening as the sun went down. The Darul Hana Bridge is an S shape for Sarawak and has hornbills at the top of the masts as the emblem of the state. I really love this bridgeSunset was just spectacular. Here you can also see the masts of the bridge facing opposite directions as a symbol of the diverse cultures here. And the spiral walkway at the entrances. So much cuteness with the Cat cityHornbills also get a fountain. But also right next to another cat statue. Next day we went to a different rehabilitation center. Semenggoh is much more wild and open. I learned later that Matang is where those that can’t really be rehabbed back to an ability to be independent stay. They are mostly seized from people who caught or bought them as infants and kept them as pets. The young ones can learn but some are not found until it is too late. Well you just have to eat there, don’t you? Borneo Cultures Museum is huge! Yes, skulls over the fire…I’ll let them explain that…They had great movies as well as artifacts and explanations For near the long house A little herbologyA little cosmology…burial urns. MasksThey talked about the differences between lowland, forest and highland cultures and how the highlands remained isolated the longest because there is so much difficulty traveling there. Cool, but creepy designAnother amazing sunsetEven from the parking lot of the bank…Just had to try to capture it, beautiful in every direction changing over several minutes. There is also the Sarawak Cultural Village which has a show twice a day of traditional dance.Including a blow dart demo with balloons on the opposite wall, 25-30 feet away. And poles
It was very well! I didn’t expect the quality of dance or stage tech to be so good at a museum. They would never allow this traditional bridge in the states. A bit too pointy and rickety for us soft Americans. This place is such a cool concept. They have a pond in a national park and they have a house or longhouse for 10 or so different cultures you can visit. And most are staffed with a person raised in that culture and happy to answer questions about their house and their culture. This guy is Iban, and I’m sad to say I forgot his name. But we talked to him for at least 45 minutes.The first photo is the common area, this is a family living space with kitchen. Some longhouses are very high off the ground and it really does help the heat, the higher ones were cooler on the same hot dayAnother family area of the Orang Ulu Chinese farmhouse This woman has worked in this house for 35 years! She has planted many of the trees and bushes around it. We also talked a long time. It is so lovely to be in a place that people really enjoy and are proud of their work. They had a great musical building and they have an annual international festival of traditional music in June. That sounds amazing. The setting of the village is also just stunning, reason enough to go visit. Malay houseThis woman was chatting with friends and making “love letter” cookies. They taste like fortune cookies but are folded more flat and you put little love messages in instead. The stairways take some getting used to I went down facing in like a ladder most of the time. Bebiyah healing ceremony areaCafeteriaI love the clouds and how they look like the wings of the hornbill just beat and made them be that shape.Beautiful Vietnamese restaurant we found for a nice dinner in our last night: Le Saigon. Herbs growing on the wall.
It was a lovely stay. We were sick for some of the week we were here. But we enjoyed seeing a very different part of Malaysia. :). Next: Sabah.
I forgot to tell the legend is: that a white person came and asked a local the name of the place (pointing at the ground) and the local thought he was pointing to the cat that was passing by. And he replied Kuching which is the word for cat in the local language. So they embrace it.
Jessica Wandering 
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