Day 39: Exploring Kuching

Super busy day of exploration today! Like much of Malaysia, Kuching and Sarawak are a mixture of various ethnic Malay groups with Chinese and Indian immigrants (from hundreds of years ago, not a recent thing). We were staying in the Chinese part of town, so we went downstairs to one of the noodle shops relatively early and grabbed a bowl of breakfast. I had a wonton mee which is a bowl of cooked noodles with no broth (just a smattering of oil and herbs) and some pork wonton dumplings on top, while Shandos had a kolo mee which is the same thing except with sliced char siew pork instead of dumplings. Our drinks were quite the adventure - coffee (or kopi as they call it) is served by default mixed with condensed milk which is great! Shandos's peppermint tea was hilariously strong - most peppermint teas in Australia taste like a mint leaf went vaguely near the water at some point, while this tea tasted like minty chewing gum.

Out we wandered into the bustling city of Kuching. It's actually the largest city on Borneo, with over half a million inhabitants though the city centre is quite compact. We looked around a couple of Chinese temples, walked back and forth along the waterfront, had a long chat with a nice old Chinese man who wanted to practice English and gave me a list of his principles to live by. I was waiting for a sell of some kind which never eventuated - he was just a nice old man who wanted to talk, and actually reminded me a lot of my grandpa.

More walking through the market districts of Little India, checking out various bits of street art, had a brief look at the large mosque (very imposing on a hill, and large enough to hold 4000 worshippers), wandered through an entirely Islamic shopping mall and eventually found our way through a large park to the ethnography museum. This was in a large old colonial mansion which had been renovated and now housed displays about the flora, fauna and humans of Borneo. Lots of displays about traditional jungle longhouses which we're hoping to see for real in a few days. Also some huge snakes, a crocodile skeleton and an interesting display about Borneo's headhunting tradition (yes, it's exactly what it sounds like though the practice is long extinct).

I should mention at this point that Sarawak has an interesting history - it's the only place in south-east Asia to have been governed by a white Rajah. Between the 1200s and the 1800s it was variously ruled by sultans and local tribes which warred pretty constantly, though by the early 19th century it was basically part of Brunei, but was never colonised by Europeans. In the 1840s there was a large rebellion against Brunei which a British explorer named James Brooke helped to lead. When it was successful he ended up as the Rajah of Sarawak, and him and his descendants ruled the area for the next hundred or so years - it was even formally recognised as a country by both the USA and the UK! Interesting little piece of history, as he ruled as a paternalist rather than a foreign invader or exploiter.

As interesting as the museum was, I couldn't stand it for too long as there was no air conditioning and conditions inside (and outside) were just sweltering. It was the usual 85% humidity 31 degrees that we've had basically every day since leaving Sydney, but all the walking and the stuffy museum really took it out of me. We retreated to a Western-style shopping mall where we basked in the air conditioning and chowed down on lunch - more noodles for both of us.

The food court was on the top floor and had a greenhouse-style ceiling, but between leaving the food court on level four and reaching the ground floor, an enormous tropical downpour had started leaving people soaked and scurrying for cover. Rather than venturing out we retreated back up to the food court for another fruit juice, watching the storm's progress via the greenhouse ceiling.

It died down within 30 minutes and we ventured back out, this time hoping to cross the river. We found a ferry boat (cost = 0.3 MYR / $0.10 AUD) and in a few short minutes we'd crossed the river. The other side was very very quiet, with not much happening, very few roads and dwellings. It's strange, because there's a few things over here - the Palace where the governor lives, the ridiculously over-sized but very impressive Parliament building, as well as an old Fort which now houses the police and justice museum.

After a walk along the other side of the riverfront (hiding from another brief rain squall in a gazebo), we made for the Fort, having to find out way through an abandoned school and scrambling through some undergrowth. The fort itself was actually closed, though it didn't look particularly large and we weren't super interested in seeing the museum, just the building. Tried to get to the parliament on foot but the roads only lead away from it - we probably would have had to walk miles out of the way, and besides we could see the entry points and it looked closed. On a Sunday afternoon out of session that shouldn't be surprising!

So we went back across the river in another tiny boat and decided to retreat to the hotel as it was by now around 6pm. Luxuriated in the shower, freshened up and went back out hoping to see the sun set from a rooftop bar with a tasty beverage. Alas we were to be disappointed; the rooftop bar we'd read about turned out to have no view! So we took a couple of quick photos of the sunset (such as it was) from the river front, then headed for a nice looking bar we'd seen earlier in the day named the Drunken Monkey.

After a few beers all was right with the world, though I still got annoyed at the Italians on the next table having a phone conversation on speaker. It's about the third or fourth time I've seen it now and holy shit it bugs me! Just a serious lack of respect for other people's space I think. Nothing special for dinner, we'd seen an interesting-looking burger cart on the waterfront which we wanted to try, but it seemed to be absent. Lacking in other ideas, we ended up having our third bowl of noodles for the day at a Chinese cart just near our hotel.

Steps today: 34,000. Yikes. Glad I wore my hiking shoes!Read more