Kuching, Sarawak (Day 4 & 5): Damai Beach, Sarawak Cultural Village & Kuching River Sampan Ride

 Putting together my adventure on my last two days in Kuching in this post. There's something about ending a travelogue, not sure if sheer laziness or it's me refusing to accept the vacay ended （◞‸◟） Please tell me I'm not the only one procrastinating on #finaltraveloguepost... But I love writing vacay blog posts because they relive the carefree, #playhard, new places, crazy experiences or every firsts and all the great time I had when vacay-ing before well, reality snaps me back. Now, I can totally relate to why some of my friends are a total travel bug. 

So yesh~! Final Kuching post then random lifestyle stuff before my next adventure! The next one's awesome, wait till you hear about them!!! Like after that happened. Like at the second half of the year hahahahhaha. Hey, I gotta save for these trip. Partly I'm excited because they will mark 2017 as my most adventurous year, partly I'm sad it's not Japan (it got postponed again!). Nevertheless they're going to be amazing! (≧▽≦) I am so psyched so much that my girl pal is telling me to "calm my tits", in her very own words (*´艸｀) Such a vulgar lady hahahahha

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So yes, let's get started with #finaltraveloguepost *sniff sniff*

Open Air Market

Day 4 started with us having breakfast at the Open Air Market Market, the same place we had ais krim gula apong the night before.

Damai Beach

First destination for the day is Damai Beach at Damai Central, a small beach with very few entertainment or non-local tourists. Surprisingly, there were no one playing at the beach despite the moderate waves.

We didn't stay long, since our destination is the Sarawak Cultural Village, unbeknown it is just opposite Damai Central. We even got into the car FOL before John pointed it out Σ (゜ロ゜ ) (￣□￣；)(￣□￣；)

The entrance fee for Kampung Budaya Sarawak costs us RM63 including GST per person which is apparently higher than prior years. I'm guessing the cost of the park maintenance is higher because there were a lot of manpower involved, dancers and even chaperones at each long houses and points. This is an interesting place to explore if you want to check out traditional houses of races and aboriginal living in Sabah and Sarawak.

We got to climb these tree barks ladders a lot. Some are longer, one even built further up from the ground and can appear rather scary.

This photo is deceiving. I was pretty sure I'm about 5 meter above ground.

Moi! Sorry not sorry I just don't dress up for adventures.

By the way, I'll only post limited photos of this place so as not to give out too much 'spoilers'. Come visit this place when you're in Kuching, it'll be an amazing experience!

Aside from the longhouses, you can experience playing flute made out of bamboo or even blow pipes! You'd need to pay an additional RM1 to try the blowpipe, it's fun and amusing to watch your friends fail, I guarantee you. In contrast, feel awe at your friends' amazing attempts and suspect they're ninjas.

Me feeling breathless after my super lousy first attempt.

This is Ying Yun, the persevere flute warrior. We all failed terribly at even trying to produce a single sound and yet she nailed it after several attempts! Here, her guru is personalizing a flute she bought and giving her a local name, Maya, which means graceful and sweet.

Don't forget to try local snacks too! This here is Tiboduk in Iban language or lepat pulut in Malay, a sticky sweet, wrapped in leave and then steamed. The taste is milder and lighter in color than 'tee kueh'.

We even tried coconut pancake, made with less than a handful of ingredients yet tasted so rich and yummy! It's so good, when I came back, I looked for the recipe, will DEFINITELY make some when I got the ingredients, mainly the grated coconut and sago flour,  both of which I have yet to look for.

We made it at the 11th hour to the mini theater at about 4.30PM to watch the twice a day, daily performances. At most points, the staffs will remind you to check them out, and by 4-ish most of the staffs have left to prepare for these performances. Truly kudos for the staff for the day and the amazing show! We very much enjoyed ourselves ✩°｡⋆⸜(ू｡•ω•｡)(σ'∀')σ*。・゜+.*

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Lepau, the MUST-TRY restaurant

We drove back for the next one hour or so and rested for a while before leaving for dinner. I don't know why but we decided to walk to the restaurant, again. Apparently the place we are going and recommended by our hostel caretaker and uber driver, Lepau was about 15 minutes or so walking distance. So walk we did hahahhaa.

 After The Dyak, where we had our #first taste of aboriginal dishes which we're so much in love with them we went overboard with ordering a whole bunch of dishes including two tempoyak or pickled durian dishes! 

Clockwise from left: ickled durian fish, appetizer and pickled durian prawns.





I don't know why these people love calamary so much...

Ayam pangsuh, so yummy!

Midin cooked in sambal.

Drinks (mine is tuak in beer bottle) in and tuak ice cream (ᗒᗨᗕ)

 We ended our night playing Jenga and some talk over beer.


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House visiting on my last day!

Started our day by bringing the dude to makan. Some of us already had toast at our hostel (our hostel's extra service) so we skipped breakie.

We brought our newfound friend to visit Ying Yun's uncle and grandma and the topic on how we found him propped up a couple of times. To her grandma, she told that we picked him up from the tong sampah to our amusement.

At the same mall Ying Yun and I had purikura in the first few days of our trip, Nicholas egged me to play purikura with John but escaped elsewhere himself WTF. That was my second time playing Purikura in Sarawak _ my first is with Ying Yun. Both time I use XOXO2 purikura machine because it looks more otona and I love their collages. The other machine is Baby 3, which IMO is much more towards kawaii.

I bought some souvenirs from which includes a large, flat mooncake and rice crackers which were recommended by Ying Yun. I forgot to snap a photo before distributing them to my colleagues, but they're so goo-o-od!

Tribal Stove

Lunch, we finally were able to coax grandma to join us for aboriginal food, this time at Tribal Stove. Yup, we were super obsessed with aboriginal food we went to three different restaurants in three consecutive days! (≧▽≦)

We ordered sambal petai, ikan pangsuh (fish cooked in bamboo), ayam pangsuh (chicken cooked in bamboo), pineapple kerabu and paku chai (I think). The portion was definitely smaller compare to The Dyak and Lepau but we were stuffed! When we paid for the bill, we were surprised everything, drinks included came up to less than RM60, which we agreed was ridiculously affordable.

 My lychee sirap bandung and tea the rest had.

 That was grandma's first visit to an aboriginal restaurant and she remarked how amazing that I am to be able to find these places. Ceh wahh~~ #Proud  But yesh, it's simply curiosity with the help of the Internet.

We didn't find the ayam pangsuh amazing, the chicken came in huge chunks which may explain why it turned out hard from cooking in the bamboo over the fire. Also, the few choices and lack of tempoyak on the menu. Somehow, tempoyak has became a requirement when it comes to eating aboriginal cuisine hahhahaha. 

Mandatory group photo. Can you spot the mischief going on? (O▽O)v ﾍ(｀▽´*)

Sampan ride around Sarawak River

We went to explore the Sarawak Museum and Chinese Museum while Ying Yun sent her grandma home so she could take a rest. We concluded our day _ or rather it's my final activity in Kuching since the rest have extra days ahead of them _ with sampan ride.

That's it, guys! Until my next post. Meanwhile, I can't wait for my next adventure already! #LiveTheAdventure