It has been an epic journey of discovery but as the Autumn festival comes to an end here in Kuching so does my stay. I spent my last day looking at cars. I had heard the cars here are very inexpensive and some cost a whole lot less than in the U.S. The Proton car below is an EV and sells for about $30k USD.
The Chinese Jetour is a petrol car and is even cheaper in the high 20k USD and has impressive features.
This car below is from Perodua, Malaysia’s own car company, and sells for about $17k.
After the car tour, I went to pick up my custom made shirts.
The thing I love about Malaysian clothes are the bright and unique blend of color schemes often reflecting nature or Malaysian culture.
And since my journey started from Thailand in Asia, it felt appropriate to eat at a Thai restaurant with my generous hosts who drove me around and showed me all that Sarawak has to offer. Thank you for your kindness and generosity.
Excellent food all around.
The dish below is coconut curry and was amazingly delectable.
For desert sticky rice, mango and coconut milk.
I finished the evening heading to the closing ceremony of the Autumn festival. Lots of people, food, festivities and fun.
The river was lit up and I’m sad to be leaving soon.
I am changing hotels tomorrow then flying to my next destination so no posts for a couple of days.
I returned to the clinic in the morning to get my second round of rabies vaccination. It was an easy in and out taking no more than 10 minutes total. The cost for second dose was 235 RM.
After the vaccination, I went to the Sarawak Botanical Gardens. The gardens are huge and I only got to see a couple of areas as it started to rain lightly.
The Hanging Garden area is really nice, there are flowing plants hanging from trusses and other structures.
There is also a Limestone Forest features large limestone rocks.
The Sarawak parliament building is nearby (background) the gardens.
And if you’re in the area, you may as well stop and see this Brooke castle.
An interesting fountain cascading all the way down the hill.
I took a boat taxi back from the other side of the river.
On the other side there was a large tent with a plant and lighting festival going on.
Then I stopped by a nearby mall for lunch and much to my surprise, there was a concert going on inside the mall.
Later in the evening, I went out with my gracious host friends that took me to Gala city and we had an amazing meal at Tandoori Place, really great and fun place.
I only have a few days left here and it’s been an amazing journey. A few more loose ends to tie up before I go.
I had intended on going to the botanical gardens today but got this flood alert on my phone.
Yesterday, the rain came down pretty hard while we were out looking at real estate so I assumed the same today except it never rained near me although it looked like it might have.
By the afternoon, I went over to Carpenter St to try out a few more things.
First up, the double dragon sausage that turned out to be one dragon, I’ve been had!
Next up was a grilled corn on the cob which hit the spot. The corn was unusually sweet so not sure if they add sugar to these, people here really like sugar on everything.
I finished with a Portuguese custard that was alright, would have been better if it were served warm.
Bonus: Fried Chicken.
I asked around as to who has the best fried chicken in Kuching and most agreed it was McDonalds. I went over to try it and I think why it is considered the best is because the quality of the chicken is high. I suspect it is imported from the US because it had a US flavor to it and tasted different from all othe chicken I have had here and twice the size.
The normal fried chicken pieces here are normal sized and considered small by US standards but these McDonald pieces were huge. I couldnt finish the meal I bought so I took it home and had it the following day.
I change hotels again tomorrow and hopefully my tailor will have my shirts ready.
This morning started with a food tour. First stop was George Cafe and a normal breakfast dish of seafood noodles.
The dish below was quite good.
We took a walk along this market street.
And then stopped for peanut butter pancakes. They tasted just like they sound.
Next stop was a croissant that tasted like a samosa.
Then a penyaram.
It was hot and humid this morning so we had to cool off with a local ice coffee.
And finally we finished with an palm sugar ice cream.
Needless to say, the day was a sugar overload. It was all good but too much sugar. A few places we were supposed to visit were closed. Evidently some shops only open if the owner feels like opening and they didn’t feel like opening today.
Real Estate – Day 2
Visited this building in Kuching today, very nice.
BBQ pits
Salt water swimming pool.
Sadly, it began to rain heavily and werent able to see more properties today.
I’ve had ongoing issues with my back so I decided to check out Timberland Medical Center and see a specialist. I had tried to book an appointment here online but I never heard back using the web form so I used Whatsapp (the preferred comm tool here) to inquire about an appointment and they told me to come in. I headed out there and arrived at 9 a.m. Was checked in and by 9:15 a.m. I was seeing doctor who recommended X-Rays to see what was going on.
