Morning walk along Carpenter Street and Ewe Hai Street in Kuching

23 December 2019

My plan for the day was to bring my travel group for a food cum heritage tour of Kuching‘s waterfront area on foot.

We started our tour at the Lau Ya Keng Food Court along Carpenter Street or Jalan Carpenter. In the old days of Kuching, most houses (called attap house) were made of wood and attap. Hence carpenters are very important to the community.

Harmony Arch at the entrance to Carpenter Street (as seen from Lau Ya Keng Food Court).

Along this narrow street and lining both sides are old Chinese shop houses not unlike those found in Singapore’s Chinatown in the old days. In addition to the many furniture shops here, there are the usual sundry stores, medicine shops, coffee shops among others. Also seen are buildings housing local Chinese clan associations.

Breakfast at the Lau Ya Keng Food Court.

Lau Ya Keng Food Court is a small eating place located opposite a Teochew temple. The food court probably got its name from this temple as “Lau Ya Keng” is loosely translated to mean “temple” in Teochew.

This eating place is particularly popular with foodies and can be very crowded in the weekend. Since we came on a Monday morning, we had no difficulty getting seats for my group of 12 persons.

Our group at the Lau Ya Keng Food Court along Carpenter Street.

I had tasted very good Kway Chap at the Lau Ya Keng Foodcourt during my earlier visit to Kuching in March 2019. Unfortunately this stall was not opened on a Monday! The pork satay stall is also reputed to be excellent but the stall only opens later in the day.

Fortunately, there are a few other excellent food stalls that were in operation.

Here, I tasted one of the best Sarawak Laksa during my 3 days stay in Kuching. Compared to the famous Sarawak Laksa at Chong Choon cafe, the “special’ laksa at Lau Ya Keng is also excellent but comes with better ingredients for a slightly higher cost.  At 10 MYR a bowl, it is still excellent value for money.

The “Sarawak Laksa Special” at Lau Ya Keng Food Court for 10 MYR. This comes with succulent pieces of chicken and large tasty prawns in a delicious curry broth.

Another local dish worth trying is the noodle. The noodle stall offers a variety of noodles, namely prawn noodles, char siu noodles, pork noodles etc. They are basically the same tasty yellow noodles but topped with the different ingredients.

Various options of noodles that our group tried at Lau Ya Keng Food Court.

The popiah at Lau Ya Keng is also worth trying.

Popiah meaning “thin pancake” in Hokkien/Teochew, is fresh spring roll made with a thin paper-like crepe wrapper stuffed with a filling made of cooked vegetables and meat.

Tasty popiah that cost 2.5 MYR each.

Hiang Siang Ti Temple

After breakfast at Lau Ya Keng, we crossed the street to visit the Chinese temple. The Hiang Thian Siang Ti is a 150-year old Chinese Teochew temple sandwiched on both sides by old shop houses.

The Hiang Thian Siang Ti Temple was built by the early Teochews of Kuching.

Beautiful images of tiger and dragon flanked the entrance of the temple. A stone plaque told the temple’s history.

From the temple, we strolled down Carpenter Street.

We stopped to buy Chinese pastries and cakes and Sarawak peppercorns at the corner shop at the junction of China Street and Carpenter Street.

As we continued down Carpenter Street, we could see many interesting shops. A casket vendor still plies his trade while an blacksmith could be heard banging away in a nearby shop.

One of the interesting shops along Carpenter Street where some of us bought some rattan-based home products and bags

Detour down Bishopgate Road to the Liza Kek Lapis shop.

Another street bisects Carpenter Street further up. This is Bishopsgate Street, which was the road the British Bishop used during the colonial days to get in and out of the St. Thomas Cathedral behind the shop houses.

We took a detour down Bishopgate Street to check out the Liza Kek Lapis shop.

“Kek Lapis” means layered cake. Those from Singapore are familiar with the Indonesia-style layered cake rich in butter, called Kueh Lapis. In Kuching, the local bakers have been extremely creative to create multi-coloured and multi-flavoured variants. 

In a typical Kek Lapis shop in Kuching, there are colourful Kek Lapis for customers to sample before buying.

