Kuching

October 23, 2024October 23, 2024

On the road again - in the sky again!

We left Saskatoon Thursday October 19 around 5:45 pm for Kuching, Sarawak Malaysia. The 2 1/2 hour flight to Vancouver in a Dash-8 turboprop was almost the low point of our trip. Air Canada now has free beer and wine onboard to drum up business. We had an 5+ hour layover in Vancouver, then off to Singapore on a Boeing 787-9 aircraft for the perfect 16 hour flight. When we landed in Singapore we breezed through customs. This is due to having already filed our SGAC. All travellers are required to submit the SG Arrival Card with Electronic Health Declaration before arriving in Singapore. We had a very short wait for the luggage and then stepped outside to transfer from terminal 2 to terminal 4 via a shuttle bus. In no time we were in terminal 4 and had our bags checked on discount airline, Air Asia. We ended up with time to spare. It’s awesome when you plan something with no idea if things will work out and they actually work out flawlessly.

We found a lounge in terminal 4 and had something to eat. Our flight departed at 11:45 am for Kuching. Technically it was almost lunch time in Singapore which is 14 hours ahead of Saskatoon. By now we were 24 hours into the trip and about 35 hours since we got out of bed.

We arrived in Kuching on a jam packed A320 where our knees rubbed the seat in front of us. Air Asia discounts on leg room the most. This flight AK1776 was not as cheap as previous flights on Air Asia due to the need to buy a flex ticket, just in case our Air Canada flight was delayed.

We purchased SIM cards at Hotlink for our phones getting the fastest speed and largest download amount for the next month. It was around $34 CAD for both phones. Good price! We booked a Grab using our phone with the new SIM card for Malaysia. The fare was about $6.15 to to the hotel, around 12 km away.

Check-in went smooth mainly because we know the idiosyncrasies of Malaysian tourism. The booking includes a 10 Malaysian ringgit tourism tax per night. The proof of payment is sent by email which you must save in order to prevent getting charged twice. Yes, we have the emails and the downloaded receipts, all three of them as we are staying 14 nights in this hotel. We made 3 separate bookings in order to have the opportunity to cancel if something went wrong, God forbid. The first 2 bookings of three days each were made through agoda.com and the third booking for 8 nights was made through Aeroplan. We made use of the Aeroplan promotion to get a free night for every 3 nights paid for. That’s 8 nights for the price of 6 plus we made use of the 33% discount on Aeroplan points and the 2,500 Aeroplan bonus on top of it all. Almost free you might think. Wrong. Aeroplan is our rewards program of choice for a reason. We have much time invested in figuring out the different angles to milk the rewards. It’s hard work.

Our first night in the hotel was great. The air conditioning was just the right temperature and the bed was dreamy. We even got a complimentary plate of fruit consisting of 3 bananas, 2 apples, 1 orange, 1 kiwi and 3 beautiful big strawberries. Gary’s total sleep was 8 hours 45 minutes plus another hour and 43 minutes of being awake. Over 10 hours in bed and we were going by 7 am. Breakfast was an oink-fest of coffee, yogurt, pastry, watermelon, oranges, noodles and Gary had his favourite, Sarawak Laksa. Laksa is a spicy, curry-coconut-based noodle soup that originated from the Peranakans, who are of mixed Chinese-Malay heritage. It comes with chicken, shrimp, strips of fried egg and vermicelli noodles. It’s a spicy way to wake up!

Our first day in Kuching was pretty good, we walked about 8 km, had a one hour massage for 65 ringgits each, that’s $21 each, for one of the best massages we’ve had. We wandered by the Ceylonese restaurant and had a mango lassi, it was really good so we decided to head back for supper. Our supper cost us 51.80 ringgit, $16.60 CAD. We had lemon iced tea, Tikka chicken, Aloo Gobi, Garlic Naan and some assorted sauces like mint chutney. Aloo Gobi is a simple Indian vegetarian dish made with potatoes, cauliflower, spices and herbs. Supper was excellent! We headed back to the hotel in a blustery 28º wind with a few drops of rain. We tried our umbrella and they turned inside out. It was windy so we walked fast and didn’t really get wet. Off to bed for another great sleep. We are tired and no where near recovering from the jet lag.

