Kuching, baby yeah!

Here's the lil kitty statue at Padungan. Padungan is Kuching's version of say Bangsar. Lots of cosy lil cafes with overpriced coffee and places to eat. Nice area. Went to Bing's cafe on the first night courtesy of Aaron. Nice atmosphere with dimmed lighting, weird music and the disturbing background sounds of the blenders whirring in the kitchen. Must try the chocolate blended icy stuff. Got Ee Yan a bit talkative.

Then we went to the beach on the second day! Stayed in a chalet in Damai Lagoon. Blardy quiet place with not much to do so all we did was hang out in the room and sleep sleep sleep. Especially Ee Yan. He went home after our stay at the beach so his Kuching trip was filled with hours and hours of... sleeping. Ah that's him then.

That's the beach we had in Damai Lagoon. It had a lot of Mister Krabs like this one:

So we played around with them and tried to get them to dig up holes for us! Videos later.

Me and Cherie.

Van and I at the longer beach in Damai Beach Resort. Har har.

Joy at the beach. Hehe.

We came back on Saturday. On Sunday we went to Jong's Crocodile Farm courtesy of Aaron's dad. When I told Van's dad we were going there, he gave a grin and asked "Ha? No crocodile farms in KL?" Hahah. He's a funny guy. Aaron tried telling him that Van looked a lot like him and he replied, "Of course! She's my daughter!" Haha.

There's a bunch of crocs you see at the croc farm. =P

Here's a video of the crocs during feeding time. They tied a bird carcass to a line which spans the middle of the body of water then they reel the line so the carcass is in the middle and hanging a lil low. Let the crocs feast! No sound tho.

Here's a weird tailless crocodile that you can see at the farm.

Did I mention Ee Yan went home to KL after the beach trip in which he slept practically the whole time? He had a family dinner to attend on Saturday night. Anyhoos, he missed all the free dinners despite paying more for his plane tickets. Sighness. All the post-dinner trips to Travillion too... it's this area with a whole row of pubs and coffee houses; the closest thing to clubbing that Kuching will ever get although I've got an inkling that it's only happening on Saturday nights.

On Monday Aaron and Rinoa celebrated their first month anniversary so Cherie brought us out in her mom's Mercedes. We went to the Golden Arch for our lunch of Sarawak laksa. I added too much lime so it ended up tasting pretty sour. My bad. Then we were off to the museums! First was the Museum of Enthomology I think... They displayed models of animals like orangutans, wild boars, hornbills, etc. Even had skeletons of whales. Upstairs had displays showcasing the lives of the orang asli in Swak. The handcrafts of these people freak me out.

No photos allowed in the museum so we went out to the Museum Gardens to camwhore!

Taken by Van. =)

The gardens had a fountain that didn't contain any water. Hmmmm.... so we had ais kacang at the well-known Summerhouse located a short walk through the gardens behind the museums. It's a famous hangout for schoolkids before or after school. Splendid place to sit down and have a bowl of cooling ais kacang as you discuss the latest issues happening in your school. It's also where Van used to check out guys:

Went to the Cat Museum after that. My type of place! You had to pay like RM4 to be allowed to take photos in the museum but they don't check cuz Cherie didn't pay and she still took pics. Haha. Aaron said he already paid RM1000++ for his digital cam and now he has to pay more to take pics with it. He shoulda just kept mum about his camera like Cherie did.

Here's a really cute and furry model of a sleeping cat. Oh and there were Japanese tourists with large cameras snapping photos of Aaron and Rinoa as they posed beside a statue of a cat-couple with hearts on their collars. Odd.

Went to Main Bazaar on Tuesday to buy souvenirs. Spent a lot on various junk like a wooden kitty bank (to hold my coins), a mug, black pepper, pepper grinders (note the plural term), pua kumbu (piece of cloth with a traditionally woven design for me mum), pens for you guys, pepper sweets, coconut sweets, a bag sponsored by Aaron (heheh, nice guy) and I think that's it. My travel bag got a LOT heavier after that. Oh and Rinoa, yes, RINOA bought a headhunter shirt with a freakish picture of human skulls tied up and hanging in front. Me and Cherie thought that was sooo un-Rinoa of her. Morbid gal.

Watched the Da Vinci Code on Tuesday night. The cinema was located on the top floor of a carpark building. Kuchingites looovee their parking space. The building is like 8 floors of carpark and then one cinema on the roof. There's only one lane for the cars to pass in the carpark so you can imagine the congestion after a movie has finished. Another place had 5-6 floors of carpark and a seafood court called Top Spot on the rooftop. Odd.

Slept through the Da Vinci Code. But judging from what Van says, I guess I didn't miss much. =P

Had a walk through the Waterfront the next day. Ate at Khatulistiwa which is this overpriced restaurant beside the river. They got my order wrong and the food didn't seem fresh. I ended up paying RM9.90 for a plate of dodgy fried rice. *sob

Went for the sampan ride to the other side of the Kuching River. It costs 30cents per person. Quite a cool ride. Wanted to go to Ford Margherita but it was closed. So on the other side of Kuching River, we saw a closed down Orchid Farm, construction sites, a tall tower which served a purpose we could not figure out and fountains that contain no water. Hmmmm. Took a few pics then went back to the other side.

On my last night in Kuching, I chilled at Van's place reading and watching TV. Not to say we didn't do the same thing on other nights but just to record it down. Guess all the late nights got to us lazy scumbags. Tee heee.

The next day, Van and I woke up early to tapau Sarawak laksa for me to bring home. Then got a whole box of buttermilk buns which are really really good! Van's mum belanja-ed all, thanks again! Hehe. Dumped the laksa in the freezer with hopes of freezing it by the time we left for the airport (didn't happen tho). Went off for lunch with Aaron and had tomato mee which was really really GOOD!! So much good food there which you can't find in KL. =(

Struggled to stuff all the tapaued food into my brown tote bag then went off to the airport which is like 10mins drive from Van's place. It's really really near unlike KLIA. Got to see this million dollar metal thing which roughly resembles a hornbill. The state of Kuching spent a million dollars on it. The things you ppl do.

Oh yea, didn't mention the elections were going on in Kuching while we were there. Pretty rough stuff this. All the banners insulted the other parties, they blast other parties in the papers, etc. Even the Padungan kitty statue had a flag stuck onto its hand.

Food was good in Kuching. A lot of the times, dinner was belanja-ed by the parents of Aaron, Van and Cherie. Thanks again you guys! Especially Van who put up with my odd sleeping habits like stealing her glasses and suffocating her although I assure you I have no recollection of the latter so Van might have been making these stories up!

K, gonna end this super long post already! All in all, Kuching rocks!