After returning to Carpenter Street, we continue down to Ewe Hai Street or Jalan Ewe Hai. This street is named after an early Chinese leader known as Kapitan Ong Ewe Hai.

Along this street, Kim Joo coffee shop is located. This shop is supposedly serving good Kolo Mee, but we already had our fill at Lau Ya Keng Food Court.

Black Bean Coffee

A good place to take a break from walking is at the Black Bean coffee shop. They serve excellent gourmet coffee, brewed with Sarawak's very own coffee called “Sarawak Liberica”, which originates from the hilly southern region of Sarawak. The beans are freshly roasted at the shop every day.

Black Bean Coffee also offers hot and iced coffee brewed from the Arabica and Robusta beans from different parts of the world.

This shop is pretty small. The 12 of us practically took up all the tables and chairs at this tiny shop.

Hong San Si Temple

Another Chinese temple is located at the end of Ewe Hai Street. The Hong San Si Temple was built by the Hokkien clansmen of Kuching.

The front of Hong San Si Temple with its beautiful roof decorations and columns.

Hong San Si Temple marked the end of our morning stroll down Carpenter Street. From there, we walked towards Kuching’s waterfront along Wayang Street.

Hornbill Street Mural

Kuching has plenty of street art to admire. A hornbill mural is located at the busy junction of Wayang Street and Jalan Main Bazaar (a road running parallel to the Sarawak River waterfront). It depicts a rhinoceros hornbill, one of the 8 species of hornbills found in Borneo.

The rhinoceros hornbill is the state bird of the Sarawak. According to the indigenous Dayak, the Rhinoceros Hornbills represent the spirit of God. It is considered good luck to the local community when one flies over the house.

Hornbill Street Mural at the junction of Wayang Street and Jalan Main Bazaar. The pink colour building in the background is the Chinese History Museum.

From this junction, we could see a small pink building which is the Chinese History Museum. This is a museum worth visiting while doing a heritage tour of Kuching’s waterfront area.

Next post: Our visit to the Chinese History Museum.

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Chinese History Museum Kuching

23 December 2019

The Chinese History Museum, located in a small pink building next to the Kuching waterfront, is a highly recommended place to visit for culture and history buffs, especially those who wants to know a little more about the history of the Chinese community in Kuching.  Entry to the museum is free. So why not pop in to take a look.

Exhibits include the early trade routes, major waves of immigration from various regions of China, what the early pioneers did, the formation of trade and community associations, political history and the involvement of the Chinese community in modern, multi-racial Sarawak.

Initial migration from various regions of China.

It is interesting to read about the early Chinese movement and settlement into Sarawak.

The first wave of Chinese immigrants into Sarawak were mainly the Hakkas who move from West Kalimantan, Indonesia into Bau in the early 19th Century. They are actually descendents of Chinese who had settled in Indonesia back in the 15th Century, an era where Admiral Cheng Ho’s expeditions took place. These early immigrants are gold miners from Kalimantan who eventually moved into Sarawak to carry out mining activities in Bau.

First wave of Chinese into Sarawak were Hakka miners from West Kalimantan.

The second wave of Chinese immigrants came by sea and settled mainly in Kuching.  During those days, hundreds of thousands of Chinese people, most of who are from the Fujian and Guangdong provinces in the south east coast of Mainland China, came to South East Asia in the hopes of escaping a life of poverty in China.

Those days, the only mode of transport was the wooden Chinese junk. According to history, they sailed up Sarawak River and landed in the area near the Main Bazaar where the museum was located.

They are mainly involved in trading activities and exporting of local produce to trade hubs such as Singapore.

The second wave of immigrants were mostly Teochews, Hokkiens and later followed by the Cantonese. They came by sea and settled mainly in Kuching.

A model of a wooden junk used by the early immigrants.

What the typical early immigrants had with them when they arrived – a hard case, straw hat and paper umbrella.

The third wave of immigrants came to Sarawak mainly at the invitation of the White Rajah Charles Brooks in the early 1900. 

 

The third wave of immigrants were mostly labourers brought in to work on the farms and open up new land.

