Kuching, Sarawak: Part II.

Hi assalamualaikum. Okay let me continue my story while I am in the mood to write it.


Day 3 (Monday - 10/8/2015)

In the morning, Mizah had to accompany her grandmother to go to a clinic so we were kind of stuck in the hotel room. We took the opportunity to sleep a little longer huehuehue. Our initial plan was to go to Pantai Damai and Kem Permai in the morning but yeah, thing doesn't always go according to your plan. Because it was already late, we decided to change our plan and go to Carpenter Street instead. So we had our brunch at 11 a.m. after Mizah had finished her appointment with the doctor. We went to Kopi O' Corner -- where Dena Bahrin went to a few days earlier so it became a famous place hahaha. I was starving so I ordered Nasi Ayam Penyet Bakar and coconut shake for lunch, omnomnom.

Nasi Ayam Penyet Bakar and Coconut Shake FTW!

After we had our lunch, we headed back to our hotel to drop Seha because she was not feeling well and we needed to perform our Zohor and Asar prayers. Then, we stopped by at a shopping mall to buy myself a new sandal because my shoes were worn out T__T. After that we proceeded to Carpenter Street, a must-visit place for tourists, especially if you want to experience a backpacking style of travelling hahaha. The streets there were lined with old buildings and vintage-decorated bars. And we accidentally found a wall full of street arts! B) 

Posing di pintu gerbang.

One of my favourite street art; a pixelated picture of Rosli Dhobi.

Kalau anda adalah sejenis instagrammer dan hipster, anda akan menyukai tempat ini, lelelels. Then, we went to buy Ais Kantong, more or less like ABC but eaten in a cup and it tasted like Sarsi. I couldn't finish it because the portion was too big -__-" Because we were already late, we went to a souvenir shop and bought everything in just one shop and headed back to our hotel room to pick Seha up to buy Kek Lapis at Kampung Boyan.

Since we need to cross the river to go to Kg. Boyan, we had a chance to enjoy the sunset view and subhanallah, it was really breathtaking. Once we arrived at the kampung, Mizah brought us to Kek Lapis Dayang Salhah. In order to go there, you need to walk quite far from the waterfront. It is quite hidden from the main road. Anyone who doesn't know about this place will have a difficulty finding it. Nearer to the waterfront, there is Mira Cake House that sells kek lapis too but Mizah told me that Dayang Salhah's has a better taste. I don't know which is better though because I didn't get the chance to compare those two, heheh. But yea, all the kek lapis I bought were tasty :D

Sunset at the waterfront.

We decided to have our dinner at Topspot Food Court, which is famous for their seafood. We walked all the way to UTC building (the foodcourt is located upstairs) all sweaty and stinky hahaha because Mizah had to send the car to his uncle. Fortunately Eva, Fatin and Intan (our classmates that happened to go there for a holiday at the same time) had arrived early so they ordered the food for us. Datang-datang, lahap je makanan terus. Leuls. The food was quite good, but next time maybe we should order Sarawak specialty dishes, to make it more interesting. The Sarawak dishes that they ordered were Midin Goreng Belacan (sort of like paku pakis) and Umai Ikan (they used raw fish). Sorry I didn't take any picture of the food because I was tired and hungry :') After dinner, we went back to our room, tired but happy because the stomach was full :3

Day 4 (Tuesday - 11/8/2015)

It was our last day here and we woke up early to go to Santubong. During the journey it was raining lightly so I couldn't hide my disappointment because I thought we wouldn't be able to go mandi manda :( Chilling in a river and swimming has always been my favourite activity to do during travel. But as the time went by, the sky became clearer so I was happy again :D While waiting for kem Permai to be opened for public, we stopped by at Damai Central for a while to take pictures of Gunung Santubong and the enormous Kenyalang. 

Gambar ihsan Trip Advisor sebab tak jumpa gambar dan malas korek.

