Kuching, or 'Cat City,' as it is locally known, due to the extensive number of stray cats and cat statues..., was to be our home for a few nights. Jen had had a recommendation from a friend at BDO to stay at the 'Sea Hare Hostel,' and while being in a bit of an awkward (sorry seem to have lost my ability to spell) position, (a guy got his bag snatched the morning we arrived and another one out front a couple of weeks previously), but it was the cheapest place around and Wes, the owner, was amazing! He sat us down as soon as Dave and Jen arrived and gave us a map of what was worth doing and seeing and exactly how much it would cost and, most importantly, the good places to eat. Dave and Jen had been craving roti canai ever since landing in Malaysia and were very happy to find 'Sri Shan' -an very good and very cheap Indian Restaurant just around the corner, which sold every kind of roti you could think of - roti cheese, roti coconut, roti masala, roti jackfruit... In fact, Dave and Jen enjoyed the place so much, we ate here for lunch and dinner for three consecutive days and Dave even asked the owner for his roti recipe to take back to Cho Gao!
On the topic of food... Dave was also very happy to find 'Secret Recipe' in Kuching, a decadent cake shop, similar to the Cheesecake Shop in Australia, but a little more upmarket, which was introduced to Dave and Jen by Peter. Dave planned to try every cake and milkshake which sounded/looked appealing to him -even if it meant eating there twice in one day, or ordering two cakes and milkshake at once! The cakes did look amazing and Jen gave in to temptation (just once) to try the 'Hi-Fibre Cheesecake' which proved to be quite tasty, but really just enjoyed watching Dave work his way through the menu and Secret Recipe's staff's reactions...
One of the day trips which Dave and Jen were most looking forward to was to Semmongohk Rehabilitation Centre, about 40 minutes bus ride out of town. It was here where Dave and Jen would get to see Orangutans who had been rehabilitated and then let back into the wild, but still returned for food. Apparently the program here in Borneo, of re-releasing the orangutans into the wild is very successful. However, their habitat is being destroyed by the encroachment of palm oil plantations! This is really sad considering they are dangerously endangered and only found in Borneo and Sumatra -so my advice to you is AVOID PALM OIL PRODUCTS! Which, unfortunately, is pretty difficult considering nearly every supermarket packaged item contains it, often disguised by being called 'vegetable oil,' and even worse, it is supposed to be considered as a 'greener' fuel alternative to fossil fuels -even though the palm oil trees don't even absorb carbon dioxide at the same rate as other trees! But that is a bit off topic...
Dave and Jen arrived at Semmongohk Rehabilitation Centre around 830am to catch the morning feeding. It was, typically, raining and so the likelihood of the orangutans coming down was greatly reduced... After waiting patiently for a while, listening to the staff calling them down by name, Dave and Jen were very excited to see the leaves begin to rustle. Dave and Jen then saw tree trunks swaying which revealed a large furry orange body coming towards us in search of bananas! The way they move through the jungle is most impressive and described quite well by Alfred Russel Wallace in the book I'm reading, 'The Malay Archipelago.'
Wallace says: 'It is a singular and very interesting to watch a Mias (Malay word for Orangutan) making his way leisurely through the forest. He walks deliberately along some of the larger branches in the semi erect attitude which the great length of his arms and the shortness of his legs cause him naturally to assume; and the disproportion between these limbs is increased by his walking on his knuckles, not on the palms of his hands, as we should do. He seems always to choose those branches which intermingle with an adjoining tree on approaching, which he stretches out his long arms, and seizing the opposing boughs, grasps them together with both hands, seems to try their strength, and then deliberately swings himself across to the next branch, on which he walks along as before. He never jumps or springs, or even appears to hurry himself, and yet manages to get along almost as quickly as a person can run through the forest beneath.'
Truly an amazing sight. After one came down, at least ten others came for food -even a mother with its little baby clutching on! It was great that they just came down from the tree where ever they desired (and not on the feeding platform at least 15m away) and so Dave and Jen were only 2m away and surrounded by wild orangutans! Because this rehabilitation centre is so little heard of, there were hardly any tourists and so Dave managed to get some great photos too...
Dave and Jen took another day trip to Bako National Park, which is about an hour and a half bus and boat ride out of Kuching, in the hope of seeing the Probiscious Monkey, a big nosed monkey endemic to Borneo. Apparently the boat trip is cheaper the more people you go with, so we befriended a middle aged Italian man, whose name escapes me, (although Dad would surely nick name him Luigi), but who was VERY hairy to share the boat ride with. Dave and Jen walked around the National Park for a couple of hours, saw some of the famous big nosed monkeys and some little ones too, found a beautiful little beach all to ourselves and Jen went swimming while Dave played on the rocks. But the heat and humidity of the jungle was so intense, that Dave and Jen decided to relax with some lunch and watch a bit of the World Cup to regain some energy. Near the restaurant were a few Macaus (spelt wrong, most likely, but is the name of a species of little monkey) hiding in the trees. Wes, during our 'Introduction to Kuching' information session, was telling us that these monkeys are quite the strategisers, and will often work together, with one distracting you in front, while the others steal your stuff! There are also particular fans of plastic water bottles... It was very funny to watch these monkeys run across the restaurant tables, among heaps of hot and hungry trekkers, in an attempt to steal unsuspecting lunches. However, they were unsuccessful, as every time they attempted, they were met with sling shot propelled rocks by the National Park staff. Luckily, Dave and Jen had eaten before anything could be strategically stolen...
In an effort to save money, Dave and Jen (and the hairy Italian) decided to share a boat with tree other guys. The boat, by the way, its probably important to point out, was a small motorised dinghy, and really not made for six people! Anyway, Dave and Jen waded out to knee deep water and then jumped in, and it still required3 people to push the boat out of the mud and into the oncoming swell to get the motor running. But, due to the weight, I think it really would've been faster if we all picked up an oar and started paddling! But I digress, the afternoon tide was coming in, and the well over full boat and our less than experienced skipper formed quite the combination. Rather than tackling the waves front on, he decided that sideways would be the better option, therefore almost resulting in us flipping three times!! -Did I mention the water was crocodile infested?? Jen was getting quite worried and was quickly putting all of her valuables in snaplock bags and blowing them up with air -so at least if we went over (which was highly likely)they would be recoverable... We finally made it to the river, out of the swell, and to dry land -a little shaken, but for the $10 AUD we saved, surely it was worth it?!
Kuching is a beautiful city with, unlike KK (Kota Kinabalu), due to it being bombed in WW2, most of its colonial architecture from the Rajah Brookes Governance, and the big Sarawak River flowing through it makes it very picturesque... Slightly overdosed on roti (Jen still can't eat it 3 weeks later), and Dave successful in trying all of Secret Recipe's desserts, we left Kuching for Singapore.
