Mukah - Pesta Kaul , Road Trip

Yes yet another wonderful sarawak adventure and road trip.This time the trip to Mukah was not for work but just to relax and be touristy,enjoy the sea ,aggghh bliss :) Wow the roads have imrpoved tremendously since the last few times,2yrs back it took almost 3hours through the plantation road,this time it only took one.Guess no one is actually gonna say that the roads to Mukah's a death sentence from now on....Hmmm hopefully the roads from Sibu to Bintulu would get better,say in the next 5 years (cough,cough...ELECTIONS,hint,hint)

So ya left around 2pm from sibu after work, 2 cars and the 6 of us(From various districts Song,Marudi,Saratok).Was post call,dead tired but really energized somehow with the thought of leaving Sibu even if it was just for a day.

Stopped for lunch at the Selangau rest-stop,huge place for mainly busses,lorries on their way in the never-ending Sarawak roads

L-R(Cindy,Justine,Easwary,John and Lorraine)

The wonderful new Mukah roads,heavenly to drive,haha i couldnt stop telling them how much i loved the roads,i cant help it,had a nightmare journey 2yrs back:)

Reached our Hotel by 4pm,Kingwood Hotel,bit far off from the town,ermm huge place but not many occupants really,yeah and my friends were teasing me that i was worried we couldnt get room,well i did think it was Kaul and many would come:)

View from the room:)

 

So off we went in search of the beach which hosts the pesta Kaul,the hotel is a bit far from the town around 10mins away

finally the beach :P

 

Missed the opening by one week,damn:(

'TIBAU' is what Kaul is really famous for -

The focus of the whole festival is the tibau or giant swing on which local youths defy danger as they swing in clusters high above the sand. Some locals claimed, at night, when the beach is deserted, the tibau moves by itself as the ancestral spirits get in the swing. Tibau aims to find out how many contestants can jump from a 20ft scaffolding and cling on to a rope - at the same time.
The tallest part is an inverted V-frame of two resilient hardwood poles. Four massive rattan cables ran from the apex to tether it to the ground, holding it upright. Another rattan cable, looped at the end to form the swing, hung down from the apex to reach the ground by mere inches.
The tibau is completed by a wide, angled rack nearly three storeys high with rungs every metre or so. It doubled both as a grandstand and springboard for the game. No nails are used in a tibau frame, for the spirit believed to inhabit the tibau does not favour metal.

Tibau

Spent sunset near the hotel,had a wonderful sea-food dinner by the river side on the house courtesy of my Mukah friends,agghhh tht's life,super exhausted but so worth tht 2hour trip

sunset by the hotel

sunset

 

'Lamin Dana'

Visited a traditional village house the next morning before heading back,it's used as a home-stay,quaint place with a river 'Lamin Dana'

'hello mr boatman'

spot on

miniature tibau

Overall a well spent 24hour road-trip with good food,great friends and yes the so much better roads