East Malaysia - Looking back on Sarawak

When we first moved to Kuching I was blown away by the sunsets. We were lucky to have a balcony 15 floors up overlooking town with views of Mount Serapi and to the left the table top Mount Singai. With our west-facing balcony the sunsets were stunning.

View overlooking Kuching. Mount Serapi to the right

Mount Singai

Kuching Waterfront

The other thing that really endeared me to Kuching and Sarawak was the variety of different cultures, and the characters you met. I used to shoot portraits of people around town, and usually they were happy to chat and let me take their pictures.

Lee Chong - Home of love shelter

Jee Khoom Kued - Home of Love Shelter

I took some shots of these guys that used to sit about drinking near the old bus station in Kuching. Sadly I can't remember their names, but they were a good laugh. I went back and gave them some prints, so they always chatted when I saw them around town.

I took these next portraits at Petanak wet market in Kuching early one morning. I set up a black background and photographed a few different people.

Kim - The Butcher

These next couple of Shots were taken at Kampung Taee, near Serian, about an hours drive south of Kuching. The young people are wearing traditional Bidayuh costume. Bidayuh are one of the Dayak tribes of Sarawak.

The next couple of shots are taken near Sri Aman. The first shot is an Iban father and son sitting at their longhouse. Iban are another of the Dayak tribes of Sarawak. Originally from the Rajang river region.

Old Iban gentleman sitting next to sacks of rice, near Sir Aman

I documented a lot of stories for the British Council's English Language Teacher Development Project around this time. Often in remote schools and communities like this. This next shot was 2 kids from one of the project schools. They lived in a tiny hut of a house and were being raised by their grandfather. Sadly he was going blind so their future was uncertain. The kids had a 2 kilometre walk to school in the baking heat. The school was about 1 hours off-road drive from the nearest town, Sri Aman. The teacher who drove me in his 4x4 said when the area flooded he often spotted crocodiles on this road.

I ran a voluntary project for a while near here teaching kids photography. We collected 2nd hand cameras via Facebook. It was a lot of fun and we managed to raise money for the school to buy some computing equipment and a colour printer by exhibiting and selling the kids photographs in KL and Penang.

Some Pictures from the kids exhibition

I also done some work with the Sarawak Society for the Blind in Kuching

This next selection of shots are just a few I took during Gawai (Harvest festival holiday time for the Dayak tribes). These images were taken near Belaga at Punan Bah with the Punan, an Orang Ulu or up-river tribe.

Old man wearing traditional head-dress

Lady in front of harvest festival offerings. Although many of the tribes converted to Christianity during the missionary times, many still hold to their animist and pagan beliefs.

Young man posing

Older Punan lady posing with a photograph of herself when she was younger. You can see her traditional sleeve tatoos and her long extended ear lobe piercings. Fewer and fewer of the younger woman are carrying on this tradition.

Talaga Air beach near Kuching

Sunset from Bako National Park

When I think of Sarawak I think of the jungle, wildlife, untouched beaches and stunning sunsets. But most of all I think of the amazing people. I hope you enjoyed this glimpse of Sarawak.

If you are looking to have any Malaysian projects documented in stills or video or some kind of collaboration please contact me.

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