You’ve probably worked out by now that I am the organiser in my family. I organise our lives, I organise our holidays. So it was a little unusual that I let yesterday pretty much evolve. I had a vague idea of what we might do and what direction we might walk in, then we just let whatever happened, happen.
The day started off with rain – just like it’s pouring down as I type, in fact! Maybe pre-sunrise drenching is typical here. We’d all had the usual rotten sleep that is to be expected on your first night somewhere new. The rest of the family slept in quite late, then with a little prompting from me eventually got up and dressed and we headed out the door.
Directly across from our hotel is the Hong San Si Temple. This is a Chinese/Taoist temple and is a historical building that dates back to 1848 (with renovations, unsurprisingly). It was extremely beautiful and detailed inside. I never know quite where to look when there is so much intricacy to admire! We noticed that some sections of roof were open with carved stone troughs on the floor beneath. When we took a look inside there were turtles!
We’ve noticed a number of magnificent murals around Kuching. They can be spotted on walls up high, down laneways, pretty much anywhere that there would have been a previously blank canvas. And there’s no graffiti that we’ve spotted. They add wonderful atmosphere.
Our wanderings took us down Jalan Carpenter, a heritage street lined with a mixture of small shops and traders and coffee shops – most of which were closed as it was Sunday. We did however happen upon another Chinese temple, Hiang Tiang Siang Ti Temple. It was a larger temple than the one we’d visited earlier, with fish instead of turtles, and was buzzing with activity. A kind gentleman informed us that we should return at 6pm that evening, as there was going to be a huge street parade! It was the annual birthday celebration for Kong Teck Choon Ong, the main temple deity!
With that knowledge, we continued on our travels. All of a sudden the Textile Museum was in front of us! It was open, it was free, it was destiny! In we went. Now for my regular blog readers who are mostly here for the sewing and the textiles, I’m afraid that there were no photos permitted inside. Although the building itself is pretty old and decaying, the exhibition was terrific and showed a comprehensive history of the textiles of the area, particularly those of the original Bornean inhabitants and the ethnic communities of Sarawak. Different types of weaving and regularly used motifs were explained, and there were some wonderful examples of beadwork. Definitely worth a visit.
Right beside the textile museum was a modern shopping complex! We headed inside, and saw pretty much the same shops we frequent at Norflanz. Clare turns 17 in a little over a week, and we’d promised her a watch for her birthday. There was a Swatch shop right in front of us, so we contributed to the Kuching economy before heading up to the food court. Once again this was a fun way to look at similarities and differences. Same concept that we’re familiar with in Australia, but the food stalls mostly served local dishes, each with it’s own speciality.
Next stop was India Street. More textiles! An open air market that actually has a high roof to protect it from the frequent rains. We also found one of Kuching’s famous cat statues. The word ‘kuching’ also means cat, and the city makes the most of that connection. We were greatly amused to see our daughters were also a tourist attraction when a family group asked to have a photo with them. I’ve actually been a little surprised that there are so few tourists of caucasian appearance here. We have been very grateful for the wide use of English; it’s made interactions quite simple thus far. English and Malay are actually the two official languages of Sarawak, and Chinese is also commonly spoken.
We’d planned to walk across the Darul Hana Bridge that connects the two sides of the river, and compliments the State Legislative Assembly Complex building, but it was closed in anticipation of New Year’s Eve celebrations. I suspect that it will be a central focus for fireworks! I have a feeling that we’re going to have lots of fun watching the NYE celebrations tomorrow night. So a wander along the waterfront it was. There are a number of boat cruises that you can take up and down the river, which we’ll do at some stage. We noticed a number of copper plaques set into the paving, all part of a History Walk. We’ll need to return and do the walk properly. It describes the history of the area, with one plaque pre-19th century, then the next going through the changes from being part of the Sultanate of Brunei, through rebellion, to rule by English rajahs under the Sultanate of Bruei, to occupation by the Japanese during WWII, colonisation by the British, then finally independence as part of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963.
It was time to wander back to the hotel and chill a little. The girls and I stopped for waffles and liquid nitrogen ice-cream on the way back – Dan chose to have a foot massage instead! The boutique beside our hotel sells superb handcrafts, including all these repurposed fan covers that are now wonderful bowls or wall decorations!
After a rest Clare and I went on another wander to become more familiar with the area. We went past St Thomas’s Cathedral, which was rapidly filling with people attending a Christmas carol service. It is an Anglican cathedral. The first Anglican church in Kuching was erected in 1851, and the present cathedral was completed in 1954. We also had terrific views of our accommodation from the street, and found a little Japanese bar down with an alleyway beside it – so atmospheric. Every time we venture out there is more to see.
By now it was time to return to Jalan Carpenter in readiness for the street parade. And what a parade it was! Huge numbers of floats, one so large that people had to manually pick up and move some of the parked cars flanking the road further out of the way. So much sound, so much colour, so many people marching, everyone laughing, and finally so many extremely loud firecrackers! Firecrackers are generally illegal in Australia, so it was quite a novelty for the girls to see and hear them going off.
And now it’s Monday morning. The tropical downpour is pouring down. What will we get up to today?