Bako National Park

     With its rainforest abundant wildlife, jungle streams, waterfalls, interesting plant life, secluded beaches and trekking trails, Bako offers visitor an excellent introduction to the rainforest of Borneo. Bako may not have an instanly recognisable star attraction but there can be very few places in the world that pack so much natural beauty into such a limited area, all its sheer range of attractions and activities have made Bako one of the most popular parks in Sarawak.

Gazetted as a protected area on 1 May 1957 and was published to public on 4 may 1957. Bako is Sarawak's oldest national park, covering an area of 2,727 hectares at the tip of the Muara Tebas peninsula. It is one of the smallest national park in Sarawak, yet one of the most interesting as it contains almost every type of vegetation found in Borneo. A weii maintained network of trails from wasy forest strills to full day jungle terks, allows visitors to get the most out of this unique environment.

Bako contains an incredible variety of plant species and vegetation types and this is one of the park's great attractions. at Bako it is possible to see almost every type of vegetation found in Borneo.Bako is probably the best place in Sarawak for wildlife experience. The park has been a protected area since 1957, so the animals are less wary of humans. Visitors, especially those who stay overnight wull have countless opportunities to observe and photograph various types of wildlife.

The best times for seeing wildlife at Bako are dawn and just before dusk, when the animals are at their most active. You are more likely to see animals on the trails if you go in small groups, walk slowly and silently, keep as quit as possible and listen out for sound and movements in the forest.

Bako's extensive trail system is made up of 16 colour-coded jungle trails which offer a range of walking and hiking options. The fit and adventures can opt for full-day jungle hikes or overnight camping expeditions, whilst those who prefer to take it easy can opt for a relaxing forest walk.

Burung Kenyalang

Burung Enggang Kenyalang (Rhinoceros Hornbill) ialah salah satu daripada burung enggang terbesar, burung ini mempunyai kepanjangan 110-127 cm (43-50 inci) panjang dan seberat 2-3 kg (4.4-6.6 paun) untuk yang sudah dewasa. Ia hanya terdapat di hutan hujan bentuk tinggi. Nama sainsnya Buceros rhinoceros.

Burung Kenyalang atau juga dikenali sebagai  Burung Enggang Badak boleh didapati di Kepulauan Borneo khususnya negeri Sarawak, Malaysia. Sebagaimana burung enggang yang lain, burung jantan memiliki mata berwarna kuning bata atau merah, dan burung betina mempunyai mata keputihan. Burung ini memiliki paruh kebanyakannya berwarna putih. Ia mempunyai dada putih, terutamanya di bahagian ekor.

 

Mengawan dan berpasangan bagi burung ini adalah amat penting, kerana burung betina perlu mempercayai burung jantan bagi membekalkan semua perkara ketika ia mengeram dan membesarkan anak. Burung enggang ini bertelur dalam batang pokok, burung betina tinggal di dalam bersama telurnya, sementara burung jantan membawa makanan kepada burung betina dan anak-anaknya

Selepas bertelur, burung jantan akan mengambil lumpur dan pasangan tersebut akan menggunakan lumpur dan najis bagi menutup pembukaan masuk ke sarang. Namun mereka meninggalkan pembukaan yang kecil, hanya muat bagi burung jantan memberi makan burung betina dan kemudian anak burung.Apabila anak nya telah cukup besar(sudah tumbuh bulu),burung jantan dan burung betina akan mematuk lumpur yang sudah kering tersebut untuk memudahkan anaknya keluar dari sarang tersebut.

  

Burung Enggang badak makan buah-buahan, serangga, reptilia kecil, tikus, dan burung kecil.

  

Kolo Mee

Kolo Mee is another famous hawker food in Sarawak. You can see it being sold at every corner.

Kolo Mee noodle looks like thinner maggi noodle but more springy. The main ingredients are usually char siew, minced pork, some vegetable and topped with spring onions.

A bowl of special Kolo Mee is around RM3.50.wah!! it was very low in price and comes with lots of peeled fresh prawns. Kolo Mee  do not use any dark soy sauce or water to prepare. So it is very dry and the only moisture is from the pork oil.

