Kuching sightseeing

Tomorrow we're going to the apparently-gorgeous national park where we hope to see proboscis monkeys and monitor lizards, but today our sightseeing was focused on the town itself, and food. Malaysia is this really interesting intersection of cultures -- India, China, Thailand, and England -- so the food is just a great mishmash of lots of flavor. Our very cool hotel unfortunately gave us a thoroughly uncool breakfast (an "omelette," hot dogs, and beans, plus plain boring toast). There are all kinds of food hawker stalls everywhere, so after breakfast we headed out to wander around, check out the riverwalk in the daytime, and find an interesting lunch.

a great example of the cultural mishmash -- the neighborhood Chinese temple amid large buildings and this piece of art

it's gold during the day but bright-white during the night -- this is the DUN building (Sarawak museum, I think), and notice the mountains in the distance

Kuching means cat in Malay, and there are cat sculptures everywhere

On the riverwalk we found a boat tour, one hour, in a traditional Sarawak boat, so we signed up for that. There was a very sweet family of 4 on the boat with us, two young boys, and I was thoroughly charmed by the way the dad was so affectionate with his sons. His gaze was pure adoration, and he kept rubbing his youngest son's head in such a sweet way. For me, the boat ride was much more about the experience of being on that boat with that young family than it was about the sightseeing, which was middling -- partly because the boat driver's English was limited and partly because 1/4 of the trip ended up being about shopping, which we hadn't expected. The boat pulled up into a marshy puddle and we had to take our shoes off, roll up our pants, and step into the mud for a squishy walk to the paved area. Well, we had no idea what was going on, but we just followed the Malaysian family, who did seem to know. We walked to this little shop where we were encouraged to buy food. They did, we didn't. When the shopping time was over, we were led to a concrete platform to board the boat......why we had to disembark in the swamp, when we could've gotten off at the platform, was a big question. Marc think it saved the boat driver some extra work.

a famous dockyard (no idea why, though), and the mosque.

and yeah, that's the boat we took

After the boat excursion, we found our way to a set of food stalls which all seemed to be closed -- a real shame, because it was sweltering hot and we'd walked a good distance. We're right on the equator, and it was straight-up noon, and I'm telling you: hot. We walked around to the other side and found a few stalls open and serving lunch, so we approached one and the woman who owns it helped us order some food. Noodles -- soupy or fried? Fried please. Chicken or fish? Chicken please. Comes with vegetables. Drink? Water please. She directed us to a table and made our lunch, which was completely delicious. Spicy, crunchy, satisfying, and ~$2.60 for both of us (including our water). There are fancy restaurants and hotels here, but we are loving the food stalls.

waiting for our food

where we ate

that's her, preparing our lunch

fried noodles with chicken

We're resting a bit, then we'll head out for coffee or something, a walk, who knows. What I do know is that we're going back to Topspot for dinner tonight --- shrimp, clams, whatever we get it'll be wonderful.

Kuching, ka-ching

YUM. More on this in a minute.

Today was a Day O' Travel; we left our wonderful hotel in Hanoi at 7am and arrived at our hotel in Borneo around 6:15pm. The staff of the Rising Dragon Palace stood outside the door and waved goodbye to us, which was charming and just so them. The drive to the airport took an hour, and then we encountered the irritation that we've come to expect from paperwork in Vietnam. Whenever there's paperwork to be dealt with -- by anyone -- it's like they're just encountering it for the first time. The immigration dude took my passport and paperwork and just stared at it like he'd never seen it before and didn't know what to do next. And he was the regular immigration dude. But that's the way it was whenever there was paperwork, which somehow didn't make it a less annoying experience.

Anyway. We had a difficult flight from Hanoi to Kuala Lumpur because of our fellow passengers. The ones seated around us were like developmentally delayed young animals who had never been socialized to be around others. The guy directly behind me kept grabbing my seat back and standing to holler at a friend a few rows up, and his long pointy (dirty yellow) fingernails kept freaking me out. He and the others in his row also kicked our seats and jabbed at their trays the entire flight, which was about 3 hours long. Man. Long long flight, no kidding. We had a pretty tight connection, which involved going through immigration, getting our luggage, trekking to the domestic terminal and checking in, but (a) our flight arrived early and (b) the next flight was slightly delayed, so it all worked out perfectly.

