Chinese Orchestra Sarawak Trip 1st Dec - 4th Dec

It was a very hectic November and December for me. My secondary school classmate was getting married on 30th Nov and I was part of the brothers team. I had to pack my luggage for the Chinese Orchestra Sarawark Trip the very next day. By the time the dinner ended around 11pm, I had to rush back home and pack the last few items.

1st Dec

At 2am on 1st Dec, I woke up after barely 2 hours of sleep and rushed to school. After settling all the details and doing a headcount, we headed to the 2nd link in Tuas to board our flight at Senai Airport, Johor Bahru. To lower the travelling costs for our orchestra members, we had chosen budget airline, which meant a lot of moving and travelling about. However, students only had to pay for a total of $430 (Edusave + Subsidy) rather than $700, which was what the other airlines were charging. We were travelling to the city of Kuching, Sarawak on the invitation from Padungan Youth Movement, a youth wing of the political party in Sarawak. Back in 1990s, our orchestra was also invited to Kuching by the same party and held a successful concert there with the strong support of the local Chinese community and the orchestras. This time, I hope to re-establish the ties we have built the last time round and help our members to clock more CIP hours as the proceeds of the performance will be given to the Children's Cancer Association in Kuching. As Keat Hong Chinese Orchestra from Chua Chu Kang Community Club is also travelling with us, we have an impressive combined strength of 100, not counting the 20 local Chinese musicians from Kuching!

We arrived after 9am in Kuching and were greeted warmly by the local Chinese journalists as it was quite a while since a performance of this scale took place in Kuching. Mr Yong, a former Chinese Orchestra member who participated in the performance on our last visit, is currently managing his father's business and our host this time round. We were brought to a local hawker centre to savour the local delights such as Kuching Mee Siam and Kolo mee (Dried Noodles). I have heard about the noodles early in 2006 when we were planning for the trip and am looking forward to trying out the local delights. For breakfast, I tried the local mee siam and found it to be very different from the Singaporean version. The bee hoon is finer and the gravy more appetising.

After breakfast, we did a tour of the city. According to the guide, Kuching means "Cat City". Stories have it that when Europeans first landed in Sarawak, there were a lot of cats in the town. They approached the locals and asked for the name of the place, pointing to the cat in their arms. Following the pointing finger, the locals answered "Kuching" (for cat). From then on, the name became the name of the town. Kuching is now the 2nd biggest city in Sarawak after the capital, Miri.

After a brief lunch, we proceeded to the Kuching Museum located just beside our hotel. The tour guide gave us an introduction to the original lifestyle of the aborigines. The locals lived in longhouses built from wood and lead simple lives. The instruments used by the locals are somewhat similar to our instruments in that they were either string or woodwind instruments, differing only slightly in design and sound produced.

After the short tour, we began sorting out the instruments to be used for the concert. It seemed that after many years of disuse, some of the instruments of the local orchestra needed much repair. It turned out that the supplies we brought for ourselves were mainly used to repair their instruments! Rehearsal began proper once we sorted out the problems and members of all 3 orchestras had little time to adjust themselves to the new environment and each other. We managed to clear all the pieces by 10pm and retired for the night.

2nd Dec

Despite the long day yesterday, most of the members woke up on time to maximise their shopping time. We walked from our hotel to the riverside where the local bazaar and shopping malls were located. Most of the girls went to the malls to look for good bargains in the fashion boutiques while Mrs Lim, some of the sec 3 seniors and I headed to the local bazaar to look for local produce. The weather was fine and the mood was just right, except that when asked to take photos, our sec 3 seniors were very reluctant. I believe they would be more comfortable in a neoprint squeezing each other than appearing "normal" in an arranged shot.