Hari Gawai

  Gawai Day or Gawai Dayak is a festival celebrated in Sarawak on 1 June every year. It is both a religious and social occasion. The word Gawai means a ritual or festival whereas Dayak is a collective name for the native ethnic groups of Sarawak (and neighboring Indonesian Kalimantan): the Iban, also known as Sea dayak and the Bidayuh people, also known as Land Dayak. Thus, Gawai Dayak literally means "Dayak Festival". Dayak would visit their friends and relatives on this day. Such visit is more commonly known as "ngabang" in the Iban Language.

The mode of celebration varies from place to place. Preparation starts early. Tuak (rice wine) is brewed (at least one month before the celebration) and traditional delicacies like penganan(cakes from rice flour, sugar and coconut milk) are prepared. As the big day approaches, everyone will be busy with general cleaning and preparing food and cakes. On Gawai Eve,glutinous rice is steamed in bamboo (ngelulun pulut). In the longhouse, new mats will be laid out on the ruai (an open gallery which runs through the entire length of the longhouse). The walls of most bilik (rooms) and the ruai are decorated with Pua kumbu (traditional blankets). A visit to clean the graveyard is also conducted and offerings offered to the dead. After the visit it is important to bathe before entering the longhouse to ward off bad luck.

 'Tuak'         'Ngelulun pulut'                     'Pua Kumbu'

                                                         

The celebration starts on the evening of 31 May. At midnight, the gong is beaten to call the celebrants to attention. The longhouse Chief (tuai rumah) or Festival Chief will lead everyone to drink the Ai Pengayu (normally tuak for long life) and at the same time wish each other "gayu-guru, gerai-nyamai" (long life, health and prosperity). The celebration now turns merrier and less formal. Some will dance to the traditional music played, others will sing the pantun(poems). In urban areas, Dayaks will organise gatherings at community centres or restaurants to celebrate the evening.

Other activities that may follow the next few days include: cock-fighting matches and ngajat competitions.

     

On this day, 1 June, homes of the Dayaks are opened to visitors and guests.Traditionally, when guests arrive at a longhouse, they are given the ai tiki as a welcome. From time to time, guests are served Tuak. This would be called nyibur temuai which literally means "watering of guests".

      

Christian Dayaks normally attend a church mass service to thank God for the good harvest.

Bakun Dam

The Bakun Dam is an embankment dam located in Sarawak, Malaysia on the Balui River a tributary or source of the Rajang River and some sixty kilometers west of Belaga As part of the project, the second tallest concrete-faced rockfill dam in the world would be built. It is planned to generate 2,400 megawatts (MW) of electricity once completed.

The purpose for the dam was to meet growing demand for electricity. However, most of this demand said to lie in Peninsular Malaysia and not East Malaysia, where the dam is located. Even in Peninsular Malaysia, however, there is an over-supply of electricity, with Tenaga Nasional Berhad being locked into unfavourable purchasing agreements with Independent Power Producers. The original idea was to have 30% of the generated capacity consumed in East Malaysia and the rest sent to Peninsular Malaysia. This plan envisioned 730 km of overhead HVDC transmission lines in East Malaysia, 670 km of undersea HVDC cable and 300 km of HVDC transmission line in Peninsular Malaysia.

Future plans for the dam include connecting it to an envisioned Trans-Borneo Power Grid Interconnection, which would be a grid to supply power to Sarawak, Sabah, Brunei, and Kalimantan (Indonesia). There have been mentions of this grid made within ASEAN meetings but no actions have been taken by any party. Bakun Dam came online on 6 August 2011

Pahlawan Sarawak -- Rentap ak Libau

Rentap merupakan seorang pahlawan Dayak (Iban) terkenal dalam sejarah Sarawak. Dia merupakan salah seorang pemimpin penentang kepada pemerintahan Raja Putih Brooke.

