Visit Malaysia Year 2014 - Sarawak Museum, Kuching

To support Visit Malaysia Year 2014, I will be writing on various tourist attractions in the country. Let us work together to bring in tourists to our lovely Malaysia.

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I still remembered my maiden trip to Kuching, Sarawak, back in 2011. My sister was about to start her university years in Universiti Sarawak Malaysia and the whole family flew to the Land of the Hornbills for the first time to send her off. While the trip itself was nothing memorable, Sarawak Museum left a good impression on me.

Sarawak Museum

Often considered among the best museum in Southeast Asia and the oldest in Borneo, the exhibition in the museum is rather extensive. Focus mostly on the natural history of Sarawak, the ground floor of the Old Building houses natural history collection and floras and faunas found in the state. 

Some of the animals found in Sarawak

Meanwhile, the first floor is where the collections of various ethnicity of the peoples of Sarawak is at. There are models of longhouses being exhibited here for the public to have a closer understanding of their ways of lives. Musical instruments, tribal masks, handicrafts, animal traps, and so on are some of the items being displayed.

Traditional musical instruments

Inside a longhouse

The interior of a typical longhouse

While the Old Building is all about the natural history, the extension of the museum, Dewan Tun Abdul Razak, is about the modern development. This building is across the road and you can use the overhead bridge which connects the two buildings. In here, you will learn about each and every districts of Sarawak and the many development works done to improve the living of the peoples.

The museum certainly lives up to its reputation as being one of the best in this region.

Info Box

Sarawak Museum,
Jalan Tun Abang Haji Openg, 93566 Kuching, Sarawak.
Open every Mondays to Fridays from 9.00 a.m. to 4.45 p.m. and Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. The museum closes on first day of main public holidays, Yang DiPertuan Agong's birthday, Labour Day and Malaysia Day.
Admission is free.
For more information, you can visit their website here.

Kuching - Sunday Market

Before we went to the Sarawak Museum, that Sunday morning we first made a stop at Sunday market off Jalan Satok, about ten minutes ride on taxi. Apparently, this Sunday market starts around Saturday afternoon and lasts until Sunday afternoon and according to the receptionist of 360xpress as well as the information I can find from the Internet, the market is very huge and it takes hours to actually finish walking the whole place. How true is that, I had no idea for we didn't really manage to explore every corner of the market.

We woke up very late in the morning, about 10am or so if I remembered correctly, as it was too comfortable to sleep. After finishing everything and had our breakfast, you can actually imagine it was about 11 plus to 12pm when we reached there and with the blazing weather we have here in Malaysia, walking around in market at this time of the hour was definitely not a child play. Plus, being with my family who are well known for their datin-ness, suffice to say, after about half an hour, we went to the opposite shopping complex (my sister refused to acknowledge that as one!) just to enjoy the free air-conditional.

However, with that half an hour, at least I got to experience the atmosphere of the Sunday market. Other than what you can normally find in the wet market such as vegetables, fruits, and so on, there are also souvenirs for you to buy as well. Nothing much special with the souvenirs; pretty much cliché items such as key chains and so on. Do remember to scout around first and haggle down the price and never to buy immediately for you might find the same thing at a much cheaper price at another stall.

I guess that's about it with this Kuching trip of mine. Pathetic little trip, isn't it? Kuching, and Sarawak as a whole, has more to offer such as Cultural Village, Mulu National Park, Niah Cave, and so on but all these takes time and money, the former we don't have, the latter my father too stingy to spend. And I think I had enough travelling with my family. They are too money-minded and fussy about pretty much everything. Too expensive, too hot, too this, too that. Headache to my brain. Wait till I'm financially well-off so that I can treat them all (and told them to stop minding the money thing, haha..).

NEXT STOP, SINGAPORE!

