My wish did not come true. The elephant was still in the hostel and a new one joined in on the floor above. They took turns to stomp to the washrooms through the night and again in the early morning. The dark circles around my eyes were getting darker. One more night and I would be out of Upspot Kuching Hostel, which was setup in an old house in the old town.
The sun was out in full force in the morning without a single cloud in the clear blue sky. The photos I took were all too harsh and appeared dark. Not a great day to be out under the sun.
I went back to Lau Ya Keng Foodcourt just after 8am and it was less than half full. The 4-day long holiday was finally over. After choosing a table out of the sun’s reach, I ordered a laksa special, from Mui Xin Sarawak Laksa (美新砂拉越叻沙) stall, with prawns and chicken thigh meat. Delicious broth, fresh prawns and tender chicken thigh — no wonder it was so popular.
Most of the shops in the waterfront area were closed during the long holiday from 1st to 4th June — Gawai Dayak was 1st and 2nd June, Agong’s Birthday on 3rd, and 4th was compensation for public holiday falling on a Sunday. I had been walking up and the down the streets with rows of closed shops for the past few days. The shops were slowly opening up at around 9am but not all yet. I decided to go back to the hostel for air-con and to come out again after 10am to re-explore the streets with more opened shops.
10:30am, I hit the streets starting with Jalan Main Bazaar, the row of shophouses facing Kuching Waterfront. Most of the shops along this stretch were gift & souvenir shops and kek lapis shops. The travel agencies were also opened but was too late for me to join any day tours. Most of the goldsmiths were concentrated along Jalan Tun Abang Haji Openg, tinsmiths were along Jalan China, restaurants, cafes and bars were along Carpenter Street and Jalan Ewe Hai. I bought a T-shirt with some Borneo Sarawak prints, since I bought one in Sabah too.
After completing one side of the old town, I cut across the Old Court House of Kuching to India Street (again). There were more tents along the pedestrian mall and more shops were opened. Some of the tents were actually extensions of the shops rather than individual stalls. I was not here for shopping but for some pastries.
In a branch-off lane, called Lorong Kai Joo, I came to Tong Kee (棠记烧包) which sold Chinese traditional pastries such as siew baos (烧包), curry puffs and yam puffs as its signature products. I bought a siew bao and a curry puff to try. They tasted different from other siew baos or curry puffs that I had tried before — Tong Kee's siew bao was not red-coloured meat filling but tasted similar and the curry puff had some spices added that gave it some unique flavours and mild spiciness. There was another pastry shop opposite Tong Kee — I should have discovered the shops earlier (or were they closed during the holidays?).
I was at the Open-Air Market again for a couple of reasons. One, there was a mural, depicting the original gula apong ais krim, that I had missed. Two, the stall that created the gula apong ice-cream was behind the mural. I went into the market but the ice-cream stall, named R.G. Ais Krim Bergula Apong, was not opened.
I was about to turn around and leave when the owner of No. 15 Fried Tauge Kway Teow (炒豆芽粿条面) stall asked if I wanted to eat char kway teow with tauge (beansprouts) — that was special. I just had 2 pastries and probably could eat some more, so I agreed. I also had a glass of soy bean milk from another stall. The meatless char kway teow had nice wok taste and was delicious. I also had a short chat with the owner about costs of living in Malaysia and Singapore.
While chatting, the ice-cream stall opened at 12pm. Lucky. After leaving the owner to his business, I bought a gula apong ice cream (only pandan flavour for the day) from the stall for just RM3. The pandan ice-cream was topped with gula apong and supposedly with some minced peanut but I forwent it in order to taste the Sarawak palm sugar better. On my first mouth, gula apong tasted very similar to salted caramel and less sweet than gula melaka (Melaka's coconut palm sugar). It was made from nipah palm that had natural salt content, hence the salty-sweet note.
Lunch settled, time for some coffee. I retraced my steps through India Street and eventually reached the Harmony Arch. Walking along Carpenter Street and then Jalan Ewe Hai, I came to Black Bean Coffee, which was closed for 4 days during the Gawai Dayak Holiday.
