Francesca and Henk-Jan's Backpacking Trip!
Friday, January 1, 2010
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!!
After arriving in Bangkok on the 29th, Henk and I decided to spend the 30th doing something a little mindless: going to the mall! Since we are staying in the ex-pat area, we discovered that a great mall – the Emporium – is just a train stop away. Although, we walked at first since we hadn’t yet discovered how to use the Bangkok SkyTrain. It was a nice yet long walk, sweaty since it is so humid here. We got to the mall around 4:40 pm (having slept in of course) and ventured inside. Wow! The mall was something I’d expect in only the nicest of modern Western big cities. It was very impressive, with all of the high-class expensive stores a la a Louis Vuitton directly left of the main entrance.
Henk and I walked around for a while, discovering an amazing food court on the upper level which we decided to return to for dinner. Then our next mission: to get my nails done for New Years! I hadn’t had my nails done since Bali, so I really needed to get them done and what better time than the day before New Year’s Eve? We stopped at one of the make-up counters where I tried some different foundations and got a tip to visit a Nail Art Studio around the corner. We flipped through the art examples they had there, and Henk picked out a spiderman-esque design with jewels for me to get. It looked awesome!!
While we were waiting for my nails to finish, we watched a local news program on TV (completely in Thai) which we later gathered was about last year’s New Year’s Eve fires. Apparently, some of the clubs in Bangkok were so crowded that some people got severely burned after being trapped in them when they caught fire on New Year’s. We made a mental note to be careful for whatever we decided to do this year! We then returned to the mall and ate at a place on the food court level called Royal India. While a tad on the expensive side, they had a delicious butter chicken and taste naans for us to eat…
New Year’s Eve: For New Year’s Henk and I decided to go to what was supposed to be the biggest countdown celebration in Bangkok. This was located outside the giant CentralWorld mall, which we had to take the SkyTrain to get to. And boy, was it a big celebration! The place was totally crowded when we got there; there was barely any room to walk a straight line without being crammed next to people. We noticed that a lot of people were wearing colorful lit-up devil horns and wondered why… it’s not Halloween, after all! Hehe… Anyways, to escape the crowd and the heat generated by them, we decided to duck into the mall itself for some dinner. Up to another awesome food court, past floor after floor of cool things to buy we realized that Bangkok must have some of the best malls in South-East Asia! This one was awesome as well!
Henk gave our waiter the food order while I tried to find us some interesting drinks. I thought it would be fun to have some fruity mixed drinks for New Year’s, but the bar told me they were out of almost everything! Still, we ended up with a colorful pink drink with lychee and white rum. Not my favorite, but Henk enjoyed it. Then it was back out into the crowds… it was just an hour until midnight when we exited the mall. The celebration area itself was huge, but the stage and screens they had to show off the performers and entertainment for the evening was pathetically small.
While I’m not considered ‘short’ here in Asia, I wasn’t wearing heels for the evening so I couldn’t see anything at all – just the back of people’s heads. Annoyed by this, and the crowds and their heat, I thought it would be better if we found somewhere with a little more space. However, by that time it was close to the countdown. We stayed for the countdown to 2010 and saw the fireworks light up the sky before making our way towards the exit. Oh! I don’t know how many of you do this, but it is good luck to say “Rabbit, rabbit” as the first thing you say on the 1st of the month – so I did that as well.
Right next door from CentralWorld, we went into the (strangely, very fancy-looking) Holiday Inn for some AC and a bit more space. We sat down there, and quickly realized they were having an 80’s party for New Year’s! Henk and I grabbed some drinks, (whisky!) donned fun New Year’s hats and sat down to enjoy the music. I loved hearing the same songs my family used to play for our New Year’s celebrations. But something seemed a bit strange. Very quickly Henk noticed that most of the people around us… no, everyone around us was wearing a special bracelet for the party. It registered to us what had just happened: We had crashed another party! After our time in Sydney, I didn’t think we’d be at it again, unknowingly the party-crashers for a second time. Apparently, we’re becoming regulars in this field.
