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Archive for May 15th, 2006

Kuching

so my first day in Kuching was spent in Cranky Mode - functioning on one hour of sleep, plus finding out that i’ve forgotten to pack some important stuff (LIKE SHORTS?!), AND getting rained on just made me wanna go arghhhhh. factor in a badly-executed trip to the Sarawak Museum and Tua Pek Kong Temple and a very bad dinner (bad meals so suck. so so much), and i was ready to throw in the towel.

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enough, thought I. it may be beautiful here, but i’ve always hated following tours, and this tour was no exception. after skimming the itinerary, i predicted things were only going to get worse. but then on the morning of my 2nd day, i was given the completely unexpected blessing in the form of..

KENNY CHAI !!!!!!!!!!!

i was in the theatre at the Sarawak Cultural Village, when a guy in a lime green shirt behind me called out my name. i turned around and was SO mind-boggled to see Kenny @_@ it took me a few minutes to get over the fact that the world, much less Kuching, is such a bloody small place!! and the best part of bumping into Kenny is that … he is a tour guide.

muahahahhahahaa.

meeting him was the turning point to the parabola of my Kuching trip. we met up again in the evening after the SCV thing was over, and then once more this morning before i flew back to KL. we drove around Kuching for a good part of the time we spent together, and he showed me stuff around town while giving the most superb explanations and bits of trivia. seriously, if any of you guys ever need someone to spice up a town that is supposedly ‘boring’, Kenny is your man.

i mean like did you know that the Singgahsana Lodge in Kuching only caters to mat sallehs? if you’re Malaysian and you ask for a room there they’re not gonna give two hoots bout you.

and like did you know that in coffeeshops in Kuching, you cannot signal the vendors to come take your order, because it’s rude to do so?

and did you know that Kuching people have to eat kolok mee at least once every 3 days or else it’s weird???

and like did you know that there are no leeches in the Bako National Park in Kuching?

and did you know that you cant bargain in Kuching markets?

and did you know that in Kuching, there is not one trace of racism, and that non-halal restaurants usually have ‘halal’ tables set up specially for Muslim people, who dont actually mind eating at non halal places?

and did you know that there is a 5-star washroom smack in the middle of Jalan India, Kuching?!

and did you know that in the Kuching Elections, there is a Chinese man running under Keadilan?!?!?!!

hahaha Kuching SO rocks man, especially when you have someone to constantly pepper you with all these interesting tidbits of info. i’m beginning to wonder if Kenny eats Sarawak Guidebooks for dinner, i mean he knows so freaking much. it is completely amazing how a city so small and so relaxed can hide away so many fascinating historical and cultural facts. the ENTIRE time, i just kept comparing Kuching to KL - from the language right up to the drinks that Coffee Bean serves - and each time i did, i was just so thrilled at how different the two cities are, despite both being Malaysian cities.

Satok Weekend Market

for eats, we went to check out a few places - Satok Weekend Market which is a TOTAL MUST SEE if you’re a market fan like me. it’s got ALL SORTS of pasar malam food, including really good and *really* cheap apam kuih and kueh kak / chak kueh. besides extremely yummy streetfood, Satok even has vendors selling the cutest baby rabbits and puppies and fishes. so cool. why KL dont have?!

later we went to this funky Zen-ish restaurant called Bla, Bla, Bla that has the most amazing decor - they had this narrow walkway with REALLY good black and white Sarawak photography, and a beautiful indoor pond that had TADPOLES in it!!! also went to Bing’s for coffee, that place is great - better coffee than Starbucks! and after all that, we went to have the BEST BEEF NOODLES AND SIEW MAI in the entire whole wide mother loving world!!!!! it’s at this place called Open Market, and omg, the dry gu-bak meen (beef noodles) is so good i near died on the spot. and this siew mai is so famous that it apparently sells through internet booking as well?!

Beef noodles and siew mai at Open Market

hehehe ooh and after that, we passed by, guess what, a Kiew Brothers shop!!! haha, it was so funny that i just had to go down and get yuk kon. went to Bar Zing at Trazillion after that to wash everything down, and it’s a seriously nice chillout place. very nice DJ too, who kindly allowed me to harass him :D

(re-reading the above two paragraphs, i cant believe i ate that much in 5 hours)

i refused to let my Kuching trip pass without ever trying the famous Kolok Mee and Sarawak Laksa, so the next morning which was my last day in town, Kenny brought me to the most famous kolok mee and laksa places - Carpenter Road and Jalan Ban Hock respectively. and man, famous is an understatement. there were damn a lotta cars parked outside the restaurants, and even though we arrived at 10am, the laksa was already selling out @_@ we were fortunate enough to get the very last bowl, hahaha!

Kolok Mee is like wantan mee, but tossed in seasoned oil instead of dark sauce