My Sarawak Love Affair Part 4 : Ain't Done With You

A new day awaits as we woke up a beautiful morning overlooking the wide open sea. We had expected much from the sea and beach, picturing clear blue sea and white sparkling sand. What was before us was moody looking sea and rocky beach. It seems like PD faired much better. We made our way to the restaurant where breakfast was served. Hoping for the best, we were disappointed again as the array of food that had been spread out was not worth RM24 which my sisters and I had to pay separately because the room that we had booked covered for both my parents only. Fortunately, being student comes in handy and we manage to obtain a discount. The spread that was laid out was not as interesting as the breakfast we had in Kuching. Flies could be hovering over the food, landing on places where I would not touch.

Besides an unsatisfying breakfast, there was a power cut in the room when we return to our rooms for about 15 minutes. The amount of disastifying encountered make us filled in the comment form and pledge that this would be the first and last trip to this place. My mum decided to not waste time and make some arrangement to have the uncle who picked us up the day before to transport us to the city do we could hang around a little before heading to the airport. Our bad experience was forwarded to the man who had been helpful to us and we got a rebate for our stay there. I could see that this hotel was suffering as they were short of occupant due to its rival at Damai Lagoon which is much newer. Besides that, the lack of occupant had resulted in the hotel to be not at its top. Its really hard to bring about consistency to a hotel such as this and it takes good management and also good recommendation by others to keep things going. I do hope that the new front manager would be able to whip up some good ideas to bring about revival to this place.

Strike a resemblance? Koley Chemai Jaya, Kuching or MMU Malacca?

We were really greatful to this uncle who was ever so willing to ferry us around. Though it was already included in the package that we had paid for, but he was willing to take great effort to bring us here and there even when we extended a day in our trip which was not in the package. He brought us to have a light lunch at one shop in Chinatown which sold fishball noodles which I must say, the best lunch we had so far in Kuching. We were tend chaffeur to the middle of town where he left us there to walk around and buy some stuff before he picked us up in front of Holiday Inn at 3.30pm. My parents decided to spend their time away from the sun in shopping complex while my siblings and myself decided to go out in the open and see the row of shops that we had missed previously and buy some souvenirs that we were deprieved of the day before. On our way, we made a stop at the nearby Chinese Museum which was a small place that house some relics and information about the Chinese community in Sarawak. We then made our way to the opposite of the road where we paid a visit to Ramsey Ong ArtAdventurous shop. It was a shop or so called a gallery which house works of local artist. There were many beautiful painting that I wish I could purchase or even accomplished such fine works that would indeed be a suitable decoration that for a house. The worker of the shop was friendly and invited us to take our time as we stroll thought the well design shop that had a little pool in the middle of the shop.

He began giving us some details about Malaysian and told us that there he knew of two famous artist that hail from Seremban. My eyes suddenly pop out on hearing that news as I had always thought that Seremban is just some small town where people normally passed by and art was extinct in my place of stay. It suddenly cause some curiosity in me to go and check out the details of artist in Malaysia. We did a great job in taking almost 2 hours to go through almost every shop that we had left out up until Edric Ong shop. I had stumbled upon it the day before and was very happy to found the shop of the person I had read of in the papers before. He is an architect by profession and had venture into designing clothes that exhibited an ethnic feel to it. Besides that, he was one of the participant in the recent KL Fashion Week. There were still much to see but time was running out. We made our way back to the hotel just at the same time the van arrived. Our journey to the airport lasted for half and hour only and we very much early for our flight. We thank the uncle for his kindness and presented him a token of appreciation for his kindness as our journey to Damai and back to Kuching and to the airport did not cost a single cent. Thank God for bringing such good people to help us during our visit to Kuching. We made our way in and check in where we waited for time to pass by before the doors were opened for us to board the plane. The departure hall was stuff as the aircon was down and there was no water in the toilet that we could use to freshen up.

It was time to board the plane and it was a simply happy time for me not because I wanted to leave Kuching so much to return back home but because I was awaiting to dine inside the plane. My first meal was great and I was equally satisfied with my second. I had Beef Friend Rice while the rest of the Wong's decided to have Chicken and Potato. I apparently set beside my mum and got a share of hers as she couldn't finish her tray. I was simply pleased with the service Malaysian Airliine has shown and vow that my next trip to Sarawak would be definitely be with MAS. The landing at KLIA was smooth. There was not a single bump that I felt. After 4 days away on the other side of the ocean, we were finally back home. We got into our car which was stationed there awaiting our arrival and make it for home as we were not hungry due to the sumptious meal on board.

A Cloud of Hope aboard the plane

The trip was indeed a pleasant one filled with much excitement despite encountering a fair share of disappointment. Overall, Sarawak is a nice place to visit and also an excellant place to buy local craft and decos. I hope to make another trip down "Bumi Kenyalang" next year in conjunction with the Rainforest Festival which I hope to joined before I begin my journey to the working world.