JIPP TRAVELS

Revisiting Siem Reap

Posted on August 1, 2015 by jipp

Siem Reap – a place that I immediately fell in love with when I went there 3 years ago. The idea of going there especially with my mom and two siblings made me go even more excited – because I really wanted to bring them there and showed to them that this part of the region used to be home to some of the best architecture in the world. Topping the list of the Travelers’ Choice Landmarks for 2015 where thousands of travelers from around the globe voted for their choice of best landmarks on TripAdvisor, it’s always worth to return to the magnificent Angkor Wat.

The famous Pub Street

We stayed at a brand new hotel called Chez Moi Boutique Hotel and Spa. It was only opened a few months ago and was still in the process of undergoing some final touches. The walls were still naked without paint and they didn’t even have any mirror placed in the room so it was one of those times when I had to be creative and used my hand-phone to check out if there was something missing on my face. LOL.

We went for the sunrise and as usual found ourselves surrounded by hordes of people. Too bad, it was a cloudy morning so there was no sunrise. I felt bad for the people when they were still hopeful and staying put even after the sun had risen way off the horizon.

Mom and siblings were immediately crazified by the grandeur of Angkor Wat once we ascended the ancient stairs. They were all over taking pictures and they came up with their own theories on how the Angkor Wat could have been built in the past. I was amused but just as excited as they were.

The top flight of the temple was still off-limit, just as it was when I went there 3 years ago. But of course there really is no need to go up there to experience its grandeur and magnificence. For me, the best monuments in the world are best visualized from a distance.

Then we went to Bayon – which is probably the only temple within the ancient city of Angkor Wat that has faces. My mom struck the best pose here.

Then we went to Preah Khan – which is my favorite temple in Angkor Wat. This temple never failed to impress me especially the way they built the walls and the roofs. The roofs were made of stone blocks and there seemed to be no reinforcement to tie them together (except – may be those that they built recently as part of restoration project) so they rely solely on their own weight to support each other. It’s like playing lego where the dimension of each stone block has to very precise so that they can be fixed against each other.

Preah Khan

We ended our Angkor tour by going to Ta Phrom – the temple which was made famous by Angeline Jolie through the movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. The film director didn’t choose this temple for nothing. It has those very ancient looks – thanks to the existence of giant strangler figs whose roots have now snaked all over the temple. Somehow this time, it wasn’t easy to find the famous fig thanks to the ongoing extensive restoration works. Many entrances were closed off so it was like being in a maze where you’d have to find your way around or you’ll find yourself tailing behind your own tail.

But then, looking for the fig among the ancient ruins of Ta Phrom was really part of the fun and we had the best of laugh while doing it. We were lucky to have found the fig when there weren’t many people around. Each of us took turn in striking a pose and just when all of us were done the whole place was suddenly flooded with people – all eager to take photo in front of the famous fig.

My version of Lara Croft. LOL.

So we did a half a day tour but taking into account that we started off at 5am, we were actually there for some 9 hours. By the time we pulled out of the Angkor Wat area, everybody was quit tired and sleepy. We went to have lunch at a local restaurant – which served authentic Khmer food and which we found almost by accident – and had the best of meal in Cambodia. I could not believe my eyes (and nose) when we found a dish which is very similar to our ‘bosou’ or ‘pinasakan’ in Sabah. It really is true then that the best things that you find in life are those that you find by accident. Heh.

Our second and last day in Siem Reap was allocated especially for shopping but there was one last place that I wanted to bring them to before we started going on a shopping spree. It was the Angkor Silk Farm which is located some 15kms from the town center. Going there on a rented Tuk Tuk, we were amazed by the beauty of countryside of Siem Reap – the greenery and the expansive paddy fields.

The best thing about the Angkor Silk Farm is probably the free tour that they provide. We were taken to a tour that shows the process of manufacturing silks – right from the hatching of silk wombs right to the traditional weaving to produce silk clothes. Mom and siblings showed such a great interest in every single thing in the process. My sister especially was not quite fond of the idea of putting the cocoons into hot water to kill the wombs. Taking them out manually without killing them might be a good alternative but it will be very time consuming.