Gambar ihsan Sarawak Tourism.

After Kem Permai Rainforest Resort was opened to public, we went there and was charged RM4.00/person (student rate). The normal rate is RM5.00/person. I love this place so much because you will be surrounded by nature throughout the whole journey. And though we needed to walk quite a few metres before we reached the pool, it was really worth it. The pool was not really a pool though. How do I describe it? The water was actually a streaming river but they made the place look like a pool. Hahaha I give up explaining. But I seriously love that place. Beside the pool there was a fish pond and if you're lucky, when you put your feet into the pond, the small fishes will come and bite your feet. I did it and it was ticklish and I screamed and laughed like an idiot :') Fortunately, there were no one else there because it was a normal Tuesday for everyone else, of course. After playing with the fishes, I went inside the pool and mandiiiiiii :D

The entrance.

The pool. The water was very clear, yes.

After that, we walked a few metres more and arrived at Pantai Damai. We didn't swim at the sea though. We were just chilling and taking pictures before we went back to the pool and continue our bath. Hehe. At 11 a.m. we headed back to town and Mizah brought us to Serian if I'm not mistaken to try the famous Aiskrim Gula Apong yang memang masyaAllah sedap :') And we also ate Cheesy Mayo Potato Story (well, in Semenanjung we have Crazy Potato but this one tasted just as good and it was way cheaper). As for lunch, we went to The Spring Mall (where we had our first lunch in Kuching) and had our last lunch at SugarBun. Ceh, konon simbolik lah kena pergi tempat yang sama untuk lunch :8) We also performed our prayers there and after that we headed to airport at 3.00 p.m. to depart back to Kuala Lumpur. We arrived KLIA2 at about 7.50 p.m and splitted our ways.

Expenses

If you're wondering about my expenses, here goes:

Flight: RM 129.00

Hotel: RM 72.00

Transportation and fuel: RM 36.80 (we borrowed Azi's car so we managed to save a lot of money)

Activities: RM 10.80 (Wind cave, Meow Meow Cafe, Kem Permai)

Souvenirs: RM 111.70 (Kek Lapis, ikan terubuk, tshirt & keychain)

Meals: RM 105.00 (average of RM25/day, lol baru perasan banyak duit habis dekat makanan)

Emergency: RM 70 (my new sandal T__T)

Total expenses including flight and hotel -- RM 535.30

Terlebih bajet ni sebenarnya. I thought it won't exceed RM 500. But well, if it was not for the worn out shoes, my budget will only be RM 400+. It's okay though, the sandal I bought is comfortable enough to be used for my next journey :B

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So there goes the story of my journey. It was a brief journey, but it definitely was a memorable one :)

Kuching, Sarawak: Part I

Hi assalamualaikum. I have been procrastinating writing about this trip for daaays. If I'm not mistaken this is actually my third travelogue after Sabah and Singapore. Since it is a 4 days & 3 nights trip and it will be quite a lengthy post if I try to tell you all the details, I will try my best to make it as simple as I can. And pardon my upcoming rojak language.

Day 1 (Saturday - 8/8/2015)

The four of us arrived at Kuching International Airport at 3.00 p.m. and Hamizah, our friend who is staying in Kuching picked us up and brought us to have our late lunch at The Spring Shopping Mall. We went to the food court and ordered ourselves our first Sarawak dish, Laksa Sarawak :3

Tadaa! Creamy and spicy and entahlah, sedap gilaa!

