View from Near the Rajahs cottage.
MENTION Siniawan (pronounced sinyawan) and the local history buffs will tell you about other heritage sites in the vicinity.
News has circulated among the enthusiasts that a waterfront would be built behind the old bazaar. And they are wondering if there has been any progress in the proposal to clear the path up the Serambu Mountain called the Wallace Trail. For a couple of years now there has been no news about the project. Is it on or off?
Is the name Wallace problematic or is there something more than that meets the eye? I cannot imagine anyone objecting to the name. However, build it and call it by any other name.
I say that whoever chose the name in honour of a famous British naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, is to be commended for his or her knowledge of local history. Wallace arrived in Sarawak (Kuching) on Nov 1, 1854 to collect specimens of mammalia, reptiles, birds, shells, butterflies and other insects. While waiting for the next boat to take him back to Singapore, he was invited by Rajah James Brooke to spend a week at the cottage that the ruler had built on Mount Serambu. While there he collected more specimens of butterflies. The seriously unpronounceable Trogonoptera brookiana, is named after the host. (You and I just call it Brooke’s birdwing!)
The name Wallace Trail is most apt, I think.
But where is it?
Look out for the lookout!
The access path up the mountain is important before you can reach the spot where the Rajah had erected a “rude wooden lodge”. During Wallace’s visit there the road was a “succession of ladders, on the face of precipices, bamboo bridges over gullies and chasms, and slippery paths over rocks and tree trunks and huge boulders as big as houses”.
The Rajah called his lodge Peninjau (Lookout). The drawing published by Smith, Elder & Co. Cornhill, London, and used in St John’s book showed the view from near the Rajah’s cottage. You can see Mount Santubong clearly.
New lodge for old?
During a Christmas visit to a friend’s home in 2017, I was told that a plan of the proposed building had been completed, only awaiting approval by the appropriate authorities. Since then, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge and the plan has remained a plan.
I wonder what has been holding up the construction of the new “rude wooden lodge”. If money was the main constraint, then this is no longer the case now that there is money for the development of the waterfront for Siniawan. If there’s a political will, there’s money.
Visitors to a country, especially those from overseas, would like to see as many places of interest as possible within the tight schedule of the itinerary. Siniawan is nice and handy to Kuching. Some will go to the bazaar and soon-to-be waterfront only; others go on the Wallace Trail and back; still others who will wander around the bazaar for a while, trudge the Wallace Trail and spend the night in the bungalow up on the mountain. Catch butterflies like Wallace did. Catch a pretty one and name it after your girlfriend.
There must be more than one description of Siniawan; if there are any descendants of the original settlers still alive and who are willing to relate stories told to them by their fore-parents, we will learn more about the place.
I use the information taken from an account of the visit to the bazaar made by Spenser St John (his book ‘Life in the Forests of the Far East’ (Volume I).
St John, the Rajah’s secretary, acting as a tourist guide, took a visitor Madame Pfeiffer to Serambu via the “Chinese village of Siniawan”. When she was trying to catch a butterfly, a crowd of little Chinese maidens followed her everywhere.
The next day they ascended the mountain to the Rajah’s cottage by the same ‘road’ that Wallace used five years later.
Both spent the night at the bazaar. Owner of a hotel or a homestay may like to name the premises Rumah Tumpangan Spenser St John or Madame Pfeiffer.
Other heritage sites
There are other heritage sites along the Sarawak Kanan that should be preserved. For instance, Ledah Tanah was an important post during the Dayak/Malay rebellion against Pengiran Makota’s rule. Later, it was a rest stop for government officers and visitors from Kuching before they proceeded to Siniawan.
Whoever develops any project, tourism or otherwise, in this part of the district, please take into account the rights and interests of the people at the various locations – the Bidayuh villagers at Peninjau Baru and Lama, the Chinese at Siniawan, and the Malays at Ledah Tanah. Their descendants are the direct stakeholders of any project carried out within their own domain. They must benefit from that project. Their norms and mores must be respected, their right to land recognised.
Explore more sites
It is my hope that all the people in the tourism industry would explore other tourist potentials in this part of Sarawak to add to their existing products. The Sarawak Kanan has always been navigable – a tourism attraction in itself. A boat ride from Kuching to Siniawan or Tondong would be fun for visitors who love rivers. Along the river banks there are historical sites – and tell them about the Hakka goldminers en route!
Tondong would be another site for inclusion in tourism promotion. During the Chinese Insurgency of February 1857, it was from Tondong that the war boats descended on Kuching.
Has any tour operator in town included in the itinerary a boat ride from Tondong to Siniawan?
I have been on a trip of peace organised by a friend from Tondong down to Siniawan and back.
From the boat you can see the western side of the Serambu from the river. You are in a different country altogether!
The invisible trail, the nameless bungalow?
While we await the latest developments to the proposals (of the trail and the bungalow), we’ll just wander around or shop at the present Siniawan bazaar; and wonder, if and when people will be able to go on that trail, up to the lookout, take pictures or selfies of themselves at the new ‘rude wooden lodge’. Such videos and photos on YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram will help sell Sarawak to the world.
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