Hello, everyone! Sorry it took me so long to get to publishing this post. The following weeks after I returned from Kuching, the amazing capital city of Sarawak my work started pilling up and it was crazy! Virtual high5 to you people who feel me. I was also guilty for channeling my stress by looking forward to my next trip albeit it will be at the end of the year (WHAT?!!). I truly, really needed the whole looking forward thingy and positivity to go on. Including changing my hair to a new color LOL.
Ramblings aside, let me run you through all the fun stuff I did in Kuching!
This time I'm lucky (sorta) to be able to travel to Kuching with my BFF Ying Yun and her boyfriend Nicholas though that also meant finding myself in rather awkward third wheel position at times... Many times. Darn couple. Anyway, Ying Yun was around to visit her relatives in Sarawak so while we were there she did introduced us to the ones living in Kuching besides recommending amazing places to eat.
Since I took the late morning flight to my maiden trip in Kuching, I arrived in the middle of the day which meant I wouldn't have enough time to explore so we concentrated on places around Kuching Waterfront. We first checked into our room we booked from Airbnb, Lima Tujoh or Fifty Seven, an old shophouse-turned-hostel with a cafe on ground level hidden in one of the alley branching out from Carpenter Street.
I would truly recommend this place, the interior design is so beautiful! I SUPER LOVE their rustic-y wood design plus our room have a mini loft fitted with two more single beds. Made me want one myself in future. We all do!
Even the bathroom tiles are pretty! Future house inspiration perhaps? （´∀｀）
Unfortunately we were only staying there for a night. Even so, Nicholas can't stop raving about the how that was our best room for the next few days!
~♡~
After we had enough admiring the room, us girls decided to go exploring just around the museum before heading to Carpenter Street. We found an interesting temple so we went in to admire the carvings and decorations and get our fortune told.
This is how we got our fortune read.
Our fortunes turn out to be the same and the results were just 'alright'. Ying Yun took some time deciphering the poems which were rather vague and can be ambiguous.
We then dropped by the kopitiam just opposite the temple for some tea break _ my first Kuching's Teh C Peng special or 3-layered milk tea with Sarawak's specialty sugar called gula apong and pork satay.
We then dropped by the kopitiam just opposite the temple for some tea break _ my first Kuching's Teh C Peng special or 3-layered milk tea with Sarawak's specialty sugar called gula apong and pork satay.
The pork satay was very tough IMO. Ying Yun remarked they tasted like pork jerky. It's just alright to me but the price was something. RM4 for 5 sticks of meat on stick?! You don't get that price for pork here in the peninsular! Very walao weh.
~♡~
We visited her uncle and his family and her granny who made us light dinner consisting of three types of vegetables which was delicious! One salted vegetables was homemade so it tasted really fresh, oh-so-o different from the ones sold at markets back home.
Granny has three dogs at home so we hung around to play with her dogs. They're so adorable and two of them are so fluffy! This is actually my first time being in close contact with dogs since most_ 99.9%_ of the other times I usually freaked out and distance myself, especially more towards huge dogs hahaha. Don't judge me, I have not too nice experience with dog as a kid.
Granny's dogs however, are so loving and friendly it didn't take long before I start to adore them. According to YY they were also super excited to see me awwwwww (｡’▽’｡)♡ I LOVE YOU TOO, DOGGIESSS!!
We head back to Kuching Waterfront after that but Nicholas being a dude, craved for some meat. So after parking our car near Lima Tujoh, we walked along waterfront and towards Kai Joo Lane, apparently famous for its stalls but when we got there, it was almost empty despite being a Saturday. Apparently there were some Buddhist celebration that day and most of the stalls' owners we away, offering prayers.
So we decided to head to TopSpot Food Court. Walking. From Kai Joo Lane.
People, DON'T do that.
People, DON'T do that.
Google Maps suggested it was only 17 minutes away but we walked and walked and it felt like forever. Thankfully we made it before the shops were closed but there were several dishes we wanted to order ran out like crispy oyster omelette a.k.a. crispy oh chien and midin, a type of fern resembling plants from Jurassic era fern which is an uncommon plant in Peninsular. Midin was top on my 'To Eat' list and Ying Yun's favorite so we were disappointed when most stalls have run out of midin.
We ordered from Ling Long Seafood Stall because apparently they serve the best dishes according to Ying Yun and even got tons of amazing reviews on Trip Advisor.
Fried Chicken with Lemon Gravy
Sea Cucumber soup, so yummy!! Super recommended!
Fried calamari rings which were YY and Nicholas' least favorite because they didn't like how it is not crispy. I'm not too picky so I just omnomnom-ed away. But you do need to listen to them, they're like squid experts when it comes to eating sotong lah.
On top of that we ordered sugarcane lime juice. The combination is AWESOME!!! Simply refreshing and perfect after a crazy walk! This too, is another specialty drink found in many kopitiams in Kuching. Additionally, I had some kuih talam while waiting for my food to arrive. These tasted as good as Penang's!
One thing we noticed when dining at TopSpot was how everyone of different backgrounds were dining together! You can't find this in Malaysia except in Mamaks. We came to a conclusion that despite being less developed compared to KL or Selangor, Sarawakians are truly muhibah! Sarawak's definitely the best example of 1Malaysian!
