First thing after waking up, I did a check on ATAP Hotel’s WiFi but it was still not working. I left the hotel at 8am and stepped into the Gaya Street Sunday Market. Instead of diving into the rows of makeshift stalls, I headed straight to Kedai Kopi Kinabalu just round a corner.
I came to Kinabalu Coffee Shop for its beef laksa, which was said to be the first stall that created the dish. The soft and tender beef in not-too-spicy Kuching-style laksa broth was delicious.
It was time to check out the Sunday Market (again). There were stalls selling all kinds of hardware, textile, souvenirs, local products of Sabah, light snacks, beverages, etc, but no cooking on orders — it was a smoke-free market. It was very crowded as usual.
The Sunday Market was a local market targeting mainly locals but there might be items that interest tourists too, such as hats, caps, clothes, souvenirs, etc, and definitely food and beverages. It was also a great event to find out what were produced in Sabah, such as white and black pepper, dragonfruits, bambangan (wild mangoes), honey, pineapple, etc. I had noticed the absence of durians and taraps and I knew it was not the season yet — durians that were sold in some shops were imported either from Thailand or West Malaysia and usually cost more.
I walked one complete circuit around the Sunday Market before coming to Mizumizu Coffee again. Without the noisy crowd from the day before, the cafe was quieter and could hear the wonderful music in the background. I had a hot Americano and relaxed in the cafe. I did not noticed that the cafe carried a roasted coffee beans under the name "Sabarica", which was a coffee producer in Sabah using Arabica coffee beans in the region. I could have requested for my Americano to use the Sabarica beans.
10:30am, after checked-out from ATAP Hotel, I hauled my backpack with me to Australia Place. I came to Le Phi Cafe, right opposite October Coffee House and had a dirty matcha latte and their homemade katsu curry don. The dirty matcha latte was thick with well-balanced coffee-matcha flavours. The chicken cutlet was nicely fried without being too dry and still juicy. Similarly, the cafe's WiFi could not connect to the Internet.
I decided to go to the airport earlier. It probably had a WiFi network that was not linked to the one in Gaya Street and Australia Place. I hailed a Grab car for RM17, doubled what I used to pay for my previous trips to the airport. The surcharge was due to fewer Grab cars on a Sunday and in-between public holidays.
At Kota Kinabalu Airport Terminal 1 once again, I skipped check-in at AirAsia counters, filled up a slip for using e-boarding pass, went through customs inspection via International departure gate and followed the signage for “Semenanjung / Sarawak / Labuan” to a separate section for immigration clearance. Then, I was in the transit area. The airport looked gloomy as it had started raining heavily outside.
YES! the Airport WiFi was working. I found a working charging station to charge my phone and gather information using the WiFi. It seemed like the Southwest monsoon had finally arrived in Sarawak with some national parks suspending hiking activities after some heavy rain. And there was no news of any Rafflesia flowers in full bloom. Well, since it was my first time to Kuching, I could always make it a food-hunting trip and just roamed around the city like I did for Kota Kinabalu 7 months ago.
Boarding for AirAsia Flight AK 6355 to Kuching was delayed by nearly 30 minutes, yet the plane was able to take off with just 10 minutes delay and landed at Kuching International Airport just 4 minutes late. It was raining in Kuching too.
I hailed a Grab car straight to Upspot Kuching. I did not know that Upspot Kuching was a hostel and located in an old house with wooden flooring and partitions. A hostel was fine with me since I was used to staying in hostels but old houses had serious sound-proofing issues. And I had booked 4 nights — which was against my own guideline to book only 2 nights for untried accommodations. Coming to the end of the trip, I had let my guard down.
Upspot Kuching was unmanned and no check-in registration. I just had to download an app called "August" and use it to unlock both the front door and my room door via Bluetooth to communicate with the IOT devices. The physical keys were inside my room. Anyway, I would use the app to lock and unlock the front door but use the physical keys to unlock my room — I would not want to bring along my phone when going to the restrooms, taking showers or taking water from the pantry. The physical keys was easier to use and also an assurance against the app not working, network and server issues, battery drained, etc.
The hostel was located above Kek Lapis Mama Su, a well-known shop selling traditional Sarawak pastry known as layered cake (kek lapis). I would check out the shop in the next few days. The hostel shared the same ventilation as Mama Su and I could smell the fragrance of layered cakes drifting up the opening. I could also hear people talking and singing, loud and clear, but there was no one else in the hostel except me. That was how bad the sound-proofing of the old house.
At 6:30pm, I left the hostel. There was no sunset to see with dark clouds still lingering in the sky. I took a short stroll along the waterfront to see some of the landmarks here before looking for dinner.
There was not much options for dinner in the night along Carpenter Street — probably due to the Gawai Dayak holiday. I found Yee Siang Dumpling House (怡香源), went in and ordered their Sarawak Laksa Super, with big prawns, and a lemongrass drink. Their signature dishes should be dumplings but I could not resist wanting to go for Sarawak specialty food for my first meal in Sarawak. And the Kuching-style laksa was sour-sweet-spicy, not too spicy though, and the broth was light and drinkable.
Carpenter Street was linked to Ewe Hai Street at a road junction and there were several bars and a couple of restaurants. Black Bean Coffee, a popular cafe in the area, had a notice on its closed door indicating that it would be closed for Gawai Dayak Holiday from 1st to 4th June. I would have to wait till Day 17 to try its coffee.
With not much to do in the old town at night and not wanting to be in a bar with mosquitoes lurking in the dark, I went back to the hostel. After some browsing online about Sarawak, I noticed that its Chinese name had been changed to "砂拉越" instead of the old "沙捞越" that had been in used since I was young.
I got bitten by some mosquitoes in the room when sleeping — 8 red bumps on my thigh and all concentrated in an area about the size of my palm. Huat AH!
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