Updated: Oct 11, 2004 by Yiling
Friday, 3rd Sep 04
Yo girls!
Kuching?s hot! Bright twinkling lights, al fresco dining by the river, big hotels sited conspicuously along the main thoroughfare? can?t blame us for feeling bedazzaled when our bus rolled into town ya? Aye , couldn?t wait to explore the town for eats ?
Okay, but before that, allow me to regale you ladies with the tale of our arduous journey across the South China Sea. Man, taking the budget airline was so super darn ley-chey it wasn?t really worth sacrificing my impatience cells!
First, we had to meet @ Kranji MRT station. Then, board a bus to Woodlands checkpoint. Alight. Board bus again to JB checkpoint. Alight. Board bus again to JB bus terminal. Alight. Board another bus to Senai airport. Alight. Wait for hours for plane to come (ok,we were kaisuly-early).
Waiting at the airport
Then, plane was delayed for 20-30mins. Make a beeline to board plane (elbowing skills served well here).
George and See Kway, Beeling to airplane behind
Board plane, cramp self, bags and other peripherals into smallish seats. Put up with the warm, stuffy air which was supposed to be cooling for 1hr 15 mins (suspect machine malfunctioned, made me wonder whether other stuff would similarly malfunction too along the way). After plane landed, dash for the exit. Fill up another white card (the usual one was only valid for entry into W. Malaysia and Sabah!!!). Queue for ages @ the immigration. Then finally was our ordeal was more or less over.
Gee ? by time we reached Holiday Inn, it was 1030pm. And we gathered @ 3pm @ Kranji! 7.5 hours to get from Singapore to Kuching. Not very worth it right? And I missed having airline food!
Okie gotta run ? me, kokwee, ck, jan, carie, nat, din are going to forage for food ?teresa said the laksa here?s good plus lonely planet raved about the kolo mee ? yummy ?
Saturday, 4th Sep 04
Yo Babes!
Kuching?s very hot! Scorching hot!!!
Today we?d all gotta wake up early to go for training. Wa! Quite siong. As usual kenna tekan-ed by Omar. Made us row up and down the race course and beyond without much breaks in between. Under the hot noon sun somemore! That?s how most of us got blisters on our bums. The paddle shafts were very coarse so we got blisters on our fingers as well. Not only that, almost regurgitated my breakfast into the river. Actually quite worried huh, our training did not prepare us for such a long race ? 1.5 km. Couldn't see the end from the beginning and vice versa. And that was intimidating!
Although today?s only the heats, there?re already many people swirling around along the river. The main beneficiaries were the food kiosks lined tightly along the promenade selling stuff like sarawak burgers(similar to ramlee burger), satays, drinks, snacks and other knick-knacks and this got repeated faithfully down the line.
Across the river, groups of brightly clad supporters had already gathered, dressed in their village/club colours.
Can see the brightly dressed crowd from quite a distance
Apparently, this Regatta had attracted many local teams and they had trained very hard for the race (actually they started warming up already while we were still in bed). Why? Cos the top prize was $10,000 Ringgit!
So, all these made for a very vibrant picture, the crowds, the bright long-sleeve uniforms worn by the local teams.
Colourful presentation.
How I wish our own DB races were as well-supported as this! Sigh. Oh and the people here were quite sweet, even the officials were extremely helpful especially towards us.
It was a grand event indeed!!
Food?s a great disappointment though. You would think Kuching? have its local delicacies to boast of. Sadly, nothing I?ve seen so far impressed me much. The zi-char we had last night was average ? very similar to what?s here (all the more disappointing when we walked like 2km to get there). The laksa drew much flake from the guys who?s gone to try it. And I din see kolo mee that looked scrumptious enough to try. I guess the Sarawak burger was the only thing that made some impact. But then it?s also not very unique.
The shopping?s pretty good though. You should have seen the loads that Diana and Carie carted back; and the way Nat and Din?s eyes lighting up when they saw ?beaded sandals, hand-weaved bags, accessories, t-shirts etc etc. It?s a shopper?s paradise.
Ok, we also went to this Sunday market which was quite interesting to me. Though it?s a ?Sunday? market, it actually began on Sat afternoons till late night then was continued till Sunday.
Night Market.
This was where the locals/aborigines tout their stuff ranging from fresh produce, worms, meat, seafood, clothing, household appliances, local snacks, drinks, enthic stuff, durians etc etc.
Fruits at the Night Market.
Fat worms!!
Imagine hundreds of stalls packed togther and hundreds of people thronging in between.Now, that?s something original? and I found pretty delicious chicken noodles.. yummy yummy ? an altogether satisfying outing
The Yummy Chicken Noodles
Sunday, 5th Sep 04
Yo ladies
Kuching?s definitely hot!
We came, we rowed, we conquered! Technically speaking, I finally got my first gold medal (but the medal was not gold and not unique to top winners); Safra won RM2000 (more than we?ve ever won in any DB race) and in the same breath, sank a long tail boat (together with RM500).
