My take on Kuching

A city where the sky is gloomy or was it because of the raining seasons.
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Nobody rushing for time, no mad peak hour rush, nobody walking fast on the street OR nobody even walking on the streets.
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A clean, slow & relaxing city.
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Hospitable people, delicious food, limited shopping environment, plentiful in massage parlour or spa.
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Expensive taxi fares, expensive food at hawkers.
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A city that rests early, limited high-rise buildings.
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Pretty Kuching ladies with good complexion, rich men.
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A quiet city without car engines or horns, clean air & wonderful weather!
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A city with 2 MacDonald's, 1 Coffeebean, 1 new Starbucks...
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A city where you'd feel more relaxed than usual.
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NICE PLACE!

Kuching - 7 Jan 2008

Today we are going home but we'd still need to help out at the store until 4pm.
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Breakfast at hotel. Happy Yellow Honey Stars with Happy Bananas!

We had
OUr last packed meal in the store comprising of Chicken Rice with Kuching Rojak!
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At about 4pm, 3 out of 4 of us head on back to the hotel to get out belongings. One remained in Kuching until the store opens on 10 January.
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Aunt took us out for a good dinner in a very retro restaurant.








We had so many dishes, Fried Bilin I requested, Fired Oyster Eggs, Wu Xiang, SOup, Prawns & much more.. memory failing me, I should have update the blog earlier!
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What followed after the dinner was exciting. WE went to visit the aunt's residence. WOW.. eye opening experience! & we saw the rich's estates!
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When we reached there, we all couldn't help but all took out our camera & started snapping! really huge compound & big house.







Noticed I am only showing her exterior compound & they are already so huge, can you imagine the interior?Her front compound was big, her back patio was even larger! The whole house was very clean & well-maintained! It was a quiet estate & my friend said that was the rich people's estate. Gosh.. Huge indeed! I cannot imagine their rooms upstairs. We did not go up as we were also rushing to the airport for our flight.
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I tried not to show the interior here for their privacy.
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She has a very romantically decorated patio.. its like a romantic honeymoon resort!
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WOW!
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We were rushed to the airport just 10 mins drive away! Good bye Kuching... I like the city!
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When I was on the plane, I was getting excited because I knew Jason would be there at the airport for me! I couldn't wait & I was happy.

Kuching - 6 Jan

We had breakfast nearby. I had Kueh Chap again while the rest tried other stuff. I spotted a TAO SUAN push cart opposite the road & my friend said we could order & he'll bring over. SO COOL!!! The TAO SUAN uncle really brought the TAO SUAN over!

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Now we can start to headache where to for lunch.

For lunch, we have a local trainee drove us nearby to pack food for the rest. The people in Kuching goes back home for lunch everyday even on weekdays. They would drive home during lunch time & drive back after that. SO on this day, she couldn't drive home for lunch as we begged her to let us follow her car to pack food. She ate at their so called hawker while we waited for her with nice cooling deserts. I had my Red Bean Ice. They don't call it Ice Kachang. EXPENSIVE! 1 for RM$1.80!
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I must commend Kuching a clean city. Roads were clean, hawker centres very clean, toilets very very clean! I like this city!

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We packed Roast Pork rice back & continued with our hard labour until dinner time. WE decided to go for nice seafood dinner tonight. So looking forward though i am not seafood fan.

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We took a cab to a seafood place on top of a 6 storey carpark building near the Somerset Apartment Kuching.

The place feels like Newtons Circus on top of a building. They have stores after stores of seafood & you'll just have to take your pick. We ordered Fried Oyster Eggs (again! my favourite), Fried Bilin (again this time with sambal), crabs, soup, bamboo shellfish & deep-fried sweet & sour fish!

The white dish you see here is the crab. Buttered Crab. They all said it was delicious. I liked the fish & the Fried Oyster Eggs though here the Bilin wasn't nice at all.

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We enjoyed our dinner!

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When we returned to the Hotel, the second batch has arrived.

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We all quickly washed up & brought them out for a meal because, in Kuching, everything closes early & if we did not hurry the gang may have to end up with room service.

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We brought them to nearby food place & they had the famour Ketchup Kueh Teow, Kolo Mee & also the humongous Bao!

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We retired at about 12mn.

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Yippe... tomorrow going home! I miss Jason...

