travelling allrite

Can't have a day in Malaysia without sighting snakes - it is the Chinese year of the legless reptile. True, I could have just looked down, but instead we caught a taxi to the Sarawak Museum. The museum, founded by the white Rajah Brookes, has a number of branches around the city: Chinese, Islamic, Textiles and more. We headed to the oldest, the ethnological branch. There were stuffed animals (a natural history branch is adjacent, but we didn't visit), including the snakes, fish and magnificent bird specimens. Upstairs, the rattan weaving skills of the local tribes were astonishing in their fine skills, while the wooden masks range from the scary to the comical. Across the road is the Abdul Tun Razak (Malaysia's founding father) Hall, which had gorgeously detailed Chinese ceramics and furniture on display, along with items from the Japanese occupation and the White Rajahs period. I was surprised by how much B and I enjoyed the museum. Alex wanted breakfast. ...

The history of Sarawak is like something out of an old adventure novel. Populated originally by headhunting tribes and ruled by Malay sultans, a British adventurer James Brooke aided the Sultan of Brunei in putting down a rebellion and in return was given the governership of the territory. He was the first of the "White Rajahs" dynasty of Brookes who ruled until the Second World War when Sarawak was invaded by the Japanese. Since then Sarawak has seen further insurgencies, though is now (to the best of my knowledge) a largely peaceful state of Malaysia. It is still the territory of various jungle tribes, along with muslim Malays and descendants of Chinese workers brought in by the Brookes. Walking along the waterfront and though the town you really can feel the impact of the various immigrant. The colonial architecture, the Chinese temples and shops, the minarets of the mosques. But what of the local tribes? We didn't have time for a boat ride up the river for...