Rainforest Festival rawks again

Thursday 8 - Monday 12 July 2010

Can't believe this is my 5th Rainforest Festival in a row! Fell in love when I went for the 10th year anniversary in 2006. That's still the best year in my opinion coz of the Huun Huun Tu Mongolians, Malaysian DHOL Federation and Scottish Peatbog Fairies (the bestest bestest of all)!!!!

This year's a bit sad though as my entire gang didn't go. They were boycotting Sarawak Tourism's escalating prices. Left Byron & I but luckily we found our Trevor & gang was going along too so he hung with them.

Stopped in Telang Usan Hotel for our usual Sarawak Laksa.. yum! and for the gang to stock up on tuak. Me, I brought vintage from 2009 and 2008. Plus a bottle of Smirnoff.

Our mini bar, nothing compared to the Thirsty Blogger's mini bar

Stayed at Melanau Tallhouse in the village itself again coz it's cheap and damn convenient. Manage to catch two rainbows one evening.

Sarawak colours

Couldn't get enough of Sarawak Laksa so ate it for breakfast too washed down with Teh Tarik. Milk and curry in the morning. Not for the weak-stomached. Even Byron was balking.

Workshop scenes

Best part of the festival are the workshops where the artists give a sample of their music so we know what to expect and make sure we catch the bands we like. Women's Voices of the world was one of my fav while the percussions rule everytime. The Indian & Rajashtan bands were really good.

Watussi - Australian Columbian band

Love their performance! They Rawk! Very rockish Columbian sounds but these guys are all from Australia with most members having roots in Columbia. Byron..CD please!! Tx!

Another good band - Farafina from Burkino Faso

The crowd this year was not that big as I had ample of space to move from back to front each time. Dunno why the papers lied to say ticket sales increased. There were years when if you parked yourself in front, you can't ever move cause the crowd's just too great. The rain and mud didn't help much either.

Sexy muddy girls


Oh there was mud everywhere. The Matsys were having a ball.

I managed to stay relatively clean with the rest of the Media crew

All in all, great music as always. Still loving the festival but they gotta do something about the rising cost. Most likely it'll be my last year for now.

Our Annual Pilgrimage

Thursday 9 July 2009

Today is THE DAY that we make our annual pilgrimage to the island of Borneo for the 3-day Rainforest World Music Festival. Woke up early enough and Byron was on time. Mr Liex, our regular cabi, picked Deep & Khang up at their pad and from there, headed off to LCCT.

Khang buat kecoh since morning as first first, kena stop cause he was carrying lighter fluid in his bag. Had to unpack everything to take it out and almost couldn’t check in cause the grumpy girl at the counter wanted to go off already. Later on, he left his bag at the 2nd X-ray check point and totally forgot about it. Panic later on cause all his stuff and the brownies were in there. Kena sound by the immigration officer for wearing a communist cap too haha.

Eddy pula, missed our 9.45am flight completely. He, Hawa & Sara had to book the next one which was at 11.45am. Turned out the plane had some technical difficulties and the flight was delayed till 4.45pm. Poor things.

It was stright to Telang Usang Hotel from the airport where we had our usual sarawak laksa & tuak. Khang got wasted by 2pm. Maggot!

Sarawak Laksa & Tuak lunch at Telang Usan Hotel, Kuching

Khang kantoi-ed early

Camp Permai, our usual pad, was being a bitch as they’ve been ridiculously raising the price every year. It’s a 250% increase this year from the last! Boycott!!! Decided to stay at the Melanau Tall House in the Village itself this year which was SUCH an awesome thing. Our pad’s clean, cheap, cooling and snack in the middle of everything. Heck, I could go back to my room to mandi in the middle of the concert if I wanted too!

Our pad at the Melanau Tall House, Sarawak Cultural Village

Met Leo and the Iban boys on the first night and they invited us to the Iban longhouse after midnight for some langkau (distilled tuak that resembles jet fuel), moonshine whiskey at Tsingtao (This Shit Is Not Good To Any One) Beer. Khang held his liquor well this time but he looked like he had a great time rolling around on the floor.

Moonshine whiskey & Tsingtao Beer

Scenes at the Iban pad