Last Stop in Borneo

Sunday, June 7, 2009--Sibu (Continued)

It was hot and I had done the little there was to do here. Therefore, I ate lunch and went to my room for the afternoon. I decided to eat at KFC. It's the most popular franchise in all of Asia. One is more likely to find it than any other. If a city has only one international franchise, it will be KFC here. I had a spicy chicken sandwich with fries covered in a spicy hot sauce. At the room, I watched two films on HBO. While watching, it rained some--the first rain since I was in the mountains at the beginning of my visit to Borneo.

The night market is just next to my hotel, so I went out only to go there and eat dinner. I was still rather full from lunch, so I bought 3 curry potato pies and ate them as I walked around looking at the other foods in the market.

Monday, June 8-2009--Sibu to Kuching

Every hotel so far in Malaysia has had the air conditioner positioned so that it blows directly at the bed. I hate that!! I keep worrying that I will get a cold, and I have to keep my head under the covers too much of the night.

I'm taking the boat to Kuching rather than the bus. It leaves at 11:30, so that meant that I needed to eat a late breakfast/early lunch. I went around the corner to a food stall. Three young ladies were eating something that looked good, so I asked them what it was. I ordered the same--Tedai, a roti-style thin pancake which is folded over to make an envelope. Inside was a fried egg. It came with a bowl of spicy dipping sauce and was delicious. Then walking back around the corner to the room, I noticed the Hong Kong Confectionery bakery where I had seen crowds yesterday. There were only 5 people there today, so I stood in line. They bake small pound cakes in individual metal containers. I ordered 1 ringett's worth (18 cents) and got 4 of the small cakes hot out of the oven. I walked around to my hotel and sat in the lobby eating them. They were so good. While sitting there, the man from the bakery came in with some of the cakes for the staff. When he saw me, he left and returned with another style of cake (more flavorful and less sweet) baked in a paper muffin cup.

The docks here in Sibu remind me of Manaus. There are many boats that go upriver, and that is the only mode of transportation to those towns and villages. There were crowds of people milling around and getting on boats. People were on tops of boats as well as in them. There was a festive air. And people carried anything and everything--bags of things they had bought, chickens in hand-carrier baskets, etc. It was exciting!

Seats were assigned on the boat. Fortunately, my seat was an aisle one and I was next to three cousins (two boys and a girl) who are students in Kuching and had traveled to their home village during the school holidays to visit their grandmother. The one next to me spoke perfect English. His parents died of cancer when they were in their early 40s, so his uncle (the father of the two cousins) took him in at age 13 and raised him. They all live in Kuching and the three of them are students at university now. We talked about lots of things during the 5 1/2 hour boat trip.

When we arrived in Kuching, everyone told me to get a taxi, but I kept telling them that taxis are a problem for tourists in eastern Asia. My guidebook had told me there were two buses serving the port area, so I walked about 1/2 km out of the port to the main road and found a bus stop. I waited there for an hour with no bus before giving up. I started walking toward town and stopped at another bus stop at a busy intersection about another 1/2 km away. A bus was coming, so I waived for it. The driver waived back and kept going. Then a car, whose driver had seen this, pulled over. He told me that the bus drivers are on strike and there are no buses. He and his wife told me to get in, and they drove me to the tourist hotel area downtown.

By then it was 18:30. But he had let me out in front of one of the hotels I had marked as a possible choice. I didn't feel like looking around a lot, so I just went in and took a room. The rates were reasonable, and the room was nice enough. The bed was good and everything was very clean. But the TV does not have the international channels that I have had elsewhere.

I went out searching for a better hotel where I could move tomorrow. But I didn't find anything better. I ate dinner--laksa, the same spicy soup with shrimp that I had in KK several days ago. This time, it lacked the don't-ask-don't-tell ingredient and had more shrimp.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009--Kuching

I got up early and went to check one more hotel. I liked it, so I went back and checked out of the Mandarin and moved to the Fata. The Fata has a larger room, a larger bath, a better view, satellite TV, a phone in the room, and a sofa in addition to the bed. All that for only $1.80 U.S. more per day.

So far, I have wandered around Kuching getting cash, stopping at the tourist office for literature and a map, and looking for this cyber cafe (which has a connection that is too slow). It's a nice looking town with lots of old colonial buildings, a beautiful paved riverside promenade, nice shopping facilities, etc. I will be here for 4 days exploring in the city and in the area.