Selamat Hari Gawai!

Wishing all my Dayak friends
'Selamat Hari Gawai'
Gayu Guru Gerai Nyamai

*Anang ngirup sampai parai, ek?

Love,
Owner of myluxuryparadise.blogspot.com

~I put this earlier becoz I'm going to Miri today. So, no blogging till 4th june. Next post (MUST READ!) will be published on 5th June hopefully. Alright, happy holiday and see you soon.~

Gawai, The Celebration

Hari Gawai Dayak is coming soon... It is celebrated every year on the 1st of June, but later it was celebrated for 2 days (1st and 2nd or June). This year the first day of Gawai falls on Sunday, so it will be brought forward till 3rd of June. Start working on the 4th June.

Hari Gawai Dayak is celebrated by the Ibans, Bidayuhs, Kelabits, Kenyahs, Kayan, Lun Bawang and others. These people are called 'Dayak' people, that's why it is called Hari Gawai Dayak. I want to share a little bit about their tradition during the day, especially to my Semenanjung friends. I know you want to know about the culture although I'm a little blur2 also. But nevermind, I got some info and mostly from lots of sources from the internet but I've shorten it to make it easier to understand.

Usually the preparations start early. Sometimes you can see those people asking for early holidays from their employer to go to back to their kampung/rumah panjang. Don't be surprise if you see those people start drinking till drunk before the celebration's day. They are too happy of coz! Normally, beers, wine and tuak are some of the things which must be prepared early because without those things mean no celebrations. Alright my semenanjung's friends, this is normal ok? Even before CNY or Hari Raya, people start playing fireworks already. Anyway, 'Tuak' is a rice wine which is a must for the celebrations. Besides that some deligacies such as penganan (cakes from rice flour, sugar and coconut milk) is also prepared. Below is one of the penganan called penganan jala...

An example of penganan

On Gawai Eve, glutinous rice is steamed in a bamboo (ngelulun pulut). Sorry that I can't find any of the picture. In the longhouses, new mats will be laid out on the ruai (an open area which runs through the entire length of the longhouse). The walls of most bilik (rooms) and the ruai are decorated with 'Pua Kumbu'. A visit to clean the graveyard is also conducted and offerings are offered to the dead. After the visit it is important to bathe before entering the longhouse to ward off bad luck.

Pua Kumbu

Dinner at ruai

The celebration will start in the evening of 31st May. In most Iban longhouses, it starts with a ceremony called Muai Antu Rua to cast away the spirit of greed, signifying the non-interference of the spirit of bad luck in the celebration.

Muai Antu Rua
(Two children or men each dragging a chapan (winnowing basket) will pass each family's room. Every family will throw some unwanted article into the basket. The unwanted articles will be tossed to the ground from the end of the longhouse for the spirit of bad luck.)

Around 6 pm or as the sun sets, miring (offering ceremony) will take place. Before the ceremony, gendang rayah (ritual music) is performed. The Feast Chief thanks the gods for the good harvest, ask for guidances, blessings and long life as he waves a cockerel over the offerings. Then, he sacrifices the cockerel and a little blood is also used together with the offerings.

Miring

At midnight, the gong is beaten to call for the celebrants to attention. The longhouse Chief (tuai rumah) or Festival Chief will lead everyone to drink the 'Ai Pengayu' (normally tuak for long life) and at the same time wishing each other "gayu-guru, gerai-nyamai" (long life, health and prosperity). Some will dance to the traditional music played. Others will sing the 'pantun'. In urban areas, the Dayaks will organise gatherings at community centres or restaurants to celebrate the evening.

Not this kind of pantun laa...

Other activities that may follow the next few days include cock-fighting matches, blowpipes and 'ngajat' competitions. On this day,1st of June, homes of Dayaks is opened to visitors or guests. Traditionally, when the guests arrive at the longhouse, they will receive the 'Ai Tiki' to welcome the guests. From time to time, guests will be served 'tuak'. This would be called 'nyibur temuai' or literally means watering of guests.

