MALAYSIA-SINGAPORE

Kuching is the State Capital of Serawak, in the island of Borneo. The island of Borneo has the oldest known forest in the world and is full of national parks. In addition, in the island also there is also Brunei and Indonesia.
www.sarawaktourism.com
How to arriveIn order to arrive from Johor Bahru we took a flight of one hour and 15 minutes. To go to the airport of Johor Bahru we took a taxi from the Compact hotel that costs 40RM and takes 45 minutes (considering there is no traffic at 5 am in the morning!).
The flight of AirAsia was kind of dangerous as after 10 minutes of flying we had to fly back for technical problems. After 20 minutes we took off without problems and landed in Kuching and with an anecdote to explain...
In the airport of Kuching we took a taxi to the centre that costs 17,50RM, the price is fixed and we got a ticket for it in a counter in the terminal exit.
Eat & SleepThe hotel that we chose is very centric and very recommendable: the Singgahsana Lodge, a cute hotel in Serawak style, simple but he is one of the cleanest and prettiest that we saw. We booked the "honeymoons's suite", per internet from Barcelona. This honeymoons's suite is one of the two only rooms that has a bathroom inside the room, it costs 107.80 RM per night including a simple breakfast. The other rooms do not have bathroom inside but they are equal to the "suite". Dormitory costs between 40RM and 80RM the double or triple room (Singgahsana Lodge, 1 Temple Street, 93000 Kuching, Tel. 0065 6 82429277, Fax 0065-6 82 429267, www.singgahsana.com, [email protected]). It must be made an advanced payment by credit card of 30% of the total of the room.
To wash clothes at the Singgahsana costs 3,50RM the kilo, Internet 4RM per hour and to rent a bicycle all the day costs 20RM.

Right opposite there is a tall building, the Harbour View hotel which as it indicates well its name has views to all the fluvial port and a double room including breakfast costs there 98RM (Harbour View Hotel, Lorong Temple, 93100 Kuching, Tel. 0065-6 82 274 600, Fax 0065-6 274 777, www.harbourview.com.my, [email protected]).
Who wants some more luxury there is also a Hilton Hotel, a Crowne Plaza and a Holyday Inn Hotel in the centre of Kuching.

To eat well, we recommend a very simple restaurant, that offers really fresh and very cheap fish and seafood, and you pay it according to the weight: See Good (53, Ban Hock Road, 93100 Kuching, Tel. 0065-6 82 232609). Also we had dinner at Khatulistiwa next to the river with varied and western kitchen, it was good but took them longer than one hour to bring the food (Khatulistiwa, Jl tunku Abdul Rahman, Tel.0065-6 248896).
Another recommendable: Bing where we went to drink something, the ambience was very pleasant and it’s a design bar (Bing, 84 Padungan Road, 93100 Kuching, Tel. 0065-82 421880, Fax 0065-82 259188, www.bingcoffee.com, [email protected]). Another restaurant to go and to taste the crab with black sauce, is D'Alif (D'Alif, Waterfront, Tel. 0065-82 8188400, Fax 0065-82 413753). Life Coffee offers good Chinese and vegetarian kitchen (108 Ewe Hai street, 93000 Kuching, Tel. 0065-82 411754).

The big water bottles cost in Kuching 2RM and the small 1RM.
What to see & doKuching means “cat” in Malayan, is a pretty and interesting city which as all the Malayan cities has their China Town and Little India, parks are very nice. The river Serawak invites to take a walk along the very attractive Waterfront.
The Bazaar is in front of the waterfront and there are hundreds of stores that sell exactly the same. It is worth to compare prices because there are remarkable differences.

In Kuching there is the place where handicrafts in Malaysia are made and mostly sold. After to have compared prices with the ones at the power station Market of Kuala Lumpur we say it is the cheapest place to buy handicrafts.
It is in Kuching where we recommend to do our souvenirs and wood crafts shopping because the prices are half as in Kuala Lumpur.

To cross the Sarawak river costs 0,30RM.
At the other side of the river we saw Istana, the residence of the governor of the state that cannot be visited.

You must visit the mosque (Jl Nan Hock), and the market of fishes, birds and fruits, everything is less than five minutes walking and we will find it near the waterfront.

Fro Kuching is and ideal place to make several trips that can be done in Sarawak.

For the lovers of the cats, they will find the only museum of the world on cats, it’s a little kitsch but it pays tribute to the felines that give their name to the city.

At dusk we made a boat trip to enjoy the evening, it takes around one hour and a half and costs 30RM. Also there are other boats that cost 45RM, that can fit more people.