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Published: September 29th 2009
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We arrived in Kuching by air from Kuala Lumpur on a ridiculously cheap flight with Air Asia, something like £30.
Because we were getting very lazy and had not done any reading ahead, we arrived at the airport to find that all the local buses that stopped at the airport had been suspended(what a surprise!) meaning we had to waste money on a bloody taxi(evil of all evils). This wasn't the only problem is was bastard, bastard hot, bastard humid and bastard more expensive than the Malaysian Peninsular.
After being dropped at the cheapest place in town we found it too expensive and Dan set off to find something better. Well he found something cheaper, but it really was the pits. The only good thing to be said about the places round there was they all pretty much do B&B, the second B standing for toast and jam with coffee and tea, but hey its better than a smack in the face!
We really should have planned ahead, because we didn't we ended up with time to spare. We couldn't get accommodation at Bako National Park and we couldn't fly to Mulu as the flights were booked up,
we couldn't afford to go to Sabah so we had 13 nights to spend in Sarawak(uh!!)We knew we wanted to stay at a longhouse and tried to get information about that, a trip into the jungle and also white water rafting and river kayaking. Well the drought put an end to the water sports, we were basically told we would end up pushing the kayaks and there would be no rapids strong enough. The other marine park we were interested in involved outrageous boat fares and we just didn't have the money so snorekelling, beaches etc was out too. We couldn't even go on a trek to see the frigging Rafflesia (giant metre wide flowers) because they had faild to bloom.So the introdution to this part of Boreno was lets say disappointing!!People were demanding really unreasonable amounts of money for any types of visits to'tourist 'longhouses and we didn't come all this way to stay in a posh hotel in the jungle either, bit annoyed and confused.
So we arrive in Borneo, with all these rainforests in the middle of a drought and therefore there is no water in Kuching, you cannot flush the toilet and you cannot wash
yourself or your clothes. Horrible, our digs were really bad, but some places actually provided mineral water so people could flush the loo after number 2's and at least have a quick wash in the sink!
Also there wasn't really the type of jungle we expected to see, OK maybe if you sell your kidney to be taken on a jungle boat trip you would see it, but all in all, I found the Jungles of Laos much more rewarding.
Kuching, has great food and great availability of the local dishes for almost no money! Laksa we loved and could eat at all times of the day for about 50p, but the locals mainly have it for breakfast, its a noddle soup really with king prawns, chicken and omelete, some roaring chillies and lime and beansprouts, loved it!Dan lived on Nasi Lemak (chicken and rice), we also had Rojak(sweet or with veg), ABC (dessert), nasi goreng and loads of chinese steamed buns, both sweet and savoury. We visited almost every food market (getting strange looks)and tried everything we could afford. No need to drink endless bottles of mineral water when you can sit outside and have a cooling
glass of iced tea piled high with giant ice cubes for 20p, dan loved the local coffee which is made with sweet as you like condensed milk AND sugar!!The coffee beans aren't roasted they are cooked in a kind of sweet butter (yuk!)We did go to the food festival which was massive and had so many different types of food but to be honest the food in town was cheaper and of better quality so we only ate there because we were starving!
Kuching, means cat in Malay and is the symbol of Kuching. There are giant staues of cats everywhere none of them particularly good, but its fun!
The city does however have an absolutely lovely riverfront which is illuminated every evening and everybody hangs out down there when it gets cool enough. There are loads of food stalls, restaurants and boats avilable for hire to take you on a romantic cruise, but walking along is the best way, if you stop to have something to eat you just get sucked on by the hoardes of mosquitos fluttering around you.
The riverfront also houses loads of really cute little handicraft places and some very cool architecture. There are quite a few Chinese temples to admire and the usual Chinese hawker stalls nearby .
Thank god for the shopping malls and the cinema here! The shopping malls frankly were dull compared to mainland , but they did have the only thing that we really need, air con!! We also had to get our hair cut and for some tiny amount, less than £5 we both walked out feeling far more human and a bit pampered.
Cinema as usual is always great fun, they are open all day and at the weekend they are busier than the nightclubs and bars. The last showing is about 1am and its still packed out. We went to see GI joe and District 9 which were both really good and the atmosphere was so much better than at home purely down to the amount of people in the cinema and the fact they were all happy!!
Out of 13 nights in Sarawak we spent 8 in Kuching, four at the horrible B&B and then four at the fantastic Seahare. This place was great, only the guests stay there(no staff), we had an 8 bed dorm to ourselves as did another girl(from England), we had a communal lounge with TV and DVD and the kitchen was filled with free stuff for us!! We had bread, cereal, milk, butter, jam, rice wine, noodles, tea, coffee and mineral water all day long, they even left us giant bottle of fantastic smelling shower gel and toilet roll!!!amazing value for money and because we finally got rain, we had 2 boiling hot showers to run around under, it was great.The owner Wez was so helpful, giving us little tips and tellings us good places to go and then he disappeared without asking for money, genius!!!
Did you know that the average Malaysian has 26 teaspoons of sugar in the thier food and drink per day?, You do now!! Most of the the people were on the larger side than what we were used to and the food is very sweet!!Ice creams, smoothies , loads of sweet food, they love it!!
One night we got through a litre of vodka in forty minutes, that's all I'm saying!
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uma mahesh
non-member comment
super
very nice decorative holy temples