The party ended around 1 am – far too early in our opinion – and we decided to head back to the hostel. We slept in super late the next day, skipping out even on the idea of a New Year’s brunch. The only time we ventured out New Year’s Day was in the evening for dinner at a near-empty restaurant we found next door to the hostel. While the place itself was empty, we didn’t mind. It was peaceful and quiet after all the noise earlier in the day. I ordered a fish and chips (I’ve been trying to eat more fish) and Henk got another curry. The food was delicious! Pays to be the only customers in the place. While we were paying, I noticed two cool bracelets near the register. Henk’s been trying to collect interesting pieces from the places we’ve gone to and I pointed them out to him. When I did that, the owner grabbed the bracelets and gave them to us! A New Year’s gift for us!
Happy New Year’s 2010 everyone!!
Hope you all had a good one. Please comment, and let us know what you did to ring in the New Year.
Francesca
Henk and I walked around for a while, discovering an amazing food court on the upper level which we decided to return to for dinner. Then our next mission: to get my nails done for New Years! I hadn’t had my nails done since Bali, so I really needed to get them done and what better time than the day before New Year’s Eve? We stopped at one of the make-up counters where I tried some different foundations and got a tip to visit a Nail Art Studio around the corner. We flipped through the art examples they had there, and Henk picked out a spiderman-esque design with jewels for me to get. It looked awesome!!
While we were waiting for my nails to finish, we watched a local news program on TV (completely in Thai) which we later gathered was about last year’s New Year’s Eve fires. Apparently, some of the clubs in Bangkok were so crowded that some people got severely burned after being trapped in them when they caught fire on New Year’s. We made a mental note to be careful for whatever we decided to do this year! We then returned to the mall and ate at a place on the food court level called Royal India. While a tad on the expensive side, they had a delicious butter chicken and taste naans for us to eat…
New Year’s Eve: For New Year’s Henk and I decided to go to what was supposed to be the biggest countdown celebration in Bangkok. This was located outside the giant CentralWorld mall, which we had to take the SkyTrain to get to. And boy, was it a big celebration! The place was totally crowded when we got there; there was barely any room to walk a straight line without being crammed next to people. We noticed that a lot of people were wearing colorful lit-up devil horns and wondered why… it’s not Halloween, after all! Hehe… Anyways, to escape the crowd and the heat generated by them, we decided to duck into the mall itself for some dinner. Up to another awesome food court, past floor after floor of cool things to buy we realized that Bangkok must have some of the best malls in South-East Asia! This one was awesome as well!
Henk gave our waiter the food order while I tried to find us some interesting drinks. I thought it would be fun to have some fruity mixed drinks for New Year’s, but the bar told me they were out of almost everything! Still, we ended up with a colorful pink drink with lychee and white rum. Not my favorite, but Henk enjoyed it. Then it was back out into the crowds… it was just an hour until midnight when we exited the mall. The celebration area itself was huge, but the stage and screens they had to show off the performers and entertainment for the evening was pathetically small.
While I’m not considered ‘short’ here in Asia, I wasn’t wearing heels for the evening so I couldn’t see anything at all – just the back of people’s heads. Annoyed by this, and the crowds and their heat, I thought it would be better if we found somewhere with a little more space. However, by that time it was close to the countdown. We stayed for the countdown to 2010 and saw the fireworks light up the sky before making our way towards the exit. Oh! I don’t know how many of you do this, but it is good luck to say “Rabbit, rabbit” as the first thing you say on the 1st of the month – so I did that as well.
Right next door from CentralWorld, we went into the (strangely, very fancy-looking) Holiday Inn for some AC and a bit more space. We sat down there, and quickly realized they were having an 80’s party for New Year’s! Henk and I grabbed some drinks, (whisky!) donned fun New Year’s hats and sat down to enjoy the music. I loved hearing the same songs my family used to play for our New Year’s celebrations. But something seemed a bit strange. Very quickly Henk noticed that most of the people around us… no, everyone around us was wearing a special bracelet for the party. It registered to us what had just happened: We had crashed another party! After our time in Sydney, I didn’t think we’d be at it again, unknowingly the party-crashers for a second time. Apparently, we’re becoming regulars in this field.