November 4, 2023November 5, 2023

More in Kuching

Ferry trip to start our day

We took a RM 1 each (30 cents) ferry boat across the river and walked up the hill to the Fort Margherita Museum. The fort was constructed by Charles Brooke the Rajah (ruler) of Sarawak. Also know as the White Raja. Charles was born the UK. He was the beginning of a dynasty that ruled Sarawak. The museum was interesting and from the top of the fort we had some good views across the river.

From there we walked back to the ferry boat and went back across the river. Our admission from the Fort also included admission to the Ranee Museum. The Ranee Museum is located in the Old Court House. It was a short walk from the ferry and our hotel. The museum centres on the life, legend and legacy of Margaret de Windt, wife of the second Rajah Brooke, who became the queen of Sarawak at the age of 19. It wasn’t a huge museum but was well laid out and was very interesting to learn about the Brooke family and their legacy. There was a restaurant in another wing of the Old Courthouse.

Sarawak became one of the states of Malaysia in 1963, marking the beginning of a new chapter of development and progress. Over the past 60 years, the state has made significant strides in various sectors, especially in infrastructure, education, healthcare, and tourism. The Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) initiative has attracted investments and contributed to the development of industries such as agriculture, aquaculture, and renewable energy. Sarawak’s cultural diversity has also been embraced, and the state has become a popular tourist destination with its natural wonders, indigenous cultures, and festivals. Moving forward, Sarawak has set its sights on becoming a high-income state by 2030 through its Sarawak Digital Economy Strategy and the continuation of infrastructure development. The state’s rich biodiversity and cultural heritage will also continue to be preserved and promoted for future generations to enjoy and appreciate.

After touring the Ranee Museum we stopped at the adjoining building’s restaurant. We sat outdoors and had a cold orange and dragonfruit soda and shared a slice of olive oil chocolate cake. The cake was tasty although a bit rich, the soda was delicious. From there we hiked farther up the hill to the Borneo Cultural Museum. It is a huge and impressive building. However, while some of the displays and artifacts were interesting the lighting was so low that you could barely read the information! By the time we were done we both felt like we had headaches from straining to see and slightly dizzy from peering down trying to read. The information plaques were too low and poorly lit. Maybe more suitable for school children, which we saw an abundance of. Some wearing masks, some not. While there was some really interesting items we both felt we got more out of the other museums.

We stopped along a market street and checked things out. We made our way back to the hotel and picked up a couple of T-shirts for Gary. We also saw a display for school uniforms.

On the walk back to our hotel we found a small convenience store that had canned beer so we picked up a couple of those. Supper was back at The Top Spot. Gary had butter grilled prawns 30 RM, Linda had black pepper chicken 20 RM, we shared a small rice and mixed vegetable again. The meal was excellent. RM 71 was $20.60 CAD for supper. We did share a large Tiger beer for RM19 $5.50 CAD. The large bottle is about 640 m

One interesting fact. When Linda worked at SaskEnergy (a long long time ago) a couple of the service technicians made a business trip (also a long long time ago) to Kuching and Miri, Sarawak. They were representing SaskEnergy International. Nobody but those two guys knew what a great place they got to visit! Kuching is a beautiful and clean city. You won’t find litter anywhere!

On our last day in Kuching we went for a walk in the morning and checked out the business area back of the hotel. During our hot sweaty walk we did find a massage place. We spent some time cooling off in the hotel and then hiked back to the massage place about 3:30. Our massages were unbelievable. The women were so strong and they attacked all the knots! We staggered back to the hotel and then headed down the waterfront to the James Brookes Bistro. We both ended up having the Green Curry with Chicken – it was amazing. We both love green curry and this certainly didn’t disappoint. While at the restaurant we met a young couple who are just launching their YouTube channel. Think we are subscriber #6. He is from Malaysia and she is from the UK but they live in Australia.

