Kuching waterfront
Local market
Damai Beach
Trying out the motorbike
Mount Santubong
vrijdag 5 oktober 2007
Kuching - 5 October
Yesterday we arrived in Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, which is a lovely little town with a large river on the north western side of Borneo. Quite a relief after all the hustle and bustle, and not to forget the polluted air of Kuala Lumpur. Kuching means 'cat' in Malay, and according to one guidebook the city has a certain feline feel to it, like a lazy cat snoozing in the sun. However, in contrast to cats, which become active at night, Kuching after sunset is a rather boring place, as we experienced first hand last night.
First of all, we made the 'mistake' of going out for dinner too late last night, at 8pm. After not having eaten all day, all Malays rush to the nearest restaurant at 6:00 / 6:30 pm, which means the place was deserted by the time we fancied getting a bite to eat. On top of that, most restaurants offer a special Ramadan buffet, probably to decrease waiting times and allow people to stuff their faces after nearly 10 hours of abstinence. By the time we arrived, there were only some disappointing leftovers. So, after not such a satisfying meal of pineapple fried rice and lemon chicken, we decide to try and find a place to have a drink. Not so easy either. All remotely decent looking bars were equally deserted as the restaurants, so in the end we ended up buying a couple of cans of beer in a supermarket (which was a fairly rare find in itself) and drinking them in the hostel whilst watching 'Scrubs' on the local TV channel. Films and TV series are broadcasted in the original language with subtitles, which makes Malaysia a far more appealing place to watch TV or go to the cinema than, for example, France or Germany.
Today, we rented a motorbike to go to the nearby Damai Beach, which was wicked. For €8 a day we are the proud temporary owners of a lovely Orange machine, which according to the speedometer goes upto 120 km/hour, although we think it more close to 80 km/hour. This is still pretty fast, considering the only protection you wear is a helmet. Foreigners on motorbikes are rare in this area and René did such a great job of navigating through the local traffic that we were stared and waved at by many people. Like in the rest of Malaysia, people here are incredibly friendly, and twice on the way there we were asked by fellow drivers where we were going so they could indicate which direction we needed to continue in. After a lovely day at the beach, we returned to Kuching in time to enjoy at Ramadan buffet at the Lebanese restaurant which was a delight.
Tomorrow, we're hoping to take the motorbike to the Bako National park, for some jungle walking and wildlife spotting.
First of all, we made the 'mistake' of going out for dinner too late last night, at 8pm. After not having eaten all day, all Malays rush to the nearest restaurant at 6:00 / 6:30 pm, which means the place was deserted by the time we fancied getting a bite to eat. On top of that, most restaurants offer a special Ramadan buffet, probably to decrease waiting times and allow people to stuff their faces after nearly 10 hours of abstinence. By the time we arrived, there were only some disappointing leftovers. So, after not such a satisfying meal of pineapple fried rice and lemon chicken, we decide to try and find a place to have a drink. Not so easy either. All remotely decent looking bars were equally deserted as the restaurants, so in the end we ended up buying a couple of cans of beer in a supermarket (which was a fairly rare find in itself) and drinking them in the hostel whilst watching 'Scrubs' on the local TV channel. Films and TV series are broadcasted in the original language with subtitles, which makes Malaysia a far more appealing place to watch TV or go to the cinema than, for example, France or Germany.
Today, we rented a motorbike to go to the nearby Damai Beach, which was wicked. For €8 a day we are the proud temporary owners of a lovely Orange machine, which according to the speedometer goes upto 120 km/hour, although we think it more close to 80 km/hour. This is still pretty fast, considering the only protection you wear is a helmet. Foreigners on motorbikes are rare in this area and René did such a great job of navigating through the local traffic that we were stared and waved at by many people. Like in the rest of Malaysia, people here are incredibly friendly, and twice on the way there we were asked by fellow drivers where we were going so they could indicate which direction we needed to continue in. After a lovely day at the beach, we returned to Kuching in time to enjoy at Ramadan buffet at the Lebanese restaurant which was a delight.
Tomorrow, we're hoping to take the motorbike to the Bako National park, for some jungle walking and wildlife spotting.
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