my kuching trip (part 2)

On day 3 of our Kuching trip, we visited the semenggoh nature reserve to check out some orang utans on the 3rd morning at my uncle’s suggestion. I was very very tempted to stay in bed but decided that maybe its good exposure for jerry and dragged our lazy bums out.

the journey took about 20mins in a cab ride. talking about cabs, they are a rarity in kuching. very hard to find one randomly on the streets, they are almost non existent. only easily available at touristy areas or hotel lobbies. anyway, I digressed. that’s the ticket stud for entry. Malaysians cost 5rm, foreigners 10rm, seniors citizens at 3rm. above pic is a msian ticket that belongs to my aunt.

the reserve was a refreshing change from the urban landscape that we city dwellers are used to. its like our macritchie reservoir but the forest is a lot denser.

we had to trek on a jungle path to get inside the reserve to see the orang utans..

jerry was napping from the car journey so he’s strapped to daddy on the Bjorn carrier still asleep while we made the trek.

at the observation area where silence is the mandate. everyone speaks in hushed tones and observe the orang utans from afar. if you can see from above, there’s one swinging orang utan in the center of the picture. everyone just stood around to orang utan watch and snap pictures… until my boy woke up and started talking. he became the center of attention next as all the tourists turned their eyes on him in smiles and giggles while we desperately tried to teach him the concept of staying silent by hushing him.

a corner of the observation platform that I particularly love for its rustic, natural feel.

some bugs/ants that I observed along the trail while trekking. we hung around for about 30mins and left when the orang utans decided that they are going to stay put high in the trees and staying out of sight.

 

lunch was at lok thien restaurant, a stone’s throw away from our hotel and one that is recommended by both the hotel concierge and our cabby.

drunken chicken and century egg for starters.

stir-fried spinach with garlic for my son.. who suddenly decides he didn’t like this when its usually his favourite.

crispy pork ribs

salted fish fried rice and seafood horfun and I got too busy feeding jerry to take anymore pictures. we also had dimsum – custard buns, egg tarts, glutinous rice in lotus leaves, har gao (prawn dumpling) and some other stuff that I didn’t even get to see/eat. the food is good, costed us about rm$240 for the meal which I thought was rather affordable for 7 adults considering the amount we ate.

 

will our tummies filled, we headed back to our rooms for some siesta.

guess who had a fun time rolling in bed? we chilled the afternoon away as plans to pop over to the city was thwarted with heavy thunderstorms and strong winds and we had to miss the city shuttle at 3pm. when the rain stopped, we decided to stroll to the city center instead. it was about 20mins away on foot.

Chinatown.

view from the other side.

 

the entire stretch reminds me of our very own seah street or liang seah street. the building structures and the signboards are so similar.

vintage cars that are still in operation.

some pillar with intricate details at the top guarded by cats.

 

we popped by the waterfront for a view of the gorgeous sunset.. this is probably the best part of my trip!

an idyllic scenery with a lone boat quietly sailing by.

I love the burst of colours in the sky!

I love this shot! what you think?

the dragon like statues by the steps at the waterfront, with the watch tower in the background and the sun slowly setting. I could sit here all day if the view was like that, but sunsets are always brief. they are over before you know it, which makes them a lot more precious.

another attempt in a slightly different angle.

 

when darkness descended, we took a cab to rock road seafood restaurant, which apparently was quite raved about and its apparently the first seafood restaurant in kuching.

they have fresh seafood on display – fishes, river prawns, fishes, lobsters, crabs, molluscs (zhu zhu), and many other dead fishes/oysters. you just choose from the selection to place your order.

garlic fried river prawns. these tasted really good. river prawns should never be steamed, they give off a weird taste (says my brother).

oyster omelette. this is crispy and good, though my aunt complained that the oyster stinks. coming from someone who comes from a country where fresh oysters are in abundance and cheap (usd6.99 for a dozen), I don’t really blame her. by Singapore standards of frozen oysters, everyone else testified the oysters are alright and the egg, crispy and yummy.

fried noodle. this was meh. I think their noodles are all way too oily for my tastebuds.

vegetable in oyster sauce. nothing fanciful to shout about.

bak choy (white China cabbage) with shredded scallops, way too salty for my tastebuds I couldn’t swallow. otherwise it might have tasted good as its rather flavourful.

squid in some sour, spicy sauce. I didn’t like this because the lemongrass taste is too overpowering in my opinion.

my favourite! zhu zhu in gong bao chilli sauce. yummy. I sat there and finished up 70% of the entire plate all by myself.

 

we had a rather bad experience with the cab driver who was the only one we found but we couldn’t fit all of us so he offered to make 2 trips to fetch us to the restaurant. upon arriving, he offered to wait for us so that he can made 2 trips to fetch us back to the hotel. but didn’t state the price upfront. he did say he’ll go by meter initially when we first engaged him. when he sent my mum and aunt back, the meter is at 18+, my mum decided to be nice and gave him 20. when he circled back and fetched us, he then told us our fare is 25 straight in our face. my mum did call and tell us her fare so we know it was extorting. its daylight robbery I feel and it definitely left a very bad impression on us. we paid up and didn’t argue but was met with displeasure about us giving too little and he went on to grumble about making empty trips back etc etc. if he had offered his service this way, he better jolly state his fare upfront and not tell us its unfair to go by meter when we are on the cab when the meter rate was what he said when we boarded initially. I think my brother was on the verge of throwing the money in his face and kick his cab but decided against it. doesn’t help that in his cab, he already had a passenger with him that accompanied him through all the trips which resulted in 1 less seat available for us passengers to take up. we suspected it was the hotel tower that gave him the idea of extortion since we stayed in tower b where its all the deluxe apartment rooms are..

this is the cab – HQ1483, you really shame your country because I’m putting your nonsense up here for all to see and when I have the time, I will go find out how I can lodge an official complain.

my baby tottering around my mum’s room. recently he learnt this new trick (haha, I talk like he’s a dog) where he’ll put his hand through a bag/plastic bag/carrier and then he goes.. “bye bye” and waves at you. I think he associate it with us carrying our bags and leaving the house saying bye to him daily so he learns the same thing!

 

on our last day morning, we had breakfast as usual in the hotel, and muck around in the pool and bathtub for some water play before we packed up and headed to the airport and home.

self feeding baby at restaurant for breakfast. he could finish an entire slice of toast by himself.

baby playing with water. the water was way too cold despite the strong sun so we bundled him and threw him into a hot tub instead cos he was shivering so bad!

that marks the end of our short family trip.

 

all pictures in this post is taken with my mobile phone (htc one x) and unedited.

 

do also read about part 1 of the trip.

 

I’ll also blog about the items I packed for the trip for jerry in the upcoming post so if you are interested what items to bring while traveling with a baby, look out for it!

 

I have got loads to talk about but I cant seemed to blog fast enough with my phone!