It has been a long planned holidays. I really need a break after my superior has left the company and I was to take over the position. As my birthday is on 31/07/08, we planned to celebrate at Kuching. This time only Mum joined us as Dad was worried about the house been left vacant for a few nights.
Day 1
On 30/07/08 morning , at about 6.15am Dad send us to KL Sentral. Our flight is at 9.45am and we still have plenty of time to have our breakfast at LCCT. We went to Mc Donald's to fill up our tummy before boarding but yuck the bun is so hard, cold and the flies were flying all over. It is such an embarrasing scene to see that our quality of cleanliness is so poor. I wonder what will the tourist will think of Malaysia as this year is Visit Malaysia Year.
The plane took off exactly at 9.45am and it took about 1 hour 40 mins to reach Kuching. We touched Kuching about 11.15am. I have actually made arrangement with Dainy our free lance local tour guide in Kuching to bring us around the town. Unfortunately, he was not feeling well and unable to meet up with us at the airport. Since Dainy is not coming to pick up, we left with no choice but to take a cab to our hotel. On our journey to the hotel, the cab driver Uncle Lai was very friendly. He explained to us about Kuching and places that we should visit. He has offered himself to take us to the Sarawak Cultural Village plus visit the Cat Museum for a very reasonable charges after we have checked in at the hotel. When we reached the hotel, the first question that popped out in our mind were are we choosing the right hotel. Well, since we have alreadt booked this hotel and knowing Abang Wanis's character, we left with no choice but to just checked-in. Upon getting the keys to our room, we took our luggage to our room which is located at 1st floor, room no 13 (what an unlucky number). Then Uncle Lai took us for lunch at Pasar Satok. We tried out the Mee Kolok as what have been recommended by the forumners as this Mee Kolok is only found in Sarawak. Well, each of us ordered 1 bowl of Mee Kolok. As usual, our daughter - Sabrina do not want to eat anything. After lunch we proceed to the Cat Museum first which is located at the hill side. Well, quite disappointed as it is below our expectation though entrance fee is free. Nothing much to see, just the replicas of the "Kuching", some write ups, history of Kuching etc. We spend about half an hour over there and then continue our journey to Sarawak Cultural Village (SCV). It was almost 2pm when we reached SCV. Indeed, Kuching is very hot compare to KL. Entrance fee is quite costly - RM60 per adult and RM30 per child. Each of us was given a passport so that we may get our passport stamped for each different village that we went to. There were 7 types of village to be visited - Chinese/Malay/Bidayuh/Penan/Melanau/Orang Ulu/Iban. It was amazing and an eye opener for us to get to know the life style and the culture in Sarawak. At 4.00pm, all of us were seated in an air-cond hall to watch the cultural dance performed by the local dancers. We left SCV at about 5.30pm and Uncle Lai send us to Topspot for our dinner. Topspot is famous with its seafood. Well, we ordered the butter prawns, crabs, tofu and pucuk midin masak belancan. The tofu and pucuk midin was delicious but sad to say the butter prawns are not to what we expected. Quite disappointed with the prawns and crabs. Anyway, after dinner we headed back to our room.
Day 2
Uncle Lai had promised to pick us up at 8.30am. So early morning, we woke up and had our breakfast nearby the hotel. Again, we tried out the Mee Kolok which taste better than the one we had yesterday. At 8.30am sharp, Uncle Lai arrived. Today he is going to bring us to the Crocodile Farm, Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre, Pottery Factory and Souvenir Shop. Though it was not in the program for the day, we managed to squeeze some time and take a sampan from Waterfront across the Sg Sarawak to Kampung Boyan to buy the famous kek lapis from Dayang Salhah. We bought about 10 loaves of the different types of kek lapis which cost RM10 per loaf. The shop packed for us nicely in the box so that it is easier for us to check-in in the airport. Today's dinner, we had it nearby the hotel, just a simple meal as everyone was too tired to go anywhere.
Day 3
Mum has fall sick. She does not want to follow us as she wanted to rest in the room. Today is free and easy. So, we used this opportunity to explore on our own. We have walked from our hotel to Waterfront which just took us about 20 mins. Today we have a chance to know closer of the local people here. We walked pass the market, the shops along the building which sell quite reasonable price. We managed to find the Sarawak Handycraft after asking several people in the town. Abang Wanis bought me a necklace which is made from the bead by the locals. It was very nice and classic.
Day 4
