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Hi All, We arrived here in Miri yesterday morning after a safe but somewhat problematic 2 night passage. Things broke, the sea was rolly, and we we were tired most of the time. But we did arrive safely and that’s the important part. We will be here until about the 23rd of July. There are some Sail Malaysia events on the 21st and 22nd. I have written 2 emails about the Rainforest World Craft Bazaar. This is the first. The second shows Elizabeth learning to batik. I also tried my hand at it. Ruth Johnson DoraMac
Crafts Fair with Ruth and Elizabeth My crafts companions Ruth, Elizabeth and I regrouped for another crafts adventure. The three of us had spent a wonderful time exploring batik together in Terengganu. The Rainforest World Crafts Bazaar, just in its second year, was held in Santubong in conjunction with the Rainforest World Music Festival now in its 10th year. www.rainforestmusic-borneo.com The festival opened officially on the 10th but there was “cheap” entry day on the 9th so we thought we’d take advantage and go. Ruth, Elizabeth and I can enjoy much more time looking at crafts than Cliff, Patrick or Randal, so we leave them to boat chores and off we go. Perhaps most importantly, the three of us always seem to need teh tarik, lunch and the tandas all about the same time. Quite a compatible trio. (Tea, lunch and the “Ladies Room.) The Crafts Bazaar is held at the Cultural Village about 2 ½ miles from our Santubong anchorage. Randal kindly played dinghy driver and we collected Elizabeth and Ruth for the quick trip to shore. We began walking at 8:10 and arrived at the Village at 9:10. It was a nice leisurely walk not unlike walking up Mill Mountain along the road though not so steep. We passed an upscale condo complex, a resort, one spectacular home and a restaurant along the way. Definitely not a hike through the jungle. On brochures for the Craft Bazaar both Elizabeth and I had noticed the reduced entry fee charged on the 9th. One brochure mentioned that the reduced fee was for “locals,” but each of us at different times had asked in the Kuching tourist office if we could also pay the reduced fee on the 9th. We were both told that we could. The reduced fee was 15 ringits and the regular fee to enter the Cultural Village is 60 ringits which is about $18 US. None of us wanted to pay $18. Our Music Festival Tickets that would allow us to also see the Crafts Bazaar, the Cultural Village and the Music Festival were 180 ringits for our one day. Cliff and Ruth were going for 3 days so had already paid plenty. 15 ringits was about all we were willing to pay for the early visit to the Crafts Bazaar. There was a bit of confusion at the ticket booth as to whether we were included in the 15 ringit option; but because we had walked the 2 ½ miles and had been told by the Tourist Office we could pay the reduced fee, we were finally only charged the 15 ringits. Whew!
Ruth and Elizabeth sitting. Annette standing. Our first cup of tea after our 2 ½ mile walk Annette, originally from Britain has been traveling and teaching most of her adult life. She is retired now in Kuching and among other things was a volunteer at the Crafts Bazaar. Elizabeth, a Brit who has also traveled the world teaching, swapped stories. It’s hard to see, but Annette’s shirt was one of the designs created in a contest among student artists.
Nabilah Abdullah a potter from Sarawak. I bought the small cup on the left. It looks like brass but it is clay as you can see. I was as intrigued with her as with the pots. The piece was 8 ringits, less than $3 US and I love it. I thought about buying a larger one, but it was 100 ringits and not the best investment for cruising on bumpy seas. The small one is perfect for toothpicks.
Nabilah Abdullah Inkubator Caw. Sarawak 016-8009 680 When Randal and I returned for the Music Festival I brought Nabilah an American Flag bandana and she immediately demonstrated that she knew how to wear it hippy style on her head. I would have loved to have taken potting classes from her; she was so regal and calm…. Needless to say, I was impressed.
Batik Painting
This woman made ceramic beads. She too was quite lovely.
Weaving with rattan. There were lots of lovely baskets and these wonderful mats. I limited myself to just my mug and bracelet.
