BY SAMUEL KARUNIA KORNO
KUCHING: Traditional crafts like weaving and basket-making to Sarawak rice wine ‘Tuak’ can all be found at the Spring Shopping Mall’s Gawai Bazaar. And then some.
As you explore the booths, one cannot miss the Saban Handicrafts booth which offers a variety of traditional attires, accessories, and ‘Tuak’ (locally brewed rice wine), to customers looking for locally made products.
The owner, Christina Nalun Saban, 51, said they offer a variety of traditional attires ranging from the Iban, Bidayuh, and Orang Ulu designs because people nowadays really love the unique designs of Dayak attire.
“I have customers who travel from far such as from Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah who come here to look for Dayak clothing that we have because there are a lot of traditional-theme events coming up and people love to use the traditional Dayak clothing for it,” she said.
Besides traditional attires and accessories, they also offer ‘Tuak’ at their booth which is made by her and her siblings from the Debak district, offering various flavours such as Original (made out of glutinous rice), Roselle, Rambutan and Pineapple.
“We would first make the base of the ‘Tuak’ which is made out of glutinous rice, yeast, galangal, ginger, and sugar added into a pot of water and which later will be fermented.
“For the other flavour, we would add the other ingredients into the base which will produce all the unique flavours of ‘Tuak’.
“In a day, we managed to sell almost five to seven bottles of ‘Tuak’ during the Gawai Bazaar and some of our customers even travelled from Sri Aman just to buy it,” she said.
Christina highlighted the importance of offering a captivating and memorable experience for her customers, and in this context admired the mall’s decoration, which mimics a typical kampung (village) surrounding, giving customers a nostalgic feel of a rural Dayak village.
“The shopping mall authorities really gave their effort in making the best surroundings that mimic a true longhouse, I really admire their artwork and their effort to bring that Gawai feeling to all the customers here,” she said.
Meanwhile, Patty Chung, 50, owner of Patty Handmade booth, is selling her handmade tissue cover and baskets as well as customised handicraft.
She said her products here are for customers looking for handmade items and also for those who want to customise their tissue cover or baskets.
“People really love the handmade tissue cover because it is really interesting and easy for them to keep their tissues.
“For the baskets, I usually buy the rotan baskets from other shops and then I customise it myself by adding the fabric cover around and inside the baskets.
“For the tissue cover, it is RM 23 for one and I can sell around 20 pieces and for the baskets it is RM160 for one and in a day I can sell around three to five pieces.
“The special thing about this is people typically buy the rotan baskets but they cannot customise it so I give them the liberty to customise the baskets according to their preferred fashion,” she said.
She added that the Gawai Bazaar helped her to promote her products to a much wider range of customers.
Sherrie, 50, who works at the Kuss Essentials booth, said her stall offers essential oils to those looking for fragrant and soothing scents.
“Our booth offers aromatherapy products through our essential oils because people nowadays really love using essential oils in their houses and offices.
“Most of the essential oils are imported from Singapore and each scent has its own uniqueness such as Chamomile which is good for the living room, Eucalyptus for the bedroom and Lavender for the office room.
“The best sellers here are the Chamomile and Sage essential oils because it calms our customers who are dealing with stress and in a day we sell three to six bottles of 15 ml essential oils which cost around RM50 per bottle,” she said.
The Spring Shopping Mall’s Gawai Bazaar will run until June 4.
