Cat city (meowwww)

We arrived in Kuching on Friday morning and were whisked to our hotel pronto by our driver, Brandon! We were to realise later that Brandon is part owner, driver, waiter and resident of the hotel. Our hotel, Basaga Residences, is a beautiful colonial style resort. The building was used as a boarding school previously, and before our thoughts could run wild, Brandon assured us that there's nothing spooky or "dirty" about this place!

Building facade

The lobby...love love love the black and white tiles!

The residential wing. Our room was on the 2nd floor overlooking the swimming pool.

Lovely verandah with day beds. This is a popular chill out place on weekend nights with the locals. We had quite a number of beers here ourselves! :)

Swimming pool with salt water. I wonder why they used salt water over normal chlorinated water...perhaps to replicate a beach resort effect?

We spent our first afternoon strolling along the picturesque waterfront.

Nice structure across the river but we really had no idea what this is.

One of the cat statues spotted within the city centre.

A temple at the end of Carpenter street. As the name suggests, there are many carpentry shops along this street!

Another cat statue, this one more majestic looking.


Day 2 rise and shine at a nearby coffee shop for breakfast. We had none other than the famous Sarawak laksa. It was very good, though not better than Penang laksa or the regular JB laksa that I'm more accustomed to.

My favourite drink in Sarawak is the 3-layered tea on the right. The local name for it - Teh C Special, consisting of gula melaka and wheatgrass, evaporated milk and full bodied tea.

Our plan today was to go trekking at Bako National Park, about an hour away from the city centre. When we got there, the sky had gotten very dark and it was raining cats and dogs.

When the rain ebbed (slightly), we hopped onto our sampan but it wasn't covered unlike other boats. Thank god for the RM8 poncho we purchased at the jetty! The boat ride turned out to be quite an adventure.

An incredible sight - the people looked like they were walking on water! Our boatman told us that they were actually walking on the beach collecting bamboo clams! Amazing!

S and Lei donned in their fashionable khaki green ponchos preparing to enter the jungle.

The trek took about an hour and led us into this clearing. It was a tough trek, for the grounds were uneven and slippery after the rain. It was definitely a good workout for me - my stiff leg muscles had a good stretch!

Lei cleverly pointed out that the marbled sand colour looked deliciously like chocolate swirl ice-cream!


Day 3 visit to Satok market on a Sunday morning. The market is worth a visit, where vegetables, poultry, cooked food, flowers and even pets were put up for sale!

Love how the vegs are so neatly displayed. So much effort!

Old fashioned biscuits that S and Lei bought. I prefer modern day biscuits :)

Cute thirsty hamster!

Lovely orchids


As we (or maybe it was just me) were too tired out from the previous day's trekking, we decided to take it easy after our early morning foray at Satok market and caught The Inglorious Basterds at Spring shopping centre, touted as the biggest shopping centre in Kuching!

Our trip in Kuching ended with a big bang at Topspot seafood centre! The place feels like Newton hawker centre. You get accosted by eager stall holders pressuring you to order from them the moment you set foot into the food centre. It was a good thing Brandon had recommended Ling Loong No. 6 to us, otherwise the commotion would have been quite bewildering!

Curry bamboo clams - the very same bamboo clams being picked up at the beach in Bako.

Black pepper crab

Sambal sting ray

And a lot of other food! Total damage? RM 82 for 3 pax. Excellent food at incredibly cheap prices!


PS: Though not mentioned, we actually had our dinner twice at Ling Loong. The first time cost us only RM 77, and we had butter crab and grilled tiger prawns!