[FLUSH]: My Sarawak Love Affair Part 2 : Merdeka! (31 August 2004)

We awoke pretty early this morning for a buffet breakfast at the hotel ala carte restaurant. The food was pretty alright with the usual layout of dishes that most restaurants would prepare. I guess the best dish was the omellette which was prepared with some garnishing that includes onions, garlic, tomatoes and cheese. The outer layer was smooth and well done. It was best accompanied by a hot toasted bread with butter. We made our way thereafter to the lobby where a man was waiting for us to show us the way to the bus which was waiting for us to bring us around on our city tour. We made our rounds in a bus which was not even half filled. We began our journey by travelling from our area which was called South area and travelled to the North. The tour guide mention that Kuching is divided into two parts which was North and South. There were two mayors who were responsible for each of this areas respectively, a Chinese and a Malay. It seems like the North were mostly populated by the Chinese while the South comprised mostly of Malays instead. We could not visit the museums which was scattered around Kuching as it was a public holiday and this is one of those few days in a year where this places were actually close.

Catting around the cats

Our first stop brought us to the Civic Centre which was a tall tower that visitors could travel to the top to get a birds eye view of Sarawak. It was simply the best time to see Kuching at its splendour as the haze had cleared due to the a downpour during the night. The weather was perfect as it was cloudy and refreshing due to the rain. There was no entrance fees to travel up to the top as it was shelves off in the past year due to poor response from the public. The place seems like a white elephant which was upkept. However, it was the best place to see Kuching as a whole. I would not say that it was the best scenery I have seen as there was not much prominent landmarks or spectacular backdrops that I could picture. The interesting part was perhaps a portion of the Sarawak River and the Northern Admistration centre which displayed a certain prominent architecture that was relative to the local culture.

Above the City Centre overloading the vast land of the Hornbill

We made our way thereafter to another area which was far from the city to stop by a local craft centre that deals mainly with birds nest and other local craft. It was perhaps the best place to get some souveniors or gift to be brought back home. Our next stop was somewhat interesting to me as we were brought to a local pottery factory where they had many intricately designed pottery on it. It was really different form other pottery that I had seen as it was more of an art form rather than a pot. The designs at the signs were simply remarkable depicting various scenes and lifestyle of the Sarawak people. My mind began to wander. I was beginning to picture this pottery adorning my future house with lights at the bottom of the pots bringing our life to such extraordinary artworks. The most interesting place that I had seen in that place was a sidetable with three cats mounted at the sides as its legs and a pottery that depict a woman carrying a pot with a relatively retro feel to it. I was so tempted to purchase it but it was RM40 and I didn't have a nice place at the moment to place it. I wanted to take a picture of it but feared that pictures could not be taken in there. However, I manage to get some cheaper pottery that depicted a Sarawak lifestyle for RM4 that would probably be a start to my future collection of pottery artwork. Since there was still some time left, my sisters and I ventured to the neighbouring pottery shops to see what they had in their collection. I came across this place which simply blew my mind in terms on interior decoration items. They had an array of interesting wavy lights, cute little welcome ornaments and other interesting things that would fit so perfectly as decoration or artwork to a house. Besides that, the price was really reasonable as RM40 could get you quite a reasonable deco. I promise myself that I would be back again to this place to perhaps purchase some stuff that I would like to adorn my future dwelling place. Estimated time of visit would be in July next year.

Arm in arm with the Astana

We made our way to our next stop which was old suspending bridge that went across the Sarawak River. It was yellow in colour. The bridge was previosly used along time ago before flyover took over to connect people from one side of the river to the other. It was initiated during the Brooke era and was used mainly to transport water from both sides as well as allowed cars and people to go across. Now, it its mainly used for water pipes. We then headed back to the city where we toured the older part of town. In the distance stood the majestic green mosque which was build in the late 19th century. I could imagine that it was reasonably huge at that time. Besides that, the front portion of the places houses a cementary in a small plot of land which had many bodies in it considering the many tombstones which seem to be simply stuck close by each other. It was interesting to past by this part of the town and also to witness what the local were doing in their normal lifes. There was a myriad of life all around the shops and corners that seem to amaze me that I could not stop taking pictures as rememberance. We reach to area in front of the Tourism Centre which we had walked though the night before. The place was simply filthy as there were alot of rubbish strewn all around due to the huge gathering of ravellers the day before.

River Cruise with two beauties, my sis Julia and my "sis" Purdey

We reach back to the hotel thereafter after dropping other tourist at their respective restaurant and went back to freshened up before we were out again in search for lunch. The nearest places would be shopping complexes as we were still unfamiliar of the places to eat and decided to hang out at Tuah Plaza for food and shopping. After almost three hours, we made our way back to the hotel to take a bath and rest. Purdey had message me to meet up after her interesting yet delicate session at the spa at Damai Beach. She soon arrived around 5pm where I met her at the lobby before bringing her up to the room to hang out. She looked really refresh after her spa session though I notice that she kind of put on a little bit of weight from the last time I saw her. We chated and then decided to walk around Riverfront before deciding to take a river cruise at a relatively smaller cruise boat as it was much cheaper. Our cruise started at 6.30pm brought us from the Riverfront to the Yellow Bridge and down to Pending before landing back at the Riverfront at 8pm. It was a good time to see the area in a different view and also to catch up with Purdey. However, the trip seem relatively not as interesting as I had hope for considering going for a similar cruise such as this in Perth. The river was simply filthy and dirty. Besides that, I noticed that the sky turns dark pretty fast way before 7pm. I was told from Purdey that Sarawak used to be an hour earlier that Semenanjung and the government decided to synchronise the time for both West and East Malaysia. After the boat ride, we made our way back to Top Spot for another session of seafood and decided to try another stall. The food was much more expensive compared to the day before as we had two fish and a plate of crabs. It was not as nice as the day before as the food was not really fresh. This was maybe because we were much later compared to the day before. The interesting during the dinner came when we saw a local celebrity Camelia sitting down with dinner with her family at a table next to ours. She really looks much prettier in person sporting a sporty look and an interesting body line.
We made our way back to the hotel thereafter after leaving Purdey at Coffee Beans which was situated next door to our place as her sister were waiting for her to bring her back. Her sister did spot some similarities with her in terms of her eyes. We went back thereafter and took a bath and rested in front of the TV. It was a simply tiring and interesting day out.