After lunch we headed our way to eat desserts at Swee Kang Ais Kacang. The famous dessert at this place is Ais Jagung if I'm not mistaken but I ordered ABC instead. Their ABC tasted a bit different than in Semenanjung because they used a lot of Gula Apong. We also ate rojak buah and Umai Obor-Obor. If you're wondering about how does a jellyfish tasted, it was crispy! The sour and spiciness of the Umai enhanced the taste. Nang nyaman umai tok :D

Umai Obor-obor

Then we proceeded to check-in at Premium Stay Hostel, a budget hotel. I booked the hotel through Agoda for a rate of RM93/night (a family room with 4 beds). So it only costed us around RM70/person for 3 nights. Yes, the rate is cheap :D At first, the place looked blerghh and mula-mula macam dah panik eh kenapa macam cikai niiii. But surprisingly the room was nice and comfortable enough for the 4 of us and the wifi is quite good, hehehe. Don't judge a place by its exterior decoration. For a budget hotel, it is worth the money lah.

At night, we decided to have our dinner at a nearby restaurant since our hotel is located at the centre of the city and most shops are available within walking distance. We went to eat Nasi Ayam Penyet at Pak Somet Kopitiam (FYI, Nasi Ayam Penyet is quite famous in Sarawak). We wanted to try RJ Ayam Penyet because many people recommended it but it was closed at that moment :( We went back to our room at 10.00 p.m. and hit the sack early.

Day 2 (Sunday - 9/8/2015)

We had our breakfast at Teh Tarik Kafeteria in Petra Jaya and ate Mee Kolok. It was one of the most delicious Mee Kolok I've ever tasted in the world. I think that even if I put the picture here it wouldn't do the food enough justice because it tasted waaaay better that what it looked like. It was very, very delicious, no doubt. Okay lepasni kita slow down sikit cerita pasal makanan. Haha. Buat lapar je -.-

The Lord of The Mee Kolok.

After that we proceeded to Serikin, a famous place for people from Semenanjung to shop for kain batik and kain pasang Sarawak. It was quite far from the main city and it took us about 50 minutes to arrive there. Since I'm not very fancy at shopping, I found this place very mehhh and I'd rather skip this part. However my friends bought a lot of things here, so maybe it was interesting to other people. Haha.

Then, we headed to Gua Angin, which is located in Bau, Sarawak. It is not really far from Serikin, only about 10-15 minutes away. The entrance fee is only RM1.00/person and you can rent a torchlight for RM4.00 each. It has many passages and to explore the whole cave will take about 45 minutes. But we only went inside for 10 minutes because it was too dark and we spent the rest of our time there taking and posing for pictures huhuhuhu. Inside the cave, you can see the bats hanging everywhere and it was quite spooky but interesting. There were a lot of beautiful naturally shaped stalactites and stalagmites too.

On our way out from the cave.

Our next destination was Tasik Biru located nearby the Wind Cave we visited earlier. The colour of the lake was not as I expected haha. I thought it would be azure blue or a lighter shade of blue, but instead it was more of navy blue shade. We didn't stay long here because we were already tired and it was getting hot. We stayed there for about 10 minutes to take pictures and then headed back to Kuching.

It was raining that evening so we went to Baitulmal to perform our prayers and eat our late lunch. After the rain stopped, we went to Meow Meow Cafe, a cat cafe and played with the cute cats but they kind of ignored us  -___-". Then we went to Pustaka Negeri, a public library and park. We rested ourselves there, tengok ikan dalam tasik and enjoy the scenic view before heading back to our room.

After performing our Maghrib and Isyak prayers, we walked from our hotel to the waterfront and rode a Penambang (a small perahu that was used to transport passengers to the other side of the river) and ate our dinner there. After dinner, we took a walk along the Kuching Waterfront. The Sarawak DUN Building is soooo majestic I can stare and admire it for the whole night.

I was kind of regret that night because I didn't bring my dslr with me T__T

Okay, that's all for this Part 1. For a snippet, in part 2 I will share about Carpenter Street - the place for street arts and souvenirs shopping, Kek Lapis Dayang Salhah, Topspot Seafood Food Court, and Kem Permai and Pantai Damai (my favourite part). InsyaAllah see you soon!

p/s: Sorry for the square pictures. It was taken from my vsco account because I am too lazy to transfer the pictures to my laptop -.-