Blogs from Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia, Asia

Mitten im Urwald macht eine kleine Gruppe langsam und ehrfürchtig Platz für eine unerschrocken auf sie zukommende junge Mutter mit ihrem Baby. Eine waschechte Malaiin, zwei Arme, zwei Beine, ein großer Kopf, große dunkle Augen, menschlich und doch irgendwie anders…ein Waldmensch. Wald heißt übersetzt in der Landessprache „utan“ und Menschen werden hier „orang“ genannt. Wir befinden uns im Wildtierreservat und Rehabilitationszentrum in Semenggoh, in welchem Orang Utans gepflegt, wieder aufgepäppelt und anschließend ausgewildert werden. Eine ideale Möglichkeit, diese Tiere in „freier“ Wildbahn an den Fütterungsplätzen zu beobachten. Kaum liegt das Futter bereit, schimmert es auch schon an vielen Stellen rotbraun durch das dichte Blätterdach. Langsam und behäbig angeln sich die Tiere Banane, Ananas und Kokosnuss und verputzen sie genüsslich. Sie strahlen so ... read more

Hi everyone, Last time I was leaving Sibu to go in Kuching, the capital of Sarawak. Kuching has a laidback atmosphere and it is really easy to forget about time, date, hour… everything! The symbol of Kuching is a cat, which made me like the town even better! The first day, I visited the Sarawak museums: from the natural history museum to the ethnographic section, including a wooden fossil exhibition and finishing by the history of Sarawak, I spent my day trying to remember all the information (attempt failed obviously), but that was a nice way to start my visit of Kuching. In the town I found some Chinese streets, colonial buildings, a lovely river with a riverfront absolutely great to walk on during the evening, some temples, some really good food (as everywhere in Malaysia, ... read more

Alarm goes off at 08h00 and I reset it for 09h00. No need to rush. I head upstairs for breakfast and copy a film from the old guy in the corner. It takes 30 minutes, my new HDD may be fast, but my laptop isn't. I leave it copying while I go down for a shower and get dressed. Back upstairs to grab my laptop and say goodbyes before I head off. It's ten AM. I really don't like these new shoes, I'll have to get another pair. I walk to the train station, ride one stop to central and catch the AirAsia bus to the airport. I'm there by 11h30. I couldn't check in via the web without a printer and I don't know the flight or booking numbers, but the woman at the desk ... read more

I caught the shuttle bus to the airport from Ubud and at one stage I was worried that I might miss my flight, but after the driver put his foot down I arrived on time. It was about a 3 hour flight to KL(LCCT) and I walked through the arrival hall about 1am and headed straight to the cheap food hall with free wifi. I killed the 6 hours I had to wait for my next flight quite easily by drinking plenty of coffee, surfing the net, and talking to a Malaysian guy also headed to Kuching. At 7am I boarded the plane and a few hours later after taking a taxi from the airport had arrived in the chinatown district of Kuching where I found an average place to stay for about $13 a night. ... read more

Kuching Town We've now spent a week in Kuching town, with three days out to Bako National Park. Four full days was really too much in this pretty but small town, however it seems to be a place that people end up in for a while stuck between flights. We've stayed in the 121 Lodge which has been great, quiet, clean and helpful staff. Everything is in easy reach as the centre of town is small. Lovely riverfront walkway, plenty of places to eat, the local Sarawak Lhaksa is excellent. The best thing we've done here is go to Semenggoh Orangutan centre. We've now been three times. It's easy to get to on the public bus and only Rm3 each way and anther Rm 3 entrance fee it's a cheap half day trip. The two times ... read more

Hello from Kuching. The city of the cat (Kuching means cat in Malaysia) and don’t they like to milk it (no pun intended) there are cat statues and cat souvenirs everywhere! It pretty much feels like home now as we have been here nearly 2 weeks pottering around, seeing the sites and waiting for a flight to Kula Lumpar after we jumped on a lovely 24 hour bus journey to get here from Brunei. The Sultans birthday was good although sadly he was apparently too busy to blow out all the candles on his many cakes and we did not receive any handouts of gold . He started the celebrations with a 8am parade and taking of the salute of all the troops (apparently if you are a sultan there is no such thing as a ... read more