A few weeks ago, Melanie and I celebrated her 30th birthday with a return trip to Malaysia. While we love our home in China, Shanghai’s crowded streets, constant car horns, and pollution can really leave us yearning for peace and quiet in natural surroundings. Last year during Chinese New Year, Malaysia provided the perfect refuge from the chaos of China’s craziest holiday. So when we were in need of more rest in some idyllic natural surroundings, we again looked to Malaysia for our rescue! But rather than revisit the charming cities along Malaysia’s main peninsula that we visited last year, we instead went to Sarawak, a Malaysian state on the northern coast of Borneo that is known for having relatively few people but lots of rainforests and beaches. Luckily, Sarawak was everything we hoped for and needed. Our hotel was located on a peninsula in the South China Sea that is dotted with rainforest-cloaked mountains and pristine beaches, and our hotel had a healthy dose of both. We had access to private beaches whose waters were amazingly warm and relaxing, as well as a ‘jungle pool’ with chilling waters trickling down from a nearby mountain. The hotel’s cabins were nestled in rainforests on the lower slopes of Mount Santubong, and these forests provided us with plenty of exotic wildlife and strenuous hiking. Our hotel really ended up being the perfect refuge from life in a Chinese megacity! To the left, a photo of our hotel's beach. The cabins are in the forests behind the beach, and Mount Santubong's peak is in the clouds. A view of the sunset from near our hotel. Here's our cabin, though it was called a 'tree house.' We were right on the ocean. A waterfall in the rainforests, about an hour's hike from our hotel. Some monkeys in the trees outside our cabin. As relaxing and wonderful as our hotel was, we also ventured out to explore some of what Sarawak has to offer. We visited Sarawak’s capital city, Kuching, which was about an hour south of our hotel. For a relatively small city surrounded by rainforests, we were pleasantly surprised by Kuching and its fascinating history. Kuching’s old town is nestled along a river front, with narrow streets lined by European-style buildings and Buddhist temples. It reminded us of some of the former colonial towns we’ve previously visited in Malaysia, with charming vestiges of British influence including old forts, courthouses, and monuments to British monarchs. These buildings now house cafes and shops, and the city is a pleasure to stroll through. To the left, a picture of some Kuching shops from a park. Yet for all that Kuching looks similar to other cities in Malaysia, its history is unique. Kuching and Sarawak are the legacy of the so-called ‘White Rajas,’ a series of English rulers, or Rajas, who ruled Sarawak as their own independent kingdom. In the 1840s, James Brooke, a failed British civil servant from India, wandered into the sultanate of Brunei, which then nominally ruled today’s Sarawak. Brunei’s Sultan was struggling to control the indigenous tribes in Sarawak who were constantly at war with each other, and he offered to grant authority over the area to James Brooke if he could bring peace to the region. Brooke succeeded, and he eventually came to control all of modern Sarawak as an independent Raja. All told, three Brookes ruled as Rajas over 100 years. They were relatively benevolent rulers for their time, focusing on bringing prosperity to Sarawak’s inhabitants, though they also made no pretense of democracy. The Japanese occupied Sarawak during WWII and brought an end to the Brooke’s dynasty,* and Sarawak would eventually join a federation with the rest of Malaysia after the war. To the right, Kuching's waterfront, with the old town in the trees on the left, and Kuching's parliament on the right. Part of the legacy of the White Rajas is that the diversity of Sarawak’s indigenous groups is no longer a source of conflict, but rather a source of pride. To learn more about these groups, we visited the Sarawak Cultural Village, a kind of living museum for Sarawak’s many indigenous peoples. For many people, Borneo is most famous for once being home to headhunters,** which is true, but there’s really an amazing diversity to Sarawak’s indigenous groups beyond this alarming habit. Borneo is home to a huge variety of native peoples who have long lived in the island’s rainforests and coasts, including the Bidayuh and Iban (farmers), the Penan (nomadic hunters), and the Orang Ulu (miners living in the mountains). There are also many Malays and Chinese living in the region’s cities, who have generally served as the areas merchants. The Cultural Village brought all these cultures together, with members of each group living in traditional households according to their traditional ways. We enjoyed seeing a variety of native dances, musical instruments, and even used a blow gun! To the left, a picture of the Sarawak Cultural Village. Melanie hitting a bull's eye with a blowgun! As fascinating as Sarawak’s history and culture is, we primarily wanted to enjoy the natural scenery of Sarawak, and so our last stop was our favorite: Bako National Park. Bako sits at the end of a peninsula jutting out into the South China Sea, and there are no roads into the park. Instead, visitors hire a local boat at the nearest village for a 20-minute ride up the coast. Riding along towards the park, we saw many locals fishing for the local specialty: jellyfish. When we asked our boat driver what jelly fish tasted like, he laughed and said he had no idea. Apparently, the locals in Sarawak aren’t crazy enough to eat jellyfish. They instead export it to the one country that eats everything: China! To the left, Melanie and I after wadding ashore to Bako. Below, a picture of one of Sarawak's jellyfish, yummm! Continuing up the coast, we began to see the terrain that Bako is famous for: pristine beaches, overlooked by sheer limestone cliffs and rainforests. And in the waters surrounding Bako, there are rock pillars jutting from the sea that the oceans have shaped into elaborate shapes, providing a kind of modernist sculpture park! We eventually arrived at the park’s entrance and waded ashore for a day of hiking. Bako’s mountainous terrain allows for a variety of landscapes within the park: there are mangrove swamps, dry savannahs, and dense jungles. Each of these areas made for interesting hikes, and each abounded with wildlife, especially monkeys***! Melanie climbing down through rainforests to reach a beach. Bako’s greatest treats though are its pristine beaches. After a few hours of hiking, you’re rewarded with breathtaking views of beaches at the jungle’s edge. Getting to these beaches requires a near vertical descent from the surrounding mountains, but it’s well-worthwhile. After an afternoon of hiking, Melanie and I relaxed on a beach for a couple of hours before catching a boat to head back to our hotel. Overall, Sarawak provided the perfect refuge. Sarawak’s scenery is truly breathtaking, and its people and history are wonderfully unique. And finally, Sarawak’s food is every bit as delicious as that found in the rest of Malaysia, so we ate especially well throughout our trip! Sarawak left us recharged and ready to return to our hectic urban life in Shanghai! * Though the last Brooke Raja apparently took quite a bit of convincing to relinquish his claim to rule! ** Sarawak’s first attempts to attract tourism in the 1980s and 90s focused on the exotic nature of its indigenous peoples and, yes, the fact that some used to be headhunters. The government eventually realized that the chance to lose one’s head wasn’t the best way to attract visitors to an obscure region, and tourism now wisely focuses on the natural beauty of the region. *** As you can see from this picture, Bako’s monkeys are rather infamous for being ‘naughty’. Generations of tourists have given them so much food that they’ve become quite aggressive in approaching travelers. Visitors who stay in the park’s cabins must keep their doors locked at all times, because the monkeys have learned to enter the rooms in search of food!
1 Comment
Connie Agard
9/18/2013 03:16:20 am
This was an exquisite travelogue to places I had never heard of before.....your photographs are so beautiful....Thanks for this travel gift. You both look very healthy and happy. Good for you!
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AuthorTwo free spirits who happen to be a lawyer (Brian), an educator (Melanie), and Americans find themselves in China in the twenty-first century. Archives
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