We didn’t buy anything from the shop (felt a lil bit guilty) – because the prices were crazy – but then we are talking about silks so it is quite understandable. We returned to Siem Reap when the sun was already up ahead but not before we stopped at one of quite a number of roadside food stalls to have a taste of – well – these.

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My mom and siblings liked them so much that they actually bought quite a lot to be eaten with our meal later at our lunch table. I was like – erkkkkk!

Of course, every short trip has to be ended with shopping. It was not really the best time to come to Cambodia when the Malaysian Ringgit is very much low against USD which is unfortunately the dominant currency in Cambodia. Still, Siem Reap remains one of the best shopping towns in the region. Imagine, a good T-shirt is sold at about USD2 per piece – which is actually less than MYR8 based on current exchange rate. Imagine – just imagine – if our money is at its usual MYR3.5 against USD1. Heaven. Uhuks.

But still it didn’t stop them from buying quite a lot of stuff, in fact, even exceeded the 15KG that I purchased on Air Asia as an add-on.

So, that was about it – my #CambodiaRevisited2015 trip – together with my mom and two of my siblings. They had fun, I had fun and we are already thinking of another trip. In the meantime, I have to face the bitter reality that I’ve got a lot of things coming right my way this year.

Posted in Traveling | Tagged Angkor Wat, Cambodia, SEA, Siem Reap | Leave a comment

Hello Again Phnom Penh!

Posted on July 25, 2015 by jipp

If there was one country that I wanted to go back to – and this time with my mom – it’d be Cambodia. My mom is very much into history, especially those related to humanity so I decided it had to be Cambodia. It was more like a family trip this time – with two of my eldest siblings tagging along.

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So I traced back the route that I took when I went to Cambodia for the first time back in 2011. I touched down at Phnom Penh, took a bus to Siem Reap and returned to KL from there.

We stayed at a hotel called Pandan Boutique Hotel right in the middle of Phnom Penh. I didn’t really like the location but it was located in a rather quite area of the city, surrounded by other hotels and posh apartments and I did see good restaurants within the vicinity but they were more like for the tourists so I didn’t go to any of them. The hotel was good and the hospitality was superb despite the fact that most of the staff looked very young as if they have just finished secondary school or something. Priced at some USD38 per night on Agoda, the room was quite comfortable, spotlessly clean and very spacious. I couldn’t really ask for more.

My sister is an avid traveler – or rather a tourist – because she is more into tour packages so she was very excited about joining me and having her very first taste of traveling without subjecting herself to a tight schedule and restricted movement offered in tour packages. In fact she was the one who was so eager to taste just about every weird food that we came upon on the streets of Phnom Penh and later in Siem Reap.

My brother is a house builder – and in almost total contrast to me – is one of the handiest persons that I’ve ever known. So coming to Cambodia really made him excited especially for the fact that Cambodians are famous for their craftsmanship that traverses back to the time when the Angkor Wat was built. He was so amused when he first saw a Tuk Tuk outside of Phnom Penh international Airport that he actually took photos from just about every angle of the 3-tyered vehicle. “I could make this back in Sabah” he said confidently. Knowing him all my life, I actually believed him.

Phnom Penh really has changed a lot from the last time I went there. There seems to be more people and the number of vehicles seems to have doubled and it is much more busy and noisy and bustling now. It is so difficult to cross a road during peak hour that there were times when we were left stranded on the side of the road so we had to ask any of the policemen that we saw around to take us over to the other side of the road. The traffic really can be so scary and very intimidating.

The Independence Monument

Of course, traveling with mom on a Sunday means I had the extra chore of finding a church that we could attend before anything else. After a lil bit of googling, I managed to locate St Joseph’s Catholic Church on the east part of Phnom Penh. The church looks very much dilapidated from the outside and it was actually quite nice and well-maintained on the inside.

The church compound is a combination of a beautiful school building of European architecture (probably Dutch) and probably built during the colonial time. Co-joining the school building itself is the church where the local mass is held. I was there just in time to see how the mass was performed in Khmer (national language of Cambodia) and I couldn’t help but seeing a significant influence of Buddhism even in its decoration. They even had incense sticks placed at the altar – the kind that they burn at temples.

