Kuching Off The Beaten Path

The highlight is the Orang Utan. They live within the forest reserve and was taught to survive by the park warden. Hence, they are considered semi-wild.

There are 2 feeding times, i.e. 9 am and 3 pm. The chances of spotting orang utan is most likely as they will be back for free meal.

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Three Malayan villages are located on the northern shore of the river, to the east of Fort Margherita and I walked through the first of them known as Kampung Boyen. It was minor celebrity time again as children wanted to speak to the foreigner and adults wanted to know where I was from.

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The Sri Srinivasagar Kaliamman Temple is a Hindu temple found to the east of the old part of Kuching that looked disused and all locked up when I visited.

Directions: Jalan Ban Hock, at the junction with Jalan Song Thian Cheok

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The Hokkien Chinese temple, Hong San Si, is located on Jalan Wayang between Jalan Carpenter and Jalan Pearl. It has buildings on both sides of Jalan Wayang. The Hong San Si temple dates back to around 1840 but was restored in 2003. There is an interesting legend about the host deity, Shen Ong Kong or Kong Teck Choon Ong (in Hokkien dialect) or or Guang Ze Zun Wan. They do a big celebration at this temple in April, with a long procession of floats, lion and dragon dancers, and other groups winding their way through town following the altar of the host deity.

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In the botanical garden (more like a park) that is part of the Sarawak Museum Complex there is a monument to commemorate Sarawak heroes and warriors, namely Datuk Patinggi Ali, Sherip Mashor, Rentap, Rosli Dhobi, Sawing and Liu Shan Bang. They are represented on the bronze plaques at the base of the monument, which was dedicated on 29 Nov 1990.

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In the park south of the Sarawak Museum's "Old Building," is a beautiful, well-groomed botanical garden with trees, flowers, fountains, gazebos and paths. The Aquarium and Heroes' Monument are located in this park. I understand that it is well lit and a nice place to go in the evening as well; however, the garden was once the old burial ground of the Chinese community in Kuching and who knows what comes out at night.

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The old Kuching Wet Market is at the west end of the Waterfront across the Sarawak River from Astana. It is not in use anymore (March 2009) but I do not know why. There was trash everywhere (unusual for Kuching) and even part of the roof was missing. It is in a great location on Main Bazaar. I bet there is something planned for that land.

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Jalan India used to be the main shopping area of Kuching. It is the extension of Jalan Carpenter to the northwest. They are now separated by the Japanese Building, which was built during the Japanese occupation in 1940 and is now part of the Courthouse Complex. You may walk through the Little Lebanon Restaurant to get to the Jalan India shophouses.