The land of hornbills: Chapter 2

This post may have come a fraction too late compare to the others but some 2 cents worth of opinion would be added in here just in case some readers are interested.. And warning, this post may sound very repetitive to the other posts in certain blogs..

On day 2, after 4 hours of sleep, we woke up super early to taste the ever famour “Kuching Laksa”.. And after reassurance from the Kuching-ite, I braved myself to taste the noodles.. LUCKILY, it was not as spicy as the other laksas I taste here in Peninsular Malaysia.. To the others it was not spicy at all but for me, the tinge of spice was enough to activate my sweat glands and put it into overdrive.. Although it was a challenge to eat through the sweats, the noodle is delicious and tasted very different from those in Peninsular Malaysia.. Must give it a try!!

Next, we drive ourselves to the Cultural Village near Damai.. We each paid RM15 as students and spent half a day inside the village.. For some of us, it was the first time we were able to come close to the various traditional houses of the aborigines living in Sarawak.. It was an eye opener and it was really interesting to be able to try out different activities being carried out by the aborigines.. We tried the traditional way of separating the hulls from the rice, wearing traditional costumes, shooting cans with blowpipe, playing traditional musical instruments and tasting some local delicacies.. There was also a cultural performance performed by the aborigines and some of the dances were actually quite familiar for those of us who performed during AMSC before this

When we were done with the village, it was already late noon.. We had our lunch, bought some bubble tea with special remembrance for Gordon, and headed to “Taman Sahabat” which was built to signify the relationship between Malaysia and China.. It was an interesting park with beautiful architecture and the residence there were really lucky to have such a beautiful area to jog at.. Don’t see this near my house though.. Pictures would tell a thousand words so watch out for the next post!

At night, once again we went on a food hunt.. I can’t remember very clearly what we ate that night but it includes 3 different type of deserts, fried sweet noodle with clam, fried “loh pak ko”, “chu cap” (flat noodle with pork and pig’s internal organs), “konlo mee” (dried noodle), flat noodle with tomato sauce, “sieu mai” (hokkien: siow bee, english: steam minced pork I think), soya bean, grilled fish, special fried cuttlefish, roasted lamb and “yau char kuai” with kaya.. We ate all this within 4 hours plus with an hour break in between for some shopping in the biggest shopping centre in Kuching, The Spring.. At the end of the day, all of us were stuffed to the maximum.. Some of us even managed to drink some alcohol before sleeping!!

Day 3, we woked up early as usual and headed off for cave exploration.. Before that, we had noodles and glass noodles with pork balls.. This place is specially recommended by Gordon of all people.. And it actually brought back some childhood memories for him.. Finally, he got to tatse the porkball after 12 years of absence.. Honestly, the pork balls were actually chewy and tasty!! He did not recommend it wrong..

After breakfast, we drived to the “Fairy Cave” and had our exploration there.. It was actually very dark inside and torchlight were essentials.. After going through some obstacles and poorly maintained stairs, we managed to climb to the peak of the cave but it was a disappointing climax.. We could see nothing at the peak but trees and rubbish.. Looking on the bright side, there were some interesting natural sculptures which people actually pray to.. The journey in, around and out of the cave were also challenging and fun!!

After the exploration, we had our lunch and tried the special 3 layered tea highly recommended by Henry.. It was a combination of tea, milk and “gula melaka” nicely arranged in layers before you start mixing it.. Then we headed off for some last minute shopping for local delicacies and souvenirs to be brought back home.. At the end of the shopping trip, it was time to go home and pack.. We had our dinner together and met up with Tek Jee before we went to the airport for our flight home.. It was a sad moment for most of us as we would definitely miss the food there but most importantly, we would miss the wonderful person who had been so kind and wonderful to spend time with us.. Hope he had great fun during our stay there too!!

Thank you HENRY!! Sorry for any trouble caused.. You are a great friend as well as a wonderful host.. Will visit you again real soon.. Take care!!

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