Ngajat, Iban's traditional dance

Gawai Dayak celebration may last for several days, so usually they will ask for extended holiday from their employers. Their employer 'pening-pening' and couldn't do anything but expecting a bottle of tuak. Hehe... Sometimes they use tuak for their cookings also. One more thing you should know is Ang pow or Duit Raya doesn't happen during Gawai!!!

Last but not least, I want to invite all my Semenanjung's friends to visit Sarawak, a place full with different cultures...You don't have to go overseas to see this. Not need Indonesia, no need Papua New Guinea, no need Mongolia, no need Africa or Brazil.
(What am I talking about???)

*For those Dayaks, if I was wrong about this post or something missing.... then please share it... Thanks!

Article Source: www.wikipedia.com and many more...

My Birthday Wish

"Happy Birthday"
to me...
(Today is my birthday)

My Birthday wish list:
1) Thinner
2) Slimmer
3) Muscular
Extra wish:
4) Taller


I think that's enough...

From Far Far Away Land...

You know what people will do when someone's coming back from overseas? They will ask for 'something' / souvenirs. That is a MUST and pity my brother he is a victim and I realized that everybody is making troubles for him. But I know he won't mind. He's happy coming back although he got jet lag along the journey.

He bought me a watch, a Fossil watch...




It costs 201USD = RM643.20!
Totally automatic and it's nice.
(He told us that his heart was like cut into two when he bought this watch for me.)

By the way, he also bought himself a nice Apple IPhone. Huhu~




Walao eh... It costs 399USD = RM1276.80!!! (It's cheap ok?)
I want! I want alsoo...!!! Hehe~
(This, he didn't have any hurts in his heart when buying this. Aiks? How come huh? Funny one...)

It's a touch screen IPhone. Looks cool and it looks like a PDA but it's not. You know wat, I went to Low Yat Plaza that day... I saw they put a price tag on that phone, written RM1999. They got extra RM722 to give a dinner treat to their loved ones. What da... So, try to think which one is cheaper? The US price or the Malaysia's price?

And another stuff he bought is the PSP which cost him 169USD = RM540. In Malaysia, it costs rm800++. Reason for buying = Scared to get bored along the journey. Ok, forgiven!




Because of the gifts/souvenirs, all of us treat him a nice plate of Kampua which costs around RM2 / 0.63USD. Fair right? Hehe...
(Of coz fair laa... For 3 months wat! Everynight!!!)

Wanna buy a car in US? Don't worried. He told me it's cheaper than in Malaysia. He planned to buy a Chevrolet which cost around 3000USD. His friends bought a Honda for 11000USD and a BMW costs 44000USD, a new Honda sporty 2 doors car for 22000USD.

We have to pay around RM1000 for a driving license. But in US my brother only spent 25USD = RM80 for the driving license. Not a P license ok? It's a competent driving license. They don't have a P after they passed. In Malaysia we pay that RM1000 for a P license. What a shame! So, wanna go to US to get a driving license? Coz you can use your own AUTO transmission car for the driving test! Huhu~

~Credits to MyBro (bethobliss.blogspot.com)~

Message to Poji

I got a key chain from...

United States!

Wakakaka... Original from US k? Hehe...

Sayonara Books! Hello Engineers!

~Sorry for the late update, cuti-cuti Malaysia maa....~

So, it's the time to say bye-bye to Kuantan, to UMP actually, for this few months. But still we still have to go back to Kuantan again for the convocation. Well, honestly I can feel that, eventually I start to love UMP who helps me, us, for these four years to shape or to create us to become a real engineer. Sometimes we hate it but sometimes we should be thankful to them (UMP) for all these stuffs.




I know most of us already got a 'stable' job for the future. So, after all these hard works for years, then...here we are. But let's get back to UMP and flash back to those memories, will ya?

