Sarawak Day 4: Last Day in Kuching

Assalamualaikum. 안녕

Finally my Cuti-Cuti Malaysia Sarawak has come to its last entry. Phew, punya bercinta mau habiskan. Took me almost a year. What an achievement I've gained. 

Previous entry (here).

1 June 2015

Since today is our last day in Kuching, we woke up a bit late than the previous days. We're not going anywhere far from the city hence bersenang lenang mengendur urat atas katil we did.  

Yesterday, I informed the receptionist we're gonna take the hotel shuttle service to the airport. Check out is at 11am & based on my calculation we have more than enough time for a last minute shopping. That's for the 3 sisters. As for me & my cousin we decided to check the Waterfront esplanade. Shopping isn't our priority so eloklah berpecah. This time the 3 sisters agreed with my suggestion. Yalah last day kan, cuba hari² sebelum tu harus aku dapat jelingan tajam. Jangan pernah kau berani utter the magic word "berpecah". 

But before acara melabur duit, kenalah breakfast dulu. Permintaan perut adalah super penting as to avoid any grumpy mood arose tengah bershoppingan sakan. 

We drove to Kopi O Corner restaurant located at Bangunan Mara, Satok. 10 minutes (plus) away from Tune Hotel. On the way to the restaurant, we had a quick stopped for some picture moment with the Empat Sekawan Cats Statue. My friend; DJ named this statue Empat Sekawan because there are 4 cats at the tugu (obviously). It's not that difficult to spot this statue just that we need to be extra careful where to stop & park our car. Fyi, the statue is built on a small roundabout in the middle of a busy & narrow road. Bertabahlah; double park pastu berlari anak... clicked...and rushed back to the car. Demi sekeping gambar bersama si Kucings or also called pusak in Bahasa Melayu Sarawak.

#1 Yours Truly before the Empat Sekawan Cats Statue; but Bunda managed to captured only 2 cats 

#2 Si Tiba²-Debab before the restaurant

#3 Super love this restaurant. The ambiance, the layout, the choice of food...selesa gila. And the restroom pun bersih. Nora bagi 4 bintang

#4 Rambang mata kejap mau pilih what menu to order for breakfast

#5 More menu to choose from

#6 My cousin ordered this because she said the picture in the menu seduced her. Walhal makanan diet sangat.

#7 Roti kalu, mesti Aunty punya

#8 Angah & Bunda share this Mee Kolok

#9 My breakfast. Memang almost everyday balun Laksa Sarawak + Teh Ais masa di sana. 

Aku lupa harga makanan kami pagi tu. Jadinya memang tidak akan ada pembentangan budget for this trip. Next time update lah lepas 10 tahun kan Bie. Grr!

After breakfast, we drove back to the hotel. Wakil from the rental company datang kutip kereta & refund our deposit not long after. Settled urusan kereta, kami pun bawa haluan masing².

My cousin & I decided to explore the esplanade once more. Didn't get to view the Waterfront during the day, selalu pi melepak waktu malam jak. Lagipun shopping-mhopping isn't our thing (boring!).

#10 Cat Teacher with her Cat Students. Or Cat Leader with her Cat Comrades

#12 Artsy partsy work along the esplanade

#13 Dan² ingat kampong upon seeing this. Poyo lah kan!

#14 View of the New Sarawak State Legislative Assembly Building from across the esplanade

Enough with the view across the Sarawak River, we turned to the road behind us. Cuci mata tengok bangunan lama pula. 

#15 Some of the budget accommodations near Waterfront Kuching. Kalau aku turun with other than the family, harus stay sini. Jimat cermat katanye

#16 Because it's pink. And it says planet Sambal. Too bad wrong timing else boleh compare with SS Indonesia.

Tengah siok jalan² cuci mata, suddenly dapat message from the 3 sisters. Due to time constraint (-lah sangat kan), they commanded me to head to the Bazaar. I forgot what they told me to buy but harapan ke laut bila si Err reply their message along with the picture below. Al-tutup Bazaar nye. Signboard says it is open at 9am, tapi suda half past 10am pun masih tiada tanda Bazaar ni akan buka. Tiada rezeki jadinya redha lah. Ntah ler apa dicari. 

