27. Day / 4th winter trip
Actually two days in Kuching would have been quite enough - but I didn't know if we would see Orangutans the first day already, that's, for security reasons, I had planned another day. So we had the whole Sunday, at least in excellent weather, heat and mostly sunshine.
After tasteless dinner the night before, I was quite hungry early, already went to the club lounge 8:30, ate something small until the others turned up at 9.
Since we had no further plans we took our time, drank espresso extensively.
At 10, we headed off to exchange money and visit an Adidas store at the nearby Sarawak Plaza shopping mall. As we had seen, prices for Adidas sneakers in Malaysia were very low, even lower than in Thailand. But as we should learn, the 'Superstar' model was hardly available. The sales lady was so kind and called the other two branches and told that at the Vivacity Megamall 'Superstars' should be available.
Back to the hotel, got into the car and drove there. Inside the mall,
to the Adidas shop and learned that there were exactly two versions: black with black stripes and black with white stripes. Thank you!
After V. bought a pair of shoes at Nike and I got two pairs of flip-flops (in Russian, by the way, called 'Vietnamki'), we went back to city center, where we wanted to try 'Sarawak Laksa', a typical noodle soup. In Anthony Bourdian's blog, I read that he recommended 'Choon Hui Cafe'. So we went, just to learn that this restaurant was closed that day.
But I had already chosen an alternative in any case. Entered 'Swee Kang Ais Kacang' on Google Maps and off we went. We came through an extremely run-down area, in decay - we thought we could not be on the right way. But after I had turned to the right, suddenly the area was packed. At a run-down corner-house many tables & chairs, lots of people sitting around.
We looked for a parking lot and walked there.
Inside it was really busy, we got the last free table.
V. ordered 4 medium-sized 'Sarawak Laksa'
and two servings of 'Cha Kueh'
(a kind of fried, tougher but still crunchy dough of white radish, also known from Chinese cuisine). I took care of the drinks,
got us 'White Lady', 'ABC' and 'Chendol' with coconut milk.
The drinks were just outstanding, especially the fruity 'White Lady' with shaved ice, maracuja and pineapple juice - but also the more milky variants 'ABC' and 'Chendol' were super delicious and not as sweet as I expected.
Already arrived the two portions of 'Cha Kueh', genuine 'comfort food'.
The best thing, however, turned out to be the Laksa.
Chili paste added and sipped, especially the broth, very good.
Paid US $ 11 and went back to the hotel, recovered by the pool and went to the gym, very necessary after all the food and sugary drinks.
Unfortunately, all three bikes were broken, so I had to use the treadmill. These, however, were placed directly in front of the large bottom to ceiling glass windows, through which the sun was burning. After 40 minutes the I became a waterfall in rainy season.
On the way back to the room again the unnecessary size of the hallways impressed.
After some recovery up to the club lounge, for sunset I was woken up with the help of some espresso.
Shortly before 8pm we walked over to 'Hot Spot' food court, which was again very well visited. We did not want to get into any experiment, selected a table at the same restaurant as the day before yesterday.
In addition to the fantastic oyster omelette and the giant prawns in Mongol Sauce, we ordered some Sate,
smaller prawns (grilled with garlic),
and mussels in a lightly spicy sauce.
The sate (chicken & lamb) was in no way comparable to the one in Singapore, neither meat nor sauce. The prawns were ok, as were the mussels. Super delicious however, were the giant prawns as well as the omelette.
Completely full we went back to the hotel.