18-Jun-2023
Kuching's riotously exuberant colour palette is pretty much a constant. We really don't do beige here...
Blue sky and double happiness. A new eatery for us. The Sarawak-style "fast food" (ready-made dishes served with rice, or in our case, without rice) is good here, and attracts lots of punters
Morning on the river
Even the food is reliably vibrant:
Egg tart. Not Portuguese egg tart. But nice anyway
Awesome lei cha (aka lui cha) from Hainan Hakka Lui Cha
This place has a pleasant neighbourhood environment
Fish, sambal, and cassava leaves from Indah
Everything else, on the other hand, fluctuates, evolves, sprouts, and springs. Change is ubiquitous.
Examples:
Our neighbouring colossus is to acquire "shoppes". They will be ye olde shoppes, presumably
St Peter's continues to rise
The new boat in town. We suspect this cabin was once the front end of a "coffin boat" (the term relates to the shape not the consequence of riding it...)
The record-breaking Flagpole continues to grow
The temple next to Petanak Market is getting 3D-ized. Really looking forward to watching this process
Some of these aspects of evolution I'm a bit sceptical about. But an excellent example of positive and progressive change is the Kuching Car-Free Morning.
These started in February 2022 as once-a-month things, and rapidly became so popular that they've been expanded to twice a month.
Always slow to know what's going on, and often in some further-distant neck of the woods on a Sunday morning, we hadn't actually participated until today.
It is really soooo nice to have the cars removed. So quiet. So pleasant. So much more opportunity to hear the birds. It's a real reminder of what we have sacrificed to the motor car over the decades
Awesome to swan round the Padang without dodging vehicles
Ditto with Jalan Main Bazaar
There's also a bit of a carnival vibe, which probably swells as the morning goes on:
A bit of music and dance
We were too early to hear the band play, but next time we'll stick around a bit longer