The party ended around 1 am – far too early in our opinion – and we decided to head back to the hostel. We slept in super late the next day, skipping out even on the idea of a New Year’s brunch. The only time we ventured out New Year’s Day was in the evening for dinner at a near-empty restaurant we found next door to the hostel. While the place itself was empty, we didn’t mind. It was peaceful and quiet after all the noise earlier in the day. I ordered a fish and chips (I’ve been trying to eat more fish) and Henk got another curry. The food was delicious! Pays to be the only customers in the place. While we were paying, I noticed two cool bracelets near the register. Henk’s been trying to collect interesting pieces from the places we’ve gone to and I pointed them out to him. When I did that, the owner grabbed the bracelets and gave them to us! A New Year’s gift for us!
Happy New Year’s 2010 everyone!!
Hope you all had a good one. Please comment, and let us know what you did to ring in the New Year.
Francesca
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Borneo 2 Bangkok
After Christmas, Henk and I still wanted to explore some more of the city, so we decided to head to some of the local free museums. We started by making a quick stop in The Art Museum, where we saw paintings of Orang Ulu women with their ear lobes stretched out by heavy jewelry. Next we ventured to our main destination of the day: the Sarawak Museum. Built by Charles Brooke, this museum was supposed to present us with the lives of the indigenous people and animals of Sarawak. So we entered!
The first floor consisted mainly of stuffed versions of the animals we’d already seen in real life: proboscis monkeys, civet cats. Some of the more interested pieces were the two large painted elephant skulls on display. The skulls were considered sacred by locals who honored them by decorating them with colorful painted designs.
One of the main reasons I wanted to visit this museum was for the exhibit on local body piercings and tattoos. The Lonely Planet raved about it, so we came. And while the Lonely Planet tends to rave about everything, they were actually right about this one.
We learned from one of the posted signboards that tattooing was done for a myriad of purposes by many groups in Borneo, but mainly the Kayan and Iban groups: “In the old days for a man to have the back of his hand tattooed meant that he was particularly brave in war or that he had actually taken heads… or as a torch in the next worth. Nowadays men [and women] are tattooed largely to commemorate journeys… ” Often, the Kayan women had more elaborate tattoos than the men in Borneo culture, especially women of high rank who would have tattoos that would take up to 5 years to complete.
Next we saw some of the jewelry and piercing instruments. Another famous fetish of some Borneo tribes was the piercing of the male genitals. The Kayan used to use a “katip utek,” to perform this piercing. According to a small notice, this is: “an instrument for compressing the glands penis whilst it is being perforated by a brass nail driven into it with a stone.” We later read that it could be described as a “bow-and-arrow” device when comparing its function. Ouch! Henk and I did a little research and found a really good explanation on a Body Modification website:
“There are many myths of origin for this piercing. The Kayan say a woman complained of a man’s penis size, saying it was no better than a rolled leaf used to give herself satisfaction, and the insulted male ran off to the woods and pierced himself. The Kelabit say a visiting Kayan warrior used his piercing on a woman causing her death, but she was so satisfied the Kelabit continued the practice. Another story goes:
The lady had various ways of indicating the size of the ampallang desired. She might hide in her husband’s plate of rice a betel leaf rolled about a cigarette, or with the fingers of her right hand placed between her teeth she will five the measure of the one she aspires. The Dayak women have a right to insist upon the ampallang and if the man does not consent they may seek separation. They say that the embrace without this contrivance is plain rice; with it is rice with salt.”
We continued on through the exhibit, learning about various games the tribes would play to pass time. One including spinning large tops – some expert players could release the tops so that they keep spinning for more than an hour after release! Pretty amazing when you think about it! After spotting a few examples of longhouses, Henk and I found the weapons exhibit, where we learned about the spiritual belief behind daggers and kills here in Borneo: “There is a belief that a keris once having killed a person can influence its owner. The spell is said to be broken when the tip of the keris is broken off.”
One of the largest exhibits in the museum was that of the various tribal masks in Sarawak. Again done mainly by the Kayan and Iban, masks were carved for different festive purposes throughout the year. These masks were made of soft wood and all either colorful or graphically shocking – and often both! We discovered that red was always used to indicate a demonic character and facial hair indicated social status. As we peered into the cases, I spotted some Bidayuh masks! I noticed that they seemed to be a bit more subtle than some of the other masks, often using natural colors rather than bright ones. Perhaps because the Bidayuh are a calmer tribe compared to most of the others? Not sure. But it was pretty cool to see the real life work of our new friends’ ancestors. On our way out of the mask exhibit, we passed by some of the wooden carved images made for guarding and protecting longhouses. These images were believed to house good spirits that would protect the families in the longhouse. We thought a few of them looked pretty elaborate!
