Kuching, Ka ching!!

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Landing 19 minutes early in the 'City of Cats', we walked off the plane and straight into a Marrybrown ckicken franchise. Eleanor's stomach was rumbling and we thought it could be fixed by a quick pitstop. In hindsight, we should have kept going because there was nothing 'fast' about this food outlet. Neither is Eleanor's eating technique - she wouldn't be winning any prizes on the eating contest circuit. Even Dean, renowned for his patience, decided to go and collect our bags. And this led to another humiliating immigration adventure at Dean's expense.

Eleanor and I walked through Gate B, whilst unbeknown to us, Dean had entered through Gate A and had spent the better part of ten or fifteen minutes in immigration limbo. An officer greeted us, enquiring as to whether I was missing my husband. Oh no, I thought. He's been arrested! No, just wandering around like a lost child. He wasn't happy. A stamp in our passports and then we were able to move through into the luggage area. The sight of our bags waiting by the carousel was a first - I'd never taken longer than my bags to arrive at a destination.



City of cats. Yet, didn't see as many as I thought. A few statues here and there, a couple of mentions in tourist brochures about the Cat Museum and some sightings of skinny, crooked tailed felines was as close as we got. I saw more in Athens 25 years ago. Not that Dean was disappointed - he hates them!

We stayed a little out of the town centre but in a nice apartment suite with a lovely view of the city lights at night. An evening stroll along the banks of the river allowed us to get our bearings but it was a lot quieter than some pre-reading of tourist information had led us to believe. Where was the bustling market? The crowds of people walking out and about to see and be seen? Had we read about the other Kuching? It was all a little confusing and we ended up eating a meal at 'The Top Spot', which was very busy. It's basically a large food court specializing in seafood. A lone satay stall and some drink stands provided the non pescatarian with options other than creatures from the deep. There may have been others but, to be honest, we were swimming in a sea of confusion. Where to begin??? Luckily for us, a wonderful waitress read our body language and rescued us before we drowned. Guiding us to a table, her friendly smile and enthusiasm had Dean ordering probably more than a family of three needed. Ten satay sticks, a whole red snapper, six huge prawns, some local green vegetable (midin, I think??) and rice for the princely sum of 80 or so ringgit! Delicious.

We made it back to the hotel in time for a brilliant thunderstorm with lots of lightning right outside our window. Dean was pretty keen on visiting the Bako National Park where you could walk through the jungle to catch a glimpse of the proboscis monkey in its natural environment. I was eager to visit the Sunday market, supposedly huge and the 'thing to do' in Kuching. Didn't quite get there, unfortunately. But we did venture into the National Park! Yay! Not a monkey to be seen (well, not the proboscis one, anyway). It's a fair drive out of the centre (we caught a taxi but the public bus goes there too and takes longer) to the jetty and there's not much to see along the route. The new convention centre is an interesting looking building but there's also lots of semi-finished concrete buildings and industrial estates. We boarded a small tinny-style boat after a short wait (only five per boat) and for fifteen minutes or so we zipped through the mangroves out to the Park. That ride was the coolest part of the next five hours.

Registering at the visitor's centre, we were advised to do a couple of the easier walks (Eleanor and I were wearing thongs!). Dean reckoned that the suggested times were VERY conservative, i.e. two hours for 2 kilometres! After tackling the 'easier' route (Telok Paku), uphill and for the most part, not easily traversed, in the heat - yes, two hours is a reasonable estimation. It wasn't easy and Eleanor and I were struggling. Buckets of sweat dripped off us and, whilst it was nice in the shady part of the jungle, we didn't see the weird and wonderful proboscis monkey. Other hikers experienced more luck than us, but it may have been Eleanor and Dean snapping at each other that alerted them to our presence, so they hid themselves in the trees.

At the entrance to the pathway of the next hike, a guide interrupted our discussion. He wanted to make sure we had lots of water and let us know that it was quite a difficult walk. Having not had the good fortune to witness those ugly monkeys in their natural habitat, Eleanor wanted to know the exact purpose for the next trek. More fauna? Some wacky flora? No, just a nice view of a famous sea stack. All the trails are colour coded and after walking uphill for a while, we were unsure whether we had followed the correct colour! AAAHHHH!!! Eleanor and I sat down on a conveniently located chair (an official smoking spot) and decided that we'd had enough. We turned back, Dean continued and we arranged to meet up later at the cafeteria at HQ.

After an interesting luncheon buffet, some World Cup viewing and a few games of 2048, Eleanor and I were watching the clock wondering where Dean was. When he finally staggered into the canteen, red as a beetroot and drenched in sweat, he revealed that he'd taken the Lintang route - a longer, more difficult climb - "The hardest thing I've ever done." He couldn't even eat, but sculled two cans of 'Revive' pretty quickly. We didn't hang around long, but there was a short wait for a boat to take us back to Kampung Bako. Upon arriving at the office, we were in for a 45 minute wait to catch the public bus. Dean and Eleanor went for a walk to the village and returned with some chicken skewers. Eleanor informed that me that Dean was happy making friends, and showed a keen interest in the details of Ramadan, even to the point where he was offering his expert opinion! A guy approached us with an offer to take us back to Kuching in his minivan. Ordinarily we would decline the invitation, but we were desperate to get out of the heat and into the hotel pool so we accepted.

A short dip in the pool (it was very 'refreshing' - aka known as freezing) and then we were off to have a look at a nearby mall. Dinner was at a café across the road where Dean wasn't impressed with my choice of meal - nasi lamak. I know it's usually eaten at breakfast, but I felt that if it was listed on a menu, then I was entitled to order it. So I did. Delicious!

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