Kuching

(May 14 – 18)

The flight from KL to Kuching in Sarawak (the southern state of Borneo) took about 2 hours. We flew Air Asia – the budget airline that is based in Malaysia. It’s cheap and flies everywhere in the region. For some reason you have to go through immigration when you arrive in Sarawak adding another stamp to our passports.

We first met Henry at the airport. He was waiting outside the arrivals door, holding up a piece of paper with someone else’s name on it. But the paper also said “Lodge 121” so I told him that’s where we were booked to stay and he offered us a ride into town. Henry is Chinese Malaysian and turned out to be a part owner of the place. He was incredibly helpful, spending more than an hour with us when we arrived explaining how to get places, where to eat and what to see. The hotel itself was great- super clean, good location, well furnished and free Wi-Fi – all for $33 an night for our double room.

We did a fair bit of orientation walking about town the first day. Kuching sounds like the word for cat in Malay, so the city has taken on a sort of cat theme. Part of our walk-about took in the 3 ‘major’ cat sculptures which were a bit ridiculous but a noted tourist attraction. We also visited the Sarawak Museum with its outstanding ethnology collection and found a restaurant that served the BEST thick mango yogurt drink. We were eventually done in by the heat and humidity and had to return to the hotel for a shower.

Later that evening Henry offered to drop us off at a seafood restaurant he told us we had to try called Top Spot. A woman from Holland named Petra joined us. Henry dropped us off in front of a five story above ground parking garage and told us to take the stairs to the roof. Naturally we were a bit puzzled. But when we reached the top we were completely blown away by what we found - a huge area full of tables and chairs ringed by at least 10 different places selling fresh seafood. As we wandered around we were overwhelmed by the huge selection of fresh fish, shellfish and veggies. Rows and rows of succulent greenery, sad-eyed fish with brilliant spots, scratching claws, and twitching feelers. We finally stopped in front of one of the stalls and found a really helpful young woman to explain the process. First you choose what you want and then you choose how you want it cooked, with what the type of sauce. The price is based on weight.

Trying to decide was a real test. We finally settled on a variety of veggies that included local wild fiddleheads and mushrooms with an assortment of mysterious green leaves. We picked out a fresh sea bass to be barbequed and 6 jumbo prawns that were stir fried in an unbelievably delicious sauce. We topped it all off with a few chilled local beers. It all cost us about $15 each. We returned to Top Spot a couple of nights later to try out a few more dishes. That night we had fresh black crab stir fried (whole) in a black pepper sauce, a heap of smaller prawns and mixed veggies. Including the beer, our meal the second night cost $25 for the lot.

Kuching became one continuous adventure in eating. Everything we tried was fresh and delicious.

On Saturday evening we checked out the weekend market where we ate fresh roasted corn-on-the-cob as we wandered through the fabulous assortment of stalls. We also spent part of one day at the Sarawak Cultural Village where you can learn about the variety of cultures that make up the state, including the Chinese, Malays and (former) head-hunting indigenous tribes. The ‘village’ contains examples of the different buildings that of the nine different representative groups live in, from elaborated longhouses to bush dwellings of the nomadic tribes.

Other adventures in the Kuching area included a day trip to Bako National Park and morning visit to Semenggoh Wildlife Centre – an orangutan rehabilitation centre operated by Sarawak Forestry. More about that to follow.

Some pictures from Kuching....

Kuching