Bewitching Ba'kelalan

Recently, I went on an unconventional vacation with my sister in law, Hilda to a quaint little rural village in Sarawak called Ba'kelalan. Where? It is about a 40min flight south of Lawas, close to the Kalimantan border in the beautiful bewitching land of Borneo. Most people mistook that we were there for a mission trip or some kind of social work... because well, who would go to a place with nothing for a vacation? Vacations are supposed to be about self-pampering and why would you go where there is no phone or internet connection, wonky electricity supply, no hot baths, and terrible road conditions? There is a remarkable reason why everybody should go on these vacations. It gives you a different perspective of your life, outside your cushy city comforts. It was an eye-opening adventure for both of us city-girls.

Helpful and kind people

We had to layover one night in Miri to catch the connecting flight to Ba'kelalan. When we arrived in Miri nearing midnight, we bumped into a mutual friend, Calvin at the airport picking up his guest. As we walked out into the darkness to find our hotel, we sort of got disoriented and did not know how to get there. Calvin, who was still waiting for his guest, helped to drop us off at our hotel, Miritrail Inn. There was no receptionist there except for a number to call. When I called them ... Alas! The place was full and they disregarded our booking. He then hung up on me and switched the phone off as I was unable to call him back after that. We were left stranded without a place to sleep and decided to sleep at the airport. The night shift guard, Mr Bujang told us it was not a 24hour airport and they are locking up. We told him we had nowhere to go. He then offered to drive us to another hotel nearby, YS Inn, turns out it was full as well. We wanted to give up hope and told Mr Bujang we will just sleep outside the airport  but he refused to give up. He said that outside the airport is full of mosquitoes and it will not be pleasant. He drove us even further out to look for another hotel. Hallelujah! There was a vacant room! Thanks to the kindness of a total stranger, we had a place to sleep. We thanked him profusely and offered to host him whenever he goes to KL and exchanged phone numbers.

Journey to the village

The next day, we boarded our little MASWing plane and had to transit in Lawas enroute to Ba'kelalan. We could see the vast green mountains and plains below us.

 These little chickies were travelling with us in the pla

ne

Upon arrival in Ba'kelalan, our friendly host, Carolyn and her husband Paulus was there to pick us up. We arrived at the same time as 2 of her other guests, Rick and Sham, who were teachers from an international school. We boarded Paulus's 4-wheel pick-up truck, and made our way through the rough terrains. This road was built several years ago by the army, not a very good job I must say. The worst road in KL cannot even compare to the bumpiness of this journey. Both Hilda and I got car-sick by the time we arrived at Carolyn and Paulus's home.

The holey road

Our abode, the home of Carolyn, Paullus, and Aunty Rose

Kampung Long Rusu

 
Mini-adventures in the mountains
Even from the very first day, we had the opportunity to experience the simple and natural life out in the village. Rick, Sham and myself followed Aunty Rose out to the riverbank to pick while Paku-Pakis for our dinner. Hilda was too sick from the car-ride to join us. Dinner was wonderful, we had our harvest stir fried.

The next day, we went on walks around Ba'kelalan. We went to the salt springs where they harvest the mountain spring salt-water to manufacture their own salt. It is said to be rich in minerals and is not just sodium like our mass produced table salts, therefore is healthier. The village people claims it to be tastier too and would never use regular table salt in their cooking. I bought 1 kg for only RM20, a very nominal price considering how much effort goes into its production.

Boiling the salt water with natural wood, takes up to 24 hours to get the salt crystals. A lot of work for RM20/kg of salt

The salt springs

If you think the grass is professionally cut, think again. The nice short uniformly cut grass is naturally cut, by the buffaloes in the village. The buffaloes are pretty good gardeners, I must say.

We also hiked up a small mountain to get to the viewpoint. There are several viewpoints in Bakelalan and there was a new trail which was only a week old but we were a little less adventurous so we chose the tried and test trail. The view from the top was no less magnificent.

The view from the top

Appreciate the little things
In the city, we have grown to take the little things for granted. Warm showers, phone reception, internet, electricity, and many many more. Here, we showered in icy cold water in the morning, which is a superb wake-up catalyst. There is 1 water-heater in the house, it is considered a luxury in the kampung.

I remember sharing an anecdote about my cat, Orked who hates fish and refused her Omega Oil supplement. The kids here do not even get such supplements. And the dogs here? They live free as a bird, eating organic food, and have never bathed. Yet they do not smell bad and have beautiful coats. Nature is a great caregiver.

