A morning in the museum

Borneo Cultures Museum is the second largest museum in South East Asia (the largest in Malaysia) and has opened its doors to visitors early March this year. No charges for visitors for the first three months of operation, so it has been a popular destination for locals.  The museum only host around 300 visitors at a time in view of the Covid-19 SOP and online booking is needed to book your slot. They do accept walk-in but one needs to wait for their turns to go in.

Photo credit : Borneo Cultures Museum

I tried my luck in booking for April but no weekends slots were available.  They finished up in quick time.  So I tried again for May when the online booking is opened back in April.  Count our lucky star, 4th May morning slots were available, so I immediately registered for 6 of us. One booking per person, so I needed to register 6 times for us via the booking forms.  

When the day came (3rd day of Hari Raya), it was a rainy morning.  Rather heavy rain that morning but that did not dampen our mood to visit the museum. We reached the museum slightly after 9am and there were cars queueing in the parking bay.  I dropped the others off first at the entrance while I went to find a parking, which I managed to find in one round.  

So, after met up with the others at the entrance, we went straight to the registration counter and shown the staff my email and we got green light to tour the museum. 2 lanes at the entrance; one for walk-in and one for online booking. Quite a crowd that day, and due to rain, everyone was standing and blocking the main entrance. We just went in without any queue and inquired on our booking at the counter. Adults were given a visitor pass which we needed to return upon exit. 

The museum consists of 5 floors but the galleries were all on other floors. So we went to the 1st floor (Level 2) to visit its Children's Gallery first.  Arts & Crafts section was closed for time being.

Children's best area, the Children Gallery as it was more fun and interactive for them. 

The kids roamed around by themselves while we waited for them to enjoy and look around. MIL also cannot stand walking for a long time, so she and hubby had a seat at one corner while the kids toured the gallery.

The theme of the gallery was "Love Our Rivers", and it focuses on the concept of sustainability using rivers as the foundation of the exhibition narrative. 

After they were done, we went to the next floor to visit other galleries. Antiques and ancient history were displayed and depicted. More details are explained in this release by Sarawak Museum Department. Few photos I took for sharing here. 

Old tools

My favourite gallery would be at the Level 4, titled Time Changes. We got to see the evolution of Sarawak through old times, during Brookes time and after war  A good couple of hours for everyone to walk around (did some exercises!!) and away from the phone and tv!!! 

Weaving Craft

Ganesha Statue found in East Java

We spent more than 2 hours in the museum, and when we left around 11.30am, there were more walk-ins and the rain hasn't stopped.