The vast expanse of greenery in Kuching and Sarawak in general brings to mind this question: Why have we not yet fully utilised this to our advantage in terms of more outdoor recreational activities?
It is an industry with vast potential, tapping into the touristic values of Sarawak with the growing interests for entertainment.
There are industry players out there who have noticed this gap in the market and taken on the challenge of creating more opportunities for people to just go outside more often.
Outdoor recreational activities have shown growth, albeit slowly, over the years particularly the extreme and alternative sports. This is especially the case with youths who take up such activities as a way to keep themselves fit while enjoying mother nature at its best.
“If you notice, the new generation now – age between19 and 45 – a lot of them are into alternative sports such as running, marathon, cycling, four-wheel driving (4×4), gyms and others,” Paul Ajah, representative of BPP Stadium Paintball Field shared with BizHive Weekly.
He further highlighted that extreme sports have been around in Sarawak for awhile except that the whole industry has not fully been harnessed together.
This is partly due to the lack of promotion of such sports while it is also partly due to a lot of people here being still very much on the relaxed path.
“The third factor maybe because Sarawakians have not reached that stress level whereby they need to find some activity which allows them to release that tension,” he added.
Instead, the rest of the crowd who are not in the extreme or alternative sports category choose to relax outdoors in a cozy and stress free environment such as the theme parks currently available in Kuching.
Aside from the current Sinar Serapi Eco Theme Park, there is another upcoming project Bandar Samariang Resort City, which will focus on the family market segment as well as healthy outdoor recreational activities that is suitable to Kuching’s population.
This is not to say that age is a factor which hampers people from taking up such extreme or alternative activities. In fact, indoor and outdoor rock climbing enthusiast company aSEND Adventure Outfitters (aSEND) has seen its fair share of a varieties in climbers – young, old, large, small, and others.
“Rock climbing, especially here, is more enjoyable as you can just drive your car to the rock climbing wall where you can have a picnic, climb and just relax there,” Melchizedek Jitam, instructor of aSEND opined.
With all these different types of outdoor recreational activities available to Kuchingites, BizHive Weekly introduces you to some of the more interesting alternative sports available in town which are not only suitable for individuals, but also families.
Biz Hive Weekly takes a look at various outdoor recreational facility operators in Kuching.
BPP Paintball Stadium: Unleash your true nature
There has been much misconception about paintball.
The alternative sports, of late, have been receiving some lashes, as many perceive it as a dangerous game due to its ‘shooting’ factor.
Nonetheless, BizHive Weekly delves into the world of paintball and finds out that the game is more than just a mere shooting game, bringing a wide array of benefits to its players.
“Basically, paintball is a stress reliever as when you are inside there, you don’t bother about anything else as you are only thinking of the game itself.
“A lot of people play for that reason. To relieve themselves from the stress; a fun day out for them,” a local paintball facility; BPP Stadium Paintball Field representative Paul Ajah summarised.
Paintball, he further said, is ideal for team bonding. “Initially when you first play, you shoot randomly at the rivals. After you get the hang of it, you realise that you need to communicate, have teamwork and leadership skills.
“And then you realise that this is more than just a sport.”
In fact, Paul highlighted, the sport is becoming more popular among large corporate companies and small businesses as most of these companies find that this sport is ideal to analyse characters of employees of the company and build healthier relationships between employers and employees.
“They have found out that this is more than just ‘fun’. Yes, it is fun, yes. But, at the end of the day, it also reveals a person’s true character.
“Unlike when we’re sitting in an office, we maintain a level of professionalism. When you’re out on the field, your adrenaline is running and you’ve got no time to think or maintain your professionalism.
“You can say, this is a healthier way of being ‘drunk’,” he enthused.
Interestingly, Paul noted that various types of characters could emerge on the field. He explained, “You’ll find some who are the ‘super hero’ type who go all ‘Rambo’; shooting everyone in sight. And there are some who are more cautious, who’ll command more and are more levelheaded on the field. That’s the leadership skill.
“Some of them are cunning ones, who’ll hide around the field and come out when everyone else has been defeated. He’ll be the last one standing.”
In addition, he said the game also requires full-participation from employees of every rank in a corporate hierarchy, unlike classroom team building sessions where people can easily lose their attention during lectures or dialogue sessions and some tend to be more cautious of their position in the company and hence withhold their opinions.
“For classroom teambuilding, you can see that sometimes, the lower ranking staffs are afraid to voice their opinions in a group.
“However, for this kind of sports, it’s back to basic. Everyone’s on the same level, no one has a rank in here other than team leaders. There’s no benchmark for anyone to rank his or her capabilities among each other,” Paul said.
Therefore, he added, the paintball association in Sarawak is trying to push this sport among large and small corporate to include this as part of the companies’ teambuilding sessions, which is already popular among large companies, worldwide.
The game of paintball also has no age limit nor gender bias, Paul said, as long as the safety gears fit and the individual has the motivation to play the game. He noted that he has even seen kids as young as 12 years old, playing the game with the family and ladies playing the game regularly.
