In Kuching airport we had to fill in another embarkation card, and passports were stamped again. The airport was small but had an extremely helpful tourist information desk that provided us with a couple of maps, an extremely useful free introduction booklet to Sarawak by Wayne Tarman and Mike Reed ("The Official Kuching Guide", some of which is here) and times for the bus from the airport into Kuching town. The bus was infrequent and we got sick of waiting in the hot bus shelter and ultimately went in one of the minibuses, which was half a ringgit more than the bus.
When we arrived in Kuching, we did not find it especially difficult to find our way around, and the maps in our guide books were reasonably accurate. The guide books suggested that there is little budget accomodation available in Kuching. We initially planned to stay at the Arif Hotel, near to the Masjid Negiri mosque. The only rooms left were expensive family rooms so we decided to go elsewhere. We were pleased that we didn't stay in the Arif, because we found out later from other travellers that the hotel has problems with rats in the bedrooms. After a long hot walk to the other side of town we found the B&B Inn, which seemed ok, friendly and had the added bonus of breakfast included! The breakfast was make-your-own toast with kaya (coconut version of lemon curd) and importantly coffee. The rooms were poorly ventilated (hot at night) but serviceable. The second time we stayed at the B&B, after our trip to Bako, were were eaten by bed bugs: don't stay in the first floor room right at the end with the broken air conditioner!
We went to the hawker's centre by the mosque for dinner, and were surprised that most of the Malay food stalls were closed- although it was Ramadan, it was the evening. We approached the line of Chinese food stalls, all invariably staffed by aggressive ladies with huge spectacles and tightly permed hair, and tried ambal (bamboo clams) and midin (jungle fern, of which we had much better later during our trip), which were good apart from the mysterious price increase part-way through the meal (we found this to be a periodic feature of eating at Chinese, but not Indonesian, Malay or Indian, food stalls). We both had peculiar hallucinogenic dreams that night- maybe the ambal had been in the sun too long!
During our first full day, we visited the helpful tourist office in Kuching to reserve some accomodation at Bako National Park. While at the tourist office, we discovered that there was a Rafflesia in flower at the Gunung Gading National Park, and decided to go there the following day. The plants were flowering off-trail and we would need a guide, but this would not be complicated to arrange. We had laksa for lunch at Auntie Mary's Cafe, which was inexpensive and sloppy (how it should be, apparently). I didn't think it was great. For dinner we went to the row of excellent food stalls along the waterfront of the Sarawak River, near the Khatulistiwa Cafe, and had satay, beef rendang and nasi lemak, which were delicious.
The large, deep storm-drains in Kuching were very full one evening, and as we selected a foodstall for dinner, Mei-See decided to fall down one. Fortunately only her pride was injured, but her DMs took a while to dry out!
Before leaving Kuching, we treated ourselves to an all-you-can-eat "steamboat" dinner at Hornbill's Corner Cafe for RM20 each. The restaurant was extremely popular, and served beer (which was extremely enthusiastically topped up after each sip). There was a large selection of different meats in marinades, noodles, seafood, seaweed, etc. On a return trip to the buffet for seconds, I chose a range of meats and took a large bowlful of "rice". After cooking the meats, I took a big scoop of rice, deposited it my mouth, and discovered that it was raw minced garlic... Dessert included durian ice cream, Mei-See thought it revolting and I enjoyed it.
Our stay in Kuching was interspersed with several days at Bako National Park, which is detailed in the next section. After our visit to Kuching, we decided to move on to Sibu and the Rejang River.