Kuching - 5 Jan

Overview of the city from our 16 floor suite. See all building were not tall! You don't get to use people walking around.. where did all humans go to?? A slow, quiet & peaceful city.
We walked a distance from the hotel to a eating place. Everyone decided they did not want to eat the hotel breakfast today.. everyone agreed except me but I was outnumbered.
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I ordered Kueh Chap. According to my friend, she said Kueh Chap & Kolo Mee are must-haves. I liked the Kueh Chap its flavorsome because unlike in Singapore, the served the Kueh Teow & dishes separately & I have always found Keuh Chap pretty taseltess. Over in Kuching its different, whe you ordered one, all the dishes are poured into the Kueh Teow making the soup savory & nice. Yummy indeed.
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After the nice local breakfast we took a cab to the mall. The cabbies here does not go by the meter. When you reach your destination & you asked him, "how much?" He would asked you in returned, "how much did you pay the last time?". So, our taxi trip are usually RM10 from the hotel to the mall. I think it is quite expensive with the distance & also the currency.
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We sweat & worked until way passed lunch time. It was pouring. We couldn't go anywhere. Our friend's nice aunt sent us lunch.
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Sitting around the display fixture & waiting for food.. famished! We were not sitting on dining tables or chairs.. we sat on tables used to display t-shirts...

Lunched arrived! Chicken & Roast Pork Rice! Aunt even packed a separate pack of curry & soup for us. SO thoughtful!

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We were like a bunch of workers waiting for their food on a work site... haha!
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We took a walk around the almost completed Mall.
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We worked until 7pm & left for dinner.
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We decided we would like sinful food. SO someone suggested a trip to the most 'hip' shopping mall in Kuching.
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We took a taxi.
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When we reached there, I was stunned. WOW.. the most hip mall was just like Queensway Shopping Centre in Singapore.
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It was not crowded though. We had KFC! Yummy! Malaysia's KFC no matter in KL or Kuching taste alot nicer than that of SIngapore's. But the setback was that they give you chili & ketchup in bottles on every table. We ever saw people licking off these caps after they poured so all of us were pretty skeptical. EEEKKKSSS!!!
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that night I thought we could rest early.. When we went back to the hotel, they all planned for a nights out. I had no choice but to tag along because I would never want to stay alone in the hotel.
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We followed my local friend & her friends to a pub for drinks & returned to the hotel about 12mn.
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The people in Kuching are very hospitable. They ensure you have transport, they fetch us, they arranged for food etc. Very nice people.!
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I dropped dead about 2am.

Kuching - 4 Jan

My Must-Have! For every trip I embarked on, I must have at least 1 breakfast from the hotel.. eggs... toasts... sausages... Hmmm.. YUMMY.

This was from the hotel cafe.

After filling up the tummy.. it was another round of labouring.

We counted, loaded, moved, unloaded, opened, sorted & much more until late noon. All were famished. It was a raining day & in Kuching, food were not readily available within walking distances. We walked abit to a coffeeshop pretty far away.


The very strange thing about Kuching, they sell alot of pork or food with pork & you'll see people who looked like Malays eating them. Well, the truth is, Kuching is filled with their native people, there are one call the Iban and another I could not remember. They are not muslims & they can eat everything. My friend told me that the Malays are on another side of Kuching therefore there are hardly any on the streets.

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Kuching has got Humongous BAO! No matter what BAO you ordered, Char Siew, Chicken, Pork.. they are huge & their buns are soft.

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I ordered a Keuh Teow Soup. Taste was not bad. My only complain was the food wasn't piping hot which I liked them to be.
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We continue to labour until 6pm when our local colleagues friends brought us out for local dinner. Similar to our local Tze Char, we had a sumptuous meal nearby.
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In Singapore, we have fried oyster eggs. The one that has flour in the eggs that made them sticky & juicy nice oysters that we eat with chili. Over here in Kuching their Fried Oyster Eggs are different & yummy. Their eggs are thin & in small slices fried till crispy like biscuits and the oysters were of course big & juicy. They eat them dipping in soya sauce with pepper! Delightfully refreshing! Pity no pictures.
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My friend told me most of her girlfriends who stayed on in Kuching were married young & have children young & they don't have to work. All of them are stay home wives. She added on that these girls married rich local men & MOSTLY the people here are indeed rich. YEt you do not see people slogging to work or such... I wonder.. where the RICH & their MONEY came from!? They are all pretty, nice-complexion & figures! They gathered around & talked about Branded bags, shopping in Singapore etc. Sadly in Kuching, there aren't many malls.
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After the meal, the four of us went to the Seattle Coffee below the Hotel for a nice HOT drink.
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Threw myself in bed about 1am.