The Hakkas were brought in to work on farms while the Foochows landed in Sibu and Sarikei to open up new land. Later on, the other dialect groups also came and moved into other parts of Sarawak.

Pepper is one of the key local produce in Sarawak.

I find the section showcasing the various Chinese dialect groups particularly interesting.
Section showcasing the various Chinese dialect groups who had immigrated to Sarawak.

Information about where from China they came from, their early life in Sarawak, trades and even prominent members of the community were presented.

We had a lot of fun listening to the actual recorded excerpts of each spoken dialects, with accompanying texts explaining what was actually spoken.

The museum also presents information about Chinese culture and local Chinese festivals.

We visited the museum on Dec 23, one day after the Winter solstice (冬至 Dōngzhì), where the tradition is to make and eat glutinous rice balls or tangyuan.

There were also a lot of musical instruments, jade pieces, Ming Dynasty ceramics, and many more artefacts that reflect the life of the Chinese in the early 1900’s.

One of the Chinese musical instruments on display. This string instrument is called a “gu cheng”.

A chart showing all the Chinese family names was interesting. Try finding your own surname in the chart.

We ended our visit to the Chinese History Museum with taking a look at a very colourful Chinese/Taoist temple located directly across the road. The Tua Pek Kong Temple (also known as the Siew San Teng Temple) is built in the 19th century and believed to be the oldest Chinese temple in Kuching.

Tua Pek Kong Temple as seen from the outside of Chinese History Museum.

Overall, the Chinese History Museum was an interesting and highly recommended place to visit while exploring the Kuching waterfront. It should not take more than 30 minutes in the small museum and it is worth the time spent.

Side note:  One of the map showed the Chinese name of Kuching as “古晋”, translated as “Old Well” in Teochew or Hokkien. Long time ago, there are old wells found in the Carpenter Street, Ewe Hai Street and Bishopgate Street area. This could be how the city got its name which was nothing to do with Cats (or Kucing in Malay).

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Heritage Walk along Kuching Waterfront

23 December 2019

We started our exploration of Kuching Waterfront at Chinese History Museum located opposite the Tua Peh Kong Temple.

The Chinese History Museum was an excellent place to visit for those who want to know a little more about the history of the Chinese community in Kuching.  Entry to the museum is free.

Trip report here. 

After visiting the museum, we head west along the tree-lined esplanade by the Sarawak River.

At Kuching Waterfront, all wearing Kuching themed T-shirts bought from the Cat Museum.

.On our right, across the river, we could see the majestic Sarawak State Legistrative Assembly Building.

Sarawak State Legistrative Assembly Building.

On our left is Jalan Main Bazaar. The Main Bazaar was the downtown commercial centre of Kuching in its early days with its long row of typical Chinese shop houses. Many of these shop houses dates back to the early 1900s and earlier. They looked very similar to buildings in Singapore’s Chinatown area.

One of the fun activities to do at the waterfront is to take 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. This is also an opportunity to shop for more kek lapis at the village.

“Kek Lapis” means layered cake. Those from Singapore are familiar with the Indonesia-style layered cake rich in butter, called Kueh Lapis. In Kuching, the local bakers have been extremely creative to create multi-coloured and multi-flavoured variants.

There are a number of jetties along the waterfront where the sampan man will pick up and drop off passengers, offering a traditional mode of transportation that is popular with the locals and tourists.

I knew the cost of the ride was supposed to be 0.5 MYR per person but the boatman wanted 1 MYR per person for the one way trip. I did not bargain with the boatman since the fee was already affordable and this guy needs to make a living.

The motorised sampan plying the Sarawak River is a unique feature along the Kuching Waterfront. 

The 12 of us practically filled up the whole boat. One unique feature of this boat is the wooden tent-shaped roof over the passenger compartment.

Yanking a rope that ran across the roof of the boat, the boatman seated at the bow starts the outboard motor located at the back of the boat. Simple but effective remote control!
He steered the boat with a paddle from the front as the boat makes a slow turn towards the opposite bank.

