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Kuching

Sunday June 25, 2006

Posted In: Borneo | Comments: 7 | Written By: Kai Conragan

Our plane was an hour late taking off for Kuching, not entirely unexpected when your final destination is Borneo. The 1 1/2 hour flight passed relatively quickly, barring about 10 minutes of some nasty turbulence, the kind that makes an agnostic start swaying his position on the matter, but I digress.

Upon arrival we walked over to the taxi stand at the airport and paid the flat rate of $17.50/ringit for a cab ride to downtown Kuching. We’d heard before arriving that the streets in Kuching can be pretty confusing, namely because they seem to think that street signs are optional and thus, no one has any idea what the name of any street is. We gave the cab driver the address to the hostel we had booked through Bootsnall, upon which seeing he got a confused look on his face. Greenhill?, he said. Yes, Greenhill, I said back. Greenhill?, he said again. Yes, Greenhill, I replied again. This went on for a few minutes before he got out of the cab and ran over to some fellow cab drivers for advice. They considered the matter for a few minutes before the cab driver ran back over and jumped in. Greenhill, he said, and started up the cab. 20 minutes later he was on the phone saying Greenhill again. Another 20 minutes later we somehow made it to our hostel, the Borneo Bed and Breakfast located at No. 3 Greenhill Road.

Granted a rating of excellence for cleanliness by the WHO (at least, that’s what all the brochures say), Kuching is the capital of Sarawak, which is a semi-autonomous state on the island of Borneo. Sarawak, along with Sabah, the other Eastern Malaysian state, has it’s own immigration controls, so upon arrival Julie and I had to fill out yet another arrival/departure card and we received another stamp in our passport. Now we have two arrival/departure cards for Malaysia, as well as two Malaysian stamps in our passport, each with a different date telling us when it is we are supposed to leave. When we asked the immigration officer about this, she just shrugged. I get the feeling things are pretty loose on the visa front here, no doubt partly due to the fact that Thailand is a simple bus ride away once you’re back on the peninsula. It doesn’t really matter as either way we have at least 90 days before the issue comes up, at which point I expect we’ll be well on to our next location.

We’ve spent the past day and half walking through the city and getting our bearings. Kuching really is a cool city; it has this sort of alive yet laid-back vibe to it. There are lot’s of shops on the streets ranging from Chinese medicine to plastic housewares to Sarawak arts and crafts. The cheap and excellent food continues here as well. They have an excellent local dish called Laksa, which is an extremely rich soup with rice vermicili, chicken, prawns, and beansprouts in a spicy coconut gravy base. They also have a local dish called Kilo Mee which is just egg noodles served with BBQ pork—simple but again excellent.

Since we arrived in time for the weekend, we got to go to the Sunday market, which actually starts on Saturday afternoon and goes all the way into lunchtime on Sunday. This market is huge, literally spanning more than 5 city blocks just east of the riverfront. You can buy everything here. Dried fish. Fresh fish. Chickens and their feet (thankfully, all have been killed beforehand). Fruits and vegetables, many of which we have never heard of let alone seen. And that’s just the food portion of the market. You can also buy Makita tools, or a machete if that’s more your thing. Plants and flowers, especially an abundance of different orchids. Pet fish. Pet dogs. Pet cats…

Chicken feet at the market.

Those little peppers in the back are edible death

Hmm…look at the size of those okra. This one’s for you George.

Fish arranged for the shoppers.

More fish. These one’s had beautiful irridescent scales in person.

Speaking of cats…

Kuching literally translates into “cat”, specifically, “domestic cat”. The problem is, the Malay spelling for cat nowadays is “kucing”, causing some rise for dispute. Some people believe Kuching actually originated from the Indian name for “port”, which is Cochin. Either way, the city of Kuching has latched onto the whole cat thing and made the city officially known as the “City of Cats”. It’s supposed to be some sort of tourist draw, and they’ve taken this to quite an extreme. There are cat sculptures at intersections and little cat engravings on the sidewalk drains. Yes folks, Kuching even can proudly claim to have the largest (presumably because it’s the only) museum dedicated to cats. The Cat Museum as it’s called, and it’s located at the center of City Hall. Here I must admit that Julie and I actually boarded a bus, walked up a tremendously steep hill, and got caught in a torrential rainstorm to see this museum. All we can say is that it is 30 minutes of our life that we’ll never get back, but it was worth the price of admission – free – and, besides, we can always look back and laugh. The museum may have more appeal to anyone who obsessively collects cat figurines or posters of cats dressed in doll clothes. Or anyone who has an interest in the history of cats used as sex symbols in advertising – but if you do I would strongly consider getting some help. Seriously.

Julie in the middle of losing 30 minutes of her life. This one reminded us of our cat Dulce back home.

Tomorrow we board we a bus and then face a boat ride up-river to visit Bako National Park, the oldest national park in Sarawak being established in 1957. We’ve booked two nights of accomodations with the national park so we can spend a few days getting a proper introduction to the rainforest. There’s supposed to be a good amount of wildlife to see, including the rare proboscis monkey, as well as a ton of flora and fauna. Internet access is next to nil so we won’t be able to report until we return to Kuching.

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