On participation of youths, he commented on his the awareness of the growing digital lifestyle among youths who are turning to digital and smart devices to seek entertainment.
“We’re trying to push this games to pull them away from electronic/smart devices. It’s not just the paintball games that are losing its popularity, other recreational games are also losing their popularity like BMX, skating, and others.
“That’s why we are pushing youths to come out and play rather than sit at home,”
He added, “We are trying to create more awareness and more participation in not only just paintball but any outdoor sports.
“Extreme sports are around in Sarawak. It’s just that we haven’t fully harvested the whole thing yet.”
To note, there are only two paintball fields in Kuching and five overall in Sarawak (Sibu, Bintulu, and Limbang). Paul said this year onwards; both fields in Kuching are currently working on more joint events to ensure that the sport remains alive in the state.
On the operations at BPP Stadium Paintball Field, he explained, “Cost-wise, if you come in a group, with everyone sharing the pellets, maybe per person it would cost about RM60 to RM70 to play, with let’s say a group of 10. We base the cost on the amount of pellets purchased and used.”
He advised interested parties to make bookings two days prior to playing the game as it requires some time to set the field and get ready the equipment.
Sinar Serapi: One-centre shop for water sports
Nestled near the scenic foot of Mount Serapi and settled on the fringe of Kuching, Sinar Serapi Eco Theme Park Resort (Sinar Serapi) is a peaceful oasis within the city.
When BizHive Weekly arrived at the resort park, the team was pleasantly surprised by the absence of noise commonly heard within the city’s vicinity.
On top of the absence of noise, the resort park is covered with vines and shrubs, while its main hall is decked with timber and bamboo to create a ramped-up version of a traditional Iban ruai.
The resort park, the team discovered, is possibly one of Kuching’s best kept secret.
According to chief executive officer cum general manager Antonio BongKanchu, Sinar Serapi was designed to look as ‘green’ as possible to blend with its natural backdrop against the setting of Mount Serapi.
“It all looks haggard like an abandoned building but that’s intentional because that’s the theme. I don’t want this to look like your conventional resort park, which looks fresh and clean all the time.
“I want it to look like you’re in the jungle itself. When I was in Mulu and Bukit Sabah, the resorts there have been left as natural as possible,” he explained.
While the outside of the building looked like the resort has been taken back by nature, inside, we were greeted by another astonishing view.
The resort park’s main feature; a 20-acre man-made lake, when unoccupied, reflects the view of the mountain, boosting its green theme.
With an environment as peaceful as this and refreshing air carried down from Mount Serapi, Sinar Serapi is an ideal place for those seeking a place to unwind or for those who are looking for places to do recreational activities that are less physically and mentally challenging.
The resort city mainly caters to water recreational activities as its main facilities involve water, such as its turbulent pool situated just adjacent to the man-made lake.
“Water activities. Just name any water activities, we have it here. Paddling, kayaking, mini regattas, wind surfing, and so on.
“Our main attraction is our tug-of-war-on-water through kayak. We also have duck catching, but not live ducks; plastic ducks. For one minute, players can collect a lot of ducks and win something,” Antonio enthused.
Determined to retain the natural environment, he noted that all the boats at Sinar Serapi are powered with battery instead of jets as the petrol from the engine would pollute the water. Other than that, most of water equipment are manually powered like paddling and cycling.
The water activities at Sinar Serapi starts at 9am onwards and the resort park is strict on safety as they advise those who participate in their water activities to wear lifejackets.
As for the water theme park, there is a ‘splish-splash’ fun pool featuring a turbulent-water-maze (powered by water pumps) and water slide pool that can be enjoyed by children and adults alike.
There are also some mini obstacles behind the lake for those who would like a more challenging recreational activity.
Sinar Serapi is also popular for weddings and birthday parties because it is an open concept for gatherings, Antonio said.
“You can have your own activities here as well, but no outside food because we would like to maintain a halal feature here,” he added.
Besides that, the resort park also provides accommodations for those who would like to enjoy the activities available or utilise the facilities available there.
“They can book a chalet and they can also drive straight to the house/chalet,” Antonio explained. Unlike normal chalets at resorts, the ones at Sinar Serapi (RM550 for four bedroom units) are actual houses.
“This is just like renting a house. Everything is available here and it is fully furnished, like a service apartment. The concept here is to make you feel more at home,” he said.
Sinar Serapi maintains a ‘home resident’ concept to cater not only for corporate team building events, but also for family bonding and getaways for both local and foreign tourists.
Additionally, while there is an admission fee to Sinar Serapi, Antonio highlighted that this fee is redeemable through utilising any of the facilities available there or through purchasing any food/drink item at the park.
Suffice to say, Sinar Serapi is a great place for those who wish to get off the fast lane for a moment, and enjoy a slow and lazy day outdoors.
aSEND Adventure Outfitter: Conquering your fear of heights
The fear of heights is all in our heads. Or so that is what Malcolm Jitam, director of aSEND Adventure Outfitter (aSEND), wholly owned by Outdoor Treks and Adventures Sdn Bhd (Outdoor Treks and Adventures), meant when we mentioned that those natural rock walls at the Fairy Cave climbing area were incredibly high.