   Pada tahun 1853 Rentap telah mengetuai pasukan orang Iban yang menyerang pasukan British di Skrang yang diketuai oleh William Brereton. Rentap adalah seorang panglima perang orang Iban yang tinggal di ulu Sungai Sekrang. Rentap yang menjadi ketua orang Iban telah menentang pemerintahan Brooke kerana Brooke merancang membanteras amalan kutipan cukai oleh ketua-ketua tempatan yang dianggap lanun olehnya, sedangkan ia merupakan sumber pendapatan tradisi ketua-ketua tempatan.

 'Penjajah Sarawak'

Pada tahun 1853, Rentap bersama pasukannya menyerang kubu-kubu di Sungai Skrang. Pihak British telah diserang hendap oleh orang-orang Rentap. Berlakulah pertempuran yang sengit di antara kedua-dua pihak. akibat pertempuran itu seorang menantu Rentap bernama Layang telah membunuh Alan Lee dengan lembing nya. Rentap dengan segera membawa pasukannya pulang ke ulu Sungai Sekrang.

    Dalam pertempuran itu pihak British berundur ke pangkalan Merak dan ini menyebabkan Rentap semakin dihormati oleh pengikutnya. Walau bagaimanapun pengikut Brooke telah membinasa dan membakar 20 buah rumah panjang tempat kediaman Rentap. Dengan itu Rentap terpaksa berundur dan membina tempat kediaman di sungai Lang iaitu di ulu sungai Skrang. Namun angkatan Brooke berjaya menyerang rumah panjang Rentap dan ia dengan sebilangan pengikut berundur dan membina kubu di sebuah bukit bernama Bukit Sadok. Kubu Bukit Sadok ini sukar untuk ditakluki kerana diperkuatkan oleh sebatang merian yang dikenali sebagai "Bujang Timpang Berang". Mulai dari tahun 1875, kerajaan Brooke telah membuat tiga percubaan untuk menangkap Rentap. Namun pada tahun 1861 barulah mereka berjaya menguasai Bukit Sadok setelah membawa beberapa buah meriam yang dikenali sebagai "Bujang Sadok".

Kubu-kubu dan rumah-rumah tempat kediaman Rentap dan orang-orangnya habis dibakar oleh kerajaan Brooke pada 20 oktober 1861. Rentap kemudian berundur ke Ulu Entabai. Kemudian Rentap dan pengikutnya berpindah ke Bukit Sibau iaitu kawasan yang terletak di Ulu Wak, Pakan. Beberapa tahun kemudian, Rentap meninggal dunia di situ pada usia lebih kurang 70 tahun. Rentap merupakan pejuang sejati kerana beliau tidak pernah untuk tunduk kepada pemerintahan Brooke sehingga ke akhir hayatnya. Sehingga ke hari ini makam pahlawan Rentap telah di baik pulih oleh kerajaan negeri Sarawak bagi mengenang jasanya.

Gunung Mulu National Park

Gunung Mulu National Park near Miri, Sarawak, Malysian Borneo, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that encompasses incredible caves and karst formations in a mountainousequatorial rainforest setting. The park is famous for its caves and the expeditions that have been mounted to explore them and their surrounding rainforest, most notably the Royal Geogrhical Society Expedition of 1977–1978, which saw over 100 scientists in the field for 15 months. This initiated a series of over 20 expeditions now drawn together as the Mulu Caves Project.

Gunung Mulu National Park is famous for its limestone kast formations. Features include enormous caves, vast cave networks, rock pinnacles, cliffs and gorges.

Gunung Mulu National Park has the largest known natural chamber or room - Sarawak Chamber, found in Gua Nasib Bagus. It is 2,300 feet (700 m) long, 1,300 feet (396 m) wide and at least 230 feet (70 m) high. It has been said that the chamber is so big that it could accommodate about 40 Boeing 747s, without overlapping their wings. The nearby Deer Cave was, for many years, considered the largest single cave passage in the world.

Other notable caves in this area are Benarat Cavern, Wind Cave, and Clearwater Cave; which contains parts one of the world's largest underground river systems and is believed to be the largest cave in the world by volume at 30,347,540 m³.