Kuching

Day 10, July 26 – no malaria

Hello from Borneo. I am taking a break from the heat and sweat before dinner so I figured that I would take a few minutes to write an update.

My flight arrived here from Johor Bahru a few minutes late last night. I got a cab voucher and, upon climbing into the cab, experienced my first real language barrier of the trip. I had the name and address of the hotel and showed it to the driver and it took a lot of back and forth (and the old trick we English speakers do of speaking slower and louder when someone doesn’t understand us) and he finally had to call over another driver and have the other driver provide directions. It wasn’t the most encouraging situation arriving in a totally foreign city and not knowing if I was going to get to the correct place.
As a matter of fact, the driver couldn’t find the hotel. We had to stop a few times in the neighborhood and ask directions before we finally found it.

By the time I got to the hotel, it was already midnight local time, I was beat, and ready for a long night sleep.

Today, I explored Kuching. I really like Kuching. It is a very laid back city and I found some Spartan fans. Go Spartans!

The shopkeepers in the markets aren’t in your face and they are very friendly. Actually, everyone is very friendly. It turns out my hotel is right in the center of everything. I walked around Chinatown, along the river, went to the Sarawak museum, and also through the Main Bazaar. The highlight of the day, though, was witnessing a group of very motivated bakers go for a try at the baking the longest cake in Malaysia. They did it. Everyone cheered. It was so exciting. I’ll include a pic of the record breaking cake! Awesome.

Fast forward a few hours….

Tonight, I went out to dinner and had a walking tour of the area with some of the people that work at Borneo Adventures, the tour company I am using here. I’ll tell you what happens when you go out with locals. First, you get tricked into eating a fried chicken’s anus…tasty. Second, you stumble onto the weirdest parade ever. Third, you sit and drink local brew until the group has invented what may be remembered in history as, “Biondi’s Borneo Chair Burning Party.” It’s amazing how a little beer can enter me into local folklore…

I’ll include a pic of my new drinking buddies, Disney, David, and Collin. Also, I’ll include a picture of the Chinese parade that I witnessed. I say “witnessed” instead of “saw” because I feel like I could be called into Malaysian court to testify to the lunacy of the parade. In the US, parades are usually fairly orderly events with streets blocked off and barriers keeping people off of the parade route. In Malaysia, something tells me that permits do not matter very much. The dragon floats were coming down the street and cars were weaving in and out of them. The poor kids dressed like dragons on the street had to have bouncers, I kid you not, in order to make sure they didn’t end up road kill for Buddha. It was pure chaos…and hilarious. I don’t think that you can get the any sense of the insanity from the pictures but trust me, I was laughing the entire time.

I don’t have time now but when I get back to town on Monday, I’ll post a few videos that I have taken and also a few more photos from Kuching.