Oh Borneo - My stay in Kuching

Brellowgirl
Apr 14, 2016
5 min read

3.27.26

It’s Easter Sunday and I’d like to go to mass at the big chapel but the English mass is at 6:30am and when I wake up it’s still dark out. I think about my safety and whether or not it’s a good idea to walk 15 minutes to church by myself in the dark. So, I set my alarm for 6:30am and pass out again. I end up going to 8am mass at a small Church about a 30 minute walk away. I pass a Chinese graveyard and see so many families parked on the road unloading offerings of food and other things and carrying them to the graves of their loved ones. The cemetery is full of people burning incense and praying at their respective burial sites. These graves are not like anything I’ve seen before. They have semicircle headstones and some are brick colored, not like the monochromatic Christian graves.

I get to Church with 5 minutes to spare and sit all the way at the back. I realize after sitting why my seat was empty to begin with, I was in a weird position where there was a big column blocking the altar and I couldn’t see anything that was going on in the front. I decided to stay put and just bore with it. Mass was good but it was sooo crowded. It started to rain on my way back to the hostel so I had to take cover in a few places to wait it out.

I got to walk around the city a bit and check out the local markets. For dinner, Alice and I met up with one of her friends who just so happened to be from the same hometown that my mom’s family is from in Brasil. We went to a restaurant space on the rooftop of a building where they have all these chinese seafood places. They bring in all the fresh catches of the day and you just order what fish or seafood you want and tell them what sauces you want them cooked in and how. We had all kinda of yummies and then walked to a restaurant/bar to have some beers and play uno. Chill night with new friends.

3.28.16

Alice and I got up early to figure out how to take the public buses to some caves that were a bit out of town. We wanted to see two-Wind Cave (known for its population of bats) and Fairy Cave (a really beautiful limestone cave with all kinds of flora growth inside). We had a hell of a time walking through Wind cave in the dark. We rented flashlights but it was still pitch black in there and it smelled so bad =[

The security guard at wind cave was super nice and offered to give us a lift to fairy cave, about 8 km away so we got in his car and got to the other cave really quickly. We had to climb all these stairs to get to the clearing in the cave but it was soooo worth it. Probably one of the coolest caves I’ve ever been in. On the way out there was a group of Malay girls who we befriended and they offered us a ride all the way back to Kuching (took us over an hour to get to the caves by bus). We ended up making a pit stop at air panas paku (paku hot springs). The water was more warm than hot and we didn’t go in or anything, just felt the water and left. We were all going to go out for lunch but two of the girls sisters Zeiqa and Eida invited us back to their house along with their friends to have lunch. They were so extremely sweet. We went to their house, met their parents and brothers, had lunch with the family and then we went to Kuching town. We dropped Alice off (she needed to catch a flight) and then we all drove to Semmengoh, the Orangutan center. It was pouring when we got there but we still decided to try and see them. We got there just in time for feeding and were able to see three orangutans. They are so human-like it’s a bit eerie watching them walk around and eat.

After the monkeys, the girls took me across the river to a famous kek (cake) shoppe. It’s called Mira Cake House and they specialize in the type of cake that the area (Sarawak) is known for. It’s called kek lapis Sarawak and it’s a layered caked that’s cooked by either baking or steaming them. There weren’t any tourists at the shop, just locals and there were big tubs of all the different cakes so one could sample them before buying. We stood there and tried every single one… teehee my favorite was the half chocolate half cheesecake kek *drools* I mayyy have had more than one or two of those samples of that one…

We went back to Zeiqa and Eida’s house to hang out before dinner and we watched the food network and I got major feels because there was a Thanksgiving rerun on and missing out on family and friends during the holidays this past year for the first time ever was a bit disappointing.

The girls’ dad owns a few chains of the restaurant “Singaporean Chicken Rice” or SCR so we went there for dinner to try it out. I had such a great day with the girls and was excited to be in a Malay house and learn a little about Islam and spend time making new friends.

3.29.16

I thought my flight to Mulu was today so I got up early and went to the airport…my flight is actually tomorrow. Fail. By the time I got back to town and checked back into my hostel (so embarrassing, and I was so mad at myself) it was too late to go to Bako National Park. Instead, I made friends with an Indian girl from London named Shirin and we went to go see the Orangutans again. We chatted the entire time to the sanctuary and I found out her last name was also Shah. We got along so well I felt like we were related or something. At Semmengoh we saw SO many orangutans. About 9 of them came out for feeding time, even the alpha male, Richie. He came in swinging around and plopped down right in front of us and munched on his bananas, it was great.

In the evening the Chinese temple right next door to our hostel was having a celebration with dancing dragons in the street and they were playing loud music so we went outside to go watch. It was a very nice close to my time in Kuching. My next stop on the island is into the jungle! I'm a bit apprehensive but excited nonetheless to be in a different environment. We'll see how it goes...

Much love,

Cas