For old times’ sake…

When I was in Kuching for my nephew’s wedding, I took the opportunity to walk around the area around the hotel where I was staying…for old times’ sake.

This hotel…

…where I’ve stayed before a few times, is located right across the road from mine in what was called “The Golden Triangle” of the city. The Hilton, where my nephew’s grand wedding reception was held, is right behind it (with Tune Hotel right across the road) and the Pullman’s a stone’s throw away. There is a shopping mall adjoining this hotel but I did not manage to go and check it out.

I did drop by here…

…though – the Sarawak Plaza and it actually looked kind of sad, nothing like what it used to be. I guess most would flock to the very much bigger and more impressive malls in other parts of the city  plus maybe it was because of the Gawai and the public holiday that weekend so there was hardly any life there…except at the fast food franchise outlets by the side to the extreme right. If anyone is interested, yes, that eat-all-you-can Hartz chicken buffet place is still there on the lower ground floor but I did  not bother going down to check their current prices.

Well, having said all that, believe it or not, I actually managed to buy something from the gift shop there – these cuties…

I thought they were so cute and simply could not resist grabbing a few to take home. I wish they had not missed out the apostrophe though. Sigh!!!

Things weren’t much better at this Tun Jugah mall…

…opposite. The hair salon was packed, probably because it was the weekend and a public holiday but other than that, there was hardly anybody except for a sprinkling at the bookstore and the food gallery…

Maybe it was that time of the year – even this favourite Sarawak/Kuching laksa place…

…that some insist is the best in the city, nicer than Anthony Bourdain’s favourite, was closed so there were only two or three stalls open at the food gallery…or maybe on any other day, there are only those few, I wouldn’t know. I used to enjoy some of what they had here a long time ago but this time around, I did not see anything that would be worth wasting my calories on. There were some employees at the stalls, chatting away and none of them paid me any attention when I was walking around. Why, they did not even bother to clear the tables…

…where there were customers earlier! They have done up the place very nicely so it was kind of sad to see how things have changed, so different from how busy it was, the way it used to be.

This is another hotel a little up the road…

…of that same name, the name of the 3rd Governor of Sarawak during those colonial times. It is newer than those established ones around but I have never stayed there before so I do not know how good it is. I used to love going to that eatery on the ground floor when it was at its former location a long time ago but I have not been there since they moved here.

There used to be a cinema, the Capitol, here – since demolished, and at the block of shops right beside it, there was one…

…that was so very popular for its chicken rice. They told me that the current people are not the ones who were there before – the original people have moved to a shop towards the other end of this same block but I did not notice it when I was walking around that morning.

However, I do know for a fact that the people at this barbecue meat place…

…were formerly the celebrated ones at the shop across the  road from the Capitol and the Odeon Cinema was right beside it. They are here now…

…still enjoying brisk business and so is that “tim sam” place next door. The latter used to be beside the Pavilion, facing the Kuching General Post Office – both of which are beautiful buildings of colonial architecture. Personally, I am no fan of their pao, sio bee and har kao (that’s all they have, just these three things) but obviously, everybody else does not agree with me for the place was packed to the brim, as always, that morning.

A short distance away is this totem pole…

…with what looks like Fort Magherita on top and yes, there are more cats here – you will get to see lots all over the city.

I went along the road and took a shortcut through one of the small lanes to that Sarawak laksa place that I have mentioned earlier and since it was closed, I moved on from there to this hotel…

…a short distance away. This used to be one of the leading hotels in town alongside the Aurora (now Merdeka Palace) and the Borneo Hotel but today, it is a pale shadow of its old self. My friends used to work at the coffee house there, now a coffee shop, and I used to hang out there with them. On Saturdays in the mid-70’s, there would be a live band performing and needless to say, I would be there rockin’ and rollin’ the night away.

Going round the corner, I spotted this hotel…

I am pretty sure there was a bank here. I don’t think it was the HSBC – I think it was the OCBC. Can somebody in the know confirm this, please? What I do remember vividly is that there was a man who would set up his stall at the corner in front every night, selling char kway teow and we would walk over from the hotel regularly to buy, “Char kway teow gor kak, kway teow chay chay, nui chay chay, taugeh chay chay!!!” (fried flat rice noodles 50 sen, lots of the noodles, lots of egg and lots of bean sprouts) Yes, it was only 50 sen then, believe it or not and no, the guy knew us very well so he would just laugh it off everytime we said that.

I did walk further in search of one particular shop but that would be in tomorrow’s post…and if you go around the area behind that plaza in the 2nd photograph above, you will get some nice views of the Sarawak River like the ones in my earlier posts here or here and you may even get to see these colourful fishing boats…

…at the wharf where the ill-fated MV Rajah Mas and Pulau Kidjang used to berth a long long time ago. I used to come to Kuching then using the former (I never did go on the latter) for only RM10.00, deck fare…but unfortunately, there is no way I can do that all over again…for old times’ sake.