We had a wedding event to attend in Kuching, the capital city of Sarawak located in the island of Borneo. Kuching was only a short flight cross the South China Sea from Singapore. Since quite a number of relatives were also attending the same event, I planned some sightseeing and activities during the days before and after the event.
We flew into Kuching on Saturday (21 December, 2019) one day before the wedding event. As the public transportation system from Kuching to the surrounding areas is practically non-existent, I chartered a van with driver to bring our family group of 10 adults to pick us up from the Kuching International Airport on our arrival day and bring us for sightseeing during our stay.
Day 1 was spent visiting the Annah Rais Bidayuh Longhouse as well as sampling some of Kuching’s local cuisine in food centres and the Siniawan Night Market.
Siniawan Night Market is a open-air night market located along a quaint old street lined with old wooden townhouses and red Chinese lanterns.
It was a rainy morning on our second day in Kuching. The main event for the day and the purpose of our short trip to Kuching was to attend a wedding dinner on this Sunday night. We had time for a foodie tour of Kuching during the day before the wedding event.
We went to the popular Chong Choon Cafe which is a typical coffeeshop in Kuching with many food stalls offering various kinds of local food, including the Sarawak Laksa and Kolo Mee.
Delicious bowl of Sarawak Laksa
The rain did not stop even after our breakfast. So we went to the Cat Museum (Muzium Kucing) instead of exploring the streets of Kuching. “Kucing” means “Cat” in Malay, so it is probably apt that Kuching has the World's first Cat Museum. The museum is filled with paintings, articles, posters, toys, figurines and almost anything that has to do with cats. Visiting a museum that is devoted to all things feline was not in my original Kuching itinerary but it is a good activity during a rainy day.
By late afternoon, we went back to our hotel to prepare and dress up for the wedding dinner at the Imperial Hotel.
Impressive ballroom at the Imperial Hotel
I slept late that night. I stayed up to watch Liverpool FC winning the Club World Cup on live TV.
What an end to a memorable day!
Day 3 (23 December, 2019) is the day of our departure from Kuching. The plan for the day was to do a food cum heritage walking tour of Kuching’s waterfront area on foot before our flight home in the night. Trip report here.
There are many interesting things to see, local food to try and activities to do on this walk.
This includes
- enjoying some of the best Sarawakian food at the Lau Ya Keng foodcourt.
- taking a ride on one of the traditional wooden sampan boats, called the Perahu Tambang, across the Sarawak River to the Malay village on opposite bank.
- shopping for souvenirs, kek lapis, handicraft and Sarawak pepper at the many century old shophouses.
“Kek Lapis” means layered cake. In Kuching, the local bakers have been extremely creative to create multi-coloured and multi-flavoured variants.
- visit to the Chinese History Museum.
- admiring the street art in Kuching.
We ended our Kuching trip with seafood dinner at Top Spot Food Centre before taking the night flight back home.
No comments:
Post a Comment