Not so friendly Cats

After months of waiting and headaches, I finally reached Kuching last Saturday at 8.40am. *yay* We almost missed the flight. Well my friends almost missed the flight and one actually did miss the flight.

Anyway, the first thing we did was to look for a map at the Malaysian Tourism Board counter that has a sad sign that says “Out for the nite”. Yes, very hip indeed. Sadly, the counter has maps for all the states in Malaysia except Sarawak. *rolls eyes*

We did found a map in a tourism magazine but it was too small, we could hardly see anything.

What is the population in Kuching ya because the town is so… quiet and empty. There’s little traffic and other than tourist and shop owners/workers, you hardly see the non-Chinese locals. Fair enough I would not know how to differentiate them.

Where did my Iban warriors go?

Though people complained Kuching is a dead town, I kinda like the peacefulness and the calmness of the place, definitely a break from the ‘cramping’ KK. Kuching is almost a litter-free city which I find very impressive. *gives two thumbs up*

The food is “different” from KK obviously. Maybe it’s just me but all the food I had tasted extra sweet. The pao, fried mee, Nasi Lemak, the drinks (except for the salty lime juice!), fried rice… everything larr. But I noticed the food is much cheaper compared to KK. A bowl of Kon Lou mee in KK is about RM5.00 but a bowl of Kolok Mee in Kuching is only RM2.50! Why why why?

Kuching is big. The shops and all are spread to few areas which make it difficult for u s to walk to everywhere. We ended up spending most of our time in Kuching Selatan and Santubong area. Kuching Selatan is the “Chinatown” of Sarawak. We practically walked from one end to another and back to the hotel. It took us almost two hours including stops for photos and drinks. Yes, by the time I reach the hotel, bergegar my kneecap.

A friend’s friend who took us for a joyride in his Hilux around Kuching, showed us the more popular pubs in Kuching. So that evening, we went for happy hour only to be greeted by the bartender only. We left around 9.30pm and still the place was empty. I thought we chose the wrong place to go but everywhere else is also empty.

Someone told me that Kuching people only go out to play after 11pm. Well, too bad larr kan?

Next day we went to Santubong. We stayed at a friend’s place at Santubong Suites and we lepak at Damai Puri and Permai The place is GORGEOUS.

For some forgotten reason, I only went to the last night of The Rainforest World Music Festival which I now regretted. I didn’t even check the whole place but concentrate on the concert. Silly me. I enjoyed the performances but I wish they would perform more upbeat music. Every time they perform slow numbers, you could see the front crowd disband. Hee. The moment they play groovy music, everyone rushed to the front again.

Organizers, please take note. *winks*

I am SO going again next year and this time I want to go for the whole 3-day. Planning to stay at Permai, a walking distance to SCV and the beach is superb. 3 days of doing nothing but enjoying the simpler things in life; peace and serenity, the wonderment of Mother Nature and good company. Hee. Siapa mau join?

One of the few things I didn’t enjoy was the people. I somehow imagine Sarawakians are a friendly bunch like Sabahans and we would be making friends everywhere we go. Unfortunately, that did not happen. For some reason everyone we met was too serious and “sour”. No one smiled even when I smiled to them first and most of them would just stare at us and that is very creepy. A few actually stopped and just look at us. Maybe we reminded them of monkeys because we were loud but still, it is rude to stare bah.

To order our food or even to ask a simple question they would look at us like we’ve asked them the RM1million question. I would not make it a big deal if this only happened to us at the street of the coffee shop, but in hotels? I find it depressingly funny. Maybe it’s the language barrier but you don’t have to speak the same language to smile right?

You have no idea how happy I was to see smiling happy faces in the Resort when I came for work on Tuesday.

The only ‘friendly’ people we met at the festival were a bunch of drunken boys.
“Ulat bulu sudah naik daun. Ulat bulu sudah naik daun” (sing it to Sayang Kinabalu tune).

“He’s the greatest mother f***er so girls please f**k him tonight”.

It’s only natural for us to roll our eyes and make fun of them later kan? Hee.

Overall, it was a good trip minus the headaches of course and hopefully next year I get to see the other side of Sarawak and more friendly smiling people.