Kuching Trip - June 2009

It surely took me a long time to update my blog about this Kuching trip... hehehe..

We took the 1920 flight to Kuching and reached by about 2100. Straight headed to the hotel to check in and rest for the night. The next day have been planned with full activities :

1. Sarawak Cultural Village all the way in Santubong

2. A quick stop to get some some Sarawak layer cakes ( kek lapis)

3. Look around for some Sarawak mat (tikar Sarawak)

4. Semenggoh Wildlife Centre to see orang utan

5. get some ikan terubuk masin

1. Sarawak Cultural Village

The trip to Santubong was about 45 minutes from Kuching. The cultural village is placed at the foor of Gunung Santubong, near the coast. The drive up there with Abg Jai was pleasent, in fact he commented that he rarely goes above 80kmh in Kuching, unlike over at the Peninsular where 80 kmh is considered snails pace.

We stopped by a resort before the SCV as we have been told that it would be easier rather than buying the tickets at the park itself, as its a Saturday and its bound to have a lot of visiotr. The plan was to have ample time to view all the houses there, 7 to be exact. From memory, those houses are, Rumah Cina, Melayu, Melanau, Orang Ulu, Iban, Bidayuh & Pernan Hut.

The idea is that you could explore all of Sarawk in half a day. We started the journey anti closkwise, meaning that we started with the Chinese farmhouse, Melayu, Melanau, Orang hulu, Penan, Bidayuh & Iban. We barely manged to finish all of it before heading to the hall where the cultural show is hels. The cultural show took about 45 mins, and it showcased the different culture within Sarawak. One of the higlights of the show was when the Penan warrior asked a Minah Sallaeh to go ont he stage with him as his 'prey' and asked her to use a blowpipe on a bllon aboot 30 feet away.

At the entrance to the cultural village

Peppercorn plant - no white or black variety - that depends on the processing later on

Aiman trying out the traditional mill

2. Kek Lapis Dayang Salhah

Next on the list is the kek lapis sarawak. Our guide for the day suggested Kek Lapis Dayang Salhah, which is siutated in Kg Gerisik, Petrajaya. The shop is actually opposite where we stayed across the river and we could actually take a sampan across for rm0.50/person..cool or what.. Sample of the cakes were available so that prospective customers couls have a taste & choose what they like....for me all of them are nice..one thing good about them is that the cakes would be paked nicely in a box so that it is easy for you to take on the filght.

Another thing that you shouldnot miss is the longan juice seller outside the kedai, so nice & sweet for a hot sunny day..we all regreted that we only bought one bottle..

Entance to the kedai/factory

After the kek lapis shop, we headed out for lunch at Pasar Satok before heading out for some terubuk masin. Here they also will packe your order for your convenience to take onto the filght. The compelted package looks like a box of laptop..hehe. At the airport, you could suss out which of them had gome to the kek lapis & which had gone to ikan terubuk..

3. Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre

This is the orang utan rehabilitation centre, where the orang utan could be viewd int heir natural habitat. The feeding rpogram is held at in the jungle, about 250m trek. As the guide said, orang utan ni tak tunggu kita, bila dia nak makan dia makan, lepas dia makan dia masuk hutan balik. There are about 26 orang utans in the centre, and even though they are in close proximity with human, we are not allowed to be near them as they are stilll wild.

After the wildlife centre, we headed back to Kuching for some shoppinh which include searching for tikar sarawk & souvenirs. Then we headed back to the hotelfor a dip in the pool and some time to relax before taking the boat for dinner. Dinner was at the opposite of the river. Food wise, Sarawak is a lot better then Sabah but the transportation cost is quite high.

The next day were spent free & easy...stroll along the Pasar Satok for some pucuk midin & kapur kering, both of which were not found. My 18-55 lens start to act up, hence could only do manual focus hence missing out on a lot ot photo opportunity. I found that this trip is really ok and wouldn't mind visiting Kuching again, except that the transportation cost are quite high. A taxi to Pasar Satok from Hilton costs Rm12/way, whilst from Hilton to Grand Margherita is RM8 (5 mins drive). The cost for us to rent a taxi (15 seater van to be exact) & guide for the day is RM230.

It has been an enjoybale trip apart from the loss of personal belongings - adi lost her catarina at LCCT even before we got on the plane, abang lost his P-qaq and moi left my cleanser there. Hmm, thats the fact of life I guess, u gained memories but left some of you behind...