**For more pictures please visit my Facebook page here.

I haven’t blogged since forever. Part of the reason is that I’m lazy. Traveling is not an easy job, especially when you do it on a very tight budget and hold a passport which gives you a lot of challenges on getting visas to almost every single country in the world. However, the main reason is that I want to take a break to revise my writing and to learn how to make it more worth-reading. Old people ironically advise us to listen more and talk less. This time, I’m gonna read more and write less.

After 2 weeks in Kuching, I flew to Kota Kinabalu – the capital of the northernmost state of Malaysia. My first impression of Kota Kinabalu is that it’s so typical: a typical harbor city & a typical tourist site. But somehow, its typicalness is the thing that makes it special.

Kota Kinabalu is a typical harbor city. You can see it, you can smell it, you can even eat it. Seafood is for sale but not on sale everywhere (it’s expensive in KK). Open air structures:  parks, open air markets, open air restaurants can be found through out the city.

One of my happiest moments is when I sit on a bench in the park right next to Wisma Merdeka, face the blue water, reading “Eat, pray, love” and watching sunset. Or if you are in mood for a candle lit night, head over to Waterfront with your date or friends, enjoy freshly caught seafood, beers, refreshing breezes and feel like the whole ocean is singing under your feet. Dang I need a date here! [KK Waterfront – picture from the Internet]

Another thing that struck me here is that it seems like everybody is a professional diver. KK is one of the cheapest places to get a dive license. Even though I feel like an F-class humanbeing when hanging out with them b/c of my water phobia, it motivates me to learn to swim & get over this stupid phobia.

Compared to West Malaysia, Kota Kinabalu is much more multiracial with more than 30 ethnic groups, excluding many more tourist ethnic groups. Kota Kinabalu is a very typical tourist city which somehow reminds me of Kao San Road in Bangkok. Just stay at any cheap backpacker place (there are many in the city. I’m staying at North Borneo Cabin which is right on Sunday market road and costs me only RM23/night for a/c dorm), and it’s very likely that you’ll bump into a bunch of globe-trotters. There are so many markets in KK: central market, Philippines market, wet market, handicraft market, random market, etc.!

Most of them are for tourists b/c there is no reason for a city of only 600,000 people to need that many huge markets. However, since everything here is for tourists, the prices are freaking high too.

As we were roaming about the city, I told Marsha (a super cool American Korean girl I met here) that if I ever settled down, I’d love to settle in a city like KK: not too big but not too small, multiracial, friendly, easy-going and has everything: beaches, islands, rice fields, mountains, jungles, shopping malls, etc.

Even though I’ve just been here for 3 days, I’ve already found myself being extremely harassed by super fun & nice people. We went to an island trip together with loads of fun.

Some pictures I took during my first day here:

The European corner of KK

For more pictures about the cultural village, please click here.

When I asked my friends where I should visit in Sarawak, they all gave me the same answer: ”Cultural Village”, “Cultural Village”, etc. So I made up my mind that I had to visit that place. However, the entrance fee is bloody expensive, RM60 for an adult. I procrastinated until this weekend when Barry, my new host in Kuching, told me about World Harvest Festival which was to be held inside Cultural Village on the 29th & 30th of May. The ticket is only RM25 including free entrance into the village. I thought that I was being smart, then I felt such a relief that I didn’t pay RM60 for this piece of artifact.

The cultural village is FAKE, SMALL and BORING! There are about 7 traditional houses of 7 different ethnic groups living in Sarawak: Iban longhouse, Bidayuh longhouse, Orang Ulu longhouse, Melanau tall-house, Chinese farmhouse… and well, that’s all.

Those longhouses there are not even long. Each house accommodates one family. I talked to a guy about my age who is living in a longhouse, he told me that the real longhouse is long, this one is just for showcase. It takes about half an hour to check out the entire village. And Jesus, I came during the festival so it was damn packed with people that I could hardly see over the sea of heads. Food, drinks and everything there are sold at tourist prices which is obviously not Chip-friendly. The festival is a 2 day one but we all got bored after about 1 hour, so we left before noon. Blame me for not knowing to appreciate cultural value. I appreciate the effort of the village’s management board to set up the village for the purpose of preserving and showcasing Sarawak’s cultural heritage. Yes, the village is definitely worth checking out, but it’s not worth the blooding money we have to pay to enter it.