Kuching - Sarawak Museum

Besides the Chinese History Museum, we also went to the Sarawak Museum which is about 10 to 15 minutes walk from Kuching Waterfront, just along Jalan Tun Abang Haji Openg after the Padang Merdeka. Established in 1888  after receiving sponsors from Charles Brooke, the second White Rajah (White King) of Sarawak, this building was built with every intention of it being a museum. This museum often being considered as one of the best museums in Southeast Asia and is the oldest museum in the Borneo island.

Sarawak Museum

The building still manage to retain much of its original designs even during the Japanese Occupation. According to Wikipedia, little damages had been done on the building due to the fact that it was under the direction of a kind Japanese officer.

Still looking magnificent

The exhibitions in the museum are extensive, covering from wild animals found in Sarawak to the archaeological findings,  pre-historic earthen wares to indigenous living lifestyles. When it comes to indigenous section, you will be amazed at how detailed and elaborated it covered, from the masks used by different tribes to the replica of a traditional Iban longhouse inside the museum.

wild lives in Sarawak

Inside the longhouse

Traditional music instruments

Extension to the museum was built at the other side of the road with a overhead bridge connecting it. Over there, you can read up information about Sarawak and the districts in it, about the developments happening over there and so on.

Indigenous items

The best part of it is that you can enter for free. Yes, just like the Chinese History Museum, Sarawak Museum is free of charge. Plus, it is air-conditioned so you can enjoy your afternoon brushing up your history at the same time, escaping the heat from the sun. In my opinion, Sarawak Museum definitely live up to the hype of being one of the best museums in Southeast Asia.

*TO BE CONTINUED*

Kuching - Kuching Waterfront

Kuching has a lot of wonderfully rich and historical buildings all lining up along Kuching Waterfront. Just like Ipoh and Penang where the presences of the British empire can be seen throughout the cities, the same can be said for Kuching for you can find a lot of neo-colonial style buildings along the streets surrounding the area.

Square Tower which used to be town's jail

You can actually make Kuching Waterfront as your starting point for your Kuching heritage walk. Standing at any spot in the waterfront and looking out across the Sarawak River and you can see there are some historical monuments at the opposite riverbank. Fort Margherita and the Astana are some of the heritages lying over the other side of the river.

Sarawak river with Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN) overlooking the river

Kuching - A (Unsatisfactory) Trip

The first thing you should know about this Kuching trip of mine with my family back in September were not a real holiday to begin with. It was more of a exploration type, where we were scouting and examining the conditions of the place as my sister was going to Universiti Malaysia Sarawak for her degree study. This trip was our first to the East Malaysia and we were not sure what to expect. Since Peninsula Malaysia and East Malaysia were separated by the South China Sea, the living lifestyles between these two parts of Malaysia are quite different.

This was the first family trip that involved aeroplane

When we arrived at the Kuching International Airport and took a cab to the city, we were rest assured that it wasn't that much of a difference after all. Yes, even though Kuching is a city, it is nothing like Kuala Lumpur or Penang in term of modernity, or even Ipoh, as my sister put it. The shopping malls (the priority for my sister), even their biggest, The Spring, were incomparable to the ones in Ipoh, however little there may be in my hometown. However, what they lacked in term of advanced modernity, they substituted with simplicity of lives. People there are genuinely friendly and nice with no sense of rush, especially on the road.

The hotel we stayed in - 360xpress

Big and comfortable for five of us

Throughout our 5 days stays, we did not really go anywhere that spells unique or special. It was more of helping her to prepare for her first away from home experience, buying necessary items, familiarising the places, and so on. Hence, it was shopping malls after shopping malls. The only few things worth talking about is the Sarawak National Museum and the weekend market. More on that in the next entry.

My favourite - kolo mee

*TO BE CONTINUED*

Sharing is caring. A word of advice and a piece of information.

While both Sabah and Sarawak are part of the Malaysia constitution, they have their own immigration systems. Passports are not needed for Malaysians but you need to have Dokumen Perjalanan Terhad (loosely translated to Limited Travel Document) if you plan to stay more than 3 months. However, while we were in Kuching, we did not need it so I'm still a bit blur as to the rules and regulations to it.