Crazy Digest: Kuching 5-7 May 2006

Money Spent:
Airfare = RM139.98 incl taxes
Hotel = RM144 x 2nights / 3 person = RM96
Food = RM50
Transport = RM10
Shopping = RM30
Total = RM326

Took off for the first time from LCCT. Parking costs RM2 for first 2 hours, and RM2/hr thereafter, up to a maximum of RM30 a day. LCCT has only 2 restaurants, McDonald's and Asian Kitchen and Coffee Bean. A Big Mac Meal will cost you RM10.80 and a nasi lemak with rendang chicken RM12.00. After entering the departure hall, there is one more cafe called Buy & Fly that serves airplane boxed food like Mee Siam and Nasi Lemak for RM7.90 each.

Kuching airport was housed in a new terminal building. It is freezing cold, and be prepared to walk 1km from where the plane stops, to the baggage claim area. A taxi to the city costs RM17.50.

We arrived at the Holiday Inn Kuching, and was delighted to be upgraded to a Deluxe room. I had booked 2 Queen Beds in a Standard Room, facing the river for RM144. Our room was beautiful!

If you see a similar sign, you'll know this hotel is exceptional

Went to eat at Topspot Food court, ordered Bidin with belachan, fried mussels and what was supposed to be oyster omelette. Only the bidin was nice. "Oyster Omelette" turned out to be one large oyster on a pizza-slice-size of deep fried flour.. no egg in sight. Not cheap eating at Topspot, RM60 spent for not-so-nice food.

The only place open at 9.30pm

Oh Jien ... sorry I prefer the Penang style

Went to find the Choon Choon cafe for their famed Sarawak Laksa. Was rather disappointed, the taste of the laksa didn't have enough UUMPH. But i had one of the best carrot cakes ever! After bfast, we went towards the waterfront, walking by the river. Many many craft and souvenir shops along the way, mum managed to get many things. Headed towards India street, and found the wet market area to be quite interesting too. They sold ghee by weight, scary to see a chunk of lard by the road side. Since it started raining, we took a taxi back to hotel, RM7 for a 2 min ride!!! Apparently that's the norm. We took a nap, and got woken up by room service. They brought in a basket of fruits for us and wanted to set up a mini table in our room. 1 apple, 1 orange, 1 pear, 1 mandarin and a bunch of red grapes. So nice!

Chong Choon Cafe,walking distance to Holiday Inn

Famous Sarawak Laksa

My Extra Special Laksa... no uumph!

Carrot cake - BEST!

Well-known Khatulistiwa Cafe

Is that GHEE?!

For dinner, we decided to walk (to save RM7 taxi) to See Good. Had to wait 1.5 hrs for our food, but it was worth it! The crabs were fried in eggs, serai and ginger, a very tasty combination. We had steamed bawal putih and bidin again. Meal costs RM85, very cheap. Then took a taxi (RM8) to Satok weekend market. A very large-scale pasar malam, but they sold weird things there. Many various pets for sale, even puppies. Getting home was another hassle. There are 4 taxi companies in Kuching, 1 run by Chinese, and 3 by Malay. Only the malay taxies were around Satok market, and they wanted RM10. We called up one of the chinese companies, they came within minutes, and charged only RM8.