MY KUCHING EXPERIENCE I have longed to visit Borneo for a long time but for some reason, the place eluded me. Thanks to my work, I was given the golden opportunity. From my observation, although the state is part of Malaysia, it shows very little semblance to any place in Pen Mal. Firstly, at the immigration, I was given a permit to stay for 90 days. Incredulous, I looked at it for a few seconds before I could manage to move for the person behind me.... hahaha... I was thinking, am I still in Malaysia? Then I learned this is part of the agreement during the merging of Sabah and Sarawak into the Federation. We stayed near the waterfront and for a few days had to use the perahu (boat) to cross the river which is the fastest way to our destinations. The other option was paying RM25 for a 25mins of journey when we could conclude it in 10 mins via crossing the river. Kuchingites are in the most, friendly enough. However, I find them lacking in customer service. For example, one drizzling day, we were in a hurry to get to the hotel from the riverside and stopped a taxi. Mind you, most taxis in Kuching has the meter as an adornment as oppose to its original use for telling what is the fare. So, this cabbie stopped and I said, xxx hotel, how much and the cabbie said, RM10 and I said, Why dont you use meter? and he quickly took out a list of fare, waved it at me and said, you dont want never mind and he pulled the door close! Both me and my colleague just looked at each other by the road side, laffing and I said, we definitely in a different place. Then there was the restaurant. I asked for fried beehoon and the lady insisted I took nasi lemak, coz it will take her a long time to prepare the noodle. I turned around to see that most everyone has already got their orders, unless of course there were hungry ghosts which I couldnt see. I cancelled my order. My colleague and I got hooted at and although I should feel flattered, I actually felt scared coz the guys dont just look at our faces but that humiliating top to bottom sweep. Must be some primeval thing going on there... you know when Og saw Ug and wanted to romantically drag her by her hair back to his cave by clubbing her head. Other than those few instances and one particular one with the cabbie, I also met with many nice people. The boat attendant said that we should have not taken the boat ride at night just the two of us and he was concern that we brought big handbags. Apparently that suggests that we have loads of valuable things like the royal tiara and heirloom jewelries. I jokingly said that we left them at the dodgy hotel safe but didnt think it was funny when he kept insisting he sent us. Although initially suspicious, he proved to be a gentleman when he did take us to our location, walking in the dim lights for a good 10mins, when all murders took less time than that to happen. One of the nights in a shuttle service, the driver put on Chinese, Indian, Malay, Iban songs and I said, wow, you really embrace the 1Malaysia spirit and he quickly chirped, 1Sarawak!. I had to respect him for that because, what I have seen so far in Kuching, the spirit of 1Sarawak was really apparent. In the mornings when we took our boat, I saw Malay Muslim people eating in a old style Chinese Kopitiam at ease. I was not able to tell if a person is Chinese or Malay or Iban or whatever other ethnic races just by looking at them and they all blend perfectly. Other than the Laksa Sarawak, Mee Kolok, Kek Lapis Sarawak (originally Speokok from Holland), Mee Pok, I didnt see much difference in food except that the rice was really glutinous. The leaders were approachable and didnt exercise much protocol. The best part of all, the language they speak, resembles that of my mothers native tongue and it made me feel like I have come back home.
Posted on: Sun, 26 Jan 2014 14:04:38 +0000
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