Coconut monkeys. There were many lovely crafts. But there was also lots of just “tourist” quality stuff. It was a mix. But we had a wonderful day, stopping for lunch about noon. Then after some more looking we all decided we’d had enough and would catch a shuttle bus back to the jetty. The bus was not due for another 40 minutes so we decided to try to catch a taxi or flag down a ride. My hesitant “flagging” probably looked ridiculous, but soon a car with a Kuching woman and her mom stopped to give us a ride. They were quite happy to do it and we were happy to accept. I phoned Randal when we arrived at the jetty and he dinghyed us all back to our respective boats. Both Elizabeth and I tried our hand at waxing a batik project and I’ll do a separate email about that. |
Daily Archives: July 15, 2009
Batik training at the Craft Bazaar
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5:41 pm Miri Marina www.mirimarina.com Hi All, Today Joy and Jim Carey on the boat Kelaerin from Bellingham, WA USA and Randal and I biked into Miri. We stopped first at the Harbor Master and then had a wonderful lunch of Banana Rice. Banana Rice is wonderful rice dish served on a placemat size banana leaf. Around the mound of rice they place small servings of different vegetables and then offer you the choice of 3 sauces, dahl, chicken or fish. It was very good. I had asked about lamb Redang and so also received a dish of that which was also very good. Joy ordered a lemon flip to drink and then Jim had one since it was so good. What made it so thick? Raw egg yoke much to Joy’s horror. We only found that out after the meal. I had a lemon/honey drink that was more lemon than honey so very good. Everything was very good. Randal also had the banana rice, some curry chicken and a 100 Plus which is a carbonated version of Gatorade. Our bill was about 40 ringits, around $12 US. After that we biked the mile into town to the small wet market for cucumber, tomatoes, potatoes, and mangoes. Then we checked out the fish market and then we just went biking around. The city is full of one way, no u-turn streets. But the drivers mostly were very curtious. I think we will quite like it here! So that’s it. I still owe emails about Santubong and the waterpipe smoking woman of Kuching. Hopefully I’ll catch up while we are here. Ru
Batik at the Crafts Bazaar One of the stalls at the Rainforest World Crafts Bazaar was run by a lovely and patient Indonesian woman from Jakarta. Visitors could attempt to use a canting tool to apply wax to a simple picture drawn on a white cloth. The image looked like something one could embroider and we actually used an embroidery hoop to hold the cloth though she did say that mostly children used them and adults often just held the cloth in their hand. Here are photos of Elizabeth doing batik. Hers came out quite good. Mine had lots of wax blobs.
Elizabeth and our teacher. She didn’t mind showing and re-showing and then saying, “Turn the blobs into art!” (Though it was only mine that had lots of blobs. I had gone first and maybe the wax wasn’t so runny or maybe I just had less steady hands.)
Elizabeth being shown how to hold the canting tool.
A steady hand!
The instructor was wearing a lovely skirt and at her feet are the tools and melted wax for making batik.
Tools of batiking and some samples and a map showing Indonesia.
Elizabeth’s project. I found that when I held the cloth up the wax wouldn’t come out of the canting tool and when I held it level the wax came out in blobs. I was encouraged to turn the blobs into “art” but they just really looked like blobs. It was lots of fun to try. I really also liked our batik teacher so brought an American flag bandana for her too when Randal and I returned for the Music Festival. She was very proud of Indonesian batik and encouraged everyone to come to Jakarta. The crafts bazaar and the music were held simultaneously so you could do both during the day and evenings.
And since I wrote so much about it, one photo of Banana Rice. They haven’t put the rice down on our leaf yet; but you can see the pile of it in front of Jim. He had white rice.
There was spicy ginger pickle too and some whispy bread. Randal is holding the orange chopsticks. The rest of us used forks though eating with just your fingers is also acceptable. The lamb Redang is in front of my plate. |
Kuching Minibus Tale
5:04 pm Miri Marina
Here is the 2nd catch up email; it’s about our minibus experiences. A minbus is just a large van with 3 rows of spassenger eats like a large van and could probably hold 11 adults comfortably. For all of our trips there were at least 3 people in the front driver’s seats and 4 or 5 per row and some on makeshift seats facing backwards. It wasn’t so terrible unless someone started smoking. There was a tiny No Smoking sign but it was ignored. There was usually no AC but luckily the windows let in air while we moved. But we did only pay 4 ringits for the 40 minute ride. The public minibus and the private resort minibuses were all about the same. Our definition of, “the van is full,” and the driver’s version of “the van is full,” were about 3 or 4 people. But everyone was always polite and friendly and the children well behaved.
