AEP module: completed! 

Semenggoh Nature Reserve: Orangutans!! 

Kuching Tour~ (Day 1) 

Sarawak Cultural Village!

Reflection: 

Social capital: My interaction with Sarawakians were really pleasant! Especially at UNIMAS, I thought the students there were really helpful and welcoming. When I had to present, and to log into some websites for the slides, they were really patient and helpful in helping me do so. I had a bit of trouble since it was a old system and something that we don't use in Singapore. For the school tour, a TP student will be paired with a UNIMAS student, and the girl I was paired with was really nice. Instead of being closed off and hesitant to talk since I was a total stranger, she always tried to find topics to talk about. I think this is something not seen so much in Singapore as well since everyone likes to "mind their own business" and are more neutral. Whereas I observed Sarawakians to be more affective. In the end, I exchanged Instagram with her and some of her friends that I managed to talk to as well. Also, something different that I noticed was that Sarawakians are usually very polite and slow to anger. For example, on the road, if there is a congestion, they would not experience road rage whereby they would express their impatience and annoyance by continuously pressing their vehicular horns. Unlike East Malaysia and Singapore, so this was something that shocked me. 

Cognitive capital: I originally did not know that many native Sarawakians actually originates from tribes! There are the Melanau, Iban, Bidayuh, Dayak, and Orang Ulu(s). This was something very interesting to me because in Singapore we did not have this type of culture. So, learning more about them was very interesting! And according to the tour guide, actually a lot of the indigenous Sarawakians originates from one of these tribes. One of the most interesting parts was the long houses of the Dayaks. This tribe is known for their headhunting and once they slay enemies, they would take their skull, smoke it for several days and hang it in our outside of their houses to scare off other potential enemies. That's not all, they would also kill and hang the skull of the entire family of their enemies together. It shocked me and I got to see actual examples of these skulls in the Sarawak cultural village and the museum. 

Psychological capital: I was really interested to find out more about the food aspect of the culture in Kuching! I think food is really the heart of each culture and it also reflects a lot about the habits of the people, the geographical location of the country and it is a window to the practices and beliefs in the past. Before I went on my trip, I was determined to find out more their food and to look if there are any unique dishes that I can't find in Singapore. I only heard about Kolo mee and kueh lapis that Sarawak was famous for. But when I was there, I found out that there was a vegetable called Midin, a jungle fern, that was unique to Sarawak. It looks really similar to kang kong which is something that we commonly eat in Singapore, but when I tried Midin, it was actually really different. It is slightly tougher, and it does not have much of a chloroplast taste compared to the kang kong. Secondly, I was really curious how the kueh lapis was made, so when we were at the cake shop, we had a chance to try it out, I immediately wanted to try it together with my friends. It was actually easy! But because it requires so many layers and you have to bake each layer individually, it is really labor intensive.  Thirdly, in the cultural village, we came across a traditional snack that was made by the tribes for festivals. It looks really similar to what I have seen during Chinese New Year so I thought that I would buy and try it to see if it tasted any different since the ingredients that they have used were simpler, as they were scarce in the past. Overall, I think Sarawak's food culture, despite using simple ingredients, they have come up with their own ways of making it and it tastes unique.