4 days in Kuching

Trek, explore, eat, appreciate how delicate the remaining ecosystems are.

Quick Tips:

Do it yourself, no tour groups needed. It's easy and cheaper.

Best Way To Get Around:

Walk, walk, walk, taxi, boat, buses (very cheap, but if you don't have much time - could erode valuable hours both waiting and travelling).

I stayed in a deluxe room. The hotel is graded five-star.

The suites must have been how the five-star rating was determined. It wasn't for the deluxe rooms, anyway! I had to pay 3 ringit to make myself an insant coffee in the room (normally free, even in two- and three-star places).

If you are a non-smoker, be sure to request a non-smoking room before you book, or you will end up on a smoking floor. Our room literally stank! We had to be moved to a non-smoking floor/room, which was much better.

Don't stay in rooms above the pub. There is an expensive, noisy bar (noisy by the band only, since the place was empty!), and I spoke to people who stayed on floors above (even up to four floors above), and they said the noise was pretty annoying. It stops at 1am.

A pint of Tiger here is 28 ringit.

Breakfast was basic but quite good. The pool area was a bit disappointing. The hotel staff was friendly.

Awesome food! I went there two times out of 4 nights and ate both times at the first stall as you come up the steps. The first night was lobster, prawns, and vegetables. The lobster was a bit tasteless (after the crays we get here in West Oz!), but the rest was lovely. On the second dinner, we had prawns and a whole fish cooked local-style, again with the fresh-cooked Asian greens. Rice is served with all meals, plus tigers! There are definitely cheaper eats out there, but we found it pretty good value and tasty.

Beware! Definitely fix the fare before you get into the cab. Even after this precaution, try to have the exact fare on hand. I didn't--I handed over a bigger note and got shortchanged. Upon querying this, the driver denied we fixed the fare for the price we had. This would have been avoided by handing over the correct fare, as these are opportunistic scams.