echo from Sarawak

The Kuching Tua Pek Kong Temple was once seated on the best Feng Shui location in Kuching; as according to the Feng Shui principle, a hill at the back, a small and smooth flowing river in front (the lost Sg Kuching), and the best front view of the highest peak in the area, Gunung Serapi. The temple was built more than two centuries ago, long before James Brooke, the first White Rajah of Sarawak, arrived in Kuching. Like most Chinese temples, the temple prosperity affected and associated highly to the businesses, emotion and activities of the local Chinese community in the early days where majority were followers of Taoist related faith. It was also one of the few buildings that survived the 1884 the Great Fire of Kuching, where most Chinese believed was due to good Feng Shui. It was said that after the 1857 Chinese Insurrection in Bau, a gold mine township nearby, the Brooke Administration was worried about the Tua Pek Kong dominance and its influence to the local Kuc

Driving on the Borneo Highway can be tiring and fun also. On the Sarawak side, the driving distance from Kuching to Miri (South to North) is more than 800km or about 12 hours. I traveled quite often on the Sarawak Borneo Highway by car due to my nature of work; my uncle Hen knew that. My uncle Hen love d  birds, all kinds of birds. He even kept eagle when I was young. When I started traveling on business by car  few years back , he always reminded me to looked out for people selling birds along the so called Borneo highway. I said, "how to keep for you, the round trip is 2000km" , he said, "never mind you leave them in the cabin flying  or  shit also can, I pay at all cost provided you give me good rare birds". This was  my uncle Hen, a real and rare bird lover , he w ould  starve just to get another rare species! Rare species c a me not easy, for  a while  I c a me back (Kuching) empty handed and uncle started to grumble. I fe lt bad until I ha d

Jungle trekking is common in Sarawak, with a population of less than 3 millions, many areas still cover with green. If you travel often to most outskirts parts of Sarawak, you may know what ‘satu rokok saja’ means to you. ‘satu rokok saja’ describes the distance you can travel on foot in the time need to smoke a cigarette. My friend, Robert Wong, first told me the story of ‘satu rokok saja’ when engaged in the rural school electrification works many years back in Saratok, a small town in Sarawak. However the phrase seemed like a joke to him rather than the distance of measurement. The ‘guide’ told him that the school was just ‘satu rokok saja’ away (many parts of rural schools in Sarawak still do not have proper access road); he reached the place about two hour. Later he reali z ed the ‘satu rokok saja’ estimation needed to be taken in account of whether the cigarette was lighted or not, or whether the cigarette had been extinguished by rainwater. The ‘satu rokok s

I spent a lot of my time with my grandpa from 10 to 13. He was from China and he told me lots of China stories like how his own grandpa bribed to get a local magistrate post and other wonderful stories he had in China. I wondered why he still wanted to migrate here if he was so wonderful. A lot of people were suffering from bladder stone in the old days especially modern medical treatment was not available. He once told me about a man who was suffering from bladder stone. A s I had heard, at one time, there was a man who had suffered from bladder stone for some time, and every time as his bladder started to fill up he cried like a helpless baby, and pain only subsided after dripping off all urine. There was this lady, not sure how she came about in the scene, who noticed the man suffering and watched him helplessly every time the man cried. Of course, things were getting worse and worse, not much could be done, and one day the man cried and fought again, the lady wat