A City of Cats

Love cats?

So I had a little getaway to Kuching, Sarawak. Stayed at Margarita Hotel. It was ok. I forgot how much it cost to/from the airport. It's a fix fee for taxi. 

It's quite spacious. I just love king size bed. So much room to throw your bag on.

The bathroom was ok. The bathtub is just way to tiny. Taking a shower was not fun. I rather they have just a proper shower. Water will get out and wet the bathroom floor and I hate wet floor.

The hotel view. There's a mountain, remind me of HK. The weather was ok. Quite hot, but not as crazy as Sg. 

This is the many choice of breakfast food. It has a pretty ok selection. I love the black olive and the toasted bread with olive oil. I like putting walnut in yogurt too. There's cute mini pancakes and waffles but I never take that. 

You have to eat midin, their traditional veggie. Its really good and I don't know where else you can find it. We ate ours at Top Spot. Basically it's like a food center like Newton, but it's just seafood stalls. 

Our stingray is huge. It's 1.2kg. It's overcook and doesn't taste like the normal stingray. We tabao it in the end. Like 700g of it and ate it for supper with cup noodles. The curry bamboo clam is unique and it's quite nice especially if you dip the fried sotong in. 

You have to eat the lobster there as its pretty cheap. Wanted to get the one huge lobster, but it was sold out. We were a tad too slow. 

Another food you have to eat is their noodle(kolok mee) and the 3 layers coffee(teh c peng). It's hard to see the layers from this photo but it's there. I do prefer the hot one. 

Our last dinner was spent in Koka. It was normal, slightly cheaper than Sg. But I feel the one in Sg is nicer. And they have their regular there, so we wasn't treated as what I had expected. My standard is quite high. I can say my partner was not complaining. But I miss Koka fried rice. It's one of the nicest fried rice I've tasted. Oh I finally tried fried ice cream, it's quite nice, from the food vendors along the Sarawak river (Waterfront), but it's way too oily. 

Lastly we eat the kueh lapis. Tried ours from Dayang Salhah as it was recommended as the best. I don't know cause I never tried the rest. But we had to cross the river to get there. It was nice in the shop, you can try as much as you want, but when we bring it home it was just so-so. So go there, experience the RM0.5 per person per sampan ride, and taste the kueh. Maybe buy one if you feel bad, but it really wasn't nice when eaten at home. 

So ya, we stroll a lot. Got hot and feel sian. It was relaxing, but I just wish there were more food around. A pointless relaxing 4 days if you ask me. 

If you also ask why I didn't go to their museum or visit the long houses? I will say I find it pointless. From travel bloggers and pictures, I feel that I've seen it that I've experienced it. So the money spend going there is not worth. Rather just chill in the hotel with air con and HBO. Yes lame, but it's good lazy days. Doing nothing is my favorite thing to do. Especially since when you go back to Sg, you have to do everything. So I rather like my nothingness. But if I were to choose all over again, I think I would have book a place near the sea. Their beach(es) looks nice. And maybe go for trekking or something. This is the first trip that we go and we know nothing about. So it's pretty scary and confusing. But the main reason to go there is just for chilling and enjoyment. 

So ya. Oh, we did went to the mall, empty inside. Tua Pek Kong Temple, the oldest temple, to offer some incense. Walk through the Chinatown, really old feel and not enough snacks/food store. The wet market was pointless too. It will be great if you have a kitchen to cook at, but nah. 

I feel Kuching is like an empty Bali. There are many pubs around. A few clubs and stuff, but it's just too empty. There is a potential if tourist would just visit. Like a party island, but I doubt they want that as their tourism strategy. But yes, potential. All I could think of when I see the vacant shops or the empty store was how do these people survive?

As a cat city, there wasn't much cats too. I only saw maybe 3/4 in total. So all in all I feel you really need to be a city kid to visit Kuching as only then you'll get to enjoy doing the touristy stuff. It's a nice town with a flair of all religion living in harmony. Everywhere you look, you'll see a temple, a mosque and a church building. It's really cool. Hindus temple too I guess. Red, white and green living in harmony. I really like that. But yes, if you want to get off the busy life and want travel by plane, Kuching may be a place you can hide. If not, a boat ride sanctuary to Batam is ideal.

Oh there's nothing much at the airport. So don't reach the airport too early. The duty free is cheaper in Sg. For more info, just search "what to do in Kuching" on Google.