Mom at the entrance to St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Phnom Penh

The English mass that we attended was not performed there but at another building which was more like a rundown half-concrete and half-wooden 3-storey. I could only assume that the reason why the local mass is performed at a different building is the need to take off shoes which is not a necessity when attending the English mass – and probably the exclusion of those Buddhism-influenced deco and rites.

So, after having lunch at one of the restaurants that overlooks the mighty Mekong River, we dared the blazing hot sun and the dusty air of Phnom Penh to go to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. I found it quite difficult to explain about the genocide to them in the beginning due to its complexity so I just led them to the tour according to the numbering provided on the brochure.

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I later found it wasn’t quite a smart move because they wouldn’t see anything interesting in those empty rooms without really knowing what exactly happened in those rooms during the genocide. I should have brought them to those rooms with those exhibited photos and illustrative paintings to fastidate their understanding of what really took place right there during what is considered one of the worse genocides in the modern era.

Just as I was, they seemed to be so much disturbed by the mug shots of those who were cruelly prosecuted at the Tuol Sleng. My mother was especially affected by the mug shots of children who were killed in the name of ambition and power. She couldn’t help but thinking of her grands. She couldn’t imagine if some of those in the photos were actually her grands. By the time we made it out of the compound again, they were all quite, probably trying to chew in whatever that they had learned from that rather brief but very eye-opening tour.

Then from Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, we headed out of the city towards the Killing Field where most of the mass prosecution had to be carried out during the night when the number of prisoners at the Tuol Sleng was too big for them to handle. That was when all of a sudden a very heavy downpour suddenly took over from what appeared to be a very hot day earlier.

It was so heavy that it felt almost like a thunderstorm but the Tuk Tuk driver seemed so adamant about pushing on. In fact he kept assuring us that it was very normal – which was actually evidenced by the fact that vehicles were still galloping by – but then it was the ladies who couldn’t take it any longer. I had to ask the driver to stop and he stopped at a marble slab manufacturer where we took cover behind a parked car. It really was a raging rain.

Brrrr!

We continued over to the Killing Field when the rain slowed down and it was still drizzling when we reached the gate. The most significant improvement at least through the eyes (or rather ears) of a Malaysian like me is the availability of audio guide in Malay. My mom and siblings seemed so immersed in the audio as we traversed along the path of the tour across the killing site that in the past had witnessed some of the darkest history that the world has ever seen – or rather not seen since what happened in Cambodia during the genocide where 3 million Cambodians were killed within a very short span of 3 years was largely unknown to the outside world.

By the time we arrived at the last stop of the tour – which was the multi-level racks where dozens of dug-out skulls of those who were prosecuted at the killing field were placed in – my mom seemed quite so stressed out, and angry especially for the fact that Pol Pot – the man who was responsible for the genocide had never been prosecuted and actually died a happy man (and with a young wife) at 90.

“God will punish him anyway” she said, in a very church-ly way.

“I don’t think they were smart enough. 3 million people could fight back if they were smart (enough)” said my brother when I told him how Pol Pot targeted the intellectual Cambodians who he thought could pose a threat to his ambition.

Needless to say, the genocide became our topic of conversation for much of the rest of the day.

We ended our tour in Phnom Penh by going to the Central Market – something that I didn’t get to do when I came to Phnom Penh 3 years ago. They were jumping in excitement as they discovered more and more things at the market. Of course what made them really go wow was the sight of exotic food, especially the fried tarantula. I bought a stack, supposedly one tarantula for each of us but I ended up being the only one who didn’t eat. Huhu.

Shopping started quite early especially for my sister who was all over to buy whatever she thought was interesting enough to buy. She only stopped when I assured her that there’d be more to buy in Siem Reap. I mean, we had a bus to catch anyway.