#17 Next time insha Allah boleh singgah although sendiri pun ndak tau bila akan menjejak Kuching lagi

As I've said earlier, we booked the shuttle bus from the airport to the hotel. Cost us RM 10.60 per person. The service is FOC for children below 3 years old; while it is half the price for 4-12 years old. And sadly, none of us apply to both category. Semua bayar full fare. 

We arrived the airport few hours before our flight. Saja datang awal sebab mau ronda Kuching airport dulu. Mencari paste Laksa Sarawak lah bagai. Masa di city ndak lah sibuk kau mencari kan Bie. Mendapatlah bayar berganda masa beli di airport. Lagak orang kayo sangat.

#18 Always a proud Borneon I am.

#19 Kuching International Airport, I'll see u when I see u.

We had lunch at the airport. And journey back to Double K City was nothing but smooth journey. Syukur.

*clap* Alhamdulillah, accomplished my mission to finish this Kuching trip by this week. Biar lambat, asal siap. Pelan² kayuh kataku. Why the suddden semangat? Adalah tu, rahasia gitu.

eryantierdabdulkarim

Sarawak Day 2 - Kuching Waterfront & Top Spot Seafood

Assalamualaikum. 안녕

Previous post (here).

Quite impressed with my rajin-ness at the time being. Ndak lama kalau consistent gini, bolehlah scribble macam dulu balik. Gitu angan-angan tiada sempadan si Err. Ok jom sambung sebelum melalut dengan intro.

Balik dari Sarawak Cultural Village; semua pengsan dalam bilik. Perut lapar boleh simpan dalam peti masa ni. Yang penting kena recharged energy. Ntah apa yang penat sangat, walhal yang drive bukan kau kan Bie! 

Anyway, I woke up the earliest. Penat tidur lama-lama time travel ni. Koh!! Took my shower...got ready; and off I went exploring Kuching Waterfront alone. I did wake my cousin & asked if she wanted to join me...and I got a long sigh from her. Kiranya isyarat jangan kacau lah kan. I texted Bunda telling her that I'm going out for a while. Haruslah nan hado reply. The three sisters memang sungguh-sungguh tidur, ok?! 

30 May 2015

Kuching Waterfront

The Kuching Waterfront isn't that far from Tune Hotel. In fact, it is merely 5 minutes walking away from the hotel. Easy peasy route. I walked downwards toward the riverside. Sampai jak, nampaklah peniaga kiosk makanan semua sibuk buka gerai. Only few had began accepting orders. I didn't plan for any ngeteh session there so I just passed by. 

Main reason pi area Waterfront ni was for the sunset. I always believe the sun set beautifully near any flowing water; be it river or the ocean. Kuching Waterfront lines the south bank of Sarawak River; said to be the place to sample the city's cosmopolitan vibes.

#1 Soothing; view of the sunset from the Sarawak River

#2 Another take

#3 Mere sight of the New Sarawak State Legislative Assembly Building

Tengah busy enjoying the view, I got a text from Bunda. Telling me to go back as it was almost dusk. Maghrib ni kalau masih di luar, ndak bagus. Burung pun tau balik ke sangkar, so why are u still not back yet? Katanye. Menurut perintah lah si Err. 

I took a different route to go back to the hotel; kali ni ikut jalan belakang hotel pula. And I saw the famous Cats' Monument at the roundabout just before reaching UTC. Oklah terjumpa awal, boleh bawa the rest bergambar sini lepas dinner. At least ndak bazir masa searching for it later.

#4 Kuching UTC building is located behind Tune Hotel

#5 Kuching Urban Transformation Centre (UTC)

Sampai hotel, solat & tunggu yang lain bersiap. Then off we went out for dinner. Baru tau kelaparan semua kan. Part venue dinner ni memang aku bingai ke laut. Ntah kenapa lah ndak terfikir untuk search di blog or directly tanya si DJ (she previously went to Kuching & dined there). Gigih ok bersimpang siur lintas jalan mau cari tempat tu. Siap ikut direction map di phone. 

Lucky enough the guard at the UTC car park approached us. Tapi tu pun lepas nearly 10 minutes looking around. Boo si Err! And dia pun macam tau-tau kami tengah cari Top Spot food court ni. He told us to take the elevator to the top level. Laaaa kenapa ndak tau pasal food court ni actually located at Level 6 of a multi-level car park next to UTC!?! Akibat bijak melantun ndak menanya orang, and ndak buat research prior going. Hambek. Nasiblah ndak kena bebel by the Three Sisters.