Kampung dogs, hardy and resourceful... They have 12 of them.

Most of the people in the village are farmers. There are not many vocations available here and people are content to be able to work, provide for their families and live a simple life.

The paddy fields of Bakelalan

Peace be upon you
Carolyn's father in law told us, in the city there is no day or night but in the village, there is a clear day and a clear night to differentiate when we work and when we rest. Indeed it peaceful in the village. Even in a foreign place, in a foreign bed, I slept much better than I did at home. I suppose we do not realize the implication of all the light and noise in the city until we have experienced real peace and darkness.

Sometimes the beauty of nature is best appreciated, not captured. The sheer darkness of the village really brought out the beauty of the starry sky. They shone like diamonds in the sky. I tried capturing it with my phone camera... lo and behold, nothingness. I ended up just staring up at the sky and appreciating it using my eyes instead of my electronics.

I rest my case 

Everyone knows everyone
Every time we walked around the village, if we bump into any locals, they would stop to get to know us and offer us a free ride. Simply because, everyone knows everyone here and they really take the effort to know even the new people that arrive here. The safety and the trust level here is truly unheard of in the city. Everyone is hospitable and helpful. Such a wonderful culture!

We can already feel that warmth of human connection within the home we were staying in. Aunty Rose, Carolyn and Paulus are always humble, down-to-earth, helpful and hospitable too. They made us feel like family.  

Aunty Rose flanked by Hilda and I

The lovely couple who hosted us, Paulus and Carolyn

Right before we left the Ba'kelalan, at the airport, we met a man from Kuala Lumpur, Andy, whom like our host, is married to a local in Ba'kelalan and commutes to and fro every month. He said, "To appreciate the city, you need a place like Ba'kelalan and to appreciate the Ba'kelalan, you need a place like the city."

Indeed. Experiencing both worlds does magnify your gratitude and helps you appreciate everything in life more. Would I come back again? Most definitely!

A beachy break

Sawadeekah Phuket!

Hubby and I have just returned from a nice break in Phuket. It's been from one hectic production to the next. First Empress Wu: The Musical, then straight into EverWorld: The Musical. We've been looking forward to some "OFF" time together. Off from productions, off from work, and off from data roaming hehehe.

Our abode... cosy

swim swim swim!! 

Other than the heavenly Thai massages, everything else in Patong is horribly expensive. Food, shopping, transportation, excursions, etc etc. A regular meal at a kopitiam-ish place costs us about RM60!! Initially I thought I'm on sabbatical and is extra broke at this time, everything feels relatively more expensive... but even McDonald's costs about RM18-20 per medium combo meal. Bleh.

We had a wonderful time anyway, we both love Thai food... to da max!! And we both love massages. For RM25, you can get yourself an hour's worth of a full body Thai massage! Nice!!! Can get massages to our hearts' content! :) :) :)

We obviously ate to our hearts stomach's content!! We did minimal shopping only... it's not as satisfying or as good a bargain as shopping in Bangkok. 

burgers!!

mango sticky rice!

on the bus to Phuket Town

We took the long route to the airport via the public bus... other than costing us less than a taxi, it is always enchanting to take long routes because of what you see along the way; community of kampungs along the way, independent children taking the bus home on their own about 20km from their school, small vendors along the rural roads... just people living their simple lives reminding me how brattily spoilt I can be in the comfort of our blessed nation. Yup, we should always be thankful.

Thai food galore!! Hubs sure loves his tomyum & green curry!

all kinds of everything!!! YUM!

Time away from everyone and everything is always nice... and hubs brought his Dale shirt, the cute shirt he wore years ago at one fateful sales meeting in Lumut... when I first had a mini-crush on him. hehehe. Look what that crush has grown into!! ♥ ♥ ♥ 

see the resemblance??

I am my mother's daughter

An awfully outdated post... but Mother's Day this year was finally different. Not just the usual dinner and ang pau... but real precious mother-daughter time away from everything. Being a mother is a full-time job... like 24hr, 7days/week, 53weeks/year. No break... no time off. So, being away from the family and the home is sort of a break... I said sort of because, even then, all the way in Taipei... she is still my mother. I am glad to finally spend that quality time with her; exploring foreign places, walking helluva a lot, explore new food, shopping and pillow talk every night for a week. It was nice... sometimes you don't realize that you don't take the time to get to know a person better just because that person is there, everyday. 

