Kuala Lumpur Final Farewell

After a nice relaxing day in Kuching, just writing and enjoying a quiet cup of latte at my favorite café while it rained, I was ready to head back to Kuala Lumpur for a last visit with Marianne, John and Annabelle – I was looking forward to seeing them again and catch up with them, and also tell about my wonderful adventures on Borneo with the Humana kids, Orangutans and dolphins!
When I landed John's driver picked me up again, and as we pulled up to the front door Marianne was waiting with a glass of chilled white wine! How wonderful to be back again – I was just in time to keep Annabelle company and play with her dinosaurs, while Marianne took a shower after just having come back from a jog. Lynn, the nanny was on vacation, and the substitute had cancelled, on top of that there was a very contagious decease outbreak at Annabelle's school, so the school was closed! It's called Murphy's Law I believe! So Marianne had been busy keeping Annabelle entertained, trying to squeeze in a bit of time to get work done, not an easy task, as all parents of 3-year-olds know!
That evening Marianne had planned a ride for Annabelle on Pony Princess, then soccer and picnic on the big lawn at the Equestrian club in the hopes of tiring Annabelle out so she would be able to go to sleep at a reasonable hour. I went along and we had a nice time at the center, it's a pleasant time of day, as the sun sets and the air cools down just a bit!
When John came home we had a chance to catch up also, and I could tell him about my experiences on Borneo – he has spent a lot of time there himself, working with the plantations, so we had a good time talking while Marianne got Annabelle to sleep, so she could join us and we all had a lovely dinner reminiscing together.
The next morning it was time for Annabelle's swimming lesson, and I was so impressed to see how far she had come since last I saw her.
She now dove and picked up things from the bottom of the shallow end of the pool, and she swam by herself a few feet – she really was doing so well! Of course, she is a kid with spunk, so she sprayed her coach Sunny with her enormous water-gun when they were finished!
That evening we had dinner out on the lovely patio as usual, and John opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate our last evening together. It had been such a great time with them, and it was sad to think it was coming to an end, but hopefully we will see each other again soon, either in Kuala Lumpur or California!
The next morning I waved goodbye to them, and set off to catch a flight to Darwin via Singapore.
It is hard to believe that it is now 2 months since I left the States, and I only have 1 month left, which I will spend "Down Under"!

Irrawaddy Dolphins On The Santubong River

I had my heart set on paddling with the rare Irrawaddy Dolphins while in Kuching – unfortunately the kayak company didn't run any tours, so I had to hire a boat instead, because that was the one thing I really wanted to do while in Kuching!
So at 8:30 am I am picked up by my guide and we drive about 45 minutes to get to a small fishing village on the Santubong River where the boat driver and his brother are waiting for us.
We set out, and glide down the river with jungle on both sides – on the way out to the main river we stop by to chat with a local fisherman who is setting out traps in the muddy banks of the river to catch crabs, I think. As we enter the Santubong River we see a stork billed kingfisher – and a bit later I just see the splash of a small crocodile as it disappears into the murky water.
A bit later we see another small crocodile slowly glide from the bank into the river! Maybe I am better off in a motorboat instead of a kayak after all? After all where there are small crocodiles there are probably big ones too!
I enjoyed the scenery and the nice breeze as we meandered along the river, out to the delta area where we started in earnest to be on the lookout for the shy dolphins. We saw a fisherman taking up his nets and sailed over to ask him if he had seen any in the area, but it didn't seem like there had been any around while he was there, so we continued our search.
A little while later the boat driver suddenly spotted one, then another, and as it surfaced again I saw first one, then the other one surfaced, and I was just so thrilled!
We followed them for quite a while, and I got several good shots of them – they are quiet and shy, not at all like the rambunctious dolphins I am used to from the West coast, so there was no jumping out of the water or playing in our wake, just a gentle stealthy surface to breathe, then they silently disappeared only to resurface about 3-4 minutes later.
After a while they disappeared, and we started going back up the river when all of a sudden we spotted another dolphin, and we followed it quite ways up the river – actually much further up the river than neither of the boatmen or the guide had ever seen.
I was wondering if it would be in any danger from the crocodiles – but from what I was told it is a much too fast swimmer for that.
However, as we were passing a small fishing village they did tell me that one of the fishermen there had been attacked recently – survived – but lost an ear and a good chunk of his one side! Yes, indeed, maybe it was much better to be in a motorboat than a sit-on-top kayak! As we pulled up at the little jetty again, I was so thankful that we had had such a good day, and that I had seen the Irrawaddy Dolphins!
The drive back to town took about 45 minutes, and I was hungry, but so tired that I decided a nap was more urgent! However, the Internet was back on, and instead I ended up checking emails, and never really got to nap!
It was too late for lunch and mighty early for dinner, so I decided to invent a new mealtime – I call it lunner! Which I had at a nice café on the river, where I sat watching the people go by on the path below, and as it got later they started going across the river in the little sampans – probably going home to their villages after a day of working or shopping in the city.
As the sun was setting I walked home to Singahsana and this time there was no denying the need for sleep – so I went early to bed and soon dozed off.

