Kuching 2022

The last time I was in Kuching was way back in 1987. A good 35 years ago. Gosh!  I had the experience of living in Kuching, Sarawak for 3 years because my dad was posted there. And no, he wasn't in the army :D.

I've been wanting to get back, but somehow it never materialized. I have a friend in Kuching, and he told me that he would be staying put in Kuching for the weekend, so I decided to just close one eye and booked the flights and hotel. A last minute plan and combined that with the school holidays are recipes for expensive flight ticket.

Day 1: Leaving for Kuching

The inbound flight was delayed because of a baggage system error in KLIA. So my flight was delayed by 45 minutes. We landed at Kuching International Airport at a quarter to 2. I had booked a car and picked it up outside of the terminal. I just relied on Google map to show me the way to my hotel.

Taking AA

Land ahoy!

After check-in, I took my fried's advice to go and explore the new Borneo Cultures Museum, the biggest museum in Malaysia. I opted to walk there because it was less than a kilometre away. The price is 10 ringgit for locals and RM20 for out-of-state folks.

Not too shabby for an old hotel. Was this room recently renovated?

Took a detour by walking along the Waterfront before going to back the hotel.

My friend came by after work and took me to Lepau for dinner. We, I mean he ordered ayam pansuh, sayur midin and sotong terung asam. Sedappp!

Ayam pansuh & sayur midin

Sotong terung asam

happy faces! There was a slight wait for our food, but it was super delicious

Day 2: Bau

The itinerary for today is to go to Bau and explore the Fairy Cave and Tasik Biru.

Fairy Cave only asks for RM1 for entrance fee. Wait what? Yes, it's true. Don't expect the likes of Gua Niah or Gua Mulu, but it's just a nice size for a casual cave visit.

One needs to wear shoes but they do have shoes for rent at the counter. You'd be better off with headlamps than your mobile phone's flash light when going up/down the stairs/ladder at the cave entrance, because you would have free hands to hold the rails if you use headlamps. Other than that, lights are not necessary unless you got permits to go deeper into the caves.

Before heading to Tasik Biru, we made a quick stop at the Serikin market. For a look see.

On to Tasik Biru. Things had changed a lot. I remembered Tasik Biru as just a lake and a park, with several pergolas spaced out in between. And the lake was blue. Now, apart from the now-more-greenish-than-blue lake, there's a pontoon across the lake, a hanging bridge with a San Francisco feel and the fountain that brings in the Geneva atmosphere :D. The red temple at the top of the hill is new. Well, it's still being constructed. They came with a 10 ringgit entrance fee per head, but you'd also get not one, but two cans of drinks. That's not bad.

Although there was sign that states that the walk could take 800 steps and 60 minutes, I felt like it was kinda exaggerated. We reached the top in 20 minutes. It wasn't really 800 steps of stairs, more like a 800 normal steps with a handful of stair steps. 

The protruding view point was really a statement, but there was this one red statue kind of stole the lime light. I let the picture does all the talking. Why, right? It didn't scream a place of worship 🙈

Whattt?

Heading back to our car, we took the pontoon route

.

Since we plan to have seafood for dinner at Topspot, we just snacked on cucur for tea. Poor Roland had only roti canai for breakfast, no lunch and just cucur before dinner.

Back in the hotel, we freshened up and waited for our friend to get off of work. When we got to the roof top of the UTC building, I was surprised with how packed it was. The building didn't look much from outside. In fact it looked kinda rundown. Perhaps because it was at night.

I would think you can't go wrong with choosing one from the many stalls.

Day 3

On the last day that I have Roland with me, or rather Roland being free to take me around :D, he brought me to Santubong. Not before we had breakfast at the hotel.

We had a quick detour and stopped at St Joseph, where I spent the last few years of the primary school - Standard 4 to 6. I could vaguely remember my Standard 6 class - the last class on the 3rd floor. I guess :D.  I could remember where we usually wait for our ride home, the church across the street, my sister's kindergarten at St Theresa and the Dataran Merdeka further up the street.

1987: We were getting awards for our Penilaian Darjah 5 exam.

I could somewhat remember my Standard 6 classroom at the end of the hallway on the 3rd floor

Across the street are St Theresa and the church

The secondary school - where we waited for our ride home

Santubong was merely a 30 minutes away by car. Back in days, we took a hovercraft. hovercraft! Unfortunately, there was no photo proof of this.

Circa 1986-87: Paying my dad's friend's kampung in Santubong a visit - can't recall when. 

One of the beaches here. I was told that there are salt water crocs at the beaches across the bay 😦

The Cultural Village had just hosted the Sunbear 2022 music festival. So they were still dismantling and moving out stuff from the compound.

The entrance fee was 25 ringgit for locals. I told them I'm from out of town (Semenanjung) and they asked me if I'm working here. Being the bad liar than I am, I replied No. So I had to fork out 95 ringgit. A bit steep especially for the cultural village being kinda unkept and rundown. My friend told me afterwards that he almost suggested that we skipped the Cultural Village altogether. Well, I still wanted to go in and hopefully they could use the extra money to pay for the upkeep.

Kuching - Santubong

Okey, raya nanti boleh buat stail ni 🤣

 

It rained as we were about to check out the beach, so we made a mad dash to our car. Heading back to Kuching, we stopped by at Dayang Salhah to buy some kek lapis to bring back home. At first I didn't factor in kek lapis shopping in my itinerary. But when Roland asked if I wanted to buy any kek lapis, I gave it a second thought. 'Cukup untuk ghaso2' (Enough for a taste).

Went to Dayang Salhah for kek lapis

Late lunch, early dinner 2-in-1

After dropping off Roland at his home, I left my car at the hotel and walked to the Darul Hana Bridge at the waterfront. 

The park across the river is still under construction

The sky opened up by the time I reached the hotel. It rained cats and dogs cats (because it's Kuching) :D.

Day 4: Leaving for KL 

My flight's ETA is at 11, so there was just enough time for breakfast at the hotel before packing up to go to the airport. My Batik flight was delayed for half an hour.

Till next time Kuching. There's still more to explore, like Semenggoh, Bako. Of course, I've always been eyeing Mulu. Tapi kena cari gang dulu and the stamina :D. 

Ahjom balik