Another thing that disturbed me at that village is a perverted 60-something man with very big ears. He was the supervisor of a small house inside the village. When I was there, he asked me a lot of questions and tried to show me around. I thought he was friendly, so I asked to take picture with him. He tried to hugged me really tight and then whispered to my ears: “Kiss me”. I was too shocked to react before he suddenly touched my boobs! People started to flock in. I don’t know if I was being nice, or I was shocked, or simply because he was old and I didn’t want to cause him trouble, I left without making any noise. I should have slapped his face!

The only experience worth noticing during my visit there is the “worm eating” show I did in the cheers of about 100 schoolboys which Ray was kind enough to call it “cheap entertainment”. I was walking through food festival at the Iban longhouse (they call it “festival”, but actually it was just a long table where they put some local food) when I saw this:

Seeing the STUPID TOURIST sign on my face, a lady came over to explain to me that it’s sago worm, a kind of food for some indigenous tribes in Sarawak. She told me that I could eat it raw, and showed me this:

Didn’t want to feel this soft slimy worm struggling in my mouth, I decided to have it cooked. I picked this one, a big fat one:

And the lady slaughtered it like this:

And I ate it: put it in my mouth, chewed then swallowed.

The lady told me that it should taste like chicken, but I felt like I just kissed the perverted old man mentioned above. Eww!

Today I met someone that if I stayed at home, I would never meet in my social circle. I don’t know how to call them. Prostitutes? No, they are too nice to be called that way. Labor workers? No, some of them are not even working. The only word I can think of is “kept girls”. I don’t want to call them “kept women” because they are too young. They didn’t bother to ask for my name or tell me theirs. To make it simple, I will just call them Blue, Red nd  White. They are Filipina and yes, they are beautiful.

White stays at the same place where I’m staying. As I had nothing much to do today, she asked me to join her to her friend’s place. It was a shop house (a small building whose ground floor is used for a shop while upper floors are used for housing) near Padungan, widely known among locals as the red light area. When we arrived, Blue just woke up. I tried to smile at her several times but she didn’t even smile back. Red was still sleeping. When White introduced me, she just said “uh huh” and then continued talking in Tagalog. I was kind of intimidated and disheartened, so I just sat there with my puppy eyes wide opened, trying to catch up with their conversation in an alien language. About half an hour later, Red walked out and White passed her all kinds of stuffs: whitening soft, slimming pills, soaps, etc. Red is a very big size girl. She became fat after her 2nd kid. She received slimming pills from White with a thankful smile and started eating chocolate.

Red was very caring. She looked at me worriedly: “Are you traveling alone? Are you not scared?” - “No, I’m not. People are very nice to me.” - “Wow, you are so brave! What did I do when I was 19? Ah, I was raped and got pregnant.”

I was shocked, not only because of the news, but more because of the way she talked about it. She told her tragedy of being raped and having a baby at 19 as if that’s what happens everyday to everyone. They all told me their stories in a casual tone without any resentment or mournfulness. Blue got her daughter with her boyfriend at 17 who later married to another girl. They both stayed in Philippines with her Mom. White married at 19 to a Singaporean man in Philippines, who later dumped her after she was pregnant for 3 months. This man was married back home in Singapore. Recently she heard that he was with another Filipina and dumped her after she had 3 kids. Sometimes between their stories, they made a joke and laughed. I didn’t know what to do, should I laugh with them or should I cry for them?

When I asked about their job, they first told me that they were working on some “personal business” here. But after we talked for a while, probably they thought that I’m trust worthy, they told me that they worked in night clubs, pubs, restaurants, etc. After lunch (yes they cooked for me), White & Red walked in Red’s room to talk, leaving me with Blue alone most of the time. After I asked Blue about her tattoo, listened to her story of encountering a ghost and gave her some compliment about her beauty (she’s really beautiful), she became much more friendly. She told me that she had been here for 11 months without a work permit which means she has to have her tourist visa chopped every month. It costs RM200-RM400 each time.

- “I used to work in a club, but now my boyfriend doesn’t want me to work anymore.” She met her boyfriend when she was “working” and they fell in love. Her boyfriend is 45, more than 20 years older than her. He is a policeman and he already has a family with 2 kids.

Her eyes became bright and she couldn’t help smiling when she told me how much her boyfriend loved her, and how she always won over an argument when she told  him that she wanted to go back to Philippines.