We then moved on to another museum, which was actually one of the halls extended from the previous museum. Here on our left as we entered we saw a large aboriginal crocodile image made of sand and broken plates. We saw some more images inside, learning that the image was a symbol of peace used between the local Ramun and the Brunei sultanate in Brunei before the Brooke era. Now I’ve mentioned Brooke a few times, but I haven’t really explained the family. The Brookes were a few generations of self-declared “White Rajahs” or princes who ruled over Borneo by order of the British Crown. The Brookes’ rule had many run-ins with the local people who obviously were not happy with having their land taken over and run by a foreign regime.
One of the famous opposition movements against the Brooke rule was by the warrior Iban tribe in Sarawak. Now many groups were against Brooke – the Chinese, the Malay, obviously the local tribes; the Iban most notably. The Iban were headhunters, and Brooke decided to try and change their ways and force them to stop what they considered a longstanding cultural tradition. One of the Iban leaders who tried to rebel against Brooke was Rentap, who repeatedly attacked forts until defeated in 1861. Here is an artistic image of Rentap:
As we made our way around the corner away from Brooke era information, we came across another exhibit on the Orang Ulu. This one described their burial process: The Kelabit (an Orang Ulu group) kept the bones of their dead ancestors in a large jar. Among some of the ethnic people of Borneo jars symbolize female sexual organs and in a tomb-and-womb symbolism, the body buried in a jar awaits rebirth.” However this process was more for the common folk. The aristocrat families of the community on the other hand used a type of coffin called a ‘lungun’ which needed to look extremely fancy since it was kept inside the house to be enchanted with music before a burial.
After a looking at some of the local costumes in the next room, we decided we had seen enough museums and proceeded to the farmer’s market. Henk had really wanted to visit the weekend market since he heard about it and finally we had the chance. We walked towards it, passing some local monuments in the process. As we walked there for most of the way we were followed by a dog, but she ditched us before we made it all the way to the market.
What we found wasn’t quite as shocking as the farmer’s market we saw in Indonesia, but it was still interesting to see. There was a large variety of local produce, including a ton of fruit. Henk bought some wild oranges to try as we walked around. The most interesting thing I saw was a guy selling sting-rays. I didn’t even know they were edible! We ended our visit with a doughnut from the local bakery. Since it looked like it was going to rain, after a quick fish sandwich for me, we headed back to the hostel.
On the 27th of December, we walked around Kuching heading to a few of the places that had been closed the first time we went on our city walk. One of these was the Chinese Museum, a small one room building that explained how the first Chinese immigrants made their way to Borneo from China and settled in the new area. After our quick visit here, we checked to see if anything else was open – a few were, but we discovered there wasn’t actually much to see! So instead we headed towards the Sarawak River to take a boat across to the old Fort Margherita on the other side.
The 15 cent boat took less than a minute to cross the small gap in the banks and after a walk uphill and upstairs we were standing at the Fort. Built by Charles Brooke in 1879, it guarded the approach to Kuching against pirates. (Aka the Iban Sea Dayaks I explained Brooke fought against previously.) There wasn’t too much to see at the Fort – the entire thing was basically empty. The only area that was cool was the tower with a skull basket; similar to the headhunter skull baskets we saw hanging in the longhouses. Around 12:30 PM we headed towards the mall, stopping for lunch at Pizza Hut.
That evening we got ready for our departure to Bangkok, Thailand the next morning. While we were really sad to leave Borneo (there was still so much to see and do!!) we were excited to have New Years in Bangkok and to start exploring a new city. Plus we thought if we have a little extra money come the end of our South-East Asia travel, we might be able to take a trip to Northern Borneo to Sabah. You’ll just have to wait a couple months and see if we can manage to pull that off!
We got on our flight to Kuala Lumpur, where we would change plans and head to Bangkok. During our three hour layover in KL, we met up with Sandy from the Monkee Inn who gave me… my bag back! I immediately grabbed out my favorite green jacket. We were corresponding back and forth with the Monkee Inn, whose owners had managed to call the cab company and locate our bag for us, and then hold onto it and send a receptionist to the airport (providing we paid for the cab of course) to give it to us. Now THAT is service! We definitely recommend them.
