My Baking World
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The Pride of Sarawak
Borneo Cultures Museum is the second largest museum in South East Asia and just open its doors to visitors on 09 march 2022.
After 2 months of opening, I finally managed to pay for a visit to this new landmark of Kuching city. This five-storey building is presented in eye-catching golden brown & black with a modern & sophisticated design that reflects Sarawak’s unique traditional crafts and rich cultural heritage.
Upon entering the building, you can see the ticket counter right in front. Since during my visit time is still free admission, so I just walk in & collect a visitor pass to start my museum journey.
The interior design is bright, wide & elegant. Just besides the escalator, there is a notice board giving clear guidelines for the floor & themes on each floor.
1st floor is Arts and Crafts Gallery & Children's Gallery, as the name, it is kids paradise. Here with a theme 'Love Our Rivers', providing info about environmental education & the concept of sustainability using rivers. Walking along the way from right to left, there are many interactive elements which will be a fun place for kids learning. Toward the end, you can see a slide for kids to play around & after pass by the slide, an area with nice mural painting of different animals in jungles. The dim lightning make you feel as if you where really inside the jungle. 😄
Highlights: there is a room with some "sampan" & rivers video projected on the wall, letting visitors sit on the sampan to experience flowing along the river. The concept is not bad but just the video resolution is slightly blurry & still can be improved.
Anyway, the 1st floor might be a bit boring for adults. So just snap some photos & proceed to the 2nd floor. 2nd floor is a permanent gallery zone with the theme 'In Harmony with Nature'. The dim lightning effect, provided a mysterious feels to the entire surrounding. What you can see here is the cultures & wisdom of crafts by olden people & explore the relationship local communities have with the natural environment. They use different cages to catch sea creatures, their wooden art crafts & a lots more. Beware of the look-a-like crocodile on the muddy land!🤣 While walking along the path, there are some introduction video projected on the wall & some descriptions board setting on the wall, which may enhance your cultural experience.
Going to the 3rd floor, here is another permanent gallery with artistic theme name 'Time Changes'. Inside is about archaeological discoveries in State, history of Sarawak and much more historical collection pieces which had been carefully frame in every display case for visitors to view. As a Sarawakian, this is my first time get to know that our current Sarawak flag was evolved over times, which is not the 1st design of sarawak flag.
Lastly, move on to the permanent gallery at the last floor, 'Objects of Desire'. 🤗 I wonder who gave those theme's names as all are very literary feel. This floor, showcasing artefacts that reflect trade & skilled craftsmanship such as metalcrafts, ceramics, beads, textiles etc. From the designs & colors you can know the symbol of status during the old times.
Highlights: At both side of this level is the clear window which you can check out the view of padang merdeka & Civic Center at the other side.
If you are history enthusiast or cultures lover, you might enjoy this museum trips but for me, this place is just a fleeting glance. I do appreciate to the museum workers effort in labeling every segments of items with short descriptions. However, it would be great if it has Mandarin ver. as all the descriptions are only in Bahasa Malaysia & English. Besides, it is good that the museum had installed many hand sanitizers around those interactive elements, providing convenient for visitors to clean their hands after use. However, hopefully it can be refilled as when I went the 2nd times in the afternoon, most sanitizers already empty.
