It was 23rd April 2010, Daniel Chew or known as DanielCtw got invites for Sa Ding Ding 萨顶顶 Live in Malaysia Complimentary Ticket and went to watch her concert at Dragonfly KL Dance Club. Well, all this thanks to dearest Yen who got me the complimentary tickets.

Without knowing at first who was this artiste, a background check was done to see what would be in store when attending this concert. Well, little did I know, her songs were nominated for Grammy Awards.

Here’s a simple background of Sa Ding Ding.

Chinese name: 薩頂頂 (Traditional)
Chinese name: 萨顶顶 (Simplified)
DOB: December 27, 1983 (1983-12-27) (age 26) Inner Mongolia
Occupation: Singer, composer, songwriter, record producer, choreographer

Now that we have a few background on Sa Ding Ding, it’s time to see what’s the view like in Dragonfly Club. Though darn, have to pay RM30 entrance fee to the club (get 2 drinks) before getting to see Sa Ding Ding live.

Sa Ding Ding arrives for the opening song. Noticed the amount of people with cameras in the crowd. DanielCtw did not get to stand with them as he prefers going further thus with an ISO of 1600, shot this shot from very far. Well, with only a 55-200mm f/4.2 – f/5.6 and NO FLASH, it’s the best he can do.

So what? Shots can still be stunning. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

A simple close up shot of Sa Ding Ding.

After presenting her first number, she sort of relaxed and talked to the crowd.

Darn camera piece down there.

To avoid the other cameras, A reflective shot was taken on the glass panel of Sa Ding Ding (萨顶顶).

Sa Ding Ding sang songs that are so called unheard of, with songs created in her own language unknown to other mankind. The artist also knows how to have fun with the audience and danced like she’s in a trance and I was glad I got to go for this concert. Okay okay, she’s pretty la…. I know I know.

Finally she went back stage and brought a prop, a tambourine. While entertaining the crowd, she danced and danced for a long time with the tambourine.

I wished the stage was higher.

Of course, she really does know how to have fun with all the band members. Dancing to the beat of the guitar. Cool eh…

Though there is one time she looked like one of the artiste that I like. None other than….

Kwon Boa. Well, it’s still Sa Ding Ding though. Was expecting she would be changing costumes at certain time, but looks like it never happened.  Well, while on stage, Sa Ding Ding talked about how this is her first visit to Malaysia and hope that the audience would love to listen to her music. She explains how it’s so hot in Malaysia unlike where she comes from.

Towards the ending of her final song, she waves to the crowd and does what she does best, entertaining the crowd with her bizarre and weird music which the WEIRD ONE enjoyed. Well, of course, I enjoyed the concert, I even dance to a beat while on the camera (Jason who tagged along thought otherwise though).

Finally with the ending of the final song, she presented to us all her band.

Left : Keyboarder, Drummer, Sa Ding Ding, Chinese Instrument, Guitarist

Finally time to leave the stage. Though after 5 seconds, a partial of the crowd yelled “Encore!“. The DJ there asked everyone to be silent so that Sa Ding Ding would give a final performance before leaving. After about 10 seconds of silence in the club (yes.. imagine silence in a clubbing area) Sa Ding Ding appeared once more. She sang a romantic love song and this time the crowd took part as the waved and swayed their hands.

Definitely a concert worth watching. Well, for me that is. Well, unlike those who got to watch Kelly Clarkson, I get to watch this instead. Nearly wanted to buy Sa Ding Ding’s DVD + CD album at a promotional RM40. Too bad not enough cash. Darn.

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Now back to where we last left about the Penan people. Well, this time instead of taking the back of the Penan man doing his fishing, let’s view it in another different angle.

Ahhh well, according to him, that’s how they used to dress but as modern civilization started, most of them started wearing jeans and t-shirt now. Well, time changes a lot of things. As Penan is one of the few smaller tribes, they don’t really have a longhouse (maybe they do) but usually they live in huts. Let’s move on to the next place of interest.

Rumah Orang Ulu (Remote People House) is what I can say, woah~~~~ look at the height of the house. In the cultural village, it’s the tallest structure for a Rumah (house).

Some historic backgrounds of Orang Ulu

Orang Ulu basically are meant to consist of a few ethnic roughly 27 very small but ethnically diverse tribal groups in Sarawak, with a population ranging from less than 300 persons to over 25,000 persons. So basically it’s a group of different tribes.