I sure hope mom enjoyed her Mother's Day this year with me... I certainly enjoyed it with her. :-)

Dine in the Dark

I had the opportunity to experience Dine In The Dark during my Bangkok trip. It was a nice fine dining place at The Ascott, but I had no clue what the restaurant looks like except for the fact that it was filled with curtains/veils on the inside.

It was a strange yet enjoyable experience. It really showed me how dependent I am on my sight... my sight affects how I taste, how I hear, how I speak, how I feel and how I think. They are all linked whenever we experience anything in our daily lives. When you take out one of the elements from that linkage, you make the whole experience unfamiliar and strange.

8 of us went for this dinner and I only knew Natasha... the rest were strangers to me. That made the experience even more interesting for me. We were all led into the restaurant and to our seats by our blind waiters. The waiter also explained to us what was in front of us, where are our glasses: water and wine, where are all our cutlery, and he always tells us when he was serving us each of our course. But never does he describe what he is serving us.

I knew Natasha sat next to me but I didn't know who sat in front of me. So the conversation started with an intro as usual... erm... not quite so usual.

Me: "hi, I am Karynn" 

A voice in the dark: "hi, I am Ben" 

Me: "hi Ben, erm... sorry but I'm not sure which one was you as I was introduced to 6 new people all at once and I haven't quite placed the names on the faces yet." 

A voice in the dark: "It's ok, I don't know which one was you either, I am the only one here who does not work at whisper"

Me: "whisper???" 

A voice in the dark: "Ya"

Me: "... ... ..." (In my head I was wondering what he was saying) "I know Natasha from University, she's the only one I know here, the rest of you work with her at that World Society of Protection of Animals right?"

A voice in the dark: "That's whisper (WSPA). I don't work there, I am a photographer"

Me: (ting! lightbulb... oh WSPA, duh!)

Then there was the appetizer:

Me: "hmm, is this chicken?? eh, there is some crispy stuff on it...  what is that?' 

Natasha: "er, dunno, but it's definitely chicken. But sometimes I end up with nothing on my fork"

Me:  "hey, this salad portion must be huge, it seems to go on forever" (hmmm, how big is this bowl anyway, raba-raba the bowl. where in the world are the veges, lantak, probe in with fingers at a fine dining restaurant...muahahah nobody will know)

A voice in the dark: "I think I will use my fingers... since no one can see anyway"

Me: "Ya ya!! I already am. It's so much easier" (*grin*, macam la orang nampak)

Then, the main course:

Me: (sniff sniff) "how come got no smell??"

Natasha: "Is it pork??"

Me: (nom nom nom) "Hmmm, maybe... but the sauce is so sweet"

A voice in the dark: "I think it is duck"

Me: (nom nom nom, eh eh... it IS duck. ) Oh yeah, it IS duck! (shucks, I can't tell pork from duck?? @.@)

The dessert:

Me: "Oh, I taste bananas and ice cream!! yum... and some crispy stuff"

Natasha: "Is there cake??"

Me: "Dunno, I think I'm gonna use fingers again"

There were parts of conversation which was really strange because I could not see if the voice in the dark heard what I was saying, so I stopped halfway... until he asked more questions. Wasn't sure if people were talking to you or to the person next to you or next to them. All you hear are voices, you can't see the direction they are looking at, the expression on their face and everything.

We finally came out and saw the food displayed in light at the reception!!! Wooohooo, light & sight never felt so good before!!! We had a Chinese chicken salad with deep fried meehoon, then duck with a fruity sweet sauce, and a cake thingy with vanilla ice cream and bananas.

What I learnt?? Don't take your sight for granted!!!! And don't just depend on sight, all your other senses are just as important!

The cocktail that is... Bangkok

There's plenty of things to do in Bangkok. This city truly has a wonderful mix of the old and the new, the east and the west... and endless creativity. If you're looking for places to go for a drink or two, you'd be spoiled for choice. The day I arrived, Natasha brought me to this place called the Iron Fairies. The place was very small, dark but packed with people. They serve cocktails in the form of fairy potions, I had some fairy dust with dragonfly wings and such. Yumz!! Refreshing but weird-looking... I could not make out what else was in it except for watermelon juice. The jazz band was good, not too noisy and they do all the all time favourites like "It Had to Be You", "L.O.V.E" and "The Way You Look Tonight". The petite Thai singer had a sweet voice but it was obvious she didn't understood a word and memorized what she hears... or at least what she thinks she hears. :p

Decor was old and weird, yet cosy & inviting.

