The 11th Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) @Kuching

Like I said… I have a lot to tell but I’m just too lazy to type it all out.
So lemme just sort out my trip to the cat city and also to the world event as simple as I can.

Aight! This is gonna be a very long post.. so Firstly… let’s talk about rwmf
The Food.

*Hehe… my tummy comes first of course*

On my first day in Kuching, I went to Junk Restaurant which is located just nearby our hotel…

Despite it is being pricey, I LOVE* the food there

What more when Willy, Amie’s friend, belanja us for the nite.

Thanks Willy! You’re much cooler than Free Willy. Heh =P

The Junk Restaurant

Willy, our sponsor for the night



Liverpool Vs. MU





Cute Kim

Before I fly off to Kuching, I promised myself to control my sweet tooth when I’m there.

But look at these cute cupcakes displayed outside the restaurant XD…

Due to temptation…. I ended up buying it for RM5 and…… blearghh…

=_= … tidak sedappppppppp… So I had* to shoved it all in Julian’s mouth… Heh
I lap u … Hohoho XD

Don’t blame meeee… XD The guy told me that it was icing sugar topping but it wasn’t!

Tipu!

Just like advertisement man.

Looks nice but tastes/feels bad.

"Muka tertipu... =_="

I also love “The Living Room” Restaurant.

The environment was very relaxing, filled with sheer curtains, red cute lanterns *the lighting was not great for food photography* and I just knew that the Bla Bla Bla.. Restaurant and Junk Restaurant was actually under “The Living Room” as well. Am so gonna bring my family here one day.

Dinner from Hell. My goshhhh... SO REDDDDDDDDDD!!!!


Julian and Mua


Lanterns and more lanterns


Yes.. yes... masa untuk bertapa


Bebola api... XD

Next, is the Kuching Waterfront.

Kuching Waterfront is way better than our waterfront in KK *no offence*. It is clean *no doubt about it*, Safe *I feel VERY safe*, and the food is bloody cheap too!

Even the uncle Taxi told us that the average food in Kuching is between Rm2.80 to Rm5. =_=”

Kuching Waterfront is basically connected and very near to almost every major hotels in Kuching e.g. Hilton, Crowne Plaza, Backpacker lodges and also our hotel in Harbour View ^^

"Do you notice that we haven't seen any single dog in this city except the K9 in RWMF?", Julian asked
"................come to think of it... yeah... "
"Where did all the dogs gone to?"
"(Kena makan kucing maybe) Did you notice all the cats here are actually penakut?"
".......come to think of it.... yeah...."

My Sis told me to visit the Spring Mall coz she figured I might like it... Buuuuuutttt~ I still prefer KK Shopping malls actually. Hohohoho. KL tak payah cakap la~ So…

Okaaayyyyy XD Scrap that… will explore Kuching more in the future *this is my first time here anyway* coz I’ve been itching to story mory about RWMF XD YEY~

RWMF was great;
I* am SO* loving it I can get high.

Okay.. that’s too much… But my point is.. I loved it

The crowd was HUGE!
The performance was awesome and the music was great!

Just LOOK* at this!

It was raining like orang gila on the first day…

Julian and I thought that we could be daredevil and just endure the rain; but it was so heavy we ended up seeking for shelter TWICE in the end =_=”

*must save the camera y’all!*

Stuck in Dewan Lagenda

But getting ourselves stuck in Dewan Lagenda (shelter located near the stage) was so boring, so after the rain had slow down a bit, Julian and I just went down and belasah on the muddy dance floor, not forgetting to get ourselves dirty *woot! *woot!

The ground was so muddy that they got sponsored a sand box in front of the stage the next day from some guy... Soooo generous lei~

We really love the Akasha group of KL, Fadomorse from Portugal, New Rope String Band of UK and also the Pinikpikan of Phillipines who shrieked, “Ungga ungga kaya kaya AIEEEE!!!” during her singing which I can almost relate her (Lead singer, Carol) to a real live puntianak and chipmunk. LOL!

Akasha


Fadomorse

Since we experienced a rather gloomy weather on our first night of RWMF, Julian and I walked to Ting Ting supermarket, to 7E and to other supermarket we could find nearest to our hotel the next day, but NONE of them are selling umbrella… =_= So in the end, we had* to walk to Parkson in Crowne Plaza, and finally bought ourselves a pair of gay umbrellas from Giant…

and you know what the suckiest part of it?

It didn’t rain after that!
*which was a good thing of course* Cilakak! Membazir tenaga & duit aku jer!

Note to self:
Must bring raincoat/poncho next time OR just buy ponchos available at the RWMF souvenir shop.