I was given number 3001 and the counter was at 1012 but much to my surprise the next number to appear was 3001. Total wait time for x-ray was about 8 minutes.
The x-ray got done in under 10 minutes and I had to wait another 15 minutes to see the doctor and the results. The doc gave me the results and a prescription that I could pick up at the pharmacy downstairs after I paid my bill. Here are the total costs:
Doctor (initial consultation): 169.60 RM ($40)
XRay Lumbosacral spine 2 views: 76.80 RM ($18.24)
Medication: 35.62 RM ($8.46)
Total: 282.01 RM ($67 USD)
No insurance, no extra long wait times, no scheduling months in advance (basically walked in), no over-priced services, no consultations with endless intermediaries, no arguments with insurance companies about the necessity of getting medical care. No surprise costs or insurance denials, just pure healthcare at a reasonable price.
I headed downstairs, with a giant envelope that had my x-ray, and waited about 4 minutes to get the meds.
I arrived at 8:54 a.m. and left at 10:39 a.m. according to the Grab log timestamps. A total of an hour and a half to get everything done and without insurance!
After the doc visit, I went to the Borneo Cultures Museum and was very satisfied with the exhibits and cultural education you can attain from attending such a place.
The cost for “foreigners” is 50 RM ($11.87).
There is a great deal of lore around the masks that I found very interesting.
There was a giant digital book that you could control by moving your arms around in the air and flip pages back and forth. Excellent experience although the interface was a bit clunky.
My biggest pet peeve with Kuching is that it is hostile to pedestrians. I was leaving the museum to head over to the mall in the background for lunch when the sidewalk suddenly ended. Yes, I walked through that gulley where the sidewalk reappeared on the other side.
I found a Subway at the mall and was nostalgic for a sandwich so I ordered a roasted chicken and it tasted much like Subway back home. The cost for 6″ sub and coke was 20 RM ($4.75) I guess the $5 dollar sub still exists but it’s in Malaysia.
22nd Inter-Cultural and Autumn Festival
I have been walking by this road many times, my tailor is a block from here but the stalls have always been closed. Today they were open so I decided to have dinner here.
Things I Ate… starting with these skewers.
Since there are so many fried chicken places everywhere, I am on a quest to find the best. This stuff was good and extra salty.
This thing had butter and egg inside, I was skeptical when a kid was trying to sell me on it but I tried it and it was amazing.
Washing it all down with ice cream and cookies sprinkles.
Things I Did NOT eat but wish I could…
Steamed crab.
Char-grilled oysters
You may have seen or tried dragon sausage but double dragon sausage? Only in Kuching!
They have baked potatoes then throw a pound of cheese on it then top it with corn.
This stuff smelled amazing.
If only I had two stomachs…
Make that three.
This guy had the best setup with chicken wings grilling to high heaven.
Portugues egg tarts…. 🙁
I am writing this post at my spot on the promenade, when its not too hot I come and sit hear. This evening is wonderfully cool and mellow.
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I checked out of Jazz City over at VivaCity Mall and moved to a new apartment down by the river. The new apartment has a spectacular view of the river and north side of Sarawak.
Changing hotels consumed most of the day and that was a good thing because it was hot and humid outside all day. I took a 20 minute walk around the river after checking into the apartment and was soaked in sweat.
The traffic from VivaCity down to the river was bad and it took longer than expected. I’m not sure how this city will deal with traffic over time when there is additional growth and population increases. Much of the land is spoken for already and areas that are not may be prone to flooding especially if there is more development.
There is a light rail project in progress that may help but that will take years to come to fruition.
Before I left VivaCity, I took this photo, in the center of the photo besides the divider there is a sign that reads: Not a pedestrian crossing. You will also see a pedestrian across the street ready to walk across. I walked across that myself to get to the strip mall across the street. Much of Kuching is NOT pedestrian friendly and many malls and shopping areas are built like “islands” that require a car to move between them.
I have a few things planned for tomorrow.
Categories: Kuching Sarawak Comments Off on Kuching: Day 5 – Relocation
This is as close you can get to an American breakfast at VivaCity although there is a place that sells butter waffles in sandwich form at the food court.
After breakfast I went to visit a couple of tailors. The first one had really nice clothes and fabrics but they were booked until November. Evidently some big event is happening in October and there is high demand for custom clothes. I was going to give up but came across another small tailor shop and walked in to inquire about custom shirts. I ordered three from the fabrics below and they should be ready in a week. Cost: 540 rm.
