Kuching, Sarawak (Day 3): Fairy Cave, Wind Cave and Kuching Waterfront (again!)

Let me start this post with food cause a vacay with friends is not complete without turning them into foodie trip!(≧∇≦) So we started our day with Mee Pok at Yen Yen Cafe in Lundu town, which was a less than 5 minutes drive from where we stayed and close to Flower Scent Restaurant where we dined the night before. This time, we decided to try Mee Pok, a specialty noodles only found in the East Coast and happened to walk past Yen Yen Cafe before deciding to try.

Ying Yun's curry mee pok. Hers seem to have the biggest portion so much that Nicholas had to help her finish. The price of food in Sarawak are ridiculous! This much and only cost RM6. You'd most probably pay up to thrice in Kuala Lumpur for this. At the top in this pic is my pork trotters mee pok, served with braised pork in thick soy sauce. My friends love this and dubbed this the best choice because of how thick and rich the gravvy is!

  

Nicholas' minced meat mee pok. Portion is smaller and cost only RM4! This is like the price of a bowl of noodles 10 years ago. If only prices go down in Malaysia, which will be unlikely.

Drinks on the other hand is just standard price, almost similar to KL. We ordered an extra cup of 'snake water' to share because we were curious. Turns out it taste past like cincau hahaha

The Chinese Iban waitress saw how curious we were about snake water and brought out the premix packet for us to see, my goodness! She really didn't have to ⁄(⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)⁄ One thing we love about Sarawak is how most people we met are so friendly and nice. They're even nice on the road _ driving at moderate speed and no honkings.

Fairy Caves & Wind Caves

After our rather worthwhile meal, we decided to head to Fairy Cave and Wind Cave is just a little bit further from Lundu, we decided to drop by these places first. That day my tummy was feeling unwell which I deduced was from washing my hands at the waterfall before snacking so I ended up sleeping in the car the entire road trip, waking up when we stopped by a fruit stall along the way to buy bananas and banana chips just cause we monkeys love bananas hahahah

We arrived at Fairy Caves _ my friends initially not too keen about checking the caves _ and after climbing up the ladders towards the entrance to the cave, I decided I couldn't go on with the exploring because I was feeling dizzy and weak so I headed back down while my friends go ahead with the exploring.

Took some photos myself thinking I wouldn't have the strength to climb again

Ying Yun took some photos to show to me~

Getting back down took me lotsa steps FML. I rested at the stall at the entrance of the cave and ordered an apple juice which turned out to be from concentrated juice instead of fresh apples but after drinking I felt better, with the coldness of the drink numbing my pain hahahha.

I also noticed this stall sells homemade tuak, Sarawak's aboriginal rice alcohol packed in 1.5L bottles. We didn't buy it because we can't finish it. Heck, I am the only one who drinks aside from Ying Yun who only takes sips... Anyway, I had a few tuak sessions throughout my vacay hahaha

When I felt better, I marched up again only to feel horrible and rested a bit more FML. I did manage to explore just the center section of the caves. It didn't help the steps up the other parts of the caves were giving me the goose bumps and vertigo _ It felt as though I was standing at an angle on most steps. What's more the thick cords acting as rails for the stairs were littered with bat shits so I got guano on my hands hahahhah. But the cave is so pretty, its worth it!

After Fairy Caves, my friends were much more willing to explore Wind Cave thinking it has the same pretty scenery. This people didn't research LOL. Wind Cave is pitch black with grey-ish stalactites and stalagmites growing unlike Fairy Caves which have a hole on the roof of the caves which allows light to shine in and short shrub and moss to grow. So no photos inside the cave.

While exploring we walked past some other group, I had this mini light bulb moment_ why not play a prank and scare this people. So we switched off our lights and was prepare to strike. Unfortunately there were no walls to hide so I had Ying Yun shield me.

They found us anyway.

Obviously. 

So by the time I jumped out from behind YY they were just laughing away #epicfail  I shall try better next time.

Le Nomade, Kuching Waterfront

Back to Kuching Waterfront, this time we were staying at Le Nomade, a hostel We booked from AirBnB that is slightly a distance further from Kuching Waterfront. The hostel is definitely different from where we have stayed, having a common area for backpackers to hang out, with board games and even kitchen if you want to cook to save. There is even a veranda furnish with chairs and bbq pit, pretty cool! 

Ying Yun's all about meeting backpackers and people with various backgrounds so it came as a surprised I initiated a lot of chit chats and her staying most of the time in her room. That was where I met a solo backpacker, John who later joined us the last two days we were around at Kuching and proved to be a lamppost funny companion.

The inside story John made up was we kidnapped him. Ying Yun's very Malaysian version was we picked him up from the tong sampah.

I say Malaysian version because that's what our parents told us when we ask where babies come from. Pretty sure it's an Asian thing.

The Dyak

Dinner is at The Dyak (pronounce Dayak), a boutique cafe just less than 10 minutes Uber ride from where we were staying. I've been researching on this place for a while and was really excited to try the aboriginal dishes and experience my first tuak!

We order chicken soup with wild plants, mani chai cooked with pumpkin and tempoyak or picked durian (doesn't is sound yummy?!) . My friends only accepted my choice for tempoyak after some of the 'normal' dishes we wanted were not available. It proves to be an amazing option! We tried tempoyak at Lepau the next day but find The Dyak's version to be the smelliest and therefore, yummiestt (’▽’)♡

Nicholas remarked how the food especially the mani chai tasted so similar to Indonesian food. Make me wanna go for a foodie trip in Indonesia!

Drinks we ordered include Ying Yun's barley lemon and tuak for myself. Don't remember what the dude ordered..

For dessert, we have tuak ice cream or rather tuak drenched vanilla ice cream top with shave pistachio, I think. Quite the opposite of me, Ying Yun and Nicholas didn't find that to their liking.

