FOR the Melanau community of Mukah, Sarawak, raw fish is not served with soya sauce and wasabi. Instead, it is sliced paper thin, and marinated with a whole lot of condiments like salt, shallots, chili and lime juice. One can eat it on its own but it's best eaten with hot rice.
Umai, or "Melanau sushi", is the staple food and pride of the Melanau community worldwide and they often boast that their version is tastier than that served by the Japanese.
The Melanau comprises folks of seafaring background. Till today, Mukah in Sarawak's 10th division, is famous for fresh seafood and all things made of sago -- from biscuits to dessert, as well as sago worms which are eaten raw, stirfried with garlic and soya sauce or simply fried on its own.
Walking around Mukah is very safe because no one disturbs you and at night, it is relaxing to sit around in the open-air coffee shops sipping drinks, eating umai and watching the Melanau community go by.
What else does Mukah have to offer visitors?
Plenty, say the folks there. For a start, the Kala Dana beach is the venue for the annual Pesta Kaul Mukah. The Melanau fishing community celebrates this festival to mark the beginning of the fishing season after the monsoon ends. It is usually held in April.
For this major event, the Melanau community in Mukah and those from other parts of Sarawak and abroad, often make it a point to come home to celebrate with their family and friends.
Coffins On Stilts
Imagine living with coffins in the backyard! Not exactly a place you'd want to spend the night but still, Lamin Dana has its own appeal.
This old Melanau house, which stands on the banks of the Telian River, was rebuilt more than a decade ago and turned into a lodge. Look out its windows and you'd be rewarded with the sight of a couple of 100-year-old wooden coffins sitting on stilts in the backyard.
Actually, there are more coffins in the mangrove forests in the back, says Florence Henry who looks after the house.
In the old days, the Melanaus did not bury their dead. Instead, they put the bodies in wooden coffins in the shape of boats. The coffins were placed on wooden platforms on poles raised about 2m from the ground. Numbering about 30, these coffins have been there for more than a century and the lodge itself was actually built around the coffins!
Lamin Dana is in an old Melanau village where the residents travel by small boats and sampan to their neighbours' homes or to run errands. The Telian River weaves between the traditional homes, inter-linking one area with another. The connecting waterway is the main mode of transport here.
Besides providing an interesting insight to the lives of the Melanau community, Lamin Dana offers a lot of fun things for travellers, like spa facilities with various treatments, such as facial, massage and steambath - all at affordable prices.
"The lodge offers 10 rooms of different sizes which can cater to small groups and big families. Those who stay with us are mostly foreigners who enjoy watching the daily goings-on of the people here."
According to Henry, the lodge, which also offers cultural shows on request, also has a mini museum showcasing, among others, the Melanau culture.
"Our rates depend on what our customers want during their stay. We also organise trips to nearby places of interest and have cultural shows for them."
Kampung Senau Homestay
Nine homes in Kampung Senau are taking part in the homestay programme where participants have the opportunity to live the life of a fisherman.
According to programme chairman Zam Haji Nor, Kampung Senau is a fishing village and many of those who choose to stay with them are students from Sarawak and the peninsula as well as a few foreign tourists. The village is about 30 minutes drive from Mukah.
Participants pay RM60 each per day, which includes meals featuring Melanau delicacies served by the families. They can spend their day weaving and repairing fishing nets and hopping on boats when the fishermen leave for the sea.
"We are fishermen and visitors are interested in what we do here. After all, Mukah is famous for its fishing activities."
Traditional Is Best
A visit to Mukah or Sarawak and not tasting tebaloi is like not having been there at all. This traditional snack is made from eggs, sago starch, sugar and coconut and making tebaloi is a thriving cottage industry in Mukah.
But as people's palate changes, the ingredients changed too.
These days though, say Samsiah Zafarin, who helps run her mother's tebaloi business, people ask for new flavours - prawns and black pepper, turmeric, milo and pandan, among others.
"The tebaloi we make here is the traditional stuff because we use the firewood stove to bake the dessert. We make 700 to 800 packets daily and sell them at RM1 each.
"Traditional tebaloi is a lot nicer because it tastes 'smokey' compared with those baked in modern ovens. If you don't believe it, just try some," she coaxes.
How To Get There
Getting to Mukah means a bumpy, three-hour drive from Sibu because the roads are really in a deplorable condition. Both Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia have daily flights to and from Sibu from where you can hop into a twin-otter plane to Mukah, or travel by express boat or hire a car.
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