Last 4 years, some of us were so disappointed to be in UMP, expecting going to other universities. Well, what's so special about UMP? It's a new university, no experience...but soon we saw some changes. More and more experienced lectures and professors were moving in. Still not satisfied harrr...? Anyway, for me I counted myself lucky already to be here. Better than Nothing. Isn't it? (If you want to go to a better university, alang-alang why not going to overseas, right?) So, now we are an engineer what else can we ask for from UMP? They brought us here. 4 years aren't short, we had assignments, projects, presentations, tests, quizzes, thesis and etc.

Completing a thesis needs planning, scheduling, preparing and patience.

During the week where we were supposed to submit the thesis, everybody was so busy with that, arranging, synchronizing, doing some corrections and the faculty was almost busy around that period with those final year students looking for their supervisors for advices and hints. I spent a lot on the papers and the ink cartridges. I didn't buy Double A A4 paper for my thesis you know? Haha... Then I realized also that lot's of them were buying refills for the ink cartridges. Bob's room also full with his friends borrowing his printer. I estimated, spending more than RM200 for my thesis. Wah Pian! With my RM200 I can have a nice meal at the Oishii Restaurant at Megamall for 6 times!!! But who cares, as long as I can finish it I won't care about that d***ed money. I can tie my own stomach for it.




During the study in a university I realized that there are lots of group works which require discussions. Discussions, discussions, discussions... Almost everynight we need to go to the cafe for this. Well, doing discussions with friends seemed to be fun and interesting. That makes me feel like more 'engineer'. What da... Some of us will surely like this kind of activity if everybody is cooperating. Cooperating, I repeat... Hmm...




KK2 feels like a heaven! Yes, definitely! It was so nice, comfortable, got our own toilet and 'living room' where some of us will spend the night in the living room whenever they felt hot and uneasy in their own room. I spent a nice memorable semester with my juniors. We cooked, played UNO cards together.




But still the best memory was the semester I spent with my own classmates where we used that area as our DOTA area. Ohhh yeaahhh...!!! Usually whenever got games to play, all of us will gather together in that area to play DOTA, almost everynight!!! Can you believe it? Even during 'bulan puasa' some of my friends said "Let's play till Sahur". Haha!!! What a good idea, isn't it? Haha...




We had gone through 3 PERKASA Annual Dinner, every dinner was so memorable and so meaningful to us. It unites us and letting those feeling of unity among us in ourselves every minute, every second. Having dinner and doing performances together were great and fun! Especially when we did it together... And everybody was showing off the own talents. Well, I did perform once at the 'astaka'. I was playing the guitar with Mok and Bob duet with Voon singing Saiful's song. It was so unique which was a combination of Malay and Chinese.




What a crazy idea which we planned to go for a picnic/swim at the waterfall. Crazy? I should say it was a nice idea. Really happy can go there and having fun together. Tell you, Mokhzaini (not the one who quits UMNO) got a nice video he recorded it at Panching Waterfall. Wakakaka!!! (Mok, you are so cruel! Haha!!!)




Nice huh, when flashing back those moments... Guys and gals... When are we going to meet again? Wanna do a gathering after few years??? Just us BAA Section3. Is that a good idea? Come let's do it!

Taking a Break

I'm planning to take a break for a week. Means that I won't be blogging in that one week. I'm preparing for my final exam tomorrow. So, I'll stop here for a week and I'll be back for blog posts in the next 2 weeks.


In that one week, my parents will be visiting me here in Kuantan. Besides that, my brother will be back to Malaysia so I can expect he is expecting this summer holiday to be fun back at home. I will expect something crazy to be done at home too. I'm not sure yet but I will make sure that it will going to be interesting and fun. Going out everynight with brother or friends? No problem. Well, he is planning to have supper everynight with me so I guess I will become fatter plump during this holiday. Holiday? No, I'm going for practical training in June, so it's not a holiday for me. Huhu~

Naughty brothers

He plans...

Yeah, we are going up to Genting Highland. As usually, there's no other places we can go except Genting Highland.



Don't worry! I'll be back for more interesting posts, hopefully! So, see you soon in the next 2 weeks.

