Borneo - Sarawak Cultural Village

On our second day in Borneo we went to the Sarawak Cultural Village. It's has the same concept as the Fanshawe Pioneer Village - except that it's cool. The grounds are amazing, and they've built replicas of the buildings that the various native tribes traditionally lived in. These buildings are actually lived in by people from the respective tribes and they display a number of their various traditions. It's very hands-on and we were able to have some very interesting conversations with the villagers. Here's a taste of what we saw:

The amazing scenery at the entrance of the village.

A view of the Melanau tallhouse from across the lake.

A simple bridge.

This Bidayuh lady was in the process of making a tapestry. One tapestry takes months to complete.

These tools in the Iban longhouse were used for tattooing and piercing your more "delicate parts". It was very amusing watching the tough warrior getting extremely embarassed when trying to explain this to the ladies.

The Penan people live a nomadic life and construct simple huts that they use for only a few weeks or months before moving on to another location. They are masters of the blowpipe - something which I clearly am not.

At the Orang Ulu longhouse, they played a guitar-like instrument and performed a dance for us when we arrived. This tribe accounts for 5.5% of the current population of Sarawak. They were known as amazing sword-smiths and built longhouses out of ironwood that were meant to last for generations.

After the performance they showed me how to play the instrument. It was surprisingly easy - you only have to hold down one string at the notch to create a chord.

This is an example of a traditional Malay house.

After we toured all the houses, we stuck around for the cultural performance. Each of the tribes did a ritual performance in traditional clothing. In this one, the Iban warrior in the front is displaying his strength by picking up a 20kg mortar with his teeth and then dances with it in his mouth for 5-10 minutes.