Kuching

Well we are safely back from our adventure into Sarawak on the Island of Borneo.
It was our best adventure in Asia so far.
We had a great start to our holiday in that we stayed a night in The Elizabeth Hotel…it was a prize that I won at the annual dinner last year. It was in the executive room and we were able to utilize the mini bar as part of the prize. This is the same hotel that we stayed in when we first arrived in Singapore last year. We had packed our bags, took them to work on the Sunday and arrived at the hotel which gave us a great start to the holiday. We flew from Singapore to Kuching. The flight took less than an hour and a half. We were met by a driver from the travel company who took us to our Hotel. Kuching itself is an interesting city with a population of 500,000. It is very spread out and doesn’t feel that big. There are a lot of empty buildings. We spent most of our time in Kuching around the river, which has a lot of interesting tourist places. It is very laid back and friendly, although the shop keepers were continually telling us to be careful of pickpockets and bag snatchers. We actually felt very safe.


We had decided to stay in Hotel Hilton…we were doing a free and easy
holiday in which you pay for your flights and hotel accommodation all in one. Hence the stay in the Hilton. We were shown to a room with a river view but we didn’t like it as it was a smoking room and it had quite an odour. They shifted us into another room on the other side of the hotel and it was a suite with its own bathroom ensuite and a lounge area as well as a bedroom and a small kitchenette. We thought we were in heaven!


We went down to the local travel agent and organised to do a river cruise. Although this was a good way to see the river area and have a bit of a commentary about the area but I don’t think I will be doing that again.
We did get a glimpse of some dancing that the locals do. So we booked a tour of their cultural village where we saw 6 different types of long houses…this made me keen to stay in one. The next day we were walking down to the local tourist centre when a lady asked if we were keen to do a homestay in a longhouse. She had a contact but they wouldn’t take anyone on their own and wanted us to join her. We decided to go with her after meeting with the guy who was arranging it. (He had just been voted back into parliament! In the elections that had just taken place that weekend.)

The stay was with the Iban on the River Skrang. It took us 3 ½ hours by car and then 1 ½ hours by long boat. The Iban are the people who use to do the head hunting! This was scary until we realized that they don’t do it anymore! When they say they live in a long house …it really is a long house! This one had 21 families living in it. They have their own living area and kitchen area but share a communal verandah area which is closed in. The first night there we were shown where the toilet was and where we were able to sit and encouraged to have a look around. We were quite surprised at the conditions they were living in but everyone seemed very happy and content. We had to walk down some ladder like steps to go to the toilet. It was very basic but by the end of our stay we realized that they had few material things but that they have everything!