KUCHING: What To See? What To Do?

It's actually easy to get around Kuching... the people are friendly and helpful .. and most of them speak English, so communication is no problem at all.

The first thing we did when we got there was walk along the Sarawak river, just outside our hotel. There were also short cruises available at just $60 ringgit but I thought it looked a bit boring.

But there's quite a bit to do along the river walk itself. On sunday there are bands playing (though I didn't think they sounded good)... little stalls sell bits of jewellery and bags... and pop corn!

With a map, we walked for about 15 mins in search of the Sarawak Museum. Across from the Padang, are a few museums. Art Museum, Old history museum, new museum... etc. Most are free to enter, while some charge a small fee (a few ringgits only).

Because they're all clustered together, you can pop in all the museums and cover them in about an hour (or two if you want to stand and stare at every single thing).

There are day tours (about 5 to 7 hours) available which involve visiting Longhouses and villages, but I was happy enough to experience them in the comfort of a museum really. There are many temples that you'll pass along the way to the musuem. We skipped the Cat Museum, I heard it was not worth the effort.

Their streets (for instance Carpenter St) are filled with little souvenier and wood craft shops. There were a lot of sarongs, scarves and weave bags too. After walking about (it's hot!) we treated ourselves to a quick 30 minute foot rub. Can't tell you which one we went to... so many reflexology shops there. We just chose a random one. It was $25 ringgit for a half hour.

In the centre of the city, there's a huge cat monument/fountain... you're unlikely to miss it. And across from that, we found a massage place, it's the builidng with the Mcdonald's.

We had a 1 hour full body massage (with free ear candling) at only $55 ringgit a person. This is my second time ear candling in my life... and I still think it's bullshit. No effect. The massage was good, just Mark and I in a couple room. She flipped the towel down and massaged my boobs too though (!)... quite strange... never had that done during a massage before! At about 70 ringgit a person, there's a Matang Wildlife Centre day trip available. It's a 3 hour trip in total, inclusive of the drive to the wildlife centre and back(about 45 mins each way). Here you can see orang utans and other rescued wildlife. But don't expect that you get to cuddle baby chimps and feed them milk from the bottle... most of them are semi-wild.... Apart from wildlife centres, there are also kayaking trips available, but those take the whole day. And we didn't have the time.Here I am at the Kuching Airport on Monday afternoon, heading home. Flying Malaysian Airlines of course. I had a great little weekend adventure.