Our arrival in Bangkok was pretty late, around 7 pm. We thought we would have a difficult time at customs, but because we had our tourist visas already done, we sailed through easily. We took a cab to HI – Hostelling International on Sukhumvit Rd. Our room is pretty nice, although it is on the pricey side but we thought we’d just stay through the New Year. Which I’ll tell you all about in the next post! Stay tuned!!
Francesca
The first floor consisted mainly of stuffed versions of the animals we’d already seen in real life: proboscis monkeys, civet cats. Some of the more interested pieces were the two large painted elephant skulls on display. The skulls were considered sacred by locals who honored them by decorating them with colorful painted designs.
One of the main reasons I wanted to visit this museum was for the exhibit on local body piercings and tattoos. The Lonely Planet raved about it, so we came. And while the Lonely Planet tends to rave about everything, they were actually right about this one.
We learned from one of the posted signboards that tattooing was done for a myriad of purposes by many groups in Borneo, but mainly the Kayan and Iban groups: “In the old days for a man to have the back of his hand tattooed meant that he was particularly brave in war or that he had actually taken heads… or as a torch in the next worth. Nowadays men [and women] are tattooed largely to commemorate journeys… ” Often, the Kayan women had more elaborate tattoos than the men in Borneo culture, especially women of high rank who would have tattoos that would take up to 5 years to complete.
Next we saw some of the jewelry and piercing instruments. Another famous fetish of some Borneo tribes was the piercing of the male genitals. The Kayan used to use a “katip utek,” to perform this piercing. According to a small notice, this is: “an instrument for compressing the glands penis whilst it is being perforated by a brass nail driven into it with a stone.” We later read that it could be described as a “bow-and-arrow” device when comparing its function. Ouch! Henk and I did a little research and found a really good explanation on a Body Modification website:
“There are many myths of origin for this piercing. The Kayan say a woman complained of a man’s penis size, saying it was no better than a rolled leaf used to give herself satisfaction, and the insulted male ran off to the woods and pierced himself. The Kelabit say a visiting Kayan warrior used his piercing on a woman causing her death, but she was so satisfied the Kelabit continued the practice. Another story goes:
The lady had various ways of indicating the size of the ampallang desired. She might hide in her husband’s plate of rice a betel leaf rolled about a cigarette, or with the fingers of her right hand placed between her teeth she will five the measure of the one she aspires. The Dayak women have a right to insist upon the ampallang and if the man does not consent they may seek separation. They say that the embrace without this contrivance is plain rice; with it is rice with salt.”
We continued on through the exhibit, learning about various games the tribes would play to pass time. One including spinning large tops – some expert players could release the tops so that they keep spinning for more than an hour after release! Pretty amazing when you think about it! After spotting a few examples of longhouses, Henk and I found the weapons exhibit, where we learned about the spiritual belief behind daggers and kills here in Borneo: “There is a belief that a keris once having killed a person can influence its owner. The spell is said to be broken when the tip of the keris is broken off.”
One of the largest exhibits in the museum was that of the various tribal masks in Sarawak. Again done mainly by the Kayan and Iban, masks were carved for different festive purposes throughout the year. These masks were made of soft wood and all either colorful or graphically shocking – and often both! We discovered that red was always used to indicate a demonic character and facial hair indicated social status. As we peered into the cases, I spotted some Bidayuh masks! I noticed that they seemed to be a bit more subtle than some of the other masks, often using natural colors rather than bright ones. Perhaps because the Bidayuh are a calmer tribe compared to most of the others? Not sure. But it was pretty cool to see the real life work of our new friends’ ancestors. On our way out of the mask exhibit, we passed by some of the wooden carved images made for guarding and protecting longhouses. These images were believed to house good spirits that would protect the families in the longhouse. We thought a few of them looked pretty elaborate!
We then moved on to another museum, which was actually one of the halls extended from the previous museum. Here on our left as we entered we saw a large aboriginal crocodile image made of sand and broken plates. We saw some more images inside, learning that the image was a symbol of peace used between the local Ramun and the Brunei sultanate in Brunei before the Brooke era. Now I’ve mentioned Brooke a few times, but I haven’t really explained the family. The Brookes were a few generations of self-declared “White Rajahs” or princes who ruled over Borneo by order of the British Crown. The Brookes’ rule had many run-ins with the local people who obviously were not happy with having their land taken over and run by a foreign regime.
