Gawai Part 2

Ok, it's been a while and a long time due. Here's the 2nd part of what happened during that long Gawai weekend. A continuation...

31st May 2010

Woke up early at 5.00 a.m. to deafening sounds of big bangs of firecrackers. Fortunately, my room got upgraded near the staircase so the sounds got drowned off by the walls. My parents' room (a.k.a used to be my room) wasn't so lucky - it was facing the front where they were playing the firecrackers.

   Helping mom to prepare dinner at 3pm...

And the highlights of that day was games. My sis took part as 'cameraman' to get out of cooking. And the first game we had for the evening was fishing. 

    The contestants in their best hats and poles trying to catch something

   The river where we used to bathe before tap water was installed

   Familiar looking? :-) That's my cousin Rush in his 'cowboy' hat

In the end, after an hour of fishing, nobody caught anything so they had to cancel the fishing competition. Looks like the fishes ain't biting during dry season. Ehehehee! :-P

Evening time after dinner...

    Kids' Pageant wearing traditional costumes :-)

   Oh yeah... My nephew doesn't want to be left out too ;-)

    And here's my niece! :-) 

    Traditional "band boys"

  This is our "Christmas tree" laden with goodies :-)

 You gotta dance to earn your loot :-) Whatever you want, you dance for it

01 June 2010

GAWAI!!!! So now it's the official time to glutton ourselves with food and drinks.

   Grand entrance by the Chiefs... XD

   Food!! I'm sure you know what it is :-)

   Drinks are already being served at 10a.m.

    Yup, my uncle serving me just a little bit of whiskey in the morning :-)

   Grandpa (in blue) - a retired longhouse chief, and another elder :-)

The eating and drinking lasted the whole morning till 3:30p.m. compared to in my younger days when it ends by nightfall. Apparently, they appointed a time keeper so everyone won't be so tired before reaching the end of the longhouse. :-)

That evening, my sis and I got "kidnapped" by my aunt and uncle to another longhouse about 15 minutes ride by car to Tuah area to visit my grandma's cousin.

    My aunt :-)

   My uncle trying on the gongs

    These sets have been with their family for generations

   They don't make them like these anymore

   Grandma's cousin - my distant "grandpa"

So that's the end of the day that I went through in which I travel more than 400km back to the old hometown for. Fun and interesting where fashion, cuisine and culture meets in-house museum. Ahahahakz! XD

The Weekend Preceeding Gawai (Part I)

28th May 2010

Drove back to my hometown for 7 hours for the Gawai festivities. Mom and dad brought a separate car so my sis and I could travel home when we wanted to. It was a good day to travel - there wasn't any accidents occurring along the way. There were times when I had a near miss. Overall, the trip going to our destination had been fun. :-)

                                          The driver

                                           Navigator

                                          The journey...

                                          Batang Lupar bridge...

                                          Coming down the range

Reached destination at around 530pm - half an hour faster than planned.

                                           Reaching Sibu

Met up with BB at Farley area then sent our car and things to her house before going out again. Wasn't planning to meet with BB's heartthrob that evening in person because I told her a few days prior before meeting up that I don't wanna be introduced to JJ yet. Not ready to meet the person she's having such a HUGE crush on because he sounded intimidating. Of course, first meetings are a little awkward - not much were said. We sent JJ to his lecturer's place to drop off his assignment before sending him back to his home. Along the way, we introduced each other - the three of us - JJ, my sis and I. This is the first time that my sis actually met BB - all these while, she only heard me mentioning my best friend. 

After sending JJ back home, we three girls went for dinner at Farley Restaurant, where we were being served by "Toya" - a nickname my sis and I gave to the waiter with the spiky hair. Lol! Not a bad looker :p Anyways, dinner was fun when we talked about JJ and other random stuff. Hehehe...

The highlight of the evening was after we reached BB's home. Everyone took a shower after a long day, and then the party begins...AGAIN! This time, BB and I took out our guitars and we jammed together some songs we both love by our favorite band and some Christian songs. Disaster struck though at the oddest moment. BB's guitar split at the neck which caused the guitar tuning to be off every now and then :-(  She needs a new guitar. Still, we managed to have fun until after midnight. I was worried with all the playing and the singing and the laughing that we were disturbing her family's peace in the middle of the night. All the time when BB and I were jamming on our guitars, my sis was watching One Piece anime by herself.

I can't remember the exact time we decided to wrap our evening up, but I know it was way past one in the morning. It still did not end there - BB and I talked as though we have no tomorrow about random things - from politics, science, hypothetical questions and life. Lights out, we care nothing about the hour - although the moon had been full for nearly a week and the moonlight shining through the window was the only thing telling the hour, it must have been almost dawn before we stopped our conversations and fall asleep.

29th May 2010 

The next day -- went out with BB, JJ and my sis. The plan wasn't suppose to include JJ because it was supposed to be "Ladies' Only".But ---- he tagged along which was quite an extraordinary thing because gents don't usually like hanging with a crowd of girls. Anyways, we shopped around looking for shirts for my dad (I ended up buying 2 shirts for him since I couldn't decide), got a new guitar for BB and had an interesting discussion with JJ. I just love that part where he's the only one rooting for J-Bieber while all 3 ladies rooted for TH. That silenced him real good - but, like all sore losers out there, he just had to say Bujang Bajik's name in a weird way to get back at us :P

                                          On the way to town :-)
 

                                          It was already twilight when we headed back home :-)

All in all, we had fun - trying on hats and funny sunnies. The most memorable bit ----- One, two, three - Jango! :-P

30th May 2010

Final day with BB - my sis and I joined BB with her family (her mom and two nephews) to the Methodist church in the neighborhood. 

After the service and light snacks, we continued on with our shopping :-D This time, it's for shoes. Ugh... Can't help but spend it all this month.