It would be our last day in Phnom Penh and we returned to the hotel to prepare for our bus trip to Siem Reap. A van came to pick us up at the hotel about an hour before the departure time at 12.30pm. BY the time we pulled out of Phnom Penh, it was almost 1pm. My sister kept saying how her wish to see the Angkor Wat in real since she was 17-years-old would finally be fulfilled.

I mean, there’s always something so exciting about fulfilling a dream and wish even though it is not even ours.

Posted in Traveling | Tagged Cambodia, Family Trip, Phnom Penh, SEA | 2 Comments

The Quake

Posted on July 4, 2015 by jipp

I have never been emotionally involved in a tragedy ever before – more than I was when the earthquake with a magnitude of 5.9 struck a big part of Sabah – which I thought was not serious at first – until the news of casualties at Mount Kinabalu reached me. The final number of those killed – 18 – came to me as a shock; in fact, it devastated me more than I had thought it would.

Mount Kinabalu is not just another mountain. It is a mountain that means so much to the people of Sabah. I remember how I’d climb up to the rooftop of my family’s house in Keningau just to take a glimpse of the mountain almost every morning. It had to be morning, because it’d usually be obliterated by clouds when the sun rose further away from the horizon.

Source: http://www.theantdaily.com/Main/The-face-of-national-heroes-shine-on-Mt-Kinabalu

I first climbed Mount Kinabalu when I was 14 years old, together with my group of schoolmates and teachers from Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Keningau. I almost didn’t make it to the peak because I was down with sickness on the night before the summit attack – which I learned much later in life was a form of altitude sickness. I remember how I didn’t even take any photo up at the peak because I was the last one to arrive and everybody else was starting to go down so nobody had the time to take even a single photo of me. Uhuks!

Then I climbed again with a group of friends when I was studying at the University of Malaya. That was one of my best climbs because I really enjoyed it very much. I remember how we brought a guitar with us so we’d stop every now and then to sing in front of other climbers. Some of them would even sing along. I remember how a group of excited tourists from Korea danced Sumazau with us when we sang a local Dusun song.

Then my next climb happened when I was working in Sandakan. I went with a group of my ex-colleagues so it was more like a re-union for us. I remember how I was struggling so much that I almost didn’t make it to the peak. It was very cold – probably sub-zero – because I remember having ice beads on my cap. I couldn’t even talk because my mouth was so numb and my saliva was freezing and my noise just wouldn’t come out. I did make it in the end but I’d remember the struggle for a very long time.

During my very first hello to Mt. Kinabalu, long long time ago.

Then my last climb happened about 2 years ago. This time, I was quite confident that I had the stamina to do a one-day climb. In order to be allowed to continue to the peak, I needed to reach Laban Rata before 11 am, or 11.30am at the latest. We started off quite late because we didn’t book one day in advance as we were supposed to, so they had to find a mountain guide who was willing to be taken in at the very last minute.

By then, I had already become somebody who could always call himself a marathoner (ehem!) so I was quite in my tip-top condition. I ran my way up – literally – so I did make it to Laban Rata at about 11am. Too bad, my climbing buddy was not quite up to it and she only managed to arrive Laban Rata more than an hour later. Needless to say, the mountain guide wouldn’t allow us to continue so we returned to the base of the mountain with a little bit of disappointment. I vowed to return again sooner than later.

But that ‘again’ would seem to have to wait a little while longer. The earth-quake struck right underneath the mountain, damaging most of the trails and changed the landscapes of the mountain forever. Perhaps, the most outstanding one is the chipping off of the Donkey Ear. The quake sent rocks and boulders galloping down the mountain, obstructing parts of the trails. Many parts of the trails were damaged by landslides which were later worsened by fleeting rain and a series of aftershocks.

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Perhaps, the most tragic part of the whole tragedy was the loss of lives of more than a dozen climbers and four mountain guides. It really was devastating. I got emo every time I read about how the families and most people of Sabah (and beyond) reacted to the tragedy. In a way, it was devastating, but in another, it brought the people of Sabah closer together. We never experienced anything like it before. Perhaps, the closest to something like it was the intrusion by a group of militants from the Southern Philippines but that was a different story altogether.

