Gawai Dayak celebration-BALIK KAMPUNG CROWD.

Heading home for Dayak Festival or Hari Gawai  @ Sibu express boat jetty.
Riverine transport services here have gone into overdrive to cope with the  heading home rush for Dayak Festival.

It has become a tradition of sorts for them to head home to celebrate the grand occasion with their families only at the last minute.

For folk heading home for the celebration in the upper reaches of the Rajang River, riverine transport remains the sole option to reach their destinations.

The scene at the express-boat wharf is a colourful one at the end of May as Gawai Dayak revellers crowd the place to catch boats home to Kapit and Song .
Sadly, this scenario will be another chapter in the history of Sibu when the road is completed as people will be able to travel by road, which is faster and easier.

With barely days to Gawai Dayak, chicken vendors are doing good business.Their round-the-clock business  will wrap up on May 31 when the Dayak community would have returned to their longhouses.

For a start, what is "Gawai Dayak" all about? In a simple word, it is a festival marking the end of a harvest season.

As with other festivals, "Gawai" has its own special characteristics and significances especially for the Dayak community of Sarawak.

Gawai marks the beginning of the New Year with the ending of the harvesting season and the upcoming activities connected with preparation for the new harvest season.

The festival is an occasion to rest after the strenuous work carried out over the past year and consists of both religious and social elements.

It is also an ideal occasion for the various Dayak races in Sarawak to display their rich heritage of traditions and customs and offers an excellent opportunity for people of other races to learn more of the customs and traditions of Dayaks of Sarawak.

Gawai is an occasion for the community to give its thanks to God for providing them with their daily needs over the past year and to pray for future blessings and religious guidance for the year ahead.

As a festival which is participated in by all sectors of the community, Gawai plays a role in strengthening the inter-communal relations of the people of Sarawak.

Various differences in the way Gawai Dayak is celebrated can be observed among the different Dayak races while difference can also be observed from one area to another. In the uran areas, the method by which Gawai Dayak is observed is different from the method in the interior regions where there is greater adherence to traditional forms of celebrating Gawai Dayak.

In both cases, the basic idea behind the Gawai festival is maintained - that of merry making and thanksgiving to God. 

I wish ALL by Dayak/Iban friends...."HAPPY DAYAK FESTIVAL" (Hari Gawai/Sarawak).

Photo by Awang using P&S (Lumix LX3).

MASwings To Fly To Brunei, Pontianak Indonesia.

MASwings, which currently operates within Sabah and Sarawak, is expected to commence flights to Brunei and Pontianak, Indonesia, soon.
Its managing director, Datuk Capt Mohd Nawawi Awang, said MASwings had already submitted the proposal to the Transport Ministry for approval.
"Based on the positive response from the ministry, I'm quite confident that the flights from Kota Kinabalu to Brunei and from Kuching to Pontianak (West Kalimantan) will take off on July 1 or in July," he said during a luncheon with the media here today.
He said if these flights were successful, MASwings planned to introduce flights from Kota Kinabalu to Tawau and Tarakan (East Kalimanan) and also from Kuching to Mulu and Brunei in October.
"Plans are also in the pipeline for other destinations within BIMP-EAGA region and we hope to provide flight services from Sabah and Sarawak to major cities such as Palawan and Mindanao in Southern Philippines as well as Manado in Sulawesi, Indonesia, in the future," he said.
BIMP-EAGA stands for Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA), a subregional economic cooperation initiative in Southeast Asia.
Mohd Nawawi said MASwings was aware of the need to improve air connectivity within this region as it was constantly discussed among leaders of the BIMP-EAGA member countries at meetings of the grouping.
Apart from that, he said MASwings would also explore the possibility of embarking on international flights from Sabah and Sarawak with immediate focus being on the Kota Kinabalu-Kuala Lumpur and Kuching-Kuala Lumpur sectors.
"These are some of our future plans and we hope we will be able to make it a reality," he said.On its domestic service, Mohd Nawawi said MASwings would continue its service to rural destinations for the benefit of the people in Sabah and Sarawak.
"We want MASwings to be the icon for Sabah and Sarawak.

Source from BERNAMA

International Airport that use Analog Scale..