Saturday, Oct. 28, we had our breakfast, packed up and checked out. We caught a Grab to the airport. The Air Asia flight to Miri was pleasantly on-time and in fact, we landed 20 minutes ahead of schedule. A nice change from our delayed flight earlier in the week.

October 28, 2023October 31, 2023

Welcome Back to Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

Low clouds cover the top of Merdeka 118 the world’s 2nd tallest building.

We left Saskatoon October 18, 2023 on the 5:25 pm flight to Vancouver. We then endured a 7 hour layover in Vancouver. Thankfully we have lounge passes to the Air Canada lounge through our Aeroplan credit card. Free food and beer and a relatively peaceful and comfortable place to stay. The lounge closed at 12:15 am so we went to our gate for the second flight from Vancouver to Taipei on EVA Airways. We left on time around 2 am Vancouver time (3 am Saskatoon). Yes this sounds tiring. After our meal, which was chicken and rice, or in Linda’s case, “silicone chicken”, we fell asleep in our seats which were ok. We arrived in Taiwan’s capital Taipei about 11 hours later. We had a short layover of one and a half hours. Our flight was perfect, at least for us. We landed in Kuala Lumpur about four and a half hours later around 11 am. We were met by a person holding a sign with our names on it. The bad news, our luggage was not on our flight, it would arrive in 3 hours with a China Airways flight CI721. We could either wait or have it sent by midnight to our room in downtown Kuala Lumpur. We were so tired by then, we couldn’t even think straight.

We proceeded to get SIM cards for our phones at a 7-11. It took forever as the place was extremely busy. After we got our phone SIM cards activated we have Malaysian phone numbers with unlimited data. The cost was about 45 RM (Malaysian Ringgit) or $13 CAD for one month. Unlimited texting and voice calls in Malaysia. To activate, you need to take a photo of your passport page with your picture and then take a selfie that apparently needs to match the passport picture. Our passports were issued in 2017 and after being up for 40+ hours, our selfie looked bad. Terrible in fact! It took a dozen selfie photo tries to get each SIM card approved. Our 3 hour wait for luggage turned in to less than an hour.

We bought a bottle of water and ate some trail mix while we waited. We went to the “missing luggage” area and they allowed one person to go fetch the luggage. Gary went and walked the whole length of the baggage area, around a dozen sections to the very last spot where we were told to report. Once there, he was directed back to the carousel that had the China Airline flight’s luggage. Gary waited on a bench beside a guy from Vancouver that had been on the same flight as us. He was in the same boat. Finally bags started dropping onto the carousel. The guy from Vancouver got his immediately, so Gary was hopeful. It wasn’t long and both bags came around. Gary texted Linda and we met at the arrival hall. We got outside and to the Grab (like Uber) pick up area. In about 15 minutes we were on our way to the Bukit Bintang area of Kuala Lumpur. Destination Hotel Swiss Garden.

We got checked in to room 1301 which we booked through the agoda.com booking site. We got unpacked, charged our phones a bit and headed out to the Jalan Alor street food night market. When approaching Grand Sky Restaurant we were met by the staff that remembered us from the previous year. How do they do that? Our waiter Janson gave us hugs and remembered our names. Ok, he remembered Linda’s name for sure! Amazing. We ate a great meal and had a few well deserved beer. It wasn’t long until we headed back the few blocks to our hotel. It was raining by then and we were fine with the warm wet air. The airplane had dried us out like prunes.

Shrimps, sweet and sour chicken and stir fry vegetables.

The next day we tried to make some flight and hotel bookings for the next 12 days. We had purposely not booked any flights or hotel rooms that did not have adequate cancellation in case we got delayed or something worse. Our Aeroplan card was useless because when we tried to book flights online the two factor authorization went to our Canadian mobile number. We ended up using a different card that authenticates via an email address. Aeroplan’s card failed us. We got some hotels booked for Kuching on October 24 and Miri on October 28. Both places are in Sarawak the Malaysian state located on the island of Borneo, also known as East Malaysia. When we called the credit card company, they gave us a work around that was supposed to allow us to add another phone number to our Aeroplan card profile. We tried their suggestion but when we tried to verify the number, a process where the credit card sends a text message, we could not receive the message. We eventually figured out we flipped two numbers around when we recorded Gary’s phone number. Stupid mistakes are easy when you are tired.

