MOUNT SANTUBONG AND MOUNT SEJINJANG

THE LAGEND OF MOUNT SANTUBONG AND MOUNT SEJINJANG

A legend often associated with the mountain is of two beautiful princesses of heaven, Santubong and Sejinjang. Santubong was an expert weaver while Sejinjang was an excellent rice tresher. When war broke out between two villages, Kampung Pasir Puteh and Kampung Pasir Kuning, the King of Heaven sent the princesses to keep peace in both villages. The villagers saw both beautiful princesses and stopped the war. After the war, both princesses taught the villagers their expertise and both villager began to trade and become prosperous. Many princes heard of them and came from the whole island to marry them, but all was denied by them. One day, a handsome prince came, and the princesses had a quarrel and exchanged blows because both of them fell in love with the prince. Sejinjang swung her tresher which hit Santubong's cheek. Santubong threw her weaver at Sejinjang, hitting her in the head. Putting and end to the quarrel, the King oh Heaven cursed both of them into mountains. Santubong turned into Mount Santubong while Sejinjang was turned into Mount Sejinjang. It is said that both Mountains resembles women lying on their back and a crack on Mount Santubong.

MIRI JAZZ FESTIVAL

Every genre of gazz imaginable converges on the resort town of Miri for a week of good times. This popular international festival draws talented musicians from all corners of the globe for a series of outdoor concerts is an intimate setting.

PESTA BENAK

                                        

PESTA BENAK (Tidal Bore Carnival) in Sri Aman is one of the yearly activities in the Saraawak Tourism calender . The objective of Pesta Benak Sri Aman is to introduce Sri Aman town through tourism and encourage tourist from in and outside the country to visit Sri Aman. Apart from it, Pesta Benak is also to promote harmony among local community .

KUCHING WATERFRONT

The Kuching Waterfront is the local point of the town and features a graceful, European-style esplande with viewa across to the astana (the place) and Fort Margherita. Formerly this 1 km stretch was home to many warehouses, which were closely associated with the mercantile trade of this city. The design of the waterfront has incorporated traditional Iban cultural motifs, evident in the mosaic tiles on the pavements.

The waterfront has of course undergone several transformation since the 19th century - from a small settlement with a few atop buildings, to a busy port with warehouses and wharves, to the landscaped riverside walk it is today. The waterfront is now also home to modern sculpture, an open-air theater and a musical fountain.

There are also numerous rotunda rest point along the way. Mid-way down the stretch sits the Hornbill fountains, a modern steel sculpture, depicting Sarawak's national bird, the hornbill. Its play of light is rather arresting at night. Just further down, on the left hand side is a building, which houses the Chinese Museum. Members of the chinese community built this building in 1912. The waterfront also features an open-air eatery and a theater. The theater is housed in the former Sarawak steamship company warehouse. The tourist information office is also situated here. Cultural activities are held here especially during Gawai (the native harvest festival) in June each year and Cat City Featival, held annually in August. For another perspective on the town, hire a boat and float down the river either by day or night - the sunset is fantastic.

KUBAH NATIONAL PARK

Kubah is one of Sarawak's most accessible national parks. It is only 20 kilometres from Kuching.Kubah is the recent addition to Sarawak's network of protected forest area, Which was gazetted in 1988 and was only open to public in 1995. An overnight stay is highly recommended if you want to get the best of this handy and compact site.

The sandstone plateau includes three mountains, Gunung Serapi, Gunung Selang and Gunung Sendok. Which can be sen clearly from Kuching. Within the park's 2,230 hectares you can find rare ferns and orchids. These were one of the reason kubah was gazetted as a national park in 1989. Popular with local people are the waterfalls and clear jungle streams where you can cool off after trekking through the jungle on well-marked paths.

The dipterocarpforest, interspersed with patches of scrub and unusually rich area of kerangs, is home to bearded pigs, black hornbills, squirrels, mouse deer and many species of rep tiles and amphibians .

BIDAYUH RACES

Bidayuh is the collective name for several indigenous groups found in southern Sarawak and northern West Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo, that are broadly similar in language and culture (see also issues below). The name "Bidayuh" means 'inhabitants of land'. Originally from the western part of Borneo, the collective name Land Dayak was first used during the period of Rajah James Brooke, the White Rajah of Sarawak. They constitute one of the main indigenous groups in Sarawak & West Kalimantan and live in towns and villages around Kuching and Samarahan in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, while in West Kalimantan they are mainly concentrated in the northern Sanggau Regency. In Sarawak, most of Bidayuh population are found within 40 km of the geographical area known as Greater Kuching, within the Kuching and Samarahan division. They are the second largest Dayak ethnic group in Sarawak after the Iban and one of the major Dayak tribes in West Kalimantan.

Predominantly Bidayuh areas in Sawarak are: Lundu, Bau, Penrissen, Padawan, Siburan and Serian. Most of the Bidayuh villages can be found in the rural areas of Lundu, Bau, Padawan, Penrissen, and Serian district. The area continued to the adjecting West Kalimantan border where they resides in Kembayan, Noyan, Sekayam and Jangkang district in Sanggau Regency. The area in which they live is mainly in the basin of the Sarawak River and hilly to mountainous forest, traditionally worked by rotational agriculture and hunting based around farms populated from parent villages situated on the hills for protection. Today, almost all the traditional longhouse-villages have been replaced by individual houses, by roads and there is some plantation agriculture and a reduced emphasis on the growing of hill-padi. Fruit trees, especially Durian, remain important property markers. The distinctive architectural and cultural feature of the Bidayuh is the head-house, now adopted as a symbol.

In Sarawak there are generally said to be three main linguistic groupings (Biatah; Singai-Jagoi; Bukar-Sadong) but these can be broken down even beyond the list referenced below as most people can be distinguished by locals down to village level through smaller differences in vocabulary and intonation. Each area speak its own dialect:
Lundu speak Jagoi, Salako & Lara
Bratak, Singai, Krokong and Jagoi speak Singai-Jagoi
Penrissen speak Bisitang also people in Kampung Bunuk speak "Bunuk" (Segu-Benuk)
Siburan vicinity speak Biatah
Bidayuhs who live around Serian such as Tebakang, Mongkos, Tebedu to Tanjung Amo near the border of Kalimantan Indonesia speak Bukar-Sadong.
Bidayuhs in Padawan speak several but related dialects like Bi-anah, Pinyawa, Braang, Bia', Bisepug & Emperoh/Bipuruh.
The dialects are not mutually intelligible and English or Malay are often used as common languages.

BUBUR PEDAS

If in peninsular Malaysia and is popular with BUBUR LAMBUK , in Sarawak is also popular with the spiciness of porridge. Special the porridge is on spices with its own spices. That's the spice content consists of rice porridge spicy sauce thickens itself.