Jiamuses: malaysia

The Visit Sarawak Year For Everyone

by JH - Monday, November 05, 2018

When you think of Malaysia, where's the first place that pops up in your mind?

For a refreshing change, how about heading to Sarawak the next time you are planning a vacation in Malaysia?

We were honoured to be able to join in the celebrations as Sarawak Tourism Board unveiled last October the Visit Sarawak Year logo as part of the Visit Sarawak campaign for the upcoming year. Here's a recap at the media launch.

“The tagline, “More to Discover” underscores Sarawak Tourism Board’s strategy to position the state as a plethora of culture, adventure, nature, food, and festivals (CANFF) offerings that are not found anywhere else in the world, and ready to be discovered,” said Sarawak Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts & Culture Datuk Lee Kim Shin.

Singapore looks set to be the central hub for Sarawak Tourism Board’s marketing strategies as the Sarawak state government sets up an office in Singapore next year.

This year has also been an exciting year as Sarawak recorded a 16.5% increase in arrivals from January to July from the Singapore market mainly due to the increased availability in flights through Scoot, Malaysia Airlines and Air Asia.

To get a taste of Sarawak, consider a three-day, two night Kuching getaway in Central Sarawak. Stretching from Sibu, on the lower Batang Rejang, upriver to Kapit and Bintulu and north eastward along the coast to Bintulu and Miri, Central Sarawak offers some great river journeys, national parks and modern urban conveniences. The Sibu Heritage Centre, the Niah National Park, the Tua Pek Kong temple and Fort Sylvia, are some key attractions within this region.

As Sarawak Tourism Board braces itself to welcome Singaporeans, we can look forward to new competitively priced offerings focusing on culture, adventure, nature, food and festivals.

We were informed of some 2.6 million international arrivals to Sarawak clocked in last year. Some of the key international markets for Visit Sarawak's upcoming campaign will be UK, Germany, the Benelux, China, Australia, and ASEAN countries. ASEAN countries accounting for the biggest portion at 48.98% or 2.38 million arrivals in 2017.

Sarawak Tourism Board’s new logo

Comprising seven colours, in the curled script, the red and yellow colours represent the state flag while orange represents the strong spirit and vibrant energy of the different ethnic communities within Sarawak, which is quintessential to Sarawak’s diverse tourism proposition. Green represents the verdant rainforests abundant with wildlife and blue represents the calmness of the ocean along Sarawak’s long coastline.

The uniqueness of the logo is augmented by the hornbill, which replaces the letter “A,” representing Sarawak’s moniker, “Bumi Kenyalang,” or “Land of the Hornbills” widely known and also as an important symbol of luck to the indigenous people of Sarawak.

Dinner was a Sarawak Affair made unique by the locally produced Sarawak black pepper and its enhancement to the many cuisine flavourings. For example, the starters saw the tuna loin coated in Sarawak Black pepper paired for an east-west twist.

The event also saw performances by award-winning Sarawakian songstress, Dayang Nurfaizah performing several sweet melodies as a prelude to the offerings of the campaign.

Sarawak’s award-winning world music band Tuku Kame also performed at the event, epitomising the unique music discovery that travellers can make in Sarawak.

Kuching and Central Sarawak are key attractions for Singaporean tourists. Aren't we excited to see what Sarawak has to offer? Stay tuned on the blog for more updates.
Let's go Sawarak - Your Journey begins.

About Sarawak Tourism Board

Sarawak Tourism Board is the key promoter for Sarawak. STB is a winner of the Asia Pacific Excellence Awards 2016 by Asia-Pacific Association of Communications Directors (APACD) and has received the ASEAN PR Excellence Award 2015 Gold Award. The Rainforest World Music Festival is a five-time Top 25 Best International Festivals recognised by Songlines world music magazine (2011 – 2015).

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Visit The Mesmerising Blue Mansion — Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion in Malaysia

by JH - Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Dressed in a mesmerizing deep-sea blue, the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion in Penang, Malaysia has seen numerous episodes of restorations since it was acquired in 1190. This shade of blue was coated on after restorations in the 1990s and stood out almost immediately, having won the UNESCO’s Most Excellent Project Asia Pacific Heritage Awards in the year 2000.

Ticketing Facts

To get into the mansion, you have to be part of the guided tour which runs daily in English. The timings are 11am, 130pm and 3pm. There are no online reservations and you have to there personally to queue for the tickets to be part of the tour group. Tours in other languages can be conducted on special request.

Admission Fee RM17 per pax.

Background

The mansion, as its name suggests, belongs to Hakka merchant Mr Cheong Fatt Tze and dated back to the 19th century after it was commissioned. Mr Cheong was a Jack of all trades. Wearing multiple hats from finance to livestock to textiles, Cheong himself was a visionary and brought in much trade and flourishing wealth for Penang during his period of stay from China. Despite the rise of western influences in architecture, Cheong wanted to build a Chinese-styled house and brought in craftsmen from China while importing materials all the way from as far as Scotland to translate into the mansion that you see today.

Let's Tour the Mansion

Main door

The living room is the first space that greets you when you whisked through —Victorian style glass stained windows, floor tiles and all.

Mr Cheong's Wealth

Cheong's wealth is reflected in every corner via the detailed furnishings and decorations as you walked about in the mansion. While gawking and lamenting on our lack of cold hard cash, why not do something about it? If you would like a piece of the house itself, well if only temporary, the good news is that the mansion is available for rental and room reservations.

The last I heard, however, they were in hot demand.

If like the majority, all you want is a guided tour around the estate then walk around, listen to old stories and take some photos along the way.

We had a very awesome female guide who told us a lot about the history and facts of the mansion, the lifestyle of Cheong and the engineering behind the architectural constructions. I didn't manage to catch her name, unfortunately.

Open-Roof Courtyard

Note the cast iron pillars reflected the intricate workmanship from Scotland and the very Victorian style elements which were all the rage back then.

Clever Designs

There are many little, clever designs like how on side of mansion was raised and elevated to prevent flooding. Thus standing in the courtyard, you can actually notice one corner of the flooring is raised higher than the other sides. Very subtle differences of course and can possibly go unnoticed to the untrained eyes like you and I.

This is part of the inner courtyard has now been converted into homestay and are mainly out-of-bound to tours to maintain privacy.

The tour leads you up to the 2nd level where there are more pinups on Cheong's contributions and his voyage from China to Penang.

Some of the costumes worn by his wives and concubines were on display as well.

Exteriors

Didn't take much photos of the interiors, so it's back to the exterior of the mansion.

If you are all about heritage, architecture and history then I would definitely recommend a visit to Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion to be inspired and to know more about the Penang story.
Not to be missed for sure.

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