We went to a nearby mall for some lunch and a few batteries for the GoPro camera. We returned to the room for a rest, then headed back to our favourite spot, Grand Sky Restaurant. Supper was great. We got back to our room in decent time around 8 pm. Exhausted. Linda killed a bug right by the door on the tile floor. A quick google search identified our bug. Gary took a photo and the bug on a piece to tissue in a ziplock bag to the front desk. He showed the picture on the phone to our favourite bellman and he took Gary’s phone to the manager. Not a question was asked and we got upgraded to a slightly nicer room down the hall, room 1309. Maybe not far enough for our liking, but what can you do? We had washed and hung up shirts, undies and socks in 1301 earlier in the day so we had to haul everything to the new room. Once in the new room we realized the safe was locked shut and dead (no light came on the touchpad). We made countless phone calls and a trip to the front dest to get that resolved. We never got to bed til after midnight. We were wrecked by then. Of course a day later the safe quit again, another trip to the front dest, a chat with our trusty bellman and we had new batteries in the safe. To be honest, our trusty bellman Sabuj was the main reason we booked a return stay to the Hotel Swiss Garden. Sabuj is the nicest guy!

The next day we took a Grab to the butterfly park. It was warm, humid and an enjoyable outing. Grand Sky again for supper. We met a few guys from Miri, Sarawak where we will be going October 24. Gary sat at their table and next thing he has another beer in front of him. These guys are commercial divers that do rig inspections. You couldn’t ask for a nicer bunch of guys. Finally Linda moved over from our table. She too had a beer in a flash! We had asked what frog tasted like and before we knew what happened they ordered a frog for us, We both loved it. Even Linda tried it! Yes!. We chatted with these guys for at least an hour, probably more. One of the fellows is Iban, an ethnic tribe of Borneo. We had lots to talk about from diving to Malaysian politics. Finally, Gary went to pay for our supper and to buy a few beers for the guys! John, one of the guys shows up and has a chat with the waiter (in Malaysian) and it appears we are unable to proceed because they insist to pay for our meals and drinks. We already know how this ends, you can’t pay. They are so generous it brings tears to your eyes. We got John’s contact information and went back to our room. We kept one eye open for blood sucking insects that crawl into bed. Sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite!

The next day we went hotel shopping for our next trip back to Kuala Lumpur. We found a couple of nice options. One is very nice, newly renovated and right in the same area. It may be slightly more money. We have not booked it yet, but that’s our plan.

We checked out of our hotel October 24th. We allowed for one hour travel time to the airport so we’d arrive 2 hours before departure. On the way down the elevator with our bags we got a message that our flight was delayed. Due to the delay we arrived at the airport with extra time to spare. We checked in for our flight and were politely informed that we would need to show a return flight to KL from Borneo before they’d issue our boarding passes. Malaysian Borneo runs their own immigration. In some ways, it’s like a different country. We ended up standing off to the side at the check in counter and booked a return flight on Gary’s cell phone for December 6 from Kota Kinabalu. Guess what? The Aeroplan credit card does not work, again! So we re-do the booking and used a different credit card. We get the return flight confirmation and finally get checked in. The Dec. 6 return flight we booked cost RM 999 for a 2 hour trip. That’s $288 CAD for 2 people one way. We paid extra for a flex fair because we didn’t know what day we wanted to return. We have an overland wilderness adventure planned on November 30 for 2 nights and wanted to keep our options open.

We were 3 hours late arriving in Kuching, the capital city of Sarawak. We got into our room and went to the Top Spot Food Court for supper. The food was great. 6 huge shrimp served in Asam (sour sour). The prawns are like chicken drumstick for $8.65 CAD Linda had sweet and sour chicken and we shared one small rice and a plate of stir fried vegetables. Our meal cost RM74, including a huge bottle of water. That amounts to $21.30 CAD. We actually were too full to eat it all – we left no prawns.