Someone in the boat started to talk and joke about crocodiles in the river and the boatman was not too pleased to listen to this talk about the crocs.  A bit of superstition I guess. But then, yes. There are reported cases of crocs lurking in the river near the waterfront.

The trip across the river took only a few minutes. The boatman pulled another piece of rope to cut off the engine as we approached a jetty on the opposite shore.

Jetty at the Malay village or kampong on the opposite shore.

I told the boatman that we will take his boat back after we take a quick look-see in a kek lapis shop. He became our self-appointed tour guide, personally leading us to a kek lapis shop in the village.

The shop was quite similar to the Kek Lapis shop along Bishopgate Road earlier in the day. Since we had already bought our kek lapis from there, we did not buy any more.

It was sunny and hot at the village so we did not linger. After a quick visit, we took the same boat back to the waterfront. The boatman was eager to take us to the Astana but we declined his offer. 

Arriving back at the pier where we boarded the boat earlier, we continued our stroll down the waterfront.

We soon arrived at the Darul Hana Bridge, an iconic S-shape bridge along the Kuching Waterfront.

Darul Hana Bridge. The top of the structure is shaped like the head of a hornbill.

The best time to visit this bridge would be at night when it is beautifully lit, but we did not have that luxury.

We walked up the bridge under the scorching mid-day sun. There is a sheltered area at the top where we took a rest and enjoyed the breeze and the views.

The bridge is shaped like the letter 'S', linking the north and south bank of the Sarawak River.

View of Masjid Terapung, the “floating” mosque from the bridge.

The Astana, located on the north bank, is the official residence of the Governor of Sarawak. The Astana, then called Government House, was built in 1870 by the second White Rajah, Charles Brooke, as a wedding gift to his wife.

Resting at the sheltered area in the middle of the bridge.

Next to the Darul Hana Bridge is the Square Tower. This small white building was built in 1879 and used to serve as a prison and a fortress to protect the waterfront.

Square Tower at the Kuching waterfront.

We headed to the road junction where the Old Court house could be seen. The old Clock Tower and the Charles Brooke Memorial is in front of the Courthouse.

Old Court house in Kuching.

We continued down Jalan Gambier or Gambier Street. Some of the oldest shophouses in Kuching are found along this street. There are many sundry and stores and shops selling Indian spices and pastes with their pungent curry flavours.

  Dried anchovies for sale along Gambier Street.

We walked till the end of Gambier Street, turned left along Jalan Market. Most people would turn left into India Street and miss seeing some interesting street art on the walls along Jalan Market, just after the entrance to India Street.

Thanks to research prior to my trip, we did not miss the photo opportunities.

Orang Utan mural along Jalan Market.

“Girl with Pigeons “street art along Jalan Market.

Further down, there is a street with more street art.


After enjoying a few photo moments with the murals, we went to explore India Street.

The street got its name from the many Indian shops that occupied the place. Originally called “Kling Street” in the 1850s (Kling means Indian in Hakka), it was changed to India Street under Rajah Brooke’s administration in 1928.

India Street was converted into a pedestrian shopping mall in 1992. The street is lined with shops selling all kinds of goods.

India Street Pedestrian Mall.

One of the nice shop houses along India Street.

Street art could be seen on some side streets along India Street. I was more interested in some of the old buildings and street art than the goods on sale.

One of the colourful murals seen on a side lane along India Street.

India Street led us back to the Old Court House.

Beautiful mural at the side of building at end of India Street facing the Old Court House.

We ended our walking tour of Kuching’s Old Quarters at the Old Court House. Across the Old Court House is the entrance to Carpenter Street, where we started our day. Here, we contacted Brandon, our chartered van driver to pick us up.

After all the exertions on a particularly hot and sunny day, we told Brandon to take us to Swee Kang Ais Kacang for our tea break.

Swee Kang Ais Kacang coffee shop.

Swee Kang is known to serve good Ice Kacang, called ABC in Kuching. ABC is short for “Ais Batu Campur” which is translated from Malay as “Mixed Ice”. It is basically shaved ice topped with various syrups, grass jelly, condensed milk and sweet red beans.

Although nice on a hot day, I was somewhat disappointed by the Ice Kacang as I has tasted better ones back home in Singapore.

