Reminiscence of bygone days - The Sarawak House

When I was a young boy, the tallest building in Sarawak was the Sarawak House.

It was an outstanding landmark - a complex that consists of a hotel, a shopping arcade, a multistorey car park, a cinema and a restaurant, all in one. As a young child, I was, of course, impressed.

The hotel was called Premier Hotel and the restaurant, the Blue Splendour. I liked the names given to buildings in Sibu in those days (eg there used to be a discotheque was called "Confetti" and a restaurant called "Villa by the Grand" at the Grand Merdin Building - these are by-the-way thinggy, anyway).

I recall in the 1970s and early 1980s, "Blue Splendour" restaurant (together with other similar restaurants) was the place where wedding banquets were held, replacing old time favourite restaurants like Hock Chiu Lau. I thought it was a posh restaurant then.

Malcolm MacDonald (1901-1981) , the once powerful British Commissioner-General for Southeast Asia based in Singapore during the days of British Empire, stayed at the Premier Hotel when he came back to visit his good friend, the late Tun Jugah, in the 1970s. Malcolm's father was a former Prime Minister of United Kingdom. Malcolm MacDonald played a central role in the decolonization of the British Empire and wrote a beautiful book, "Borneo People"- a book that I like very much. He was instrumental in shaping the destinies of former British colonies at that time: Burma, Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei, Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong at the tail end of the British Empire. Someone mentioned that he listened too much to Tun Jugah which was the reason Sarawak ended up being part of Malaysia as Malcolm has the ear of the colonial office in London. But that story is for another posting on another day!

As a young boy, we would climbed up to the upper floor of the multi-storey car park and have a vantage view of Sibu town (rivalled only by the Bukit Aup watch point) or loitered in the hotel lobby for the air-conditioned, a luxury at that time.

I remember the escalator very well. It was the first escalator in Sibu and also Sarawak (I was told). The escalator was just one way: going up from the ground floor to first floor. As a child, my brothers and I would used the escalator to go up and then walked down using the stair nearby and then up again and again.... until the supervisor, an elderly man, reprimanded us. The supervisor had a key and whenever someone accidentally pressed on the emergency button, he would used the key to restart the escalator. The escalator only operated at night and was initially like a "tourist attraction".

There was a popular night hangout called "the Bamboo House" at the ground floor of the Premier Hotel and one could hear Taiwanese singers crooning out their numbers (they were replaced by Filipino singers in the 1980s). In those days when Taiwan was still a poor developing country, Taiwanese were all over Southeast Asia, especially in Sarawak to earn a living, very much like the mainland Chinese today.

I also remember the cinema very well. It was aptly called, the King's Theatre. It was the place where my father took me to watch the movie "The Sound of Music" and other popular movies of the times. Later when I was in school, I continued to watch many movies there including those by Jackie Chan.

One morning, years later, on my way to school, I heard that the cinema was on fire. Later in school, students and teachers would peeped out of the windows to have a look at Sarawak House as my school was nearby and within eyeshot.

The cinema was, however, restored but fire broke out again at least twice a few years later. Legend has it that a lady commited suicide and her ghost continued to haunt the cinema. I have even heard of story that there is a seat in the cinema reserved for the ghost in order to appease her!

The building continued to be the tallest in this land of the hornbill until the 24-storey Wisma Bapa Malaysia in Kuching took over. Today, the Sarawak House still stands majestically in the heart of Sibu even though it is no longer the tallest in either Sibu or Sarawak. That honour has since been taken over by Wisma Bapa Malaysia in Kuching and now Wisma Sanyan, Sibu.

A Tale of Two Cities

Kuching and Kota Kinabalu are two Bornean cities and both are the state capitals of the two Borneo states of Malaysia - Sabah (formerly North Borneo) and Sarawak.

Both Sabah and Sarawak have separate histories before the formation of the Federation of Malaysia and therefore their capitals are also uniquely different.

I stayed in Kuching and have been to Kota Kinabalu countless times.