Well, so being WEIRD ONE I have got to explore this majestic place and go up the special stairway instead of the simple stairs made for normal people. Well, I ain’t normal people, I am WEIRD am I.

Just look at those steps, Woah, dearest Princess Yen has taken an excellent shot of me going up to the entrance of the Rumah Orang Ulu.

Oh forgotten to mentioned, at every tribal house, there is a checkpoint where we have a passport and get to put a stamp on it. Surprisingly, if you’re going in as a student, you won’t get that passport. So how does the passport looks like? We will showcase the passport before you eyes.

The Back and The Front of the Passport

More about the passport later, I must say it was a splendid way from up here viewing the entire Sarawak Cultural Village from here. What’s to do here? We get to explore the place and it’s just like another longhouse, but this time there are props for us to play.

Look at Yen go with the musical instrument. Well, I wanted to shoot more and more of the antics of her playing until she suddenly does this.

No taking my photos or I’ll beat you up with these sticks. Then I stopped.

Finally time for a commercial break…. opps this isn’t a TV channel. Time for a toilet break and we have the tallest toilet ever built for tourist like me. What??? Got such thing? Have a look.

Toilet on stilts!!!!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHA NOT!!!

It’s the Rumah Melanau. Well, now that you’ve seen most of the houses, you wondered why were they built on stilts? Surprisingly I just deduced it, one it’s to keep away from wild animals. Another one is to keep an alert from enemies. Well, like I mentioned on the previous post, Iban used to be a headhunter tribe. Those days, it’s the strong to survive.

When we finally reached the bottom of the Rumah Melanau, it’s time for stamping again on the passport. Now you’ll know what I am talking about. It’s a stamp like any other stamp. DONE!! Princess Yen stamped on the passport (I don’t need to do all this!! Hehehe)

Another long house, but this time the view of a healing hall in the Rumah Melanau. Well, to ward of evil spirits and others. A background on the Melanaus, they were traditionally fishermen as well as paddy and sago farmers. Some were skilled boat builders.

By the way time for some relaxing photos taken from the Cultural Village to relax the eyes from all the brown and greens. Let’s have a look at a certain flower which I don’t know what species it is.

Blur?? Yup, it’s meant to be blurred. Especially for readers to adjust their eyes from looking at all the constant brown and black and green colors of earlier photos.

Finally it’s time for the other two to be visited. It’s the Malay house and the Chinese house. Surprisingly, I can’t really take anything special about these 2 houses as most look like modern houses. The reason the Sarawak Cultural Village was built so that people will know about the different ethnic group living in the lands of Sarawak.

As the day started to grow dark, it’s time to finally touch the ball for it’s good luck.

By doing so it’ll give you tonnes of luck and the Power of The Ball.

LOL… Forget that I said that. I just created that up. Basically it’s just one of those ornaments and somehow we both got interested in taking pictures with balls. (Errrr… that sound mighty wrong)

Finally after going through all those ‘Rumahs‘, I have finally collected all the stamps. I felt like a kid able to collect things while visiting these traditional houses of people in Sarawak. Then I just have to act cute.

Pitiful face, Cute leh…. =P~~~~~ (I is can SYIOK SENDIRI)

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Here’s the continuation of my Kuching visitation. Now where to next? Of course, it’s the Sarawak Cultural Village and one of their attractions is the cultural dance being held in the theater. Was lucky to go in early as I’ve gotten one of the good seat to sit on.

Dance Dance Dance!!!

In this dance show there is also a few scenes where volunteers are brought up the stage and one part of it is like the one below.

So shall I cut your hand for my food later? No~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wonder what she’s smiling about when her hand is going to be cut off. Well, it’s a play after all. But mind you, the blade is really really sharp. Of course, in East Malaysia, when I visited both Sabah and Sarawak, it will not be enough if there is no blow pipe demonstration. One thing about it is that the one doing this is great at shooting from a long distance. There’s a balloon situated about 10 meters away and he shoots it successfully.

What a guy!! Daniel The WEIRD ONE salutes.