Too high for us to even try out due to the fear of tumbling down halfway up, Malcolm pointed out that when a person climbs, there is no time to be afraid as one needs to fully concentrate on what he or she is doing. He believed that fear is generally something that our body manufactures.
“When you start climbing, fear becomes secondary as there are more important things to occupy your mind.
“When you first start off, fear is such a big thing, but after you have climbed, it becomes nothing,” he emphasised.
This kind of fear has led Malcolm’s son Melchizedek (Mel) to notice that people perceive rock climbing as dangerous.
“Even though it may seem scary from a normal person’s perspective, but if you know your safety aspects, it is a very safe sport. As long as you learn and you know how to use your equipment,” he quipped.
The thing is there is always a rope attached to the climbers so if they fall, they will still be held on by the rope. In fact, Mel found from past experience that it is less dangerous than other sports such as mountain biking and futsal.
“Take me for example. I used to do a lot of mountain biking and indoor futsal. With futsal, I dislocated my right knee while for mountain biking, I crashed and had three stitches on my face.
“Whereas for rock climbing, I just had a few bruises and scratches on the arms, that’s all. This is because all the equipment we provide is rated and made overseas,” he highlighted.
He showed us one of the climbing equipment they sell at the shop which apparently can hold a breaking strength of 2.2 tonnes. He further added that all the equipment sold have a five-year lifespan once a climber starts using them.
Focusing on the Fairy Cave climbing area, we were told that there are over 80 climbing routes available, with all having different difficulty levels. Another thing to take note of is that aSEND uses the French grading system to grade the difficulty of the routes.
“We have guidebooks on this climbing area on sale for RM15 each. Any foreign climbers who have no idea about rock climbing, they can buy this book and know the different routes available for climbing,” Mel explained.
The most notable walls at Fairy Cave are Batman wall, Orchid wall, and Tiger wall. Batman wall is the main climbing area that can be climbed in all conditions and is shaded most part of the year.
“ Climbers need to do a ‘jumma’ start. Visiting international climbers have commented that this is a very unique wall with its rock features and overhanging wall that requires lots of upper body strength,” Malcolm highlighted.
As for Orchid wall, it is a very hard wall to climb and has two unclimbed routes since 2012 while Tiger wall is generally a very nice wall for beginners to intermediate climbers as it has an easy ground up start.
On which is the toughest, Mel commented that it is the main wall because it has roof climbs.
Overall, Malcolm finds that the good thing about climbing is that there are five aspects to this activity for everyone.
“The first three things are the physical benefits of flexibility, strength, and fitness. The rest comes as an additional bonus,” he noted.
For instance, it makes a person mentally strong because he or she will have to problem solve while under pressure.
“For example, you are hanging 25 metres somewhere from a mountain slope, and although you feel the lactic acid burn in your muscle, you still need to move and know how to balance.
“From there, you develop a certain mental strength. That’s the advantage of climbing,” he highlighted.
Parents who are aware of this will thus encourage their kids to go climbing. It is about the only activity highlighted by
Malcolm’s friends that they can do with their kids. As such, it becomes a family affair.
When they are climbing together, both the children and parents interact with each other.
“This is because you hold each others’ lives in your hands as there will be one person up there belaying while there is another below climbing.
“So, you communicate with each other and talk about how to problem solve which then leads to a bonding time for them,” he explained.
It does indeed seem like a family friendly activity as Mel points out that rock climbing, especially here, is more enjoyable. This is because climbers can just drive their cars to the rock climbing wall where they can have a picnic, climb and just relax there.
“The place where we climb the walls is sheltered from the sun because above the wall there is an overhang. The overhang basically protects climbers from the rain and sun,” he added when asked what happens when it rains while people are climbing.
aSEND also organises an annual event, Rock On, with this year being its fourth year. For Rock On 4, the event attracted quite a number of international climbers, especially with their friends flying in from Sabah and Singapore.
Malcolm highlighted that during the Rock On festivals, apart from climbing, a cultural festival is also held.
“All the villagers come out and they build all these birds’ nests collection and they have their battle of the gongs.
“They also have their rice pounding competition and there’s food, drinks, local food, all those fantastic elements you would expect in an European village event,” he said.
He added that for those interested, the next Rock On festival will be held August 8 to 10, 2014, from Friday to Sunday.
Aside from the Rock On event, aSEND also provides outdoor adventure learning whereby it organises for example, a five-days-four-nights trip there.
“Previously, we brought in Polytechnic students from Singapore and we organised the homestay programme.
“In addition, we give them a cultural experience by usually arranging it so that they will visit during the Gawai festival period so that they can see all the celebrations. We will also bring them rock climbing and abseiling,” Mel added.
In terms of the different packages offered by aSEND for outdoor climbing, it has different packages to suit different customers.
For a group of two climbers, it is priced at RM110 each while a larger group of eight package is priced
at RM55 per pax. This includes everything such as a climbing instructor, rope, harness, shoes, belays and others. The package can be negotiated to a lower price if people come in a larger group.
So, are you ready to start climbing?