Megamoon

Another short flight and we arrived in Kuching, in the south of Borneo and capital of the state of Sarawak. It’s a riverside city with fewer tourists than North Borneo.

The city was established by an Englishman, James Brooke, and named Kuching probably by mistake. The tale goes that Mr Brooke arrived and pointed at the land asking a local person what the town was called. The local person thought he was pointing at a nearby cat and so responded, Kuching (cat in Malay). And so the city was named.

We saw quite a few cats here-all feral unfortunately and so wanted no fuss from us ?

On the surface there didn’t appear to be a whole lot to see of do in the city but we were pleasantly surprised. Our legs were also very tight so we were happy to minimise walking/activities as much as possible, so we took things a little slower in Kuching.

We had a great start, with an upgrade in our hotel to a penthouse suite (we’ve really been spoilt by the hotel with honeymoon treats!). It did however mean more walking to get from the bed to bathroom ?

Chris bought a fancy pants new camera, as his previous one had now stopped working due to water damage (when photographing the Pygmy elephants on the river in torrential rain). The purchase involved lots of haggling and money movements to avoid lots of charges.

We also relaxed by the pool, saw the cat statues around town, street art, some Chinese templates. We ate lots of Malaysian food (not much western food on offer here), including a trip to the fish market for dinner-a pretty hectic and rustic experience!

We also spent a good amount of time on the waterfront looking at the stalls (some pretty impressive layer cakes on offer) and watching the dragon boat races.

Kuching was our last stop in Borneo & Malaysia. The last 3 weeks have flown by far too quickly.

We wrote down some of our foodie thoughts on Malaysia:

• We had many great Malaysian curries (rendang etc), especially whilst in the rainforest.
• We loved the tropical fruits: papaya, pineapple, many different melons, calamansi (orangey/limey flavour), lychee and what we named potato fruit as they look like little new potatoes (actually called langsat)
• We didn’t try Durian-it stinks! We’re told it tastes like chocolate covered strawberries from the toilet bowel ?
• Amazing Satay here. The satay sauce is yum!
• We consumed so many eggs (fluffy breakfast omelettes especially good)
• Cocktails are cheap here. Wine and beer is very expensive. Many pina coladas have been drunk!
• We’ve missed pork! Turkey ham, chicken sausages and beef bacon substitutes do not cut it.
• We loved the free hotel cocktail & canapés hour(s) that most hotels offer and have definitely attended most of them ?

We’re looking forward to the following in Australia:

• Good quality cuts of meat
• Wine
• Dairy products-cheese!