Kuching Revisited

We are now in Kuching. We have been staying at the Hilton over the weekend together with Shaffik and his family. We took Air Asia from Bintulu on Friday and will be flying out back to Bintulu this evening.

I am writing this blog at the study table in my hotel room, which faces the famous river that cuts the city into the northern and the southern halves. There is a huge, multi-pillared, circular building, with umbrella-like roof in final stages of construction coming up across the river from the Hilton. It has now blocked a major view of the distant horizon. I was told that this will be the new court house. It stands next to the old Fort which has now been dwarfed and look quite insignificant, as though it has seen its glorious days as a historical landmark of sorts. Little boats ferrying pedestrians across the river still ply from various points along the esplanade and the residential areas across. Other large buildings in Kuching North (the hotel stands in Kuching South) mostly government administrative buildings can still be seen. Most significant of them are the dome and main pillar of a mosque standing magnificently amongst the other buildings and the luscious greens surrounding them. A beautiful view indeed if not for this humongous court house! There is another mosque in the south standing by the river. This was the original town mosque which was a landmark for the old Kuching city.

It is still Shawal and we made several Hari Raya visits to relatives and friends in Kuching. We visited Ram's niece and family and also Mini's cousin and family. Ram's niece and husband have retired and their children have all grown up and are on their own. Mini's cousin are still bringing up young children. It had been quite a while since we last met them and it was pleasant to have met them again.

One friend we visited was a former colleague of mine during my working days in Bintulu. He has since risen up the corporate ladder to be the Chairman of the states economic development corporation, while at the same time being an elected representative to the state legislative council. I took a chance and sent him a sms message on his handphone that I was in Kuching with the family. He immediately called me and asked how long I would be in Kuching and then allocated time for me to visit him in his house. It was a very pleasant meeting for us indeed. He has not changed much even though it had been more than twenty years since we were together, still lively and sprightly and full of jokes as before. He lives in a big house, gated and with security personnel guarding it. He came out to the gate to receive us when we arrived and appeared excited to see both of us (in all the excitement I noticed that he was barefooted!). He remembered Shaffik too. We talked about old times, about how others amongst us then are getting on now and of course interspersed with current local political and world economic scenarios. He, being in the government sector and privy to some of the latest info gave us some insights into the current scenarios, some of which were quite surprising and eyebrow raising to me, a laymen and without access to the real information. It was a short visit as it was slotted in between his tight schedule but we promised to get together again in the near future and I hope it will be in my house in PJ then.

Kuching city used to be limited to the water front and near the river with the commercial centre on the south side and the residential areas on the north side. Now it has two mayors, one for the north and one for the south. Shopping activities used to be centred along the water front but now, as one drives out of the city centre one should be able to see tall buildings coming up, large shopping complexes, commercial buildings, office buildings, apartment and condominiums sprouting up everywhere. We visited one of the shopping complexes yesterday. It was large, much like the ones one see in big cities and the day being a Sunday just as crowded with people.

The weather now looks good, and from the window the esplanade at the water front beckons to me for a walk. So, I shall walk the pavement for a while, to as far as my leg can withstand it supported by my walking stick of course. I shall write again, by the grace of the Almighty.....

MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Kuching, sarawak