That trip to Kuching 10-07-09

- Taken from Stefanie's blog, again -

Kuching is a wonderful place. I highly recommend people going there. With the food, the culture, those well-maintained old buildings, the art, there’s just so many things to see and savour.

RWMF, well, it’s overrated. The music especially. I love the exhibition and the cuci-ing mata part. The music, well, I’m not too over the moon about it.

The crowd was okay for most part. When they got wasted things became interesting. And annoying. And mind you, it wasn’t the mat salleh who acted like animals on heat. It was us. The bangsa Malaysia yang penuh dengan budaya ketimuran konon.

Punyala bikin malu. Mesti tu mat salleh bilang, ko tengok bah tu Asians, kejakunan.

I have nothing against displays of ‘affection’, not if you get a room and do it out of the public sight.

Seriously there was this couple who were doing it like eels.

Luckily, I didn’t get to see much of those. Two couples and my eyes felt like bleeding already. We left early because we were freaking bored. We couldn’t enjoy the music because it’s urmm, unenjoyable, and as good as the company was, we couldn’t indulge in our usual banter because the unenjoyable music was so bloody loud, it was almost impossible to talk.

That’s 10% of the trip. Other than that, I had a blast. Ben’s place is cosy. Ben, like I mentioned before is a wonderful host. Accommodating, frank and funny he made our stay a pleasant and memorable one.

The first night we were greeted by a barbeque, handled by the boys earlier. Amani picked us up at the airport. When evon called denn, he said they’re ‘on the way’. I laughed at that. I won’t be able to hear that phrase the same way after the reunion, thanks to denn and jas.
Oh, and evon almost mistook Amani, who is now Dr. Amani as ben’s fiancée. That was hilarious.

Dinner time, and there was Charlene and her husband-to-be. What a wonderful surprise.
I forgot to take photos during the dinner because I was so busy catching up. Sayang eh. Oh well.
Amani and Charlene told us they wouldn’t be able to go to RWMF because all hospital staff of Sarawak are banned from attending that event.

The second day was mostly spent on RWMF and sight-seeing around Kuching. Oh, and the museums. That was really fun. Sarawak is so rich with culture.

I love the cultural village as well, the place where RWMF was held. The atmosphere was fitting, it is a beautiful setting. And the exhibitions are interesting, what with the different longhouses of the different tribes in Sarawak.

Third day, denn was the first to go back. All of us went back at different times actually, so kacian si Ben who drove us around. Note to everyone, next time, kasi selaras masa balik. Ben brought us to eat kuching’s famous kolok mee, but ngam2 habis. Rugi betul oo. But indakpa, evon and I tried the mee suah, which was pretty good as well. It had red wine in it. Sadap. Skali after makan, nah pening. Both of us. Kuat pulak the liquor.

And it was during breakfast when Ben and Nel found out Milai is actually from KIK. And not KML. Nice job at deceiving them, Denn. Mati-mati lagi tu they thought Milai was from KML, and why the hell they couldn’t remember her. When Ben asked Milai which tutorial she was in, both me and evon cracked up. It turns out that all these while Ben and Nel were trying their best not to give away the fact that they couldn’t remember Milai being in KML.

And semua tu angkara si dennis.

After that, we went and bought the famous kek lapis Sarawak, and went sight-seeing at waterfront. Nel didn’t bring his camera, and he was frustrated. Kesian.

After sending Milai to the airport, Ben took us to this pottery centre. They have a lot of amazing stuff there. Cheap too. I bought a lamp and a mug.

After a packing frenzy, in which I forgot my towel, Ben sent us to the airport. Ben was just telling us about how in Labuan his name, andy’s and lawai’s were called out in the airport because they were late. Well, evon and I had that same experience there, gara-gara sebab mo makan KFC sebelum boarding. We really did ask for it didn’t we.

Plane ride, I was trying to savour every moment of it. We saw Labuan from the bird’s eye view. Evon took a few snaps I think.

That’s where it all started. Labuan.

If it weren’t for Labuan, we wouldn’t have gone on this trip. We wouldn’t have known each other. We wouldn’t have had this elusive chance to re-connect with each other.

During breakfast, Evon mentioned how we didn’t hang out with each other in Labuan. With Ben and Nel especially. It was all hi and bye. Milai was surprised. She thought we were all hardcore buddies, from the way we got along so well.

Nelson said that with KML, it’s always been a special case.

I agree, Nel. I wholly agree.