Dog Days in Kuching...

It's Monday afternoon and outside, the rain is coming down with a vengence. The muddy river that runs past my apartment building is threatening to overflow, moving past rapidly, carrying with it a few days worth of trash as well... The rains have become more frequent again, but usually the hard down pours don't seem to last that long, though today it's been going on over three hours now.

Some of my friends will remember back around October/November this year, that I flat out refused a flu shot. This is not the first time I've done this, in fact, I've never gotten one. I have a superstitious belief that getting one, would actually make me sick, whereas I rarely get the flu. But it turned into a bit of a debate between me a couple of friends who insisted that if it was available, I should get it. Well, as I was lying in bed, sick, with the flu, for three of my four days in Sarawak, I was thinking, I would eat my words, if I could've eaten anything at all. ;-)

So, Sarawak, is one of the Malaysian states that makes up the island of Borneo. It shares the island with two other countries. Brunei, a very small, wealthy, oil rich sultanate, and Indonesia, it's part of the territory being Kalimantan. This part of Indonesia is most recently famous for the massive forest fires that burn there, nearly every year. It is home to some of the densest rainforest in the world, which, much like the Brazilian Rainforest, is systematically being lost to logging, clearing for cash crops, forest fires, and development. In Sarawak, the Malaysian part of the island, things are under a bit better control in that regard. The island is also home to Orangutans, as well as thousands of other exotic plants and animals found only on that island.

Anyway, I flew over there on Wednesday, unfortunately, already feeling like I was getting sick. But I had the ticket, and couldn't return it, so I figured I'd better go anyway, and that I'd feel better the next day. I flew to the capital city, Kuching (which means Cat in Malay), arriving around midnight. I had heard about what a nice city it is to visit, but arriving in the darkness, I had no idea if that was true or not. But when the sun came up, a quick glance out my window, confirmed that for me. In the couple of hours I left the room on Thursday and Friday, I walked a little along the river front which is lined with trees, and parks, restaurants, and markets. In my two days of confinement to my room, I had a spectacular view of the river, which is where I took all of the pics of the regatta and the sunsets on the river. I only knew about the regatta because I heard a lot of yelling outside my window suddenly, and when I looked out, I saw huge boats filled with people racing down the river. Very cool! :-)

From Thursday evening on, I watched alot of news about London. :-( I'm not going to go on about this, because there is nothing I can say that hasn't already been said. I would only say that the news was greeted with as much sadness and outrage here as it was everywhere else in the world.

The original intention in going to Sarawak was to attend a day or two of the Rainforest World Music Festival which takes place there every year. It brings together musicians from all over the world and showcases some of the best traditional music in the world. I couldn't bear the thought of not going at all, so Saturday I dragged myself out, and went despite still feeling sick. And it was worth it! The festival took place about 35 km outside of Kuching, at the Sarawak Cultural Village. It is situated at the foot of Mt.Santubong a stones throw from Damai beach. On the drive out I was just stunned at all of the natural beauty around me. The vegetation and terrrain are not the same as mainland Malaysia, it is more jungle, more mountains, more wild... I will definitely head back across sometime when I'm not sick.

I arrived at the festival about 1:00 Saturday afternoon and met my friend Tracy from KL, who was there with a bunch of other friends of hers who come over for the festival every year. In the afternoon we went to a couple of different workshops held by some of the musicians who would perform again later in the evening. The workshops are a combination of performance and teaching. Most of the pics you'll see are from a workshop on drumming. They were very high energy and had people on their feet dancing, clapping and singing. In stark contrast to the painful events that were happening simultaneously in other parts of the world, when I looked around at that room full of people, from EVERY walk of life, it made me think about the power that music has to soothe, to inspire, to bring people together, to bridge communication gaps, where ordinary conversation sometimes cannot.

Then we went on to see a band from the Ivory Coast, which also played alot with drums, but also singing, and they taught the everyone in the room some new dance moves. After that was a few hours break, and we all retired to the beach for a few hours, where we watched the sunset, chatted, and buried a few people up their neck in sand. ;-) Eventually, we returned to the Festival to hear some of the bands play. What an amazing setting for a concert! Basically, a hillside, natural amphitheater, sitting right in the middle of the rainforest. There were three or four stages lit up in different colors. All you had to do was find your little patch of grass, pop a squat, and sit and enjoy the cool night air as you listened to the amazing sounds of traditional music from all over the world.

I returned to KL the next day, and am still lying low trying to get rid of this flu, but feeling better by the day. My masters program starts this week (on my birthday to be exact), and my language program ends, though I will still work with a tutor from the program four hours a week, in order to get help wading through my lecture notes and writing papers and such, and continuing my Bahasa Melayu study. I will be attending lectures in Bahasa Melayu, but most of the readings are in English.