There are still aftershocks happening every now and then and it’s been almost a month now. The worse might be over but the sorrow is still very much felt. Things are recovering and I heard the trails are being rebuilt and expected to be re-opened in September although I have a little bit of doubt on that. Some of the routes would have to be altered which is actually quite exciting because it will give climbers the opportunity to see the mountain from new different spots.

Mount Kinabalu might be full of scars all over its body now (mostly due to landslides) but I believe it will recover – even faster than most of us think. Many people believe that Mount Kinabalu is not only sacred but it also has a soul and that soul is in pain now because of the scars. I mean, something like that. I am not really worried or saddened by the changes of looks in Mount Kinabalu unlike some other people because for me it was nature who did it and whatever is done by nature is part of a natural process. I believe Mount Kinabalu had been changing from time to time right from the beginning of its existence.

I mean, we’ll just have to trust nature. She knows what to do and believe me, it wouldn’t be long before all the scars are covered by layers of moss and plants and everything that you wouldn’t even notice that they were once there.

Mount Kinabalu has lost its ‘halo’ ? You gotta be kidding me. It just went through a little bit of transformation as part of a natural process so no, it has not lost the slightest bit of its halo or glory or whatever you like to call it. Majestic, breath-taking beautiful and mysterious – Mount Kinabalu will always be there to capture our hearts and imaginations. In fact, I can’t even wait for my very next climb to this beautiful mountain – whenever that may be.

Posted in Events | Tagged Beautiful Sabah, Mountains, Sabah Quake, Tragedy | 1 Comment

My Mom’s Birthday

Posted on June 4, 2015 by jipp

One of the best things that I did when I went back to my home town for the recent Harvest Festival holiday was celebrating my mom’s birthday. Instead of taking her to some fancy restaurant to probably have some fancy spread of food, I took her to a little hike across the village – the village that bears so much memory and significance to my life. It was there that I spent much of my childhood and it was there that my mom taught me so much about life way before I knew how to learn on my own.

I mean, whatever I did and went thru there played a big part in shaping me into the man that I had then become. Being in a struggling farming family, it was there that I learned about the hardship of life. But I would not exaggerate. The thing is, when you are a kid and you know nothing about whatever the world could offer to you out there, you really don’t really look at whatever you are going through as hardship. When I think of it now, I was actually happy with all that I had and all that my family had at that time.

AND believe me, they were true when they said – when you are content with all the things that you’ve got, happiness will be yours. When you make yourself aware of things that you don’t have in life, then that’s when you are beginning to have all kinds of regrets, discontent, dissatisfaction and eventually unhappiness. I really believe that now because that’s exactly what I went through as a kid. I didn’t have to think far ahead but instead I put my focus wholly on the current, on-going moments – something that I’ve been trying to do as a grown-up but always to no avail. Uhuks.

So, back to that little hike with my mom, we were actually both excited. My mom had not been to that part of the village for quite a long time, probably even longer than me. Of course, she was still aware of things, especially those that held so much memory to her. Every now and then she’s stop to take a look at a plant or a tree or simply a piece of the landscape and she’d tell stories out of each of them, mostly on how they are related to her personal experiences in the past.

I never get tired of listening to her stories especially when she was still a kid. Both of her parents passed away – first her father and then her mother 1 month later -when she was merely 5 years old so you know how hard it was for her move on from there, being parentless and passed from one family to another. I’ve read and heard a lot of real-life stories but the stories that my mom told me about her personal experiences in the past never failed to give me a goose-bump. And they still do.

The farming areas of the village have changed a lot from the last time I went there – which was long long time ago. They are totally different from how I had expected they would (still) be. I remember how the whole stretch of the land used to be occupied by expansive paddy fields for as far as my eyes could see and the beauty of the scenery when the paddy fields turned into an array of gold stayed in me up until now. The turning of the paddy into gold would also mark the beginning of harvesting season which was very much anticipated because it wouldn’t be long before the festive season of Harvest Festival begins.

Looking at those largely abandoned pieces of land which are now covered by thick and overgrown grass, I couldn’t help but choking with a lil bit of emotion. I mean, most villagers especially the young generations would no longer want to do the heavy labor of farming under the scorching sun. They prefer to work somewhere else, mostly in the township areas where they can earn more money to meet the demands of the modern life. I wouldn’t blame them though.

