Kuching Cont...

After our high ropes course we headed to the beach to explore. As it turned out the monsoon season brought with it big waves on the beach. We must have spent a good 2 hours letting the waves carrying us on the shore in it's current. This was Kieran's favorite part of the trip. I must say that we had sand filling every crevice of our bodies, but it was fun. We headed back to the room to get showered before dinner.

The next morning as we had feared Kieran's earache had turned into a full blown infection. Our resort was really in the middle of nowhere. So after figuring out how to get a shuttle in, we headed to the hospital. The hospital was really nice. We were given an appointment with the ENT specialist, got the medicine and the bill. The sad thing about the bill was that I paid the same amount for the shuttle in as the doctor made.

Once we got back to the resort, we headed over to the Sarawak cultural village. This is village that you can visit to get a feel for all the tribes current and historically that live within the rainforest. There were about 10 houses representing how the different tribes live that you can walk inside. Once inside they have cooking demonstrations, carving, music, and dancing. In the area where we live the Penan tribe still live. They are a nomadic tribe who due to cutting back the rainforest have been forced to move closer to the cities and live in a more permanent village. In order for them to sustain their village a number of charities collect clothes and canned good and also help them to sell their handicrafts. I recently visited a sale of their goods. I purchased a shadowbox with a set of their traditional earrings displayed.

Pictures from top left... 1. An Orang Ulu longhouse. These longhouses were built to last for many generations. 2. A lady making tapioca cookies. I was unaware that tapioca comes from a root. It looks similar to a yam but white. She grated the roots, added sugar, and then deep fried it in oil. It was quite tasty. 3. Melanau tribe home. This tribe traditionally lived near the sea, hence the houses were elevated 40 ft above ground. 4. Kieran trying the antique rice grinder 5. Bidayuh traditional house. They built their homes high in the mountains usually tacked to a steep hillside. This was partly for protection and partly for access to the pure, fresh water.