We’ve had 3 full on, hot and sweaty days in Malaysian Borneo. Our home base is a city called Kuching, which the guidebook says is a cosmopolitan Paris of Malaysia. I guess so, if you like Cats. Now I don’t mean the Andrew Lloyd Webber version, I mean cats, like the feline pets.
I guess the word ‘kucing’ means ‘cat’ in Malaysian, so they’ve taken this to a whole new level. Some of the main tourist attractions are these crazy weird, huge cat sculptures.
There’s interesting, interactive street art throughout the city, and a stunning waterfront with an S-shaped pedestrian bridge crossing the river to an elaborate state assembly building.
Today we were up early to catch the bus to Semenggoh Nature Reserve, which has an orangutan sanctuary. This was a bucket list checker for me. We were the first people there so had unobstructed views of a 10 year old orangutan feeding until Richie arrived (cue heavy base rap music).
Who’s Richie? He’s the alpha male who is basically the king of the place. When he eats, no one else can. Props to RockyB for some great shots of him.
This afternoon we used our guesthouse bikes to ride along the river. We caught a lot of attention of the locals (even though many of them ride bicycles). Maybe they were just amazed to see how sweaty a human can actually get. We came across an orchid garden on our way back.
We’ve been eating a variety of Malaysian, Thai, Indian, and Chinese food and every meal qualifies in the ‘plate licker’ category. Highlights have included a popular breakfast soup called ‘Laksa’ (coconut milk, lemon grass, tamarind, lime, rice noodles) and the unofficial national dish of ‘Nasi Lemak’ (coconut rice with peanuts, salted fish, sambal, hard boiled egg). 3 times in a row Rocky B has been finished her meal before mine even arrives. The pattern seems to point toward a strange type of whitey-treatment. We’re planning some experiments to test this theory, but regardless I’m willing to wait for this delicious food!
Haha! RB's bowl is empty. Love the 'plate licker' rating.