Black Bean Coffee was a roaster-cafe specialising in roasted coffee beans, including Sarawak coffee beans, and specialty teas from famous plantations. I browsed through the menu and chose the cafe-recommended gula apong latte coffee — other than gula apong ice-cream, this would be another way to try the flavour of gula apong in a cup of coffee. The coffee used a mixed of Sarawak Liberica and Sarawak Robusta beans and the addition of gula apong to the latte created some complex taste profiles yet flavourful.
After finishing the coffee, I bought a pack of 250g Sarawak Liberica coffee beans to bring home for self-brewing — I did not buy more because I still had an unfinished bag of coffee beans, which I bought from Antong Coffee Mill in Taiping, West Malaysia, in my house.
Instead of going back to the hostel to waste the sunny afternoon away in an air-conditioned room that I usually would do, I headed to a bar, located right next to Bishopgate, for a drink.
Before stepping into the bar, I looked around Bishopgate, which was a little entrance (without its door) in a small segment of brick wall. There was a restaurant named Chubbs, an American restaurant selling burgers and fries, behind the gate. From the gate, I could see DUNS at the waterfront down Jalan Bishopgate. Then, I stepped into Drunk Monkey Old Street Bar.
Drunk Monkey served two types of bottled rice wine, or Sarawak tuak. The 750ml Kaban Tuak (RM40), which I had seen in supermarkets (cost RM58) and gift shops, and a 360ml Tuaq (RM20). I could not possibly finish a 750ml bottle in one afternoon so I went for the Tuaq, which had an alcohol content of 12%. This would be my 7th bottle on this trip. The wine was super-clear with a champagne colour. It tasted salty-sweet, like tequila with some salt on the rim of a glass. I checked the label and salt was added as one of the ingredients indeed.
I could still walk straight to the hostel after finishing a bootle, seemed like I could handle 12% easily. Other than the Tambunan Premium Lihing and the tuak from BCMR, all the rice wine I tried so far should all be around or below 12% alcohol. It would be best to stay sober when travelling solo.
It rained while I was in my room. I could hear it pounding on the roof even though my room was in the middle of the hostel.
Before going for dinner just before sunset, I did one last round of combing the old town in the night for night scenes to as far as India Street. All the tents along India Street were gone by 6:30pm when I walked into the pedestrian mall. Without the tents, it was easier to see the architectures of the old buildings along the street.
I retook some photos of the mural along Lorong Kai Joo without any vehicles parking in front of the beautiful artwork.
There was also a lane to an Indian mosque, called “Indian Mosque Lane”. Not sure if the lane was still accessible as it was already barricaded at 6:30pm. Out of curiosity, I skirted around the streets and went to the other end of the lane to see what was there. It was an old mosque, called Masjid India, that had been around since 1834, and it was closed also.
A newer India Mosque was built on the waterfront. I spent another 15 minutes shooting some dusk scenes along the waterfront again, under a pinkish sky.
From Kuching Waterfront, I came to Harmony Arch again, walked along Carpenter Street and Ewe Hai Street and took more photos of the surroundings.
I was back at Borneo Delight again. I had came to clear more outstanding items from my hunting list. I wanted to try the Mee Belacan and umai, a raw fish dish, but the latter was sold out just minutes before I stepped into the restaurant. I still went ahead with Mee Belacan (峇拉面) and added a stir-fried bamboo shoot (炒竹笋).
Mee Belacan was rice vermicelli cooked in a soup made with mild-spicy sambal belacan (shrimp paste) and topped with lots of cuttlefish, shredded cucumber, bean sprouts and a century egg. The belacan soup was not very overpowering in smell and taste and was drinkable. The stir-fried bamboo shoot with paku (wild fern) was delicious too.
Back at the hostel, I packed my belongings to get ready for the flight to Johor the next day. I also drank the last one-third of the tuak I bought from Borneo Cultures Museum Restaurant. It was really a little strong and I fell asleep shortly.
It rained heavily again before midnight.
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