Asia » Malaysia » Sarawak » Kuching
July 26th 2007

Published: November 30th -0001

Our favorite place for dinner. Two brothers worked the noodle shop and they looked so similar that Jarrod thought it was just one guy the first three times we were there! Proof there's two!

Here Kitty Kitty

At the western tip of Borneo lies the quaintly modern city of Kuching. Known as the "cat city" I knew I was going to like it before I'd even arrived. We flew in at night, prime prowling time for cats and within minutes of stepping out of the airport taxi we spotted our first cat! A cement block was missing in the sidewalk, exposing the gutter below and here sat a sleek calico peering down, waiting patiently, for tasty rats or mice. Mind you this wasn't really a unique experience, but I remember it vividly being in the "cat city."

Daybreak provided more cat sightings: huge cat statues with whiskers made of thick wire were in the middle of round-abouts and intersections. They were hard to miss. We also made a worthwhile trip to the world famous cat museum. Stuffed cats, porcelain cats, glass cats, stone cats, wooden cats, cat tea-pots, cat hats, cat paintings and cat posters.... everything cat! It was a highly educational visit. We learned that if you deprive a cat sleep for ten days it will die of exhaustion (do NOT try this at home!).

Monkey Time

But Kuching was not all

Silver Leaf Monkey

The fellow that got a bit close for comfort. Bako NP

cats. We had an enjoyable day hiking at Bako National Park where we saw more pitcher plants up in the hills and did some beach combing around fascinating rocks with stripes of red iron and erosion around shells. In the afternoon we watched proboscis monkey's playing in the trees and Jarrod had a very close encounter with a silver leaf monkey that swayed on a flimsy branch inches from his face.

Mmmm.... Food!

We also joined a Malaysian cooking class where we made chicken curry and steamed fiddleheads for the main course. For dessert we made little boxes out of leaves (an Asian cupcake cup) for a chilled coconut jelly dessert with sweet corn. Yes, corn. Jarrod picked the kernels out, but they weren't all that bad, just a bit odd.

Sunday Market

Kuching hosts a weekly market on Sunday mornings blocking off vehicle traffic on a side street to give way to the waves of weekend shoppers. We've been to plenty of Asian markets now and after a while they loose their appeal. Similar to a grocery store at home like Safeway or Save-On, a grocery store is a grocery store and a market is a market.

Finless Shark with Yellow Fish

That said, it was an interesting excursion and we're glad we made the effort to wake up in the morning. There was an excellent selection of seafood with skinny meter-long silver fish, bloated yellow fish, and diamond shaped white fish. Plenty of prawns on plates and crabs in buckets with blue elastic bands around their claws. Being scuba divers, it was emotional when we saw beautiful spotted sting-rays being filleted on wooden chopping blocks and small sharks (less the fins which were already sold for shark-fin soup) conspicuously piled in little groups.

One vender was cooking up whole BBQ fish that he bought special from Indonesia. A wooden rod was stuck lengthwise through the fish and balanced above white embers. He painted the sliver skin yellow with a savory sauce made with fresh turmeric for colour. A lady came to purchase a fish so hot fish, wooden rod and extra sauce were all dumped into a flimsy plastic bag for take-away. Plastic bag for everything; it drives us nuts!

The fish section merged into chicken and then into the colourful fresh fruits and vegetables. Household goods with plastic tubs, clothes pins and scrubbers lead into the pet section

BBQ fish at Sunday Market

with fluffy puppies in wire cages, sleeping hamsters and gold fish swimming in small circles in clear plastic freezer bags.

After Dark

Evenings were slow with most shops closing up promptly at 6pm. We went to the movies. Ate caramel corn and watched the new horror flick Vacancy. Other than that we were snoring in bed by 10pm.

Next Stop: Peninsular Malaysia then onto Tokyo!

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