One of the famous opposition movements against the Brooke rule was by the warrior Iban tribe in Sarawak. Now many groups were against Brooke – the Chinese, the Malay, obviously the local tribes; the Iban most notably. The Iban were headhunters, and Brooke decided to try and change their ways and force them to stop what they considered a longstanding cultural tradition. One of the Iban leaders who tried to rebel against Brooke was Rentap, who repeatedly attacked forts until defeated in 1861. Here is an artistic image of Rentap:
As we made our way around the corner away from Brooke era information, we came across another exhibit on the Orang Ulu. This one described their burial process: The Kelabit (an Orang Ulu group) kept the bones of their dead ancestors in a large jar. Among some of the ethnic people of Borneo jars symbolize female sexual organs and in a tomb-and-womb symbolism, the body buried in a jar awaits rebirth.” However this process was more for the common folk. The aristocrat families of the community on the other hand used a type of coffin called a ‘lungun’ which needed to look extremely fancy since it was kept inside the house to be enchanted with music before a burial.
After a looking at some of the local costumes in the next room, we decided we had seen enough museums and proceeded to the farmer’s market. Henk had really wanted to visit the weekend market since he heard about it and finally we had the chance. We walked towards it, passing some local monuments in the process. As we walked there for most of the way we were followed by a dog, but she ditched us before we made it all the way to the market.
What we found wasn’t quite as shocking as the farmer’s market we saw in Indonesia, but it was still interesting to see. There was a large variety of local produce, including a ton of fruit. Henk bought some wild oranges to try as we walked around. The most interesting thing I saw was a guy selling sting-rays. I didn’t even know they were edible! We ended our visit with a doughnut from the local bakery. Since it looked like it was going to rain, after a quick fish sandwich for me, we headed back to the hostel.
On the 27th of December, we walked around Kuching heading to a few of the places that had been closed the first time we went on our city walk. One of these was the Chinese Museum, a small one room building that explained how the first Chinese immigrants made their way to Borneo from China and settled in the new area. After our quick visit here, we checked to see if anything else was open – a few were, but we discovered there wasn’t actually much to see! So instead we headed towards the Sarawak River to take a boat across to the old Fort Margherita on the other side.
The 15 cent boat took less than a minute to cross the small gap in the banks and after a walk uphill and upstairs we were standing at the Fort. Built by Charles Brooke in 1879, it guarded the approach to Kuching against pirates. (Aka the Iban Sea Dayaks I explained Brooke fought against previously.) There wasn’t too much to see at the Fort – the entire thing was basically empty. The only area that was cool was the tower with a skull basket; similar to the headhunter skull baskets we saw hanging in the longhouses. Around 12:30 PM we headed towards the mall, stopping for lunch at Pizza Hut.
That evening we got ready for our departure to Bangkok, Thailand the next morning. While we were really sad to leave Borneo (there was still so much to see and do!!) we were excited to have New Years in Bangkok and to start exploring a new city. Plus we thought if we have a little extra money come the end of our South-East Asia travel, we might be able to take a trip to Northern Borneo to Sabah. You’ll just have to wait a couple months and see if we can manage to pull that off!
We got on our flight to Kuala Lumpur, where we would change plans and head to Bangkok. During our three hour layover in KL, we met up with Sandy from the Monkee Inn who gave me… my bag back! I immediately grabbed out my favorite green jacket. We were corresponding back and forth with the Monkee Inn, whose owners had managed to call the cab company and locate our bag for us, and then hold onto it and send a receptionist to the airport (providing we paid for the cab of course) to give it to us. Now THAT is service! We definitely recommend them.
Our arrival in Bangkok was pretty late, around 7 pm. We thought we would have a difficult time at customs, but because we had our tourist visas already done, we sailed through easily. We took a cab to HI – Hostelling International on Sukhumvit Rd. Our room is pretty nice, although it is on the pricey side but we thought we’d just stay through the New Year. Which I’ll tell you all about in the next post! Stay tuned!!
Francesca
