My Sarawak Love Affair Part 1 : In a Riot

I arose around 5am on Monday as my family and I prepare to travel to the airport to get a flight to KLIA. We were on our way to the other side of Malaysia which we have heard of many times but have never set foot on it. This was going to be an exciting trip as we would be travelling by airplane. The last time I remember getting into an airplane was the trip my family and I made to Perth, Australia when I was in Form 2. It was going to be a different experience all together in an airplane as we going to travel within Malaysia. It does give me an impression that I was travelling abroad but I was trying to get used to idea that I was still in Malaysia but only the other part of the region. My mom was having hard time trying to convince herself that she was actually in Malaysia as she kep refering to us as Malaysians when actually all the people we met in Kuching were in fact Malaysian.

From the airport to the hotel in a van

We set foot on the airplane with an empty stomach which was constantly pleading for us to fill in the void. We had initially thought that we would not be given any food while on board, the most a cup of orange juice. Our eyes suddenly lit up when we were told that breakfast was to be served after takeoff. Boy, that announcemenr from the captain of the plane was such a breather to us. The trolley soon reached us and I was surprise by the portion that I was to received. It was a tray filled with many assorted things. There was the main dish, side dish, an empty cup for coffee or tea, an orange juice and a pieace of hot bread with butter and jam. The main dish was either nasi dagang with chicken curry or omellette. Both were equally good. Its hard to judge when the food when you are actually hungry and yearning for something to eat, anything goes. Our journey to Kuching took us around an hour and fifteen minutes. The sky was not that clear as haze could be seen hovering over the sky and was in the midst of us when we touch down at the airport. I manage to snap some pictures while on board as I was sitted near the window and could see what was below me. Despite the haze, I manage to snap a long river that was going through the area. Initially I thought it was the famous longest river in Malaysia, Rejang River but my prediction were ultimately wrong when I found out it was Sarawak River and Rejang was somewhere near Miri or Sibu.

View from my Hotel Room

The airport was pretty old in nature and they were undergoing some major renovation to improve and upgrade the airport for international flights. The architecture of the place looks pretty gothic in nature with alot of sharp ends and weird structure. We were greeted by a quite big size man named Andy who brought us to our place of stay, Holiday Inn. Our journey from the airport to the city where our hotel was took us around half and hour. I message my ever so lovely big sister that I was finally in her domain and she called us to find out how we were and where we were going to be. It was good to hear that I would finally be able to meet her. We got our bags out and checked into the hotel. While we were waiting, my sisters and I notice a computer at the counter which had a 100Mbps connection. We were surprised that it was installed with the usual chatting programs and my eyes lid up when I saw a familiar icon that I had been associated with for quite a while, Yahoo Messager. I made not hesitation to log in and message big sister, Purdey who was in office and boy, did she get the shock of her life. One moment I was messaging her on the handphone and now from the PC. At the same time, I made some search on the Sarawak Tourism Board for any information. I had just miss the Sarawak Jazz Festival and was even more surprise that we were going to leave on the eve on Sarawak Regatta Show which would be held behind of my hotel on the Sarawak River. The Regatta was an event where long boats would compete with one another. We had come in between of two major events and miss both of them.

Regatta in Action...Practice Session

We got into our rooms. Yes, rooms as we had two adjoining rooms. I was pretty surprised to hear from mom that it was quite reasonable sum we paid for our trip down here which includes two rooms for two nights, flight tickets, breakfast and a city tour from Holiday Travel that cost us around RM400++ per person. We freshened up and prepared to walk around the places nearby in search of food. Due to our unfamiliarity, we ended up in one of the nearby shopping complexes food court although we wanted to try the local delicacies of this place such as kolo mee and laksa. However, we were told that this signature dish were only available in the morning. Our lunch didn't really gave us a taste of Sarawak as it was horrible. We got some stuff from the nearby supermarket and made our way back. We decided not to travel around for now as the heat was beginning to be unbearable and went back to the hotel for a bath and rest as we waited till dinner time to venture out.

We had heard from Purdey that there was a nearby seafood centre called Top Spot which was situated on the top of a carpark. She gave me directions and I quickly lead my family to the intended place. We had reached the place far too early around 6pm. There was no one to be seen eating, just a couple of early guest like ourself. There was so many seafood stalls in that area and one by one of the operators of each the stalls were out trying to get us to eat at their stall. I was told by Purdey to find a shop with a number 47 but it was no where to be found as the largest number there was 33. We ended up eating at stall 32. At first, we were quite intimidated as there was no one eating at that place and saw another stall which had more people. However, we decided to try it anyway despite our uncertainty. There were some new dishes that was unheard of such as Mongolia fish and paku biling, which was supposedly a famous dish in Sarawak.Our orders also included Ho Chien which was actually crispy rather the usual fried or hot plate style which we seem to enjoy back in West Malaysia and butter prawns which seem to lack on the crispy butter strips which normally accompany it. It was a surprisingly nice dinner as compared to lunch and I was surprise that all those seafood dishes would only cost us around rm80++ for a fresh helping.

With our stomach full to the brink, it was wise of us to get ourself on our feet and explore the city of Kuching. We walk around the towns and there seem to be alot of people around. It was the eve of Merdeka celebration and many people both young and old throng the streets of Kuching. Youths in bikes with the Malaysian and Sarawak flag held on by their pillon driver or tied to their bikes could be seen everywhere. Shouts of the countdown could be heard all around and everyone seem to in the spirit of awaiting that hour where we would mark our 47th Merdeka Day. I was quite surprise to see many young children everywhere. It was also quite intimidating and scary atmosphere as many of them were in big groups of people shouting around and making lots of noise. The whole atmosphere really gave me an impression that a riot was about to take place although this was far from the truth. Our parents didn't follow us all around as they were beginning to get tired and decided to return to the hotel. My sisters and myself made our way to the Riverfront, Padang Merdeka, Little India and anywhere that had a place that we could walk on. There was a huge concert going on at Padang Merdeka and many people were making their way there to witness the cultural performances and also their favourite singers as they waited for the time to struck 12 to shout Merdeka. After a long walk and having a quick stop for ice cream at McDonald located opposite our hotel, we made our way back around 10pm and rested as we prepared for our city tour on Merdeka Day. A nice and interesting day to start out with although much could have been done.