#6 How come signboard sebesar alam & seterang ni aku ndak nampak dari jalan besar

Didn't quite remember what we ordered for dinner because all makan-makan pictures sudah selamat hilang ditelan angin, sekian. We went to the famous Gerai #25; recommended by many. Including some close Sarawakien friends. But I guess memang bukan rezeki kami untuk makan sedap gendang gendung perut tali kecapi. Out of all the dishes we ordered; 3 didn't managed to arrived. Worst case; bila try tanya pelayan kedai semua buat muka blur ndak tau jawab apa. They didn't even try to follow up our orders. Semua pun sibuk hantar order pi meja pelanggan lain; including yang baru sampai dari kami. 

Not intending to spoil our mood albeit sudah ada kejadian tarikan muka masam among the sisters; we finished what's on the table. Alhamdulillah my sayur midin sampai; lama mengidam sayur ni. Walhal di KK pun melambak kalau kena musim midin. Habis makan semua, I went to the counter to pay for the dinner. Told the counter lady about our makanan-yang-tidak-kesampaian & much to my surprise she just went 

"Ohh ya ka? Sorry ah moi. Ok total makan RM xxx"

Memang boh-layan kaw-kaw. Apa mau hairan, pelanggan masih ramai. And still ramai yang tengah tunggu vacant table. Kecewa gila aku. But I just smile & walk away. Mau bertukar hijau pun rasanya memang ndak guna. Kami cuma pelanggan picisan. Perhaps it simply wasn't our rezeki sebab setahu aku experience orang lain makan di sini semua ok jak. By the way, don't ask me how much we were charged because I seriously couldn't remember. But it wasn't that expensive lah sebab tu aku ndak berjaya bertukar jadi hijau *penangan dua tahun kepam cerita*

#7 Midin dibungkus as flower bouquet; kerlas ko Midin

#8 The infamous Gerai No. 25

After dinner, marilah walkertapaki bakar lemak. Bawa diorang pi Cats' Monument I saw earlier that evening. Jadi tiadalah kejadian ungkitan of why aku ada gambar monument ni tapi diorang tiada.

#9 Miss BibiErr before the Cats' Monument

And we continued our evening walk to the Waterfront. The environment seems more lively compare to when I first arrived earlier. Ramai yang duduk melepak sambil layan blue; ada yang ngopi ngeteh with friends. Kami just jalan tiada hala tuju. I purposely didn't plan any activity on that night.

#10 Beautiful evening view by the river bank

#11 The DUN building looks extra lawa at night

Ikutkan banyak benda yang aku berjaya captured sepanjang berjalan menyusuri Waterfront ni; tinggal kenangan dalam hati jaklah. Tried restoring every files in the phone but to no avail. Hence I concluded; those pictures I took might not meant to be shared anywhere. Fuh ayat sedapkan hati level Jemah betul kau Bie.

#12 One of the picture I managed to save 

We walked till nearly the end, and decided to called the night off. Masing-masing udah capek. Mau lepak ngopi di bing! cafe pun terpaksa cancel. Ingatkan alang-alang mau terus celebrate birthday Bunda at 12am sharp. But because we were all exhausted *including yang tukang plan* we went  straight back to hotel. Boleh faham kalau yang Tiga Beradik tu penat; apa kes aku & cousin yang baru belasan tahun tu pun TERikut penat. Adoi lemah!

#13 History walk where history plates are embedded on the pedesterian walk 

On the way back, baru perasan those history plates on the ground we're walking upon. Had I known about it earlier, I would have spend my time reading each of them. Ni ternampak pun malam sudah, dengan street lamp al-malap haruslah nan hado yang dapat dibaca. Insha Allah, ada rezeki repeat Kuching bolehlah buat semua aktiviti yang tergendala.

Sampai hotel malam tu, after bersihkan diri teruslah terjun ke dreamland. Al-ngantuks tahap gaban. Tomorrow perlu terjah luar Kuching. And since I have finally master the usage of Waze & Kuching's many roundabouts; Bunda gave me back my designated driver role. Sobs betul. Baru tripping the best co-driver tau.

eryantierdabdulkarim