Kuching - 3 Jan 2008

When I was told I had to make a trip to Kuching for training as well as help out in whatever ways I could, I was not exactly reluctant. Mainly because I knew I was not going to be alone, there would be a few colleagues on the trip together.

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We booked Silkair round trip for only about S$200+ per person. Was quite a good deal.

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We took the afternoon flight & arrived at Kuching International Airport around 2-ish.

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Among us was a Sarawakian, she was borned in Kuching, her homeland until she moved in to Singapore after her studies. You would not be able to tell she was actually from Kuching.

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Her aunt came to pick us up from the airport & drove us to the Hotel where we were supposed to unload & head straight to work. We booked a 3-bedrooms suite in the Merdeka Palace Hotel in Kuching costing about RM400 a night. It was reasonable.

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Fragments of the hotel

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A snap of the 'humongous' hotel from across the street. Why humongous? Well, the rest of the buildings in Kuching were short & small. There were not more than 2 hands-count of tall buildings.

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Our suite housed 1 master bedroom with own Bathroom, TV & study area. One Twin Bedroom which was the one I slept in with a colleague which only has a queen bed, wardrobe & a nice sliding door that opens to the Living area & another proper door that opens on the other side.

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One smaller bedroom which has a single bed, a wardrobe which our male colleague slept in, OH YES, we bullied him & banished him into that small dark room.

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My room & his room has a common bathroom (not connected & right outside both the rooms) which we shared. There is a Living Room with sofa-set and a common study area + TV, a dining room with dining table, another common toilet (no bath just toilet), a small pantry with microwave & coffee & tea making facilities, a common dressing area where all of us plugged in our own hairdryer, hair curlers & straighteners.. Quite a cool accommodation!
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The Hotel Lobby. It was quite a grand hotel with beautiful architecture from the exterior & elegant interior if one can disregard the fact that it was pretty old.

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The Hotel Cafe where breakfast were served.

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For this trip, we were basically supposed to perform hard labour. We, the 4 of us, 3 ladies 1 man, were the first batch to prepare the shop for its opening on 9 January. The second batch shall arrive on the 6 January to takeover.

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So after we settled in the Hotel, we took a taxi to the Mall where we were supposed to work. A mall that we all agreed, looked like a factory!

We laboured until about evening, we took a walk to a supposedly nearby neighborhood to purchase brooms, mops, pails & other stuff we need for the next day.
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Weather in Kuching was wet & gloomy for the days I was there. It was to our advantages though the tracks are rather muddy.

The housing of the people here were mainly 'landed property'. What sets the Not-So-Poor apart from the Not-So-Rich in terms of housing is the size of their home & compound though all are LANDED.

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Our local friend also told us the shops, coffee shops & most shops are closed in the early afternoons.. the street were quiet & slow.

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I did not see anyone rushing for time, walking quickly.. in fact, there was hardly humans walking on the street. It was a quiet & slow city. Kind of nice. Feels like a place where there were no peak hour jams, no deadlines, no rushing for that bus or train etc..

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She also told us that there were not many taxis in the city because most locals drive. I was quite surprised. She told me she had never taken a local taxi all her life when she was living in Kuching because she was driven everyday. Wow..

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I also noticed the people in Kuching looks quite well-to-do silently. They are not the branded freaks nor loud high-profile type BUT the subtle & comfortable with their lives sort. Envious.

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Her aunt picked us up from the Mall & sent us to a nearby place where 2 of my colleagues wanted a massage. Apparently, in Kuching were street full of massage parlours that looked like ktv suites. According to her, the people in Kuching massages all the time. I guess as much, they pretty much nowhere to go & not much work to do. We took a tour of the massage suites she brought us to & indeed, just like a KTV suites. It was clean & smells really good. Nothing sleazy but proper massage parlour.

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After that, she also brought us to enjoy nice local food. I am particularly fascinated by their local vegetables called the Bilin. The said that Singapore has lots of Bilin lying all over the roadside & no one ever eats them. Throughout this trip, I ate lots of Bilin, I liked it alot particularly fried with chilli & lime. VERY YUMMY!

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After the hearty meal, we retired back to the hotel.

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Everyone was so tired yet stubborn & not wanting to go to bed. By 11pm, all were snoring at the Living Area sofa!

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Best of all, my local friend could still drag her body out partying with her long-lost schoolmates!

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I have to admit defeat. I went to bed at 12mn.