Kuching - Aug 2011

A trip with my colleagues that has been in the planning for more than a year finally came to pass. N wanted to go somewhere for her birthday so in less than 3 weeks we made arrangements for our holiday. Why Kuching? Hmm cos I was on a budget and it was the cheapest ticket at that time. Going overseas would have cost way too much for me, although my colleagues wouldn't have minded that but they were sweet enough to stick to my budget.

Sadly, what started out to be a trip with 3 adults + 2 kids turned out to be only 2 adults as one of them fell terribly ill and decided to stay back and rest in KL.

The journey started with a really early flight from KLIA. Thank God the flight was delayed by 1 hour and we were informed earlier, had an extra hour to snooze.

Found me a Cafe Barbera in KLIA! My airport waits won't be so boring after this.. Nothing to start of your morning like an affogato..

We stayed at Damai Beach Resort which is about a 45 minute drive away from Kuching City. On the spur of the moment, we decided to be adventurous and rent a car. It served us well for the 3 days there and turned out to be an excellent idea because we save a lot on cab fees. It's much cheaper renting a car there than to take a cab which would be a minimum of RM70 per way from the hotel to town.

Our supersized room in DBR. Could have easily fit 4 people in the rooms. The beds were humoungous! Pillows were not too great though, gave me a neckache. 

We were looking for good seafood for our first night there.. and the lady at the front desk told us of this restaurant in Kg. Buntal to go to. It's about a 15 minute drive from our resort. This restaurant is a must-try when in Kuching. They were kind enough to cook smaller portions of variety for us, which most restaurants may not do. *Oh this reminds me to write in a compliment for that lovely lady*

Eagerly waiting for our food.. Thank God it's a picture and not a video or you would have heard our tummy's rumbling..

Kangkung Belacan.. Somehow tasted way better there.

Butter prawns

Sweet and sour fish

Chilli crabs.. These were the bomb-diggidee..

We experienced thunderest rain both nights we were there.. On the first night, it was so bad that I wanted to crawl into bed with N but I knew she would have killed me if I did so lol. Saw this fallen tree on one of the mornings on our way out.. 

Semenggoh Wildlife Centre.. What an experience! We hardly got lost getting there except from reading one of the signs wrong and ended up taking a longer route. It was great that we got slightly lost because we saw some amazing buildings in one of the tiny trunk roads. Sorry no pics cos we too focused on finding our way.

Feeding time is at 3pm but we reached around 130pm. Initially we thought of driving out and coming back at 3pm just in time for the feeding but around 150pm, the ranger said that there was one Orang Utan.. In about 20 minutes, there were 4 of them.. They came early for their supplements..

This picture reminds me of J

Meet Delima and her youngest of 2 years old. She has 3 kids so far, and we met 2 of them in total. She made our experience there totally worthwile. After having their snacks, she decided to take a walk to where we were, slowly making her way from the feeding area, to the bench where we were sitting and finally to the carpark area.. The rangers were very cautious and kept asking us to move back but you can see from the picture below, she came pretty close up to us.. Eventually the rangers led her further up and into the jungle.. The rehabilitation centre houses 26 Orang Utans and we had the privilege of meeting 10 of them..

Mount Santubong.. This was the sight that we saw everyday as we drove back and forth from the hotel.. There's a hike that you can choose to do up the mountain, either a 2 or 6 hour hike but we decided not to because the weather was really bad.. Probably on our next trip.. there are some really beautiful waterfalls up there.. 

The first evening we were there, the sunset was exceptionally beautiful! It was breathtaking but unfortunately, N and I were in the waters with no camera in our hands.. The second evening we tried to capture the sunset but it was not as pretty as the day before.. I love sunsets though, so I thought this was just beautiful as well.

Jojo came to visit us at our resort.. She looks so gorgeous in this picture..

The resort had it's own Cat Feeding Area.. Numerous cats running around in the resort.. Well it is 'Kuching' afterall.. lol

 I did up some research on places to visit and eat at while we're there.. But missed out on this one. Kuching Festival Fair 2011 - Jojo told us about it and took us there on our last night. This was definitely a treat!

With literally hundreds of stalls like this lined up row after row, we were lost and didn't know which we should try first..

Fried Durian! This was apparently a must-try but we didn't get to try it. 

Because the line was just too long. We didn't feel like lining up for over an hour for it..

 We opted instead for the local favourites.. Sarawak Laksa.

Kolo Mee

Got me some durian pancakes. They were costly! RM10 for 4 pancakes but the pancakes were too thick and not too tasty. At least the durian made up for it.

This is like my only picture of N and me... She's a great travelling buddy.. We had rough plans of what we wanted to do, but it changed everyday.

We also went to the Cultural Village in Damai. It's my 2nd time there. The first time was during the Rainforest Music Festival in 2006. The village is very different when not during a music fest but I think it's overpriced. RM65 per entry. We managed to catch the cultural show of 45 minutes - showcasing performances by the different tribes in Sarawak. Then we walked through the village a bit to see the different homes by the tribes live in. We didn't get to explore the whole village because we were rushing for time as we needed to check out and catch our flight. 

I love Kuching and I definitely want to return. There were so many places I wanted to visit but due to constraint of time and the fact that we were staying too far from town and most of those places are nearer to town, we didn't to see as much as we wanted to.

Next trip will definitely include a 1 night stay at Bako Forest Reserve.

This weekend getaway was surely a fun, adventurous and memorable one.