Hey, they are in New York too???? Jeng, jeng jeng!

Since Natasha is a photography enthusiast, I decided to tag along with her for one of her photography expeditions. We woke up at 5++am to make it to this event. Sun rises pretty early so, it didn't feel all that super early to me. I was wide awake. Perhaps because Bangkok is 1 hour behind KL time anyway. We saw a sea of bald men and bald boys in orange robes. Not sure exactly what it was but it must be some kind of Buddhist festival.

Climbing up the closed parking lot building to get to the top.... to get a bird's eye view

Ta-da!!! There were suppose to be around 20,000 monks (I think.)

some went on top of a crane for that view

some on the roof of other buildings... and up to something even more

look! it's a bird, it's a plane, no... its... a remote control helicopter with a camera!!

Yes, photography enthusiasts go all the way to capture the best angle or view of their object of interest. Rather interesting but photography is really not my thang. My idiot-proof point-and-shoot camera is good enough for me. I don't take photos as a photographer, I take photos as a story-teller. I'll be motivated to take a shot if my eureka bells ring in my head that I can fit that photo into my story. :)

The Thai government loves creativity, promotes creativity and funds many non-profit projects to encourage creativity among its people. We visit the Bangkok Art & Culture Centre where I was warned, there will be exhibits in there that does not make sense.

Bangkok Art and Culture Centre

I liked the first exhibition of photography work by Philippe Ramette where he "engineered" photographs that seems to defy gravity. No photography allowed in there so if you are curious, go click his link & download his portfolio. Amazing photos... all untouched-up. Some, we could figure out how he did it... some we could not. Loved that one!

A group of Australian aborigines also displayed their stuff but their stuff were too abstract and un-understandable. Some of it was too dark and gave me the creeps too. Next was another un-understandable exhibition to raise awareness of HIV. Some of it were alright but mostly mind boggling, which is weird. How do you raise awareness when people cannot understand it??

The next one I liked was the hair art. Art pieces created by human hair... hair of cancer patients who lost their hair after chemotherapy. Sad but beautiful. This one I felt could really pull heart strings and increase public awareness of cancer.

Another cool place to go for drinks is at the rooftop bars. We went to the one in Banyan Tree... where the view is of higher priority than safety. Hehehe, the side railings were only waist high. But that was what made it so awesome compared to those practically 80% covered with glass ones like those in KL. You want to feel that rooftop breeze in your face and the adrenaline rush when you stand by the side of the railings and look at the long long looooong journey down. ;)

I is not afraid of heights... I love heights!

My melon-y cocktail... can't remember the name as I love to order stuff that I don't know what's in it. Yummy!  

My visit to the Thailand Cultural Center was a very disappointing one. They were under renovations... no shows, no exhibitions. Bleh. 

The garden decor was nice though... since I was already there might as well hang around. I <3 <3 Orchids!!!

 

Other than all these art/cultural centres, they even applied their creativity in other areas... an area that thrives in Bangkok, Shopping!! Terminal 21, just another mall?? Not quite... A mall with fancy design?? Kind of. A mall with the theme of an airport.

Every floor you go is a different city, Rome

even the decor and structure of the toilets are in theme with the floor's city

artsy roman ceilings

You can depart from one city and arrive at the next city in.... 30seconds!! How I wish travelling is that fast. I was in Tokyo and in a blink of an eye, I was in London.

even the guards' uniforms matches the city of the floor they patrol!

I wasn't as amazed by the theme as I was amazed by the extent of the details and the commitment to the design. If you wanna do something, do it all they way... that, is the commitment to an idea that can bring something to life!!

Also, hung out at the Thailand Creative and Design Centre (TCDC). Unfortunately, only 1 of the galleries was opened. The rotating exhibitions were not opened. :( Was hoping to find displays of new young and upcoming designers that I like and can collaborate with to start my own brand. Sigh... I just took random namecards at TCDC and hopefully I will strike one that I like?? My search continues. TCDC had lots of literature from magazine to books on ALL sorts of design and art; namecard design, garden design, fashion, architecture, interior design, set design, costume design, playwright, theatre directing, and many many many more. There's a cafe there that aspiring artists or designers can hang out and do their research there as well. Cool right? 

Next up... the blind leading the sight???