A Walk in Kuching

I arrived in Kuching early evening on Monday night - and got installed in my hostel Singgahsana right as the sun was setting. I had read good things about this little hostel right in the middle of town, just 1/2 block from the banks of the Kuching river, and I liked the friendliness of the staff and the little room I got was cozy and quiet, with air-con!
I had already decided that my stay in Kuching was to be relaxing, I wanted to give myself time to digest all the impressions from the last few weeks, catch up on emails and blog, and just take a breather! I felt I needed it, so the only thing I had on my agenda was to see the rare Irrawaddy dolphins- preferably by kayak! Other than that I would just wander a bit around town to see a few sights and get a feel for the city.
Since I had spent all day traveling - with a long layover in Kota Kinabalu were there are very limited services , I was ready for dinner. However, I felt a bit intimidated by warnings to look out for bag snatchers - there had been some incidents in Kutching, so I didn't feel like wandering off too far on my own in the dark in a new city. Before I headed out I went up to the roof top bar and had a gin tonic and got ideas for where to eat. However, when I went out I soon realized I had no clue where to find Joe the bartender's suggestions. So I ended up across the street at the restaurant at the Hilton of all places! Not my ideal place to spend time, but I made do for that evening and vowed to check things out the next day by daylight!

I slept in and felt refreshed when I woke up, got breakfast - and headed out to scope the city of Kuching out! I wandered around, eventually walking along the river on a lovely path, and then went up towards the old colonial court building, from there I just wandered around, checking out numerous chinese temples, several mosques, a Sikh temple, then on down India Street and on to the Chinese part of town. There were old and new buildings mixed in with each other, I saw a couple of the famed kitschy cat statues - Kuching is also known as cat city - not because it ever had a lot of cats, but quite a few cat statues!

Across the river was the new government building with its impressive design and golden roof, it is almost completed, but not yet in use.

Kuching is the capital of the state of Sarawak, and the biggest city on Borneo with about 600.000 inhabitant - so not a small city by any means! It has a big Chinese population and the city actually has 2 mayors - a Chinese and a Malay each presiding over their own City Hall - the Chinese in the South and the Malay in the North.

The river of Kuching runs through the city, and on one side you are in the city of Kuching with high-rises, etc. and the other bank is lined with little kampungs (villages). Sampans cross the river constantly connecting the two sides, and you can watch people returning from work in the city early evening crossing over to their village in the twilight - it's quite charming to watch. Notice the modern billboards advertising for cell phones on the roof of the sampans! Old meets new I guess!

In the afternoon I found a lovely little cafe with internet and great lattes - an art gallery on the 2nd floor - so I spent most of the afternoon there working on the computer - the internet at the hostel was down, but I was quite happy sitting in the cafe that afternoon!

Dinner had to be better than the previous night, so I followed the advice of several other guests and the staff at Singahsana and went to the Top Spot, which in an open air food court - I had a delicious dinner of Thai style red snapper and fresh jungle ferns sauteed in garlic - it was delicious, and very reasonable!
Afterwards I went up to the rooftop bar and had a drink and a chat with a couple of the other guests and Joe before calling it a night!