Pictures from George Town Festival, Penang, Malaysia

Click on pictures to expand them

Armenian Street during the George Town Festival 7 July 2010. Note the Festival banner on the lampost.

The Chea Si Hock Haw Kong Kongsi Chinese Clan Temple was opened to the public. On the right are Funeral Memorial Plaques placed behind the alter

Cheong Fatt Tze was one of the most successful and wealthy merchants in South East Asia. He had mansions in Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Melaka as well as this one in Penang.

Lion Dancers drew huge crowds to watch their acrobatic performances.

Malay Heritage Cultural Dance Performers relaxing between shows

Chinese Opera performed in the streets of George Town

Amongst the many craft demonstrations and stalls was stone painting, left, and wood carving, right. The craftsman is holding a pair of toast tongs he made from reclaimed orange boxes.

Picture of Long Lamai, Kelabit Highlands, Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia.

Click on pictures to expand them.

Twin Otter skimming over the jungle to land at the Long Banga Airstrip in the Kelabit Highlands, Sarawak.

Our Twin Otter plane at Miri Airport. There were no allocated seats. So the six passengers had the choice of the nineteen available seats. Sitting up front there was a view through the cockpit window as well as the side windows.

We walked up the rocks on the side of the river whilst the boatmen pushed and dragged the boat up the rapids. Coming back down was much quicker as the boat shot down this section of the river.

There were intervals of gentle water where we glided under spreading trees with creepers and liana’s caressing the brown river.

Penan hunter returns with long blow pipe over his shoulder. The blow pipe has a spear head lashed to the front as a defence against wounded wild boar and for finishing off the animal. The hunter also carries a broad blade knife for cutting trails.

Wilson, the headman, holds a haunch of barking deer bought from the hunters. Gerit a village elder demonstrates how to make blow pipes. A stave of hard wood is locked in a vertical jig and a long mental augur is used to drill out the hole. The augur is also fixed in the jig to ensure the hole is perfectly aligned.

Margaret following a jungle trail. Allan examining the tree where the sap is tapped for the poison tips of the blowpipe darts. The community are marking out walking trails for visitors and tourists.

The Penan people are skilled at woodcarving and producing ratan baskets from jungle resources. All of the back baskets used by the community are produced locally. The black dye on the ratan baskets is produced by boiling rambutan skins.

The Penan Mouth Harp, left, is made from a sliver of bamboo. On the right, the Penan nose flute is difficult to play but produces haunting melodies that we enjoyed into the evening.

Families live in linked wooden houses with a communal balcony for chatting, community gatherings and enjoying music and dancing. The General Store is also located within the Longhouse.

The school was modern and well equipped with clean toilets and dinning facilities. The twelve teachers lived in modern wooden bungalows with 24hr electricity supplied from a 20MW diesel generator.

The Government, with 10% support from the Government of Japan, had recently financed a new solar powered Telecentre. The project was managed by the University of Malaysia Sarawak UNIMAS. The children enjoyed using the internet for Facebook and computer games whilst the adults used Google to explore religious themes.

           Allan writing reports with views of Longhouses behind.

Kampung Wedding Melaka Malaysia

Click on pictures to expand them

Fadir and Mazleen in the procession of the second day of the wedding.

The happy couple in their tradional outfits for the second day of the wedding celebrations. Mazleen is wearing a white dress with black lace. Fadir wears a white suit with a Kiri, a tradional Malay ceremonial dagger.

Over 1500 guests enjoyed a sumptious wedding lunch at the brides house on the second day of the cermony.

On the third day the guests are welcomed to the grooms House. The bride and groom wear green and are walk to the groom’s house with boys holding an awning to keep the sun off. Guests were smart but casual clothes.

The excellent food is provided by family catering.  Margaret sitting with other Malaysian friends during the third day of the wedding. Our friend Amy, the grooms brother, and their father prepared over 300 chickens an ox and huge amounts of fish for the guests.  

Sitting in the Bride and groom’s chairs. During the festivities the bride and groom are king and queen for the day. Here they welcome guests and receive gifts. Close family and friends give traditional gifts of food, chocolates, clothes and jewelry. Other guests, like us, give money, placed in the envelopes we received our invitations.  The traditional cake has a sponge base with different flavoured muffins on pillars.

Another change of clothes for Fadir and Mazleen. This time into western style wedding outfits, to cut the western style wedding cake.  Allan admiring the huge pots used for the wedding catering.

Intimate family meal at the groom’s house. Fadir’s uncled is saying grace with the guests before the meal starts.

Click on pictures to expand them.