Spoiler alert right up front: Iris and I freaking loved the RWMF! We loved it so much we already booked our room for next year at a resort RIGHT next to to festival grounds!
The festival is held every year just outside of Kuching, in Sarawak. This is on the island of Borneo. I could write a whole blog post about how I used to look at maps of the world and think that Borneo was the pinnacle of what it meant to be exotic and distant from little old Holley, New York, but this sentence will have to suffice for now.
Iris dipping her feet into the South China Sea before the music startedWell, I love how Malaysia looks. And I love how my wife lookds, so this is just a great photo!
Throughout the grounds are various houses like this. The facilities are there year round and hosts lost of different cultural events. During the festival, each house held seminars, concerts, yoga, and pretty much anything you can think of. For example, Iris and I went to a lecture on the symbols used during Chinese New Year. That was nerdy and fun!Iris is balancing the flag on her shoulder. I didn’t get video of her doing it but the photos turned out nice!He is playing the flute. With his nose. Yeah. This was a panel on wind instruments that was just amazing!Iris looking all sorts of cute next to the painting on the Iban longhouse.
It’s Malaysia, so of course there were monkeys! This little guy was enjoying all the food that people stopping watching for just a brief second.This guy. Well, the one on the right. He was awesome! The guy on the left was great too, but the guy on the left is Raghu Dixit. Check out his music. well worth it!He is playing a sape, a traditional musical instrument. I sat and listened to him play, eating some great food, watching some monkeys play in the tree. Great time!
More of the sape playerFrom the opening ceremonies. We were REALLY close.Opening ceremonies again. And once again, we were really closeLike, maybe second row. People kept shouting for us and the other people around us to sit down. The first performer encouraged everyone to stand up, and that ended that argument
This guy was amazing! Like Reggie Watts, if you are familiar with him. He used his voice to make a variety of sounds, and used a machine to loop and manipulate it as needed.Iris, being happy to be at the RWMF 2018!A picture that really captures the spirit of the festival: Friendship! I highly recommend the festival to ANYONE reading this, no matter where you are. It is small enough that you see all of the musicians walking around. The guy on the right played a little instrument that a tribe of headhunters in China (!) used to use to scare the crap out of their enemies. He didn’t speak any English but he was one of the funniest guys there despite a language difference with everyone else.
That’s all for now!
It’s good to be writing on here again, even in a limited capacity.