Opss... Nearly forgotten. For my Semenanjung or Borneo friends, I wish Good Luck to all of you and have a pleasant holiday. After this, it could be very hard for us to meet unless we could meet again together during our Convocation Day. Hopefully we will be going to have a nice and planned future ahead of us. Please remember to contact me anytime when you are free or coming to Sarawak or Bintulu.

My BAA Sec 3 friends, I love you all....
(I'm not a gay or whatever dirty stuffs came crossing your mind... Damn it!)

Anyway, Thanks Universiti Malaysia Pahang!

Loey's ScissorHand

I cut my own hair today! Well, I'm not scared to cut my own hair because I ever cut them once at home before taking my bath but just a few cuts only. But this time, since my hairs are very long now so I planned to cut it short. MYSELF!

Thanks to this scissor

V
V
V

My hairs look like this before I cut...



This is the result...

V
V
V

I'm soooooo... SATISFIED!

Promoting myself... Wakaka... I don't care...

Maggi Goreng Special

I went to out Gambang with my friends Mat Ta, Ajae and Zuba for supper (me only, the rest, dinner) last few days. It was my first time taking supper at the cafe but I don't care about which cafe I'm going, I just want my Maggi Goreng. Then, Ajae went to buy something so 3 of us ordered our food first. Me Maggi Goreng, Mat Ta Nasi Goreng, Zuba Bihun Goreng. (That's not our name) Ajae came and ordered Nasi Goreng for himself. We waited while playing chess, probably they realized that, that's their weakness. Well, it was so obvious. We waited for 30 minutes then surprisingly Ajae's came first! What! Mine was the last after I waited for nearly an hour!!! D***! It was just d*** ed Maggi Noodle so what so hard to cook it. I can cook a Maggi Noodle in 3-5 minutes in my room. Well, I was expecting something special in my Maggi Goreng.

I was pissed off. They just need to boil the water and put the dried noodles inside it. Let it cooked and fried. To cook a plate of Nasi Goreng you need to cook the rice somemore... What da... Mine was so simple. An hour's Maggi Goreng! You must be kidding! Even I imported Nasi Goreng USA all the way from US won't take that long.

Well, let's see anything special about my Maggi Goreng.


Two slices of cucumber, a prawn, 2 pieces of 'keropok' and a tiny limau kasturi. Alright! That's what I called it 'SPECIAL'. Blind! ...if you agree with me.

Hey, come on! It was just a plate of Maggi Goreng laa....

Tun Dr. Mahathir's Blog

Who says blogs are useless and wasting our time? Blogs is useful as a medium to communicate with everybody in the world. Blocking away blogs from Malaysia? Then how is Tun Dr. Mahathir going to pen his thoughts?

At last Tun Dr. Mahathir blogs! (Click HERE) Nowadays lots of politician blogs. I know there are a lot of them but I'm lazy to find them out. His daughter Datin Paduka Marina blogs too. Well, it's good for Tun to 'at least' pen something down in the blog for Malaysian's people to read, even the people from the whole world. If your read the comments in his blogs, everybody in Malaysian, I mean Malaysian really do miss his speech, his thoughts, his philosophy, his jokes, his criticism and many more. The blog hits more than 100 comments! Eh, OMG! This evening I noticed that it got more than 100 comments but now (9.35pm), it hits more than 300 comments already. Wow!

Why my blog only got a few comments only haaa??? Huhu~ Then I think I should become a Prime Minister then. Eh, no need... Even KennySia also got a lot of comments. Hmm... I become KennySia lah!!! Siao arrr lu? Sing Sua Lai! Become myself lah better! I love my blog! Got that blinking2 stars, looks so cool to me after I modified it. All credits to Amanda! Well, I think my banner looks cooler compared to KennySia or Tun's blogs! Hehe~

I think my banner is the most attractive. Hehe~

Hmm... last but not least, I wanna wish our beloved ex-PM Tun Dr. Mahathir "Happy Blogging" and "Welcome to the club!".

Message to Tun:
"You gonna find it fun when you blog. You will feel free to talk anything you want. Anything!!! That's why I love to blog. I'm free to write anything. 'Free' like when I got myself naked freely in the bathroom. Huh???"