Finally after all the cultural show, it’s time to go out and do some exploration on all the tribes and locals of Sarawak. Well, that’s why I came here. But bear in mind, if you’re not from East Malaysia, you have to pay RM60 to enter this cultural village. PAIN~~~ as in monetary issue. If you’re local, it’s RM45. If you’re student, it’s RM15.

So where to next? Get to visit a few places like the Chinese Farm House, Malay House, Melanau Tall House or turn right to visit the Bidayuh Longhouse, Iban Longhouse, Penan Hut or the Orang Ulu Longhouse? Decisions, finally decision made, it’s time to go right.

First stop is Bidayuh Longhouse. How to go there? They’ve shown the way.

Have to go there by crossing the bridge, which they called the Bidayuh Bamboo Bridge. So got to pose. I look weird, it seems my neck is stretching. I have a longgggggggggggg neck.

Princess Yen got a better pose than me. Wahhhhh… nice.

Well, then onward till we reached our destination which is the Rumah Bidayuh. By the way ‘Rumah’ means House in English.

Seems so normal? But wait till you look what’s inside.

I had my try on the rice grinding thingy, which I posed and it look absolutely fake. What did I meant by saying that?

This was what I meant. Failed!!! Next person….

Ehh, lucky I was grinding the rice, Princess Yen was riding a bike on the grinder. Hehehe.. *ouch* I sensed a pinch

Finally next stop, The Rumah Iban. For the information, the Iban is the largest tribe in Sarawak encompassing about 85% of the people there. Well, they used to be a headhunter tribe until modern civilization came. Anyway let’s get to the current new tribe and visit. As it was raining a bit earlier, the sky was a bit dark. Thus we also ran as fast to the Iban House.

The Iban Longhouse, Princess Yen in the middle of it. One can actually stay in this longhouse with a substantial amount of fee though. Shot with a 50mm and ISO about 800.

Well, longhouses doesn’t really look like that, but due to commercial purposes, had to be pleasing to the eyes. Where to next? Let’s visit some minor tribes which are the Penan.

Since then, it’s the Penan Hut. Others have longhouses, but the Penan seems to just have a hut. What’s there though? How does a real Penan dresses?

Yes, a Penan man setting rod for fish to be eaten. Such simple clothing. Wonders what will happen if I dressed up like that.

Sorry to disappoint though but there are more places to visit in Sarawak Cultural Village and yes, it will be covered shortly in the next post. Huh? That’s fast. Not really, just that I am tired and wanna sleep soon. Till the next one. By the way, do spread awareness of the beauty of nature and culture if you have it.

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Have a look at this photo.

Picture from lightflow.com

Amazing lamp post photo, now have a look at the next photo, the WEIRD ONE felt so out of place.

Photo from Satkuru.com

I feel just like what was depicted in the photo below.

The WEIRD ONE will now hide and cower himself somewhere else.

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Daniel, the WEIRD ONE as some of you might refer me as, has been doing crazy and weird things since the day he blogs here. Well, not to mention that traveling is definitely one of them. As an avid traveler, I am more of a fan of wildlife and nature and traveling to places with lots of nature for me to take photos is a splendid thing to do. (Well, to me though)

It was just a week ago, when there was a Tiger Blogfest 2010 being held on the Saturday organized well enough by PlanetOfTheMonyets. Well, it was being held to uphold the rights of the tiger. In other words, we have to keep people aware that we have to save the tigers. Tigers are one of those on the brink of extinction if we don’t do something soon. Of course, in Malaysia we don’t have lions here.

In my life, the only time I have seen a tiger was in a zoo and wildlife sanctuaries. Of course, I got a chance to take a few shots of the mighty tiger there. One of them was practically swimming and cooling down in the water. Now who said that cats are afraid of the water?

Surprisingly, tigers exist too in my playing life. Well, I mean Magic the Gathering cards too, where there are a few cards. One of the nicest ones are that they look so mighty and strong in the illustrations, I have a collection of tiger cards at home, still incomplete though.

SCYTHE TIGER

So to cut things short, have a look at all the other tiger shots that were taken by none other than the blogger himself.

I am the GLITTERING TIGER. Take that you glittering vampires.

I am wondering!

Ahhhhh~~~~ I sense food taking photos of me!

RESPECT THE TIGER! SAVE THEM! SAVE THE ECOSYSTEM!

Ps: As of now, photos will be “logofied” with the new logo. DC means Daniel Chew or DanielCtw.

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