Kuching Open Air Market

We didn't want to retire early so we decided to drop by the Open Air Market after our Uber driver mentioned the place, saying they serve her favorite ice cream gula apong.

 

Our gula apong is empty on the inside (｡ŏ_ŏ) The ice cream tasted very diluted. I guess it's made that way to compliment the gula apong else the dessert will be overly sweet.

Taking this photo of a random stall because Tomato Source.

 While I was away the dude went and ordered siew mai. Boy, can he eat! Though myself is guilty of gluttony too ヾ(≧▽≦*)o

Then we decided to take a walk around Carpenter Street and check out the celebrations at the temple. We bought ice creams and watch the opera before the crazy loud fireworks interrupted us.

Kuching, Sarawak (Day 2): Hunting for Rafflesia! //Gunung Gading, Pandan Beach & Flower Scent Restaurant

Day two at Kuching started off with us fueling up the car and our stomachs with Kolo Mee (my first!) before our two-hour drive to Lundu to hike at Gunung Gading in search for the largest flower in the world, Rafflesia.

I don't remember where is this kopitiam at because Ying Yun's uncle recommended this place.

Auntie not to please? LOL

Gunung Gading, Lundu

At Gunung Gading, we booked a guide following the advice from the administrator as the trail heading towards the blooms were off trail from the usual tracking site. Together with a few other travellers, we hiked for about 10 minutes or so before finding the bloom, perched high out of reach on a rock where it has attached itself on its host for 8 months.

What's so amazing is that this flower has SIX petals, with one extra petal compare to its kind. The flower is 5 days old when we saw it, just few days short before it withers. Can you believe that. It takes 8 months for its flower to grow and bloom yet only a week to wither.

The first rafflesia we encountered which has six petals, so amazing!

Our guide, Edmund.

 

While we were waiting for the other travellers to take turns snapping photos, we chatted, tried to get to know the others and enjoying the scenery. I got to know cheeky little boy who kept trying to swing the loose vines. My intention was to scare him by saying some bugs might fall off the tree failed to reached his ears. Later he started poking my butt WTF (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

I was like, "why are you poking my butt" out loud to the amusement of my friends and his mother who tried stopping him. But he's not a mean boy, just a joker kind hahaha

After that we hiked a little more to another spot where a Rafflesia had bloomed on the ground. So amazing, just look at the size of the flower!

True to what Edmund mentioned, the Rafflesia smells just like mushrooms instead of its notorious, corpse-like smell. Even if it does smell like the latter, I probably can't tell.

Here's a dead one that has turned charcoal black! My morbid friend found it interesting...

I was trying to look for other buds nearby and when I found one, I asked Edmund if he can name it Vivien to his laughter. Ying Yun was motivated to find a baby bud to name it after herself and myself, me to find Vivien #2 but was not fruitful hahahha #TwoIdiots

Later we went our own way, taking the trail that leads to Waterfall #1, the closest trail so we can come back early for lunch.

While we girls were playing at the waterfall, the guys chatted. A game of rock, paper and scissor decided we should just swim in the waterfall hahahah. That was how we make decisions the entire vacay. While we were playing, my phone took a dip in the water when I slipped between the rocks and immediately went into danger mode and auto switched off on its own. I was holding my phone because I was taking photos _ bad idea. But photos. I love taking photos and even the last trip was the only one who took a thousand over photos over a week.

My phone survived nevertheless _ the danger mode and putting it into a bag of rice saved my phone. We found the phone alright after its alarm starts ringing in the morning. Nicholas' woke me up saying, "Good news. Do you know what's working?" Harharhar

Pandan Beach

It was beach time after our lunch YY and Nicholas helped me tapau-ed. You should see the reaction on their face when I exclaimed, "for as long as it is not bitter", they just froze hahahaha. YY had tapau-ed me an interesting, but super bitter chicken marinated in wild plants.

So yeah, beach after lunch!

YY's a huge fan of beach, I can tell. I don't know how can she be so unafraid of the waves. I tried wading and when the waves got bigger, or maybe I waded too deep, I started freaking out. Definitely haven't get use to this feeling. As children, my parents totally forbid us to get into the waters so we didn't have much chances. Even now, my parents kept telling me to avoid playing in waterfalls :/

Super environmental lover, this girl. Thumbs up!

Ying Yun helped me get to 'safety' and we started climbing up onto the huggeee rocks, this time it was YY turn getting cold feet. We were debating which was scarier _ climbing up and falling from huge rocks or drown in the sea WTF.

Flower Scent Restaurant

It started pelting so we headed to the little town nearby for a bit of sightseeing which is really just staring at the river and driving around _ there really isn't much to see. I have been calling my hometown, Sungai Petani Sleepy Hollow but this town bears closest resemblance to that title! We had nothing to do that we decided to just head early to Flower Scent Restaurant which is not too far away from the spot we were chilling.

We ordered sambal belacan-cooked midin, my first time trying! Tasted so good albeit slightly salty.

Close up on the fern! Look at how cute it is, the end curled.

Fried calamari (again!) which satisfied Ying Yun and Nicholas' palate.

Steam fish and mani chai.

The food were totally satisfactory and super affordable! So much that we thought we might as well stay for more drinks _ since there is no other entertainment around_ to the waitress surprise. We must be the only tourists who ordered tons of drinks hahahaha.

Deciding we had stayed for a while, we decided to leave. It was pelting so Nicholas went ahead to get the car but a few moments later, we girls thought the rain wasn't too heavy and decided to run towards the car. Halfway, Ying Yun started screaming, "DOG, DOG!!!" and I looked back, true enough one was chasing us! We ran with all our might and open and slam the doors behind us immediately. Talk about craziness..(╥﹏╥)( TДT)