Assalammualaikum...
Dah lama tak tulis blog. Mainly sebab busy dgn daily routine plus takde apa pun nak story.
Harini rasa nk share my experience on my second trip to Kuching. Purposely want to write it in english though i know my proficiency is moderate haha...just in case some foreigner google about Kuching and end up reading my entry so i can help them to know Kuching better...yoyo ja
Btw, as always my trip was a budget trip with short duration and limited area of visit. I booked the package via expedia (3 days 2 nights) for 2 adults and 1 infant. We flew air asia and stayed at Four Points hotel for a cost of rm1k.
Let's talk about the flight 1st. Honestly i fly very seldom with air asia because normally my company paid me MAS. But when i have to pay by myself, surely i choose air asia. Alhamdulillah, it went smooth as scheduled. No delay.
2nd about the hotel. It's located closest to the Kuching International Airport. One reason why i chose that hotel. It has shuttle service from n to airport/hotel and town as well. Sounds good ha? My second reason choosing that hotel. Oh ya it is also part of Sheraton group of hotel, sound promising kan? Wait a minute! Touched down je i called the hotel to pick me up from airport and got this reply..
Sorry sir but our driver is on leave today, can you get a taxi pls? Nonsense kan? Ofcoz la i have to get a taxi...u expect me to walk just to save my Rm 17?
Within 10 minutes’ drive, we reached the hotel. The entrance was a major flop! It seems like budget hotel version Hilton wannabe. It is actually a 4 stars hotel which supposed to be good. Unfortunately, poor maintenance has bring them down to its lowest point. Positive thing is we can check in into our room at 11 am which is early. Staff as polite as they should be. Food not so much variety but eatable. Scenery not overwhelming bcoz too far from waterfront area. Cleanliness can be improved further. Overall...Not recommended.
Day 1. We started our exploration at 4pm. Thanks to the limited shuttle service time. We stopped at riverside mall, heavy rain. Met few local people, they helped us to mobilize from the bus stop into the mall because we have no umbrella. Just hanging inside the mall while eating some delicious western food served at Ayamku...local instant restaurant. 2 hours later, we resumed our journey to see what interesting in Kuching. We went to waterfront, ride a boat to cross the river heading to kampong boyan which famous for their kek lapis. There is also one big food court selling many types of local and western food near by the riverbank. But we were just too full to eat. So we headed straight to mira kek lapis.
After that we found terubuk masin ajun...another signature dish of sarawak...i mean the terubuk masin. Very reasonably priced but yet to test the taste. We crossing back to the city centre and walked along the riverbank where you can see sarawak Adun building and astana at opposite site. Chinese Museum and Ford Margaretha at the city centre site. Our exploration ended at the court house nearby jalan India. Because all shops were closed by that time so we decided to go back. Taxi is not that easy to ride in Kuching. We were lucky because at the bus station earlier, we were approached by pakcik mansor a taxi driver, he gave us his name card and asked us to call him when in need. True enough, we need him that night..
Day 2. We started earlier at 11 am. After another disappointment with the shuttle, we decided to get a taxi to city centre. Today we just do shopping! Many stores with variety of craft offered at reasonable price along shop houses adjacent to the waterfront.
Too bad for us, not having sufficient info about the town. Very little info is available. Hard to find place to eat a decent local food. We depend solely to taxi driver. We went to satok lunch and went back to kg boyan for dinner....imagine the distance and time we have to consume. Lucky us, because of that we had accidentally walked over Sarawak museum and little india...very cool place to be.
Day 3. We just staying at the hotel...playing in the pool and packing our stuff to go home.
Overall, Kuching to me is the cleaniest city in Malaysia..I've went to all major cities. The people are very warm and nice. We feel very safe even walking at night. The motorists pun were all well behave on road, i feel like I'm out of Malaysia because their attitude is totally different. You won't find any car to stop and allow u.to cross busy road in peninsular....respect!
Food has a lot of variety and cheap too...taste very good and halal.
Hope i will come to Kuching again next time...
