Life In Sarawak.

Kenyalang - a place full of the unexpected !

2008-08-16T21:01:00.000-07:00

You find me here, Kenyalang, at least a couple of times a month.

Filled with old shop houses, you'll find an impressive range of products - if you're patient.

This place is popular with the older folks around here; not surprising considering that it's been around for a while.

They are telling me that it used to be real "happening" with a cinema, concert hall and one of the earliest air-conditioned shopping malls.

These days, the mall is filled with mobile phone shops, CDs/DVDs and boutiques aimed at the young ones.

Far from dead folks, far from dead.....

Faces of Sarawak.

2008-08-13T09:33:00.000-07:00

Some are folks I meet everyday, others are "rub shoulders" encounters and a couple are shot from a distance.

If I could turn back time.

2008-08-12T22:48:00.000-07:00

When I first arrived, it was during the time that the economy went southwards every where in world; Singapore was not spared. I aborted my slumping business and started looking for new opportunities elsewhere.

With a bunch of Sarawakian friends who were working in Singapore then, we decided to start up a landscaping business in Kuching; one of them comes from a long line of landscapers in her family.

Well, more about my landscaping experience later.

These days, I am working as a consultant specializing in traditional martial arts and in the scope of what I do, I travel throughout Sarawak to meet and interview masters “hidden” in our midst.

I been to as far as Miri and in the vicinity of Kuching, Siniawan and Siburan are some of the locations that I frequent.

Love these 2 places; for a city boy like me, it’s so refreshing to experience a rhythm and pace of life that belongs to another time …. Words just fail me here….

Kuching - a video tour.

2008-08-11T23:27:00.000-07:00

Ahem, ahem, I got clips on Kuching, Sibu etc etc "hidden" in my other blogs....

So doing a little housekeeping and collecting all those to be pasted here.

Be kind!

I see red, green, yellow ...... yes !

2008-08-11T02:20:00.000-07:00

Aha, looks like the colors are back. These are spanking new and already, it's colorfully promising.

Can't wait for the place to be completed....

This site is along Jalan Tun Jugah....

The rainbow connection.

2008-08-09T23:18:00.000-07:00

Colors, bright brilliant colors – in certain parts of Kuching town, you cannot help but notice how folks love to display everything colorfully…

From facades of houses, shops and even goods they display for sales, the juxtapositions of bright bold colors are so conspicuous…

And none of your implicit pastel colors too – we talking dazzling here folks!

However, these days some 5 years on, I am beginning to see more “minimalist” color schemes with the newer townships and shopping malls.

You know - cold sanitized colors with almost no character that makes everything so uniformly conforming ……

Where is the life?

I say bring back the colors – it’s salsa time!

Food Sarawak's style.

2008-08-09T21:07:00.000-07:00

Aha, now a pictorial tour of Sarawakian food.

Click on thumbnails for bigger views - too bad you can't click and eat hahahaha......

Food, food, glorious food....

2008-08-09T19:18:00.000-07:00

Friends are beginning to ask; why are there so many entries about Singapore, isn't this blog about Sarawak?

Ya ya.... I want to talk about my experience in Sarawak but before I do that, I really think it's good to show where I come from.

Then maybe you'll appreciate it more when I talk about differences - right?

Well, maybe not that different; take food for instance, we eat a pretty good mix of Chinese, Malay, Indian and these days, foods from around the world - given that we got a large expat community in Singapore.

Here in Sarawak, it's more or less like that except that you also got an entire array of local foods are not that readily available to Singaporeans.

More to come on that but for now, a clip about Singapore foods.

Happy Birthday Singapore.

2008-08-08T07:14:00.000-07:00

One of those typical government initiated “feel good” about Singapore songs delivered by the lovely Kit Chan.

Don’t get me wrong, got no qualm with these manufactured songs except that when you get a few every year right about this time, it gets a little predictable.

We celebrate “National Day” on the 9^th of August and that’s tomorrow….songs like this are reminders that we are having it good.

On the street where I live.

2008-08-08T06:15:00.000-07:00

This is where I live in Singapore, a town named "Tampines".

Read somewhere that the name refers to a kind of tree that used to be rampant before the bulldozers flattened everything. Certain part of the town was a graveyard......I think.....

One of the newer townships in Singapore, Tampines was also talked of as a "yuppie" town.

And if you fly into Singapore's Changi Airport, you cannot miss this town - about 5 mins away next to the only highway out of Changi International.....

Orchard Road Singapore.

2008-08-08T04:38:00.000-07:00

Salsa dancing at Fiesta@Orchard Ngee Ann City

2008-08-08T04:08:00.000-07:00

Found this over at youtube.

And also found a remark that says -This is why Singaporeans are considered "NOT Chinese enough" by many people.

Well well well, what can I say?

I am talking to you in English ainit?

The journey begins.....

2008-08-06T22:37:00.000-07:00

Around Singapore.

Around Singapore.

Around Singapore.

Around Singapore.

For a start, I think it might be good for me to give you a glance of the surroundings I come from in Singapore.

You often hear that living in Singapore reminds you of living in a pressure cooking pot and that we all live like pigeons – in a hole in the sky we call “flats”.

True, true but I think we are more like an ants colony.

No? try hanging out along Orchard Road on a Saturday afternoon; endless stream of people just moving in a synchronized manner, almost like there’s a plan. But what's the plan?

These days, you don’t even need to go Orchard Road to witness this uniquely Singapore phenomenon.

Most housing estates come complete with their mini Orchard Roads.

Sometimes I suspect that there is this agenda of converting every empty lot into a sky scraping shopping mall.

“My crowded solitude” - that kinda sums it all up for me.

Miore impressions thru' Nicole's eyes...

2008-08-06T10:49:00.000-07:00

An American friend, Russ and his wife, visited last year.

First time visitors to this country, everything was a discovery to them I suppose.

And as a Singaporean taking them around, it was no less "discovery" for me too.

Pics in the clip were taken by Nicole, Russ' wife.

Enjoy.

Visual Impressions of Kuching.

2008-08-06T10:45:00.000-07:00

Initially posted at my wordpress blog, I have decided to concentrate all impressions of Sarawak to this blog.

try

2008-08-05T22:27:00.000-07:00

Outside looking in.

2008-08-04T18:21:00.000-07:00

As a replanted Singaporean living in Kuching for the past few years, I have this predisposition to view things somewhat differently from most locals.

To begin with, you could even say it was a "culture shock"; there is always this "we do it differently in Singapore" standpoint and oftentimes, this created superfluous friction to situations.

So now, some 5 years on and after the "curve", I am actually very relaxed and contented here in Kuching.

A case of "acquired taste" maybe.....

This blog, more a picture blog, aims to chronicle my last 5 years passage dealing with everyday’s trivialities in Kuching.