24 hours…

My trip to Kuching (and Serian) stretched over 24 hours – in fact, I took the same flight I took to fly over to Kuching on Monday evening back to Sibu the following day.

On Tuesday morning, I had breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant – The Eatery…

It was just the usual stuff one would expect to see at any buffet breakfast at any hotel of this class. The fried rice wasn’t anything to shout about – I think mine would be nicer…and their nasi lemak could use a little bit more santan to add to the richness of the rice and the fried noodles were extremely salty. I must say that this was most disappointing as considering that this place has swept quite a number of awards, if I’m not mistaken, I certainly would expect a lot better.

Another bone that I would have to pick where this place was concerned would be their coffee. It was so weak that it was quite tasteless, almost like plain water. I posted a comment on this on their Facebook page when they proudly showed off their colourful mugs – what is the point if they look nice and pretty when the coffee sucks big time? The beef rendang that morning was really very very nice though, so well done – very tender and absolutely delicious…but I only took a bit of it.

Soon after I had had my fill, my cousin came and drove me to Serian and we came back at around noon. Initially, she wanted to take me to some places in the city for lunch but we were caught in some very heavy traffic along the way and if I did not check out of the hotel by 2.00 p.m. – they extended it for me, thankfully, I would be charged for extended stay.  In the end, not wanting to be caught in some horrendous jam, we just dropped by the Expert Food Court @ RH Plaza for convenience sake – it is right across the road from the hotel and that was where I had the beef noodles the night before.

I had the Kuching kolo mee…

…from this stall…

…and I would say it was very nice, nicer than the one that I had before at another food court in that same area.

I also ordered the seafood soup…

…which was nice too but then again, I always have this weakness for clear soups.

My cousin had these claypot noodles from another stall…

…but I would not know whether it was any good as I did not get to try.

After that quick lunch, I went back to the hotel, bathed and packed and checked out…and waited for another cousin to pick me up and take me to the airport. It so happened that she was coming to Sibu that very evening and I had promised to meet her upon arrival and go for dinner…but suddenly, I had to fly over to Kuching and for this reason, staying on for a day or two was totally out of the question. I booked myself on that same flight she was taking…and by evening, Tuesday, I was back in Sibu already.