We have a couple ideas of what we'll do here in Kuching (the largest city on the island of Borneo, and the capital of Sarawak province), but one of the main things we're interested in, aside from orang utan sitings, is the food. Marc's research pointed us to Topspot Food Court, which turned out to be a block or so from our hotel. WINNING! So there we went for dinner, and it was a daring adventure. It's a giant collection of food stalls, fresh seafood primarily, and you just walk around and pick the one you want, then pick out the fish and vegetables you want, find a table, and they bring it to you. Marc said it was the best fried fish he's ever had, and it really was delicious. Perfectly crispy, spicy, and fresh. The stall we chose was the one pictured at the top of the post.

the crowd. the happy, happy crowd.

that's Marc at the end, ordering our dinner

our lovely fish -- deep fried sea bass, with spicy pickled vegetables (emphasis on spicy!). we also had sauteed fiddlehead ferns, some rice, a Tiger beer for me, and the whole thing was $12. We'll be going back the next two nights, for sure.

After our dinner, and some little cups of gelato, we walked along the river which was just beautiful at night.

not real sure what that building is, on the other side of the river, but i'm very sure that's a full and happy me in the foreground.

the riverfront, lined with more food stalls. lunch, maybe.

I plan to do a bit of sleeping-in tomorrow morning, and then we'll figure out how to spend our first full day on the island of Borneo. Borneo!

Hanoi to Sapa

We had several hours to spend wandering around after checking out of our room; the train left at 8:30, so we walked back to the lake. It was relatively crowded in the late afternoon, filled with tourists and lots of Hanoians out for walks, or a bit of exercise, or posing for bridal photos. Older women seemed to enjoy exercising by doing vigorous arm swinging, and older men were strolling in their pajamas. Not clothing that looked like pajamas, actual cotton PJs. Kinda cute. We sat for a while and watched people pass by, and a young guy sitting next to us struck up a conversation so he could practice his English. I found him endearing; he was so eager to speak English, and to talk about the Statue of Liberty. I think his teacher suggested some interviewing techniques that would make it easy for him to engage with tourists.

basket vendor on a bike

bird market; they seem to adore tiny little birds in cages. also at this stall: a cat in a cage, which prompted Marc to suggest that the cat was miserable....all those little birds, so close.

lots and LOTS of staged bridal photos being taken everywhere. charming.

statue of the old emperor who got that magic sword to drive out the Chinese

sweet little spa where we got foot massages. may go back there....

market stalls -- vegetables and random meats, plus fans. everywhere, fans.

night shopping in Hanoi

We found a little spa where we got delicious foot massages, and then wandered over to the restaurant we'd picked for dinner: Madame Hiên. OH MY. It was as fantastic as the previous night's dinner had been awful. Everything we got was just perfect, beginning with our table in the quiet corner of the courtyard. I started with a green papaya salad with peanuts and dried beef, and then a classic (but kind of fancy) Hanoi street food -- Bun Cha, which is a grilled pork dish with rice noodles and fish sauce and veggies. Even today, while we were driving around Sapa, I was daydreaming about my salad. Marc started with avocado and soft shell crab spring rolls, followed by duck three ways. It was amazing.

The train to Sapa was a little different than I expected. During the night -- the long night -- I kept thinking I was in the back of an oxcart. The beds were quite hard, but that was ok. The ride was not smooth, but starty-stoppy and bumpy. The train seemed to be making the milk run, stopping at every little village to pick up people. And I kept thinking the engine might not make it up the mountains. The train attendant told us, before we closed our door for the night, that he'd wake us about 20 (or maybe 30) minutes before we pulled into Lao Cai, but he woke us when we stopped there, so we had a shocking scramble to dress and leave the train.

our train compartment -- out the window is the train station

the compartment came with 4 room temperature Ha Noi beers -- thanks but no thanks

Lao Cai at 5am -- that lit-up building is KaraOke!!!! Flashing lights at 5am, they must love it. Also, it listed a hotline, which was something nutty like 203.86.86.86.86  79.23.45.66.66.  198.79.63.72.88.86.  First, why do you need a karaoke hotline? And second, that many numbers, really?

the square was so festive, with lights draping everything

We left the train exhausted and confused, but looking foward to Sapa.