While I was here in Kuching there was an international cat festival but I did not attend the event since I only got my rabies shot yesterday I didn’t want to risk becoming infected 😉
It was a nice cool overcast day with sporadic rain which meant it was perfect weather to sail the river. The one hour tour went quite a bit west then circled back and went a bit east.
After the cruise, I headed back to the mall to get some foot relief for my shoes. The interior soles were wearing out and found this store that saved my feet. They had a machine that recommended a type of insole and the clerk let me try the “soft” ones and the “hard” ones, he (and the machine) recommended the hard ones, I was skeptical but they did the trick. Cost: 179 rm ($42).
The evening came to a conclusion when I met up with the local hosts living here and went to dinner at a place called Ember. The food was amazing. Below is an image of lamb pot pie – delicious.
Calamari on call.
This was charred corn but it ended up being charred and spicy corn. It was great but spicy.
Today is my last day at VivaCity and moving to a new location tomorrow.
Categories: Kuching Sarawak Comments Off on Kuching: Day 4 – Tailors, Sailors and Diners
The first order of business this morning was to head to the clinic for some vaccinations.
The cost matrix for the service:
Consultation Fee: 35 rm ($8.29)
Registration Fee: 10 rm ($2.37)
Rabies vaccine: 235 rm ($55.67) – Requires a follow up shot in 7 days
Influenza vaccine: 90 rm ($21.32)
Total cost: 370 rm ($87.65).
No insurance, no waiting, whole thing took 10 minutes. Why the rabies shot? Simple, so I can bite people without giving them rabies! That and there are a couple of reported deaths from rogue rabies bites here in Sarawak but there are likely more that go unreported.
After getting the vaccines done, it was time to head to Wisma Saberkas which is an overlooked electronics mall in Kuching. I picked up a forbidden phone to test SIM cards, network connectivity, speeds and reliability.
After the electronics mall, we headed to lunch at a place down by the river front.
Back at VivaCenter mall, I took a look at some other electronics and boy are things a bit pricey here. The OLED TV below is $2800 USD. It would be nice if they had a Costco here.
For some reason, the only security camera sold throughout Kuching and maybe Malaysia are TP-Link branded cameras.
Another curiosity in Kuching, are the endless variations of fried chicken and other fried foods. Fried chicken, however, has many different franchises here.
I think the reason for so many different fried chicken places is the style and country they come from such as Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, China, Japan and USA. Note that many restaurants also sell fried chicken but are not dedicated to fried chicken alone.
After returning to the mall, I bought a new sim card from another carrier to test speed and connectivity with my new phone. These guys had banners hanging all over the place from the mall and were aggressively pushing their service so I decided to give it a try.
I thought I had gotten a great deal with YES which provided 50gb for 20 rm $4.74, but UMobile provided 2200gb (2.2 TB) for 30 rm ($7)! The speed on Umobile (17 mb/s) @ 4G at the mall has been a lot faster than YES (2.5 mb/s) @ 5G.
I will continue to test both from different areas in Kuching.
With the vaccines taking a toll on the old body, I settled for a nice hot bowl of Ramen from Ajissen Ramen. Sadly they didnt have Tonkotsu so settled for some random bowl.
Then its publish this post and lights out.
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Woke up this morning with a bit of hunger and much to my surprised, I discovered I was locked in Kuching’s largest mall! I got up and took the elevator down from my apartment. When I got out of the elevator, the passageway to the mall was closed. I should have known since the mall opens at 10 a.m. but what I didn’t expect was not to have any way to access the ground floor from the third floor.
After walking around for a while and speaking with a security guard that didn’t understand what I was saying, I decided to follow the exit signs for cars down the garage ramps and ended up free. Sadly, the mall is a bit of an island surrounded by non-pedestrian roads so I finally ended up finding the sole open store within the mall early in the morning: a 7-11. I bought a cup of noodles and that became breakfast.
After having my delicious cup of ramen noodles I repeated the same “escape” exercise and walked across a non-pedestrian road to a nearby highly rated spa. The 2 hour deep tissue massage was amazing. This place is a luxury spa with three stories and offering tea, coffee and pastries when you’re massage is done. Cost $50.
After the massage, I got a haircut. Cost $50.
The rest of the day was spent with friends at their place here in Kuching then off to dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant but the food was more of a Malay-Vietnam fusion than anything else. The food was good but not traditionally Vietnamese nor Malaysian.
To prevent from going hungry in the morning, I stopped by the grocery store in the mall’s basement and picked up some cereal, grapes and pastries at a nearby bakery.
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