13-Apr-2024
Oops, a day late with the diary... Too busy celebrating...
This week saw the end of Ramadan, which is marked by the festival of Hari Raya:
We sat out on our balcony when evening came on the last day of fasting, listening to the mosques and then the fireworks.
Quite a few shops and eateries were closed for the two days of the public holiday (not that this is problematic, as Kuching is so multicultural that there are always plenty of other outlets to frequent). It's always nice to see people out and about in their finest outfits, though, as they go to various open-house events.
A friend was also celebrating a big birthday this week, and invited us to a special dinner at Rock Road Seafood Restaurant. We had such a good time... You can't beat the combo of lovely people and expertly prepared food:
And the tree by the little shrine behind Jalan Padungan is obviously celebrating something, because he dropped a TON of fruit one night:
And so we move on to the indispensible "food and drink" section. Every day is a food celebration in Kuching...:
We were delighted to see that Tirta Barong is back, even though their new opening hours are not quite so great for us. Their cold coffee is perfect for a hot day
They have a nice new space out back (although the day we visited it was too hot to want to sit outside...)
We've used this little place (in the basement of Merdeka Plaza) a couple of times recently. The coffee is very decent
Every now and then we drop in for lek tau suan and black rice porridge from Mr Kho on Upper China Street
The S.Q. Cafe in Batu Kawa has a pan mee stall!
The lady cuts the noodle dough on a little machine
And the result is delectably chewy noodles, nice broth, and that wonderful mix of cangkuk manis, crispy fried anchovies, and minced pork. Yum... If we'd also had the traditional accompaniment of mushrooms, this would have been quite perfect
And so to the rest of the week's gallery:
Judging by the amount of publicity we keep seeing, there's an anti-rabies campaign under way. Which is good, as the disease is still very much a problem here
I'm not totally sure what these enormous leaves are, but you see them everywhere
The famous Jalan Ewe Hai ginger cat, in one of his rare wakeful moments
St Peter's is progressing
As are the bas-reliefs at Tiong Hock Kiong
Nice shot of what we think is a little bittern over by the Brooke Dockyard
And there's a new mural going up on Padungan. The more murals the merrier, I say. And it's always fun watching these artworks progress