Saturday, November 7th
Well, it was extremely difficult to sleep as I was not able to get my feet into a comfortable position so I ended up continuously contorting. Eventually I did manage to at least get a few hours though in time to wake up for breakfast. I picked the Asian option - Congee (rice porridge with a few mushrooms on top) - Mel picked the “English grill” which seemed a bit heavy to me after two dinners last night/this morning/whenever it was.
We arrived a few minutes early into Kuala Lumpur airport at just after 3 in the afternoon (local time). I have been here before on my way to/from Australia last year but this was Mel’s first visit so I was keen to show her what there was to see (not really a lot) but first a stop in the toilets for a much needed comfort break. Here half of the toilets are “western” (seats) and the other half are “Asian” (squat) so for us it is always important to check which stall you are going into. The international arrivals consists of four spokes leading out from a central section that has a small outdoor “rainforest” that you can walk through but this could wait for our return journey when we would have a bit more time, now we had to transfer to one of the domestic terminals for our trip to Kuching using the high speed automatic electric trains. On the train we could see the clouds coming in - It is rainy season here and it was pretty clear we were going to see some rain very shortly.
Arriving in the terminal, we passed through customs and made our way to the gate for our next flight but, of course, we were way too early. We fired up our phones and connected to the free Wi-Fi in the terminal to see what we had missed during the flight (not much, a lot of spam…easy enough to deal with…delete, delete, delete..). I spent some time looking for the Formula 1 track which is immediately adjacent to the airport though I did not remember the exact direction though we did spot the top of the main grandstands.
Looking at a drink machine the tins of soft drinks are 1 ringgit (roughly 16p). In the UK you would be lucky to find a machine that would sell you the same tin for 50p - most of the time significantly more. Being from Canada we were also surprised to see A&W rootbeer on offer - We can’t even find that in the UK! Certainly a steal so we were shocked to find how much drinks were when we stopped in a small café in near our gate - The menu was mostly in Malay and Chinese but the helpful staff took our order of a latte and fresh orange juice. These were 13.80 (£2.16) and 15.90 (£2.48) respectively, a far cry from the 16p drinks in the machine. It was nice to sit in the café and look out the floor to ceiling windows watching the rain come in. I also amused myself watching the airport ground crews driving through the stop sign on the road outside the window.
We eventually migrated to the gate lounge where a television was blaring advertising for a wonderful, compact washing machine. It was ignored by all. Nice looking screen on it though (UHD for the geeks amongst those reading this). On the plus side I did manage to have the air crew rearrange our seats so we were close together. True it was pretty much at the back of the small plane (28 C and B) but it was only a short flight anyway. What I will say about the flight is this: Great peanuts, I caught the first half of the new Steve Jobs movie (yeah, not bad, made me nostalgic for those times which I remember quite clearly) and we were fed again a small snack. An hour and a half later we arrived in Kuching, at about 8 pm.
Arriving at Kuching we were surprised to have to go through immigration/customs again but I guess they have problems with the movement of people between the two areas of Malaysia. After retrieving our bags we could see the rather crowded arrival hall and I had a brief fear that we would not spot Sian but spot her I did leaning against a post waiting for us. She has not changed from how I remember her - All smiles and happy to see us. Indeed, after a long day or so of travel we were very pleased to see her too.
It was nice to be outside again as we made our way to her car - A Toyota Prius that she purchased when they first came out with all of the options - Very nice and, thankfully, with air conditioning. It is not terribly hot but very humid. Leaving the small airport we drove along quite nice roads to get to Sian’s house. In many ways the houses remind me of what I remember in Africa - Mostly compounds with walls (some topped with broken glass or barbed wire) with concrete houses and roofs built to shed the high volume of water dumped on them this time of year. Drainage ditches run alongside the road but the sewers appear to be below ground. Of course the trees are all exotic to us - Palm, mango, coconut, etc. To be honest, I was expecting more of a big city but Kuching does not appear to be that at all. Much more residential and quiet.