Regardless, the shot was taken beside Sarawak

river and we proceeded with our shopping. Several of our members took an interest in the local musical instruments and tried them out whilst we were on our way to lunch from the hotel. We had lunch at the same hawker centre again and proceeded to take a big group photo. After lunch, we had a short break and proceeded to the performance venue to make the final preparations for the evening. All the muscians on stage were pretty relaxed just before the concert, which was pretty good given that quite a lot of members had no public performance experience prior to this concert. This public performance will be a very good exposure and experience for our orchestra as they will get to exhange pointers with other musicians and improve on their skills and prepare themselves mentally for SYF Central Judging 2007. From the ticket sales, it was evident that the concert had the strong support of the local Chinese community as it was full house that night. The concert started off with an introduction of the Children's Cancer Association and the usual speeches of the host, followed by an opening ceremony with representatives of all the organisations involved.

Frankly speaking, it was my first experience presiding over such a ceremony on stage, so I had to observe what the rest were doing. Needless to say, there was a lot of news coverage of the event and our photos appeared in the local newspapers 2 days later. The concert went on smoothly and reached its climax at the last piece when the combined orchestra played 《传灯》(translates loosely to "Passing the torch"). The piece was composed by a Singaporean but only widely played in Malaysia among the Chinese community. Ties within the Chinese community were strong as they felt the need to retain their own identity and look after one another. Also, despite the short lyrics, they were meaningful as they conveyed the message of bringing light and hope to one another, reminding one of the kinship, bonds and common culture within the community. Needless to say, the audience sang to the music with the lyrics provided and the concert ended with a standing ovation from the audience. As of the last count, we managed to raise a total of 10,000 Ringgit from the sales of the tickets. After some fast packing, we returned to the hotel with all our instruments in tow.

3rd Dec

We woke up after a good sleep and proceeded to a local wet market for a tour. We then visited the pitcher plant and orchid garden of Kuching. It was pretty interesting to look at the pitcher plants as they are mainly found in Malaysia. Singapore's Botanical Garden does have a few species but Malaysia has more. Appearing in various sizes, shapes and colours, the pitcher plants have 1 primary function: to attract insects to drop into the digestive liquids found at the bottom of the "pitcher" and digest them. This is the way the plants obtain precious nutrients in nutrient-poor soil. As it was not the blooming season for the orchids, we were unable to see most of the orchid flowers.

Next on our itinery was the crocodile farm managed by Mr Yong and his family. It seemed that they were very successful breeding their crocodiles, exporting a portion for cross-breeding overseas or for meat and related products. Even the officials from AVA in Singapore were amazed that the crocodile farm was able to achieve a high 80% of egg-laying for the crocodiles as the crocodiles in Singapore's Crocodile Farm only managed an average of 60%. The crocodile farm acts as the only zoo in Kuching as it houses animals like owls, pythons, otters, peacocks other than crocodiles. Although there are brown coloured road signs to indicate the location of the crocodile farm along the road and the farm is marked on many big and small maps, the local government refused to continue issuing a license to Mr Yong. It will indeed be a pity if Kuching people do not have such a place to go to, given the size of the farm and the variety of animals it keeps in there. (yes yes, I have deliberately placed the photo of the pitcher plant and owl sideways to maintain picture quality. No, it was not my intention to torture your neck or eyes...)

The last leg of our tour was to a longhouse. We all had a feel of how the locals lived in the past and how they have adapted to modern times. The locals keep their poultry in cages at the edge of the longhouses or in the open space beneath the long houses. All building materials can be found in the nearby forests. We also had the chance to try the blowpipe used by the aborigines during hunting. I must say it requires some skill to maintain accuracy and maximise the damage to the prey of the hunt.

Our last night in Kuching was spent at a seafood hawker centre located on the rooftop of a building. In appreciation of our efforts, Mr Yong and his party treated us to a seafood dinner. The dish which left a lasting impression on me was the Kuching version of the oyster omelette. In Singapore, we fried the oyster with beaten eggs and cornflour mixture to form a paste-like omelette. In Kuching, they had the oysters in beaten eggs, adding only a little conflour mixture to create a crispy thin layer. A special sauce was provided for additional flavouring. According to Mr Yong, they could also fry our Singapore version, but the locals prefer their version. I must say it was very savoury and made me look forward to tasting it again in future.

4th Dec

After some late night packing the previous night, the orchestra managed to wake up in time and send all instruments and luggages up onto the coaches. After some farewells at the airport, we head straight back to Senai Airport and entered Singapore through the 2nd link again.