- “No, I don’t think I will go back to Philippines anytime before next year. I just want to scare him so that he has to beg me to stay. He’s very jealous, he doesn’t want to me to go out with any guy. But most of my friends are guys. I go out with them just for fun, for clubbing and drinks. I don’t follow them to have sex with them. Sometimes I go clubbing with other guys, my boyfriend calls but I don’t even pick up the phone. He gets mad but I like it. I want to see him jealous.”

When I asked if his wife knew about her, she told me that his wife found out the affair from his phone. His wife called her, very politely, asking her to leave her husband. But Blue told her that: “I didn’t know that he had a family. I just fell in love.” She told me that if she had known that he was married, she wouldn’t get herself into it. When she found out, she wanted to go back to Philippines but her boyfriend didn’t let her go. When I told her that leaving or not was her choice, not her boyfriend’s, she didn’t answer.

There are a lot of girls like that in Kuching, most of them are from Philippines. They all come and stay in Malaysia for a long time. They told me that there was a club that hosted 160 girls. Sometimes they get road-blocked, policemen stop them to ask where they are from, what they do in Kuching. If the police find out that they are working here, they will be arrested before be sent back to Philippines. It’s in case they have money or someone to pay for flight tickets, else they will stay in jail for God knows how long. Blue once worked in Singapore for 4 months. She entered Singapore 3 times successfully but was rejected the 4rd time. They sent her back to Philippines for free.

I asked Blue: “Do you ever think of getting married?”

- “Yes, someday I will have to get married, to someone I love.”

- “What if this guy cheats on you with another girl?”

- “I will shoot him dead, oh yeah, both of them.”

Blue answered with a triumphant look on her face. She should have been relieved that her boyfriend’s wife didn’t do the same.

Life is not easy for some.

I must say, one hasn’t seen Malaysia yet until he visits Kuching.

Being the heart of Sarawak, the largest state of Malaysia lying in East Malaysia, Kuching is home for many indigenous groups including Ibans, Bidayuhs, Melanaus and Orang Ulu. Unlike the metropolitan Kuala Lumpur in West Malaysia, Kuching is much more quiet and much more Malaysian. It is small enough to walk around and big enough to harbor many landscapes that can fascinate any travel photographer wannabe like me.

Living in a city with the population of only 450,000, many people in Kuching cannot speak English but they are friendly and kind to foreigners. During my first week here, my friends were very kind to take me around to most beautiful spots in Kuching. Below are my 5 favorite places I have had a chance to visit in Kuching.

Waterfront

The Waterfront, now transformed into a landscaped esplanade, was an important place in the founding of Kuching. Take a leisurely stroll along the Waterfront to explore its historical buildings and admire the modern sculptures, open-air theatre and the musical fountains. While doing so, imagine the scene back in 1839, when English adventurer James Brooke first landed here and created history in Sarawak.  [Source: www.isarawak.com.my]

Sarawak Museum

Originally built in 1891 to house and display arts and crafts of the indigenous people of Borneo, the Sarawak Museum has gained a reputation for having the single most comprehensive collection of Borneon artefacts to be found anywhere. After extensive extensions, the Sarawak Museum now straddles both sides of Jalan Tun Abang Haji Openg, with both buildings connected by an overhead pedestrian bridge. The original 1891 building was designed in style of a Normandy town-house and was extended to its present structure in 1911. The new wing, just across the road, was built in the 1970s and has a reconstruction of life in the prehistoric Niah Caves.  [Source: www.isarawak.com.my]

Bau Town

Bau  is situated within Kuching Division. It is an inland district about 35 kilometres by road from Kuching. It is also known as the ‘Gold Town of Sarawak’ due to its rich gold ore deposits and gold-mining activities in the past.  However, gold mining operations in all the mines had ceased before the turn of this century as the remaining gold deposits deep underground was difficult and expensive to extract , making the operation unviable at the present market price for the gold ore. [Source: www.etawau.com]

This lake was once a gold mine. It’s the most beautiful lake I’ve ever seen. Too bad it’s not safe.

This lake is called “Tasik Biru” in Malay or simple “Blue Lake” in English. (Thanks Jong for the information)

Green field

Just 30 minutes driving from the city, you can see many green fields. The scene is peaceful. These pictures below were taken outside Batman Wall and Fairy Cave.

The beach

There are many beaches in Kuching. The most popular among locals are Damai beach and Sematan beach. Too bad when I went to Sematan, my camera battery died so I couldn’t take many pictures.