Sian’s house has a electronic gate which she opened then parked the car under the cover of the first floor overhang. The front part of the property is covered with clean tiles and the front door has a metal grate and door that she let us into. The first room is the living room which is quite sparsely decorated with a sofa, chair and coffee table (evidently this was purchased by her parents as she is not really into “things”). She has no television as it is of no interest to her. I think a large part of her life is work so possessions are not important. The next room over is the dining room with a modest table then the next room is the kitchen - accessible by passing through a Japanese-style half-height drape hanging from the top of the door - which she does use but a lot of time her parents down the road cook for her or she is over visiting. To the immediate left of the dining room (as you enter) is her office then there is a (squat - hey, it is important to know these things!) toilet at the bottom of the stairs that lead to the first floor. There we were put into one of her guest rooms in the front of the house - She had made up a mattress on the floor along with air conditioning and a fan! It was quite chilly coming from the humidity into the room but it certainly was a lot drier! Across the hall from our room is a small (seat) toilet room with a shower in the corner.
We spent a few minutes unpacking and relaxing before heading back out. On the way from the airport Sian had asked us if we were perhaps a bit hungry so we agreed - Perhaps a bit of a mistake that. As we left her house she took us past a large roundabout with a massive statue of a hornbill (bird) in the middle telling us that this was probably the closest we would get to seeing their national bird in the flesh. We drove by the rather impressive hospital where she works in paediatrics. Passing through a few more roundabouts we eventually arrived at a hive of activity and looked for a parking space which was quite difficult but we managed to eventually squeeze in.
This is a “hawker market”, specifically, “Premier 101 Food Center” (Jalan Tun Jugah, 93350 Kuching). A “hawker market” is a series of stalls selling inexpensive food arranged around a large seating area. You find a table then order food from wherever you like and they bring it to your (numbered) table. Payment can be in advance at the stall or when it arrives at your table.
This market is surrounded by buildings on all sides so from the street you can’t really see it. The surrounding buildings have businesses that are open during the day but were closed when we arrived at what must have been about 9:30 or 10 pm.
This is my sort of place. I was busy looking at what each stall had to offer and marvelling at the incredibly cheap prices. The food was being cooked fresh and took a bit of time to arrive at our table despite not being terribly busy. People sitting at the other tables did not seem to mind and no one paid us much attention. Evidently this is the way a lot of people spend their evenings - chatting and eating in a hawker market. No one seemed in too much of a hurry.
Anyway, our food eventually arrived at our table, 79, after we had made our decisions though Sian had largely selected for us, thankfully, since we were pretty sleepy by now: Mushroom tempura (incredible - delicate batter on an assortment of wonderful mushrooms - enoki, oyster, etc. - not at all greasy and very moreish), what appeared to be Japanese mochi except covered with a light peanut powder (very nice), a few containers of fresh fruit (some of which we could not identify but was very refreshing), BBQ chicken wings (Sian has become vegetarian so gave this a miss but it was very meaty and tasty). Sian had paid for much of it though we did manage to beat her paying for the chicken wings when they arrived… We learned that as we had picked a seat in a particular area there was a drink seller that we had to use so we had whatever they were selling (a tea of some sort) - So there is a bit of a science to this. Sian indicated that when a big football game is on they will have a large television screen and the place will be packed with people watching it. Considering that there are probably at least 50 or 60 tables that seat about 6 people each – That is a lot of people!
As we returned to the car we peaked into a closed fruit seller to spot the various exotic fruit they take for granted here: Mangos, star fruit, lychees, plantain, odd looking and shaped bananas, papaya…All, of course, at very reasonable prices.
On the way back we agreed that Mel and I needed a bit of a sleep so we would not visit the Orangutan Sanctuary tomorrow. Yes, Orangutans…But you have to visit them early in the morning to catch them being fed otherwise you will likely not see them.
Thanking Sian for the evening and again for putting us up (or up with us?) we headed off to bed. She has thoughtfully put water bottles by the side of the bed. It will be important in the heat to stay hydrated even though it is so humid. I am not so sure how well I will sleep tonight as it is quite cool…ok, cold…in the room. We did shut off the fan but it is still pretty chilly and the sheets don’t look terribly warm.
One thing that has been bothering me is my mobile (cell) phone. I am not getting a signal. Normally this would not be a problem as, hey, I am on holiday but the problem is a bit more complicated than that. I have told my bank that I will be abroad and where I will be but in my experience the first time I use my bank card or credit card they will call me to verify that it is really me making the purchase. With my phone not working they will not be able to get ahold of me and, in the worst case, could cancel my cards. This would be a bit of a disaster. I suppose it is not really that bad though since Mel has a signal and she has money in her account that we can use…but I am a bit worried about this.