It is always nice to make comparison between the two cities as both are state capitals and are more or less the same size in terms of population. It is natural that both cities have these one uppance attitude.

Below are some differences between the two cities:

* Kota Kinabalu is a coastal city while Kuching is very much an inland city but trying to bring the city closer to the sea (by moving development towards the sea).

* Kota Kinabalu has excellent mountains and islands nearby while mountains and islands in Kuching play a second fiddle to other attractions.

* Kuching has old colonial buildings but such buildings are rare in Kota Kinabalu(as it was boomed flat at the end of the Second World War).

* Kota Kinabalu has better air connection to the Far East (Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan ) while Kuching lags behind.

* Kota Kinabalu has One Borneo Shopping Mall which Kuching has The Spring (not to be outdone)

*Kota Kinabalu has the Oceanarium and Discovery Centre (yet to be completed) while Kuching has only the freshwater aquarium (annex to the Sarawak Museum)

*Kuching has the famed Sarawak Museum while Kota Kinabalu has the Sabah Museum.

* Kuching has the Satok Market while Kota Kinabalu has the Filipino Market.

* Kota Kinabalu has railway link but Kuching has only Jalan Keretapi (a reminder of the remnants of old railway).

A Museum for Sibu

Miri from the air

The Nut of Dabai

Dabai or botanically known as Canarium odontophyllum is an endemic (restricted in distribution) species of Canarium of the family Buseraceae found only in Borneo. It is known as black olive by the Sarawakian Chinese. It is a nutritious fruit and tastes something like avocado. The skin and flesh are edible after soaking in warm water. The fruit contains protein, fat and carbohydrate, thereby making it an ideal food.

There is also a species of Canarium grown in China for its flesh like dabai which is known as Chinese Olive.

In Sarawak, dabai comes from the Rejang and fruits twice per year.

The seeds were sometimes used for playing games in Sarawak in the past. When I was young, I always like to crack the hard kernel to obtain the nut inside to eat. It looks like almond but tastes like a cross between pistachio and macadamia nuts.

Besides dabai, other species of Canarium also produce edible nuts, known variously as Canarium nut, pili nut, kenari nut, Java almond or Galip and are traded commercially. Plantations of Canarium indicum exist and are among the most important nut-bearing trees in eastern Indonesia (Celebes, Irian Jaya, Moluccas) and Papua New Guinea as well as the SW Pacific while Canarium ovatum is cultivated for its nuts in the Philippines respectively. The nuts are sold either blanced or unblanchded.

Perhaps someone should come up with a truly unique Sarawakian desert: gelato with embawang flavour (Borneo mango -Mangifera panjang) garnished with dabai nuts. Also, the dabai nuts can be coated with caramelised sugar or honey and sold as exotic tidbits from the Rejang or Borneo.

Multilingual Roadsigns

Sarawak is a land blessed with abundance and diversity. Ours is a land rich in natural resources. Whilst the diversity of flora and fauna is among the highest in the world and a treasure trove, the diversity of her peoples is equally unrivalled and also amongst its greatest wealth.

Caption: Jalan College or College Road. Jalan is a Malay work for Road. College is an English word and it is the name for the road leading to the Batu Lintang Teachers' College, a premier institution from the British colonial days.

From the multi-ethnic diversity, we have richness in cultures and languages. perhaps the richest of them all is tolerance amongst its many races.

Caption: Lorong Foochow 1N or Foochow Lane 1N. Foochow is a South Chinese dialect group which migrated to Sarawak at the turn of last century under a scheme proposed by Rajah Charles Brooke, the Second Rajah. The lane is nicely labelled in Bahasa Malaysia and Chinese.

The beauty of Sarawak is often reflected and exemplified by the road signs in multi-languages in all the major towns. Such beauty is unsurpassed elsewhere in Malaysia or Southeast Asia and should be zealously guarded by all Sarawakians.

Sarawakians need to treasure such thing around us and not take it for granted.

Kuching Cityscape