I mean, one of the things that motivated me into striving hard while pursuing for betterment in life (aisheh. LOL) back then was that – I didn’t want to go back to the farm and do all the hard labor and literally burn myself in the process. I decided to leave it there in the past although there are times when I really miss farming. I guess it’s the memories that I had carried with me from all the times that I spent farming with my family. Those memories that I could never experience ever again. Uhuks.

The irrigation was still there. I remember the excitement that ensued when it was first built. We’d go there right from school and spend hours playing submerging and catching fish which was quite aplenty at that time. That very irrigation holds so much memory to me that I could probably build a monument right across it.

The routes had profoundly altered and we had to ask people for directions. There were times when the trail that we were walking on suddenly led us to a dead end and we had to march on through the bushes knowing that it was still leading to where we wanted to go next.

Pegalan River was the name and I remember how beautiful it was back then. The river had shifted from time to time, leaving behind it a trace of beautiful grassland with clusters of bamboo scattered here and there. There were birds – those that dig their way deep into the soil and build their nest in there to avoid predators. I remember how the entire youth community of the village would march down to the river to do a weekly picnic every Sunday afternoon. It was during one of these picnics that I learned to swim, but not before I got (almost) drown and was actually floating upside down within a circle before somebody pulled me up by the hair and brought me back to the shore. My life could have been cut short right there – at the tender age of 5. Phew.

The whole landscape has now changed. The grassland has now been turned into a wide spread of farm, with foreigners from neighboring countries seem to live comfortably and away from the radar of the authorities. The beauty of the place that I had been carrying around with me all this while had to be crushed to pieces that day. It would never be the same again.

So, yeah, despite all the disappointment that I had to swallow knowing that those places that held so much of my childhood memory no longer look the way they used to, I still had fun with my mom. Lots of fun actually. We had a very simple lunch under the tin roof of the wooden hut that my late uncle had built to store the paddy crop in. Even the hut seems to have been left abandoned for so long, probably since he passed many years ago.

So, that was how I celebrated my mom’s birthday this year – by taking her to a little hike across the village, because in the end the time that we spend together is the best gift that I could ever give to her.

Posted in Hiking Adventures, Lifestyle | Tagged Beautiful Sabah, Family, Home | 2 Comments

A Lil Visit to Tenom

Posted on June 2, 2015 by jipp

So, I have just returned from a short trip home – something that I’ve been doing every year whenever May comes, probably because the Harvest Festival is a good enough reason to go back to Sabah for – apart from the fact that I am from there. But of course, above all, it’s the family. In the end, it’s the family that matters most to me no matter where I am and what I do in life urang bilang. Even the slightest thought of returning to them even for a short while keeps me grounded and reminds me of where I am from. Heh.

But then, family or not, I still made my time to drive up to Tenom, a town nearest to my own hometown Keningau and yet I hardly go to. Tenom is quite famous for its unique demographics with 60% of its population are of Murut ethnicity. Murut is one of the dominant ethnic groups in the interior part (some call it division) of Sabah apart from Dusun which I am one of and Lundayeh. It might be a less known town to many but it is actually very much worth a visit.

Of course one could never talk about Tenom without associating it with Kopi Tenom – which is considered one of its finest products. Back then it was the only coffee that I knew so the taste is very nostalgic to me and probably most other Sabahans. I might have tasted a lot of other coffees now – from the cheapest to some of the most expensive in the world – but still the taste of Kopi Tenom has a very special place in my heart. It’s still the best to me really.

I have always been fascinated by how clean the town of Tenom is. It has always been considered one of the cleanest towns in Sabah, probably together with Kudat. I mean, seriously, it might be located in the interior part of Sabah but the people there seem to be more civilized than those who stay in bigger towns say, Keningau and even Kota Kinabalu. Uhuks.

Since I was already there, I made my time to do something that I had always wanted to do – to get a taste of the famous local tauhu (or tofu – a food made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into soft white blocks) which I found out could be found at the food court on the 2^nd floor of the new Pasar Tenom (Tenom Market) building.

