Trip to Sarawak

Let’s keep things brief. I took an Air Asia flight to Sarawak from LCCT, which is terminal just beside KLIA. However, you need to take a bus and make a small trip before reaching there. The terminal is better than I expected, despite all the bad comments I found online. Unlike KLIA, it is single storey. Shops such as McDonalds, Asian Kitchen and Coffee Bean are available there.

My host for this trip is Pei Jiuan. She was my “tour guide” around Kuching as well. Pei Jiuan has 3 younger siblings and they are cute. They have 2 dogs in their house, Jimmy and Bell Bell.

Kuching is a bigger city than I imagined. There are lots of cars. Some of the imported cars here are not found in West Malaysia. Sarawak car plates starts with Q. Kuching car plates starts with QK or QA. For Sibu, it starts with QS.

The most common dialect there is Hokkien. However, it is somehow different from the Hokkien use in Penang. Many of the local ethics here attended Chinese schools and can speak Mandarin. There are not many tall buildings around the city, but there are a lot of shop lots. There are nice handicrafts here. In fact, there are too many nice things that I was having a tough time deciding what to buy as souvenirs. I especially like the cravings and local patterns. There are many interesting and unique furniture, influence by the local designs. You can find many of those shops near Sarawak Waterfront. Sarawak Waterfront is a place that you must visit at night. It looks very nice when the lights along the Waterfront are lightening up. The clay pots there are very nice, comes in a number of designs and for different functions. Nonetheless, they are cheap!

There are several old buildings here which are built since the Brookes era, such as Astana, the General Post Office, Sarawak Museum, Texttile Museum and the old court. Most of museums are located near to each other. There are a number of old temples in Kuching, more than 100 years old. Sarawak Museum is place that you must go if you want to know more about the local ethics. Entrance is free. The temples are well maintained and you can still see the beautiful cravings on the ceilings and on the roof. Most of the ethics here are Christian. Wild boar is their favorite meat. As for new places, you can visit the new China-Malaysia Friendship Garden. It is a very nice garden with statues, a lake and a tea house just beside the lake.

Kuching is famous for its Kok Lo Mee, which is almost similar to Wanton Mee, without the wanton. There is a stall selling Kok Lo Mee with own made noodle. I like the vege noodle. It is delicious! The laksa there is different from Penang and is more to Curry Mee. In addition, there are many weird cooking materials which cannot found in West Malaysia. It is interesting to see them in the Sunday Market. Sunny Market is held weekly and ethics living in villages far away will come and sell their goods. They will leave only after finish selling them. Of course, the locals will also sell their goods and products. There are many stalls and the whole area is crowded. Getting a parking lot is extremely difficult.

The political structure and culture in Kuching is very different from in West Malaysia. The city is divided into North and South and there are 2 mayors in the city. The Malays normally stay in the North part and the Chinese normally stay in the South part. Thus, normally the North part mayor is a Malay and the South part mayor is a Chinese. The City Hall is another place that you should visit.

There are many illegal immigrants from Indonesia in Kuching and the safety there is not very good. Gas cylinders are being stolen from houses, but there are no serious crimes so far.

There are many caves and national parks in Sarawak, but they cannot be reached easily and normally the trip is expensive. Unlike the caves in Ipoh and Perlis where they have lights over the place, there are no lights around the area and you will need to bring along torchlight.

I will upload the pictures on my trip later. So, stay tune.