Anyhow, I also love the free workshop provided during the 3 days of the festival.

Everybody gathered around to witness the different categories of workshop offered and I really love the fact that people are actually not shy to participate in the activities. Kudos to mat salleh especially.

Carol of Pinikpikan


"Never slap a woman" ... "You must buy sentimental present for your woman... "














Sofia of Fadomorse

Oh! And you know what… do get yourself a shuttle bus ticket earlier (available at selected hotels e.g. Harbour view and Hilton) coz the allocated time slot can get full AND do expect some delay for certain buses. It happened to Julian and I on our first day and we totally missed our first day of workshop =_= .

Even one of the orang putih passenger got pissed off over it.
And yang paling best.. he can speak malay…

“Saya….. tounggu…. Lama… Saya…. Ada… tikit (ticket).. but.. itu… orang… tidak bagi… saya.. masuk…. Tetapi….. saya… ada.. kawan…. Mereka… tiada.. tikit… but… mereka… atas… bas… tapi… saya…. Ada tikit… tapi saya… tidak.. dalam bas…. Itu orang… tidak bagi… saya.. masuk… Not good…. Tidak… bagus… I shouldn’t be waiting… Tidak… bagus” (It sounded funny but tabik to you man…)

*just imagine yourself as oreng puteih owkey~~~*

In RWMF.. you can also expect yourself to meet few local and international medias, celebrities like Tony Eussof and Alex Yong as well as some well known people; like for my case… I’ve got to meet my two favourite bloggers mainly Kenny (Kennysia) and Joyce (KinkyBlueFairy).

Kenny


Joyce


Some medias from NTV7

I also met TL (8tv ex-colleague) who’s now working in Channel V XD

And like they said… kill two birds with one stone…
I get to meet DOM, VJ of channel V too! XD XD XD Ohohhohoho!

*Sigh~ ^_^ ~ Bobidom… DOM…. BobiDOM. Get it? XD

Nvm… =_=



There were also cute kids around… Of course… I only snapped the cute ones.

There was one day when I attempted to seludup keropok inside.
Figuring that I wasn't checked during the first day, I thought I might be
safe the next day.... But I was dead wrong.. *gulp*

One of the volunteers, a lady to be exact, decided to check my bag last minute (masa aku seludup laaa kau mau check) and told me that I couldn’t bring outside food. I said "okay" and was asked to go to the confiscation counter and continue doing her thing right after.

Since nobody layan me after that, and the guy at the counter also busy confiscating…

*look left…. Look right…..smirks…*

Lariiiiiiiiiii~~~~~~~~~ Ooooohohohohohohohoo!

*hey…. Food inside was expensive owkaaaaayyyyyy*

But tempting nonetheless T-T

They had few restaurants and lot of food mart opened up to feed the hungry zombie music lovers.

I bought Coffee Bean - Ice Blended Mocha for two days *tralala to diet* and a Lebanese lamb pita bread; while Julian bought 2 of their chicken burger each day for 3 days in a row................... please remind me why he’s so skinny again?

Whatever it is… RWMF rawks!

After a decade of holding this international event, the organizers decided to add two new entities for its 11^th year this year with the new Rainforest World Craft Bazaar 2008 and also the Folk Art Forum.

Our very own ‘Kadaiku’ opened up a booth there as well and even our PM payed a visit (which never happened before) to witness the auspicious event.

For more detail stories and cool photos, I highly recommend you to check out Virtual Malaysia blog on the 11^th Rainforest World Music Festival.

Anyway, according to the news, RWMF will have two venues next year.

One will remain in the cultural village, which they might want to restrict it to 8000 people per day to avoid congestion (The crowd was sooooooo big, they had to close the main entrance and stop people from buying the tickets for this one as early as 9.45pm!) *Read more here* and another venue would be a mini concert in Kuching city (they’re considering to hold it in amphitheatre) and it’s gonna be free for public.

How cool is that! XD

Then again, to avoid congestion, I would suggest all of you to go there earlier next year, enjoy the free workshop and secure your place at the field just like these guys.

With the RWMF funding which may be increased next year (I heard it was slashed to RM70k from ½ million last year), I bet it’s gonna be super great. If I never knew about the slashed funding, I’d still consider this a great one as well.

So what are you waiting for.. start buying your ponchos, bring short pants, get a tikar gulung for you to lie on *seriously.. the bigger the better*, practice your face and skill to seludup makanan and most importantly, book your accommodation and plane tickets now coz the next 12^th Rainforest World Music Festival will be held on the 10^th till 12^th July 2009!


Wheeeeeeeeeee~*