Having been featured quite numerous times on TV food channels, and having heard so much about it from my friends in Tenom, I knew I had to go for it this time. I was actually trying to locate the stall (or rather a mini-restaurant) that serves it when somebody called out to me and asked if I was looking for it – that tauhu. Seems like I was not the only one who was there looking for it. I would say, the tofu was OK at least to my inexperienced tongue, but then I’m not really a big fan of tofu so I don’t really know how to describe it in a language that most tofu enthusiasts would probably understand. But it was OK, really.

Then on the way back to Keningau, I made my way to stop by the Murut Cultural Centre. I only visited it once during one of the annual Kalimaran Festivals long long time ago – which is like the biggest celebration in the Murut communities – and I didn’t really get to check out everything that it had to offer at that time, probably because it was too crowded so my focus was more on the crowds and not really on the museum itself. Somehow this time, I had all the time in the world to check out everything in detail.

I was instantly wowed by the grandeur of the building/s, which were built almost entirely of timber – and almost nothing else but timber. The main columns (or pillars in a less engineering term. LOL) are built of whole logs as if trying to show off the state’s once-thriving but now waning industry. Coming to think that Sabah is now struggling to save some of its last rainforests, there really is nothing much to be proud of in those columns.

The architecture might be a wow but what they have on the display at the museum is even much more of a wow to me. It’s funny how I grew up surrounded by Murut friends and yet I knew very little about their wonderful culture. Being here at the Murut Cultural Centre, I got to learn a lot about them in almost no time at all. I mean, almost everything about this wonderful ethnic group has been detailed out – right from their origin to their traditional ways of life, from their cultural evolution to their modern-time achievements. Sabah is probably known for its cultural diversity but having Murut in its long list of ethnic groups is such a privilege considering how colorful the culture, tradition and arts is.

I was actually at the costume section of the museum when I came upon this – which almost instantly took me by surprise. I mean, I found it quite outrageous and I knew it wouldn’t go well with the tribal group concerned if any of them happened to be there to see it. Almost compulsively I took a picture of it and posted it on twitter. One of my twitter followers cc-ed it to the Tourism Minister of Sabah and almost in no time he returned with a response (kudos Datuk!). He later returned again saying that the dress was sent away for cleaning (or washing) at the time of my visit and had now been put back on. I mean, I knew it might be a small thing to some people but considering how significant the museum is to the tribal communities in Tenom, it might be a big deal for those who are actually in it (the community).

Even the guy doesn’t look happy

I also went to another building to see the place where they do the Lansaran – a traditional game whose idea of formation was acquired from a bunch of kids who was jumping happily in a trampoline-like movement on a tree during the paddy planting season as described on the info banner. Of course it had since evolved against time and it is now a game aimed at trying to touch some hanging object placed wayyyy high at the ceiling.

Having the place all to myself, I tried to play silly by trying to jump as high as I could but it was almost impossible to reach no matter how hard I tried. I mean, the game was invented in such a way that it needs a group of people to jump (repetitively) in unison so that the floor will acquire enough energy to make somebody bounce high enough to touch the hanging object. I couldn’t help but getting reminded of the popular game show from Korea called Running Man in which the entire team was sent to Sabah to do a series of local games. Lansaran was one of the games that they did and needless to say none of them actually succeeded. LOL.

Lansaran

I’ve been to quite a number of cultural museums and I can safely say that the Murut Cultural Centre in Tenom is one of the best not only in terms of architecture but also the quality of the exhibited items. For me, it deserves more recognition than what it has now.

I believe there is more to Tenom than what I’ve managed to explore within that very limited time that I had there. But of course, as I had always said, some places are better left un-visited so that you’ve got reasons to go to those places again. Kan? 🙂

Posted in Culture, Local | Tagged Beautiful Sabah, Local, Malaysia | 1 Comment

Revisiting Siem Reap

Hello Again Phnom Penh!

The Quake

My Mom’s Birthday

A Lil Visit to Tenom

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