Ok la, so we had only 2 opponents: a local (Chinese)DB team and a motley crew of ang moh tourists. How could we lose?
The motley crew of ang moh tourist.
We won by some boat lengths but we won it with much effort. Rowed and rowed until wanna die liao still havent reached yet?!?!?!
Somemore our cockstern (dear Omar but who else) din follow the race course to the end but veered diagonally to the jetty. Then straightaway, some of us gotta jump into
the longtail boat for the next race. My, the longtail?s like a super long K-canoe. So hard to balance it was a miracle we got it to the starting point without mishaps! Later, we were to learn that the locals took 1 month just to get the balance.
When the race started and the local teams had charged off, we were still struggling to balance the boat more than row it forward. After 400m, more and more water started to flow in till the entire cockpit was full of water and the water leveled with the gunwhale (thanks to the choppy water caused by 2 patrol boats coming too near us). Instinctively, all of us knew we were done for and we stopped paddling or bailing water and waited for the boat to sink. The boat sank to our waist level then tipped over, throwing us out.
The rescue boats came for us but asked for the paddles first. Wa lau eh, paddles more precious than humans ah?
Agnes holding one of their paddles.
Later we were told the paddles were personal to the rowers who hand-made them. The other thing was, we thought Eric was on board so there was a moment of panic when we realised that Eric wasn?'t floating around ? that was after we had capsized for some time. Die ? he?s still under the boat?!?!?! Luckily CK and Omar clarified ? phew!
It was quite a fun and dramatic adventure though it would have been more shiok if we had completed the race course.
After the race, it was R&R and we went eating, shopping. Somehow or other, most of us gathered (without prior arrangement) at the basement of Parkson for a high tea of roast chicken, KFC, potato wedges and an assortment of cheesecake. Man, the cheesecakes were delicious and cheap. RM5 per slice! Could eat till you drop!
That night, we had seafood dinner @ this open air zi-char food court right at the top of a multi-storey carpark (interesting concept). Then we all adjourned to Eric?s room to celebrate with wine and tit-bits and more cheesecake!
Monday, 6th Sept 04
Yo babes!
Today we went to the Bako National Park to see some monkeys. Not just ordinary monkeys but the probiscus monkeys ? those with a long hook nose and red backside. And they made noises that sound like tigers!
To get there, we booked transport with the hotel. The journey?s about 1.5 hours from Kuching.
Journey to Bako in a mini-van.
Then we had to transfer to a power boat. The journey turned out quite refreshing. Imagine fast-moving air in your hair, face frosting a bit, nice scenery bouncing past ? I was darn sleepy but woke up after that.
Refreshing Boat Ride.
The boats deposited us on a big nice sandy beach.
Bako's Nice and quiet beach.
The Park looked nondescript from here but the boardwalk brought us into loads of green finery and gave us a chance to glimpse the monkeys.
Glimpse of the monkey.
Trekking into Bako.
Trekking into Bako.
Then, we did a short trek to another beach. The trek?s beautiful! I think you guys would have loved it. It was moderately difficult at some parts but generally quite alright. The flora was a deep shade of rich green. But Eric din like it because the climbing stressed his poor knee.
This other beach was devoid of people so we frolicked a bit there. Posed, took some pictures and then majority of them took the powerboat back (too lazy to walk back).
The rest of us back-tracked, stopping to scare the monkeys before heading back to meet the rest.
Then, it was back in town for more makan and shopping?.
Tuesday, 7th Sep 04
Yo ladies!
Today, I was the last woman standing. Just left me and 6 others ie Omar and 2 sons, george, see kway and keehwee. Felt a bit forlon ?
We decided to go see the Bidayuh long house(aboriginal accommodation) ? since it was highly recommended by Lonely Planet. Thought there was a bus heading there but turned out the bus service had been terminated. Eventually, we negotiated for a van for RM200 to bring us there and to other places recommended by the driver. The longhouse wasn?t half as authentic or intersting as those that I have seen in northern thailand. But the hot springs were something!
The first one was smack right inside a river. 3 little pools adjoining one another towards 1 side of the river. And the water inside was hot! But the rest of the river was cold. The 2nd one was even more impressive. It had been made into 2 huge pools with platforms at the side for people to sit and soak their legs. The water inside was damn hot! But then Omar and See Kway still plunged their bodies in ?. Gee ..Interestingly, we couldn?t smell sulphur from this one ? and this one?s also linked to a river ?albeit a smaller one.
After that, we went to a waterfall and trekked a bit. That was pretty nice too. Then we stopped by this little town for some makan and then headed back to Kuching for a pretty decent vegetarian dinner. We hung out by the river for teh-cino and chit-chat till late before we hit the sack. Woa. Only slept 3.5 hour before gotta wake up to catch early flight back to JB then Singapore.
Wednesday, 8 Sep 04
Yo girls,
Was it only yesterday that I was still in Kuching? Already missed that place. This morning, we had breakfast at this chinese coffeeshop. Finally I gotta eat the kolo mee. Was really not bad! Ah ? hungry again.
C ya at training soon!
Team SAFRA!!