gawai in kuching - part 1b

I forgot! We all didn't go back at around 10 or 11pm that night. We went back at like.. 12 or 1am. Haha. Yeah.. cos after dinner, we all walked to the village that was on the hill. Ahhh!!! So steep and so high. But it was fun anyways. I don't mind walking. :P We all walked there.. everyone in the family. My parents, my siblings, my cousins, my babai (grandfather in bidayuh), my nenek (grandmother in malay, dunno if it's also grandmother in bidayuh though, but we all just call her that. hehe.), as well as my aunts and uncles. All of us carrying torchlights, walking in a group. Expedition! Haha.. and can you believe it, this is actually the first time in all my almost 19 years that we've actually gone to see the Gawai celebrations.

A little confession while I'm at it.. I can't speak bidayuh. Why? Cos my dad never spoke it to us, so we never learned. Pity, no? I can't speak chinese either. Why? Cos I just plain don't understand mandarin. I only know Hokkien though. I can listen, but I can't speak it. Why? Cos.. I come off sounding very very weird when I try. Even when I speak malay, it comes off with an accent. Argh!! Damn this english tongue.

Anyways, it was a long way up to the top of the hill. And the road was narrow. Well, not so. It was a tar road. Which simply amazed me.. considering how steep they had to make it.. and how little space they had to build it with.

When we got up there, we were suprised to find this group of camera-welding ang mo's (a.k.a orang putih or westerners) there. All of them busy snapping pictures of the celebration that was going on, the sacrificial altar, of the people playing gongs and all. I guess they were all reporters? Jealous!! I want their cameras. *drool* Anyways, my babai also joined in the drum/gong playing. Hehehe! Cool.

Hahaha.. my lil sis and my little cousins that were sitting in the doorway of the house where they were playing the gongs and they had their pictures taken by the reporters. Haha. Nabillah was shy, as usual, but I'm sure Andy and Rachel appreciated the attention they were getting. I was busy looking in on the people playing the gongs and stuff inside that I didn't notice that one of the photographers were behind me that when I wanted to talk to Aaron, and turned around and saw him instead of Aaron, my mind went "Hey! You're not Aaron." and then it went "What are you doing with that camera??" and then my eyes went really wide. Hahaha! Like a deer caught in the headlights. :P

Oh well.. anyways, after that we went further up the hill, only to hear the sounds of a band. Me, Aaron, and Greg then suddenly appeared more alert. Haha. Like, is that.. what I think it is?? Drums?? Guitars?? Bass??? Up here?! Hahaha. So unexpected. They had a band playing in this little circular hut, which had a blackboard in it, which I think is used as a classroom. Wahh.. so nice again their equipment. Epihone guitars, Peavey amps, Tama drums. Not bad lah. Actually, I forgot what guitars they were using.. but yeah, not bad. Hahaha. Then a couple of ladies and guys started berjoget-ing up front. Haha.

After all the visiting, and the witnessing of people dancing, singing, playing, it was time for us to go back down. This was at about.. 11.45pm, maybe. I had to piggy back Andy all the way down. Phewww!!~ I swear.. after that.. my arms felt like rubber. Oh yeah! On the way down the hill, we met Anding (in picture), that dude from AF (Akademi Fantasia). Okay okay.. not met. Just passed. Haha. I didn't look at his face. So I didn't realise why my cousins were all getting so excited. They were all like "It's Anding! It's Anding!" but all I heard was them saying "It's aunty! It's aunty!" Imagine how confused I was. Why would you get so excited about your aunt? And if it's your aunt, why not just go after her? Hahaha. Only later did I get it. So after that, I was like, why would he be here?? It was only then that I learned from my cousin then that he was actually Bidayuh and that he was from the same kampung. Who knew. Haha. I surely didn't. I don't follow AF.

Only after that THEN we all went back to Somerset. Hehe.