My Family's Vacation in Kuching, Sarawak

    During the last school holidays, my family and I went to Kuching, Sarawak. We went to Sarawak for 4 days and 3 nights. We started our journey by first going to KLIA 2 in the morning. Our plane departure was at 12:00 pm on Saturday. We arrived at Kuching, Sarawak at 3:30 pm in the evening. 

At the KLIA 2 during our departure

     We checked in our hotel at 4:30 pm. The name of the hotel was Hilton Hotel. We unpacked our things at our room. We prayed and I told my father that I wanted to go to the hotel swimming pool with my little brother at 5:30 pm. My eldest brother accompanied me and my little brother to the pool and we had a great time at the pool.

Splash! Splash!Splash!

      After that, we freshened ourselves and went to dinner at a famous seafood restaurant nearby the hotel. The food there was so delicious and among the seafood were shrimp, lobster and other seafood served with fresh vegetables cooked with delicious sauce. One of the special vegetable dishes in Sarawak that was so delicious was called 'Midin' which was made tastier by frying it with shrimp paste or in Malay language is called 'belacan' - 'Sayur Midin Belacan'  

Midin Goreng Belacan...Nyum..nyum...yummy!!

The delicious seafood at your finger tips to choose....

Mmmm... so delicious

After dinner, we went strolling along the river at the back of the hotel. We took photo of a nice building at the center of Kuching. 

We enjoyed the moment so much as we had all our siblings together which was a good bonding session. We went back to our room at around 11 pm.

On the next day, we went to the Sarawak Cultural Village. It was known as the ‘Living Museum’, and the cultural village was set up to preserve and showcase Sarawak's cultural heritage. It was located at Pantai Damai, Santubong, just 32 km from the state capital, Kuching. 

The entrance of Sarawak Cultural Village

     The Cultural Village showed a lot of heritage on tribes in Sarawak such as Iban, Melanau, Bidayuh, Malay, Chinese and others. We watched performances by the local tribes and local people. It was so interesting as the performances were performed by talented and beautiful dancers with colourful costumes. Among the audiences during the performance were people from Australia, Canada, USA and other western countries as well as Asian countries. On the same day also, we went to visit the Bintulu's long house, Melanau's house and Iban's house. 

Cultural show and performance

Inside the tribe's house

There was also waterfall at the Cultural Village. Cool water!

While we were strolling in the Cultural Village, we accidentally met with my father's friend who was also there with his family. The friend was my father's long lost friend and it was a happy moment for my father to have met his friend. Some of the photos are as below:

Photo with long lost friend

My beloved father with his friend

After we had visited the Cultural Village, we went to the Upside Down House. Everything inside the house was upside down. I saw the garage, furniture, kitchen and everything was upside down. It was so funny and we had a great laugh over the Upside Down House. After that, we had dinner and went back to the hotel to have a good rest in preparation for the next day's activities.

The Upside Down House in Sarawak

      The next day, early in the morning we went jogging before enjoying our breakfast at the hotel. After breakfast, we proceed to our next agenda which was jungle trekking and hiking at the Mount Santubong. We had actually planned for this excursion since the last one year and it was a joyful moment for me and my family to be able to materialise the plan. It was from my readings that I knew about the legend behind Mount Santubong. 

Mount Santubong is one of the most famous tourist attraction places in Sarawak. Located 35 kilometer from Kuching City, and reachable in a 45 minutes drive, facing the South China Sea and with its height of 2,658 feet above sea level Mount Santubong is a great deal for those who love hiking and jungle trekking. According to history, Mount Santubong was discovered by British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace in 1855 while he was collecting specimen in Sarawak. Mount Santubong has been gazetted as one of Sarawak’s National Parks, and its nearby beach is recognized as one of the biggest wetland areas in the whole of Borneo. I find it worth telling you of the legend behind Mount Santubong.

When people pass by Mount Santubong, they usually commented that it has the shape of a woman’s profile; whether this is true or not I am not sure and up to you discover. What I can do is relate the legend behind it. Once upon a time, two beautiful sister princesses from heaven came down to earth to bring peace to a dispute between two local villages. Santubong and Sejinjang were their names, and they were both very talented: Santubong had amazing weaving skills while her sister Sejinjang was known for her talent in pounding rice. These two princess had many admires but would accept nobody’s charm for some time until one day they met Prince Serapi. 

Prince Serapi fell in love with both of them and wanted both to become his wives. Santubong and Sejinjang in turn both loved Prince Serapi, and a frightful fight ensued since each of them wished to become Prince Serapi’s only wife. The quarrel turned increasing violent, with Sejinjang hitting Santubong in the cheek with her rice pounder and Santubong fighting back and hitting Sejinjang with her belidak, a tool used to weave cloths. When their father the King realized what was happening, he was extremely angry and came down to earth to curse the three of them. Both sisters were transformed into mountains, namely Mount Santubong and Mount Sejinjang, while the broken pieces of Sejinjang’s head scattered into the sea and became islands: Pulau Kerak, Pulau Satang, Pulau Talang-Talang, Pulau Lakir and many more.

Coming back to our excursion of hiking and jungle trekking, we went into the jungle of Mount Santubong and trekked for more than 2 hours before returning back to the point of start. It was such a tiring journey but yet a truly worthwhile experience for all of us.

When we started the trekking, everyone was full of energy including my youngest brother, Fikry. Along the journey, when there was a need to hike on a more steep steps, Fikry was crying a bit as he was exhausted and tired. Therefore, my father and my elder brothers had to switch roles in carrying little Fikry.

Little Fikry's tired face..

So cold... 

Walking along the bridge in the jungle

Nice view in the jungle..scary but yet cooling

Felt like swimming in the cool water..

           
     During the jungle trekking, we saw a few types of trees which were the famous types used to produce furniture for example Meranti and Jati trees or woods. It was a rare experience to be in the jungle where we were so close to mother nature. We could feel the hot sun and breezy wind piercing our skin. My sister was the most excited person of all as she had dreamed of trekking in this famous jungle for quite a while.

Trekking in the middle of the woods..

Meranti and Jati tree

The next day, we went jogging early in the morning before having our last breakfast at the hotel at around 8:00 am. After breakfast, we went back to our room and packed our things. After packing our things, we went to the nearest shops to buy some souvenirs and Sarawak’s famous cakes called ‘Kek Lapis”. We went to the cake shop opposite the river which was also opposite of our hotel. We had fun on a boat ride which brought us to the cake shop, the famous 'Mira Cake Shop'.

Our smooth sailing boat ride, cruising across the Sarawak river to go to Mira Cake House

The colorful, sweet and tasty layer cakes of Sarawak

      After that, we collected our things at the hotel and went straight to the Kuching International Airport and finalise the checking-in process at the airport counter. We departed at 12:30 pm and reached Kuala Lumpur a few hours after that. 

I am so sad to leave Kuching and it has been a great holiday for me and my family. We really hope that we will be given the opportunity to go to Kuching, Sarawak again, God Willing.