Round The World and other travels

Cat City and a purr-fect storm

Heavens - December had arrived already and I was already nearly a week into this latest trip; on both counts, how did that happen?! The day started with the first of what would be, by the end of my stay, a total of three breakfasts in the Executive Lounge of the Hilton Kuching. In line with recent experiences in Singapore, it seemed to be a lot quieter in the morning than at evening cocktail hour. Perhaps I just get up earlier than most people. In any event, the lounge staff had put out a good spread and the ability to order freshly cooked eggs was a welcome benefit.

As I ate and enjoyed the morning views across the city and the river, it seemed like a good time to take stock of where I was. Kuching, a city of around 700,000 people, is the capital of Sarawak, one of two semi-autonomous Malaysian states located on Borneo, an island that is also home to the small sovereign nation of Brunei and a sizeable chunk of Indonesia. Having been controlled for many years by Brunei, Sarawak was ceded to British adventurer James Brooke in the mid-19th century, starting a dynastic period known as the Rule of the White Rajahs. Following Japanese occupation during World War II, Sarawak was then a British crown colony until 1963, when it merged with Sabah, Malaya and Singapore to form the new country of Malaysia. (Singapore subsequently dropped out to become independent in 1965.)

After breakfast, I called at the Hilton's in-house travel agency to arrange my Semenggoh trip for Tuesday morning. It seemed quite expensive by Malaysian standards, no doubt made worse by my being a solo traveller. In fairness, they did say that if another passenger came along, I'd be given a partial refund. Today's objective was to explore Kuching on foot, and hopefully by some form of riverboat. I began by walking along the waterfront in the opposite direction to previously. Veering inland, I soon arrived at what my map indicated to be the first in a line of three cat-themed statues. Due to the similarity of its name to the Malaysian word for 'cat', Kuching is sometimes given the nickname Cat City. 

RIGHT: Early morning views of Kuching, including one of the cat statues. The Malaysian word kucing, pronounced the same way but written minus the 'h', means 'cat'.

Shortly thereafter I arrived at the colourful and attractive Tua Pek Kong temple, said to be the oldest Chinese temple in the city. Apparently there is disagreement about exactly how old it is, but everyone seems sure that it is pre-19th century. I noted the adjacent, pink-painted Chinese History Museum, but decided to confine my visit to the temple.

RIGHT and BELOW: Tua Pek Kong Chinese temple

I arrived back at the waterfront in good time to board a one-hour river cruise in a traditional Iban longboat, the Iban people being one of the indigenous tribes of Borneo. The cruise got off to a somewhat inauspicious start, with our boatman casting off and then spending many minutes leaning down into the engine compartment, trying to coax the vessel into life. Apart from myself and two Malaysian men, most of the passengers were members of a large Indian family. I suspect that everybody was thinking the same: are we, or aren't we?

Once the craft had coughed and spluttered into life, the cruise began by heading upriver for a bit, past the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly and the Astana (Governor's Palace), built in 1870 by the second White Rajah, Charles Brooke. Turning around and heading downriver, we passed another notable left-bank building for which the second member of the Brooke dynasty was responsible: Fort Margherita, originally intended to protect Kuching from pirates. I was struck throughout the cruise by the scarcity of bridges across the Sarawak River, and by the contrast between Kuching's cityscape to one side, and the quiet, rural nature of the villages to the other.

The Hilton's coffee shop, Caffè Cino, provided an enjoyable light lunch, after which I was ready to head back outside and once more along the Kuching waterfront, taking care on this occasion not to get in the way of a group of the city's finest, who were on patrol using pedal power (see left). I tried not to linger in now-familiar parts of the riverside walkway, and instead pressed on towards Kuching's old town area, where I made my first stop at the restored Old Courthouse building, now home to the Sarawak Tourism Board. The district also contained a small Chinatown area, a textile museum and the India Street pedestrian precinct. Sadly the latter was completely dug up in preparation for repaving.

The Old Courthouse and Kuching's Chinatown district

Finding myself once again at the waterfront, I took a few minutes to admire the views, which combined warm sunshine with increasingly threatening skies. I walked around past the Brooke Dockyard to the pink, white and gold spectacle of the Masjid Bahagian mosque, with the skies becoming darker by the minute.

Just as on the previous day, afternoon storm clouds begin to gather

Shortly thereafter the inevitable happened and the heavens opened. Despite having an umbrella, I was soaked through by the time I made it back to the Hilton, but in this climate I wasn't even the slightest bit cold. The situation wasn't helped by the fact that I'd taken a wrong turning along the way, ending up well off course. No harm was done, though, and I went straight into the shower on my return, then dried off my wet clothes and trainers using the hotel-room hairdryer!

After recovering my composure and having a rest, it was soon time for the familiar routine of cocktails and canapés in the Executive Lounge. The previous day's Japanese theme had now been dropped, but it was still a pleasant enough offering. Later, following a tip from Bruce, I selected Char Kway Teow (a popular Malaysian noodle dish) for my room service dinner.

Monday 01 Dec

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