All guests (except infants) are allowed only one piece of hand carry baggage onboard provided that it does not exceed the dimensions of 56cm x 36cm x 23cm and does not weigh more than 7kg. Such baggage must fit under the seat in front of you or in an enclosed storage compartment in the cabin. Items determined by us to be of excessive weight or size or of an offensive nature will not be permitted onboard.

Why waste the digital technology ...why still use the analog scale..
While digital scales are very popular, still analog choose a steady stream of customers who year after year. Why is that? Well, more of a basic analog scale to be cheap and it does not require the use of batteries to run.
Since you got a cheap ticket to fly then use cheap scale to weight your limited cabin bag .

He miss the Gawai Festival in Sarawak.

With Gawai Festival just around the corner every shopping mall in Kuching are having a sale..'Now every one can buy" ; Selamat Hari Gawai. I also did a survey in supermarket about the price and the sudden price increase in essential goods such as sugar and yeast and how my friends the Dayak and the Iban will be affected by this price increase.  Another interesting story is about our friend political activist ONG BK he miss the Gawai festival in Bengoh Village in Pedawan,Sarawak..read the story HERE

Sarawak immigration officers caught up with political activist Ong BK in Bengoh today and ordered him out of the state.(another Malaysian ,not allowed to enter Sarawak in Malaysia)

Ong, a coordinator of the Malaysian Election Observers Network (MEO-Net), entered Sarawak through Bintulu on May 21 with no difficulties, but 10 officers stopped him at the Bengoh Dam security post this morning and escorted him to the immigration office in Pending.

Ong is currently in the Pending Immigration Office,waiting for the details of his flight to be confirmed an return to West Malaysia " So I'm sorry for him that he miss the Gawai Festival in Sarawak.

If you are interested to see Who is this activist ONG BK just visit this website MALAYSIAN MUST KNOW THE TRUTH .

WPPM - Wedding and Portrait Photographers Malaysia.

Photo Credit to Krisno Esther Photography.
Recently, I attended Sarawak Bloggers Talk organized by Raptoz.Com and supported by Sarawak Bloggers Community and Alvin Leong Academy of Photography   .
The masterclass photographer and very well known internationally and he’s from Sarawak. A very inspirational figure.  For the night, he talked about Photojournalism and what differ photojournalism from other field of photography and how does its relate to blogging. How to capture stunning photos to post on our blog and what it takes to capture beautiful and meaningful photos. Photos that tell stories just by looking at it.He also encourage us to join WPPM.
WPPM is a professional body established with the main objective to foster good business practices, mobilise the photography community, to promote and set world-class photography standards in local industry.If you are serious to become a professional photographer, why not register with WPPM by log on to this website
WEDDING and PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHERS MALAYSIA


    

Famous Blogger and Famous Photographer.

Tell me who don't want to be famous.Had an opportunity to attend a Sarawak Blogger Talk: More Than a Blog on 21st May,2011 organized by Reptoz.Com and supported by Sarawak Bloggers and Alvin Leong Academy of Photography . 
I am not a famous blogger and I am not a famous photographer.Not because I don't want to be famous it's because I don't have enough knowledge about blogging and skill about photography.Hey !! at least not yet hehe..So the talk featured three speakers, CYRIL DASON of Cyrildason.com,WILLIE ESTHER of reptoz.com and ALVIN LEONG of Academy of Photography 
As a infamous blogger and infamous photographer ,I was very impressed with the amount of good talk these three guys had. Wow !!!.the talk really inspired me to be if not famous to be a better and to improve my knowledge and skill or what ever I have now....Oh my,I wish there were more talk by this three speakers in future but I am sorry for those who couldn't make it or didn't want to come,it's your lost.

 A session with Cyril Dason,the founder of Sarawak Bloggers

 A Session with Willie Ester on How to Increase your blog Readership.

This is Alvin he talk about PhotoJournalism. You can log on to his website http://alvinleong.com
Thank You and have a nice day.











 

Income Tax Office .

To all Sarawak Malaysian tax payer...LHDN or Income Tax new office at Tabuan Road in Kuching,Sarawak.Perhaps this is also the new house for  Akademi Percukaian Malaysia (APM),Sarawak Campus.