The coffee shop also has stalls selling delicious fried carrot cake, rojak and cucur udang (fried prawn fritters).

Variants of Ais Kacang and cucur udang (fried prawn fritters).

After our tea break, we took a slow drive to Top Spot Food Centre. We plan to end our Kuching trip with a nice seafood dinner at this place before taking a flight back home.

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Seafood Dinner at Top Spot Food Court in Kuching

23 December 2019

Everyone in my travel group enjoys seafood and we chose to end our visit to Kuching with a seafood dinner at Top Spot Food Court. The food court is actually located on the roof of a 6 storey car park along Jalan Padungan in Kuching. Although it is located on the roof top, the stalls and eating areas are under shelter.

There are dozens of seafood stalls and Ling Loong Seafood stall is one the stalls that visitors raved about. This operator has 2 stalls at Top Spot Food Court: Stall 6 and Stall 33.

Our guide cum van driver named Brandon called and made reservations for us at a Stall No. 6.

Since we had to be at the airport for our flight home later in the evening, we arrived at about 4 PM for drinks and an early dinner. We were probably the first visitors for dinner that day.

Our travelling group in front of Stall 6, Ling Loong Seafood.

Fresh garoupa at the Ling Loong stall. One of the best fish to eat in Kuching is the Red Spotted Coral Grouper (七星班). This is the red fish with larger elongated spots.

Although we could have ordered from the menu, it is best to go see and pick the fresh seafood items that were displayed on ice or kept in cooler boxes. The fresh seafood is sold by weight. After selecting the items, they are weighed in front of us and method of cooking can be discussed and agreed.

We wanted to order mud crabs but we were too early. The stock had not arrived yet. Fortunately, the local lobsters were available at 150 MYR per kg.

We ordered 3 medium sized lobsters with a combined weight of 1.92 kg. The lady suggested that the lobsters be grilled, served with salt and black pepper.

Grilled lobsters

We also ordered large tiger prawns, to be cooked with spring onions, garlic and butter.

Tiger prawns cooked with butter and garlic.

In addition to prawns from the sea, Sarawak is also a good place to saviour the river prawns. These are fresh water prawns that have large heads, thick short bodies and long blue pincers. Local fishermen fished them out from the local rivers with a fishing line and tiny hook.  

The staff at Ling Loong suggested cooking these river prawns with clams in a sweet and sour tamarind curry. Yummy.

River prawns, clams and okra in tamarind curry.  My favourite dish of the day.

For the fish dish, one of the best fish to eat at a seafood restaurant in Kuching is the highly prized Red Garoupa. This fish has delicate texture and is best eaten steamed. 

Red Spotted Coral Grouper (七星班) steamed with ginger and spring onions.

Squid in spicy black pepper sauce.


One of the non-seafood dish we had was the home-made Tofu dish.

The staff serving us was friendly and could recommends some of the locals’ favourite dish.

One must-try vegetable dish in Kuching is the midin.

Top: Raw midin fern. Bottom: Stir fried midin with garlic.

The midin fern is a variety of the Fiddlehead fern and is only found in Sarawak. Only the curly young and delicate shoots are harvested and eaten.

We ordered 2 plates of the midin fern. One plate was stir-fried with sambal belacan (spicy) and the other was just stir-fried with garlic (non-spicy). When cooked, it has a slippery texture similar to that of kangkong but chewier. I was glad my travelling companions, who are tasting this dish for the first time, enjoyed the dish.

Another local speciality is the crispy oyster pancake. This dish is different from the oyster omelette served in West Malaysia and Singapore. The paper thin dough, with juicy fresh oysters on top, is fried till crispy. Personally, I preferred the version back home.

Sarawak’s crispy oyster pancake.

Overall, we had a wonderful seafood feast at Top Spot Food Court. Although the cooking could be better, our meal was definitely value for money. 

A portion of our feast at Top Spot Food Court. Some dishes were half eaten before the picture was taken.

Seafood dinner for 12 persons for 708 MYR! Drinks excluded.

Taking a famous line from Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Terminator movies, “I’ll be back!”

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