Kuching

Hotels have been a bit of a theme in Borneo. At our first hotel we had 3 rooms within 2 days. The first wouldn't let us work the electrics with our key card for the room. We then woke up to a flooded bathroom and went down to reception to complain. Our remark '3rd time lucky' certainly fell on deaf ears at the desk and a lesson or several in customer service for them would be a wise move. That hotel was in a good location on the waterfront however.
We then checked out what we believed to be our second hotel in Kuching prior to leaving the first. However, when we turned up, they either clearly weren't ready for us, had forgotten our booking, or were completely trashed because of CNY celebrations – we could certainly forgave them for the last factor! However, when it came to paying, the fun and games really began. The 'lady' behind the counter said that as we were paying for the hotel on credit card there would be 'no refunds' if we decided to change our minds. Strange, why would we change our minds – we'd already checked the room out previously? However there were a lot of people hanging around now in the lobby and another 'lady' or 'boy' putting his, or her make up on whilst we were standing there. Anyroadup, as Kenny Everitt used to say, the credit card machine didn't work. So, we offered to pay cash – and we came to an agreement that we would pay on a per night basis. We then went out for a walk and pretty much instantly decided that we would look for further accommodation for our remaining nights in Kuching. How strange – we'd already checked out the accommodation, were happy with it, but then the owner sowed a seed of doubt in our minds by saying that 'some other guests changed their minds'. We wouldn't have thought to, once we'd paid that would have been it, but as we'd only paid for one night we were now thinking there must be better places to stay – surely?
Our third hotel was a real find – lovely. It was a 'boutique hostel', probably. The same price as our second hotel, but instantly felt more secure, friendly and actually delivered free breakfast – yet another story!
Back to what we did. We took a lovely little water taxi to the other side of the river to Fort Kuching, or Fort Margherita in fact – set up by James Brookes from his occupation, but during WW2 occupied by the Japanese. It was used as a 'proper' fort during that time, with POW's kept inside and further kept in small, open to the elements, bamboo cages. People had also been hanged from within the confines of the fort previously, but for the majority of the time it had been a pretty peaceful place. Built on an apex in the river for great views, guards in the watchtower would call out on the hour throughout the night 'All's Well'. Apparently, this was then repeated back from several places, including across the water in the main City and David couldn't help himself but to also make the chant – albeit in the comfort of daylight.
The food in Kuching is as good as we've come to expect in Malaysia. There are a few dedicated veggie restaurants, but the latest they appear to stay open until is 8pm – we tried to visit one a couple of times around 6pm, but it had already closed on both occasions, but this meant we did manage to eat in a nice semi open air place named after James Brookes that looked a little like a bandstand. Other food options were mainly open kitchen communal dining areas with a heavy emphasis on fish.
We did get up shortly after 6am one morning to walk to the bus station to catch the7am bus to the Orang utan sanctuary some 20km's out of the city centre. We were lucky enough (apparently for the time of year) to see 5 adults with 2 of their babies come to the morning feeding session. As we wandered through to the site David only managed to see one leech – which was more than enough thank you very much!
We also decided it had to be worthwhile to visit the Cat Museum whilst in Kuching (the city of the cat!). This involved another bus ride, thankfully not at stupid o'clock, but when we got there it was soooooo sad. Any reference AT ALL to cats is listed in that museum, well up until about 20 years ago, when it last seemed to have been updated. Lesley Ash was a feature because she'd stared in a programme called C.A.T.S Eyes and even Northampton got a mention via the Derngate theatre because of hosting a Curiosity Killed The Cat gig that David reluctantly agreed to the fact that he'd actually attended it. On that bombshell, it's probably enough to report from this particular update, so until the next time blog fans....
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