Taking a Minibus
Randal and I went to Kuching one day; just to go for lunch. We spent 45 minutes waiting for a minibus that never came. There were 8 cruisers waiting so cars couldn’t offer us a lift. Finally a “resort” minibus stopped but was charging 10 ringits instead of the public minibus fare of 4 ringits. Two cruisers got in; the rest of us opted to wait for the public minibus which would be coming by anytime soon. We waited and waited and waited. Early in the morning several go by and even private minivans charge 4 ringits. About midday the first school shift ends and the second one begins so school kids apparently are taking the minibuses around Santubong so fewer make the trip to Kuching. Finally a cruiser in a hired taxi went by and Randal and I got in because Cliff and Ruth and Jennie and Eddie were going together to the motorbike rental store and not all of us wouldn’t fit into the taxi anyway.
Jeanette in the blue hat, Ruth sitting next to her, Randal, Eddie and Cliff. Jeanette and Eddie are from New Zealand though he is Dutch by birth. Te Wai Paunamu is the name of their boat. It means something in native New Zelandese that is quite nice but I can’t remember. I think Paunamu is a bay there.
While we were waiting I walked up to take a photo of this which is just near the “bus stop.”
It’s the tomb of a past Sultan who was the Sultan of Brunei, I think. Apparently his family has a home near Santubong, I think.
We heard later that our friends had waited another 45 minutes and then it took 40 minutes to get to town. I’m sure they were starving by the time they got to Kuching. Our taxi driver told us about life in Kuching. I’m not sure how much education he’d had; but his first job in the early 80s was as a PR guy for the Kuching Government. He was paid 250 ringits per month; less than $100 US. He had to travel a great deal too. After 3 years he quit to work in a hotel, stay put and make more money. He owns his own taxi and will pay off the 7 year loan next year. He married at age 30 and waited 4 years to have his first child. He has 4 and tells them to wait to marry so that they “won’t have to share.” He explained that when you marry and you have 1 ringit; you get only 50 cents and your spouse gets 50 cents. If you are not married then you get to keep the whole ringit for yourself. You get to do as you wish and not have to do as someone else wishes. This is the advice he gave to his almost 20 year old daughter. He told her to work and wait to marry. At dinner time when the whole family sits to eat together he teaches his children by telling them his thoughts about life. Jarfar is in his early 50s. Very, very reasonable. We arrived in Kuching about 12:30, ate lunch, bought new hose for our water catchers, some paint brushes for Randal to repaint the dings in the hull we got in Terengganu, and then went to catch the public minibus back to Santubong.
As I’m writing this about 10 days later, I can’t actually remember the point of the story…. But I’ll end with a description of a typical minibus ride back to Santubong. If there are only 2 or 3 cruisers in the van, then it is filled with at least 10 or 12 local people going back to Santubong. (One time we had 18 though 3 of them were small children.) Each person is dropped at his or her door! It reminded me of taking the airport shuttle when I’d visit my parents in Florida. We’d leave the airport and then stop at 2 or 3 condo complexes along the way to drop off passengers. I seemed to always be the last one off on the way to my parents and the first one on returning to the airport. Santubong actually resembles Florida with the foliage. We drove down small lanes to small villages to small homes and a passenger or 2 would get off the van. One time, it was so neat to see, we dropped off one man whose kids just looked so happy to see him. There was a small home at the end of a double board path along the river. A small boy and his smaller brother in diapers were waiting at the door. The baby was jumping up and down with joy seeing his dad. Another boy came from where he had been swimming with his buddies and followed his dad down the path. The dad had groceries and also a new bicycle wheel rim which seemed to be for the older boy. Then the van turned around and retraced its way back down the lane to another lane to drop off another passenger. By the end of the trio the van felt very roomy and comfortable!