Journey to Kuching through Brunei
Trip Start
Jun 15, 2008
1
67
102
Trip End
Jun 14, 2009
Kuching,
Sarawak,
Malaysia
Saturday, December 27, 2008
We took the early 3 hour ferry from KK to Lebuan, at tax free island owned by malaysia and from there took a 1 hour ferry to Brunei. We met a woman from New Zealand on the ferry who was living in Brunei with her Husband and some children . She was on a beer run to lebuan as you can't buy alcohol in Brunei - at all! She gave us a lift from the ferry terminal to the capital for free which was really nice.
We walked to the Sultans Mosque and saw the floating villages, then went for a coffee before going to the airport. The Brunei airport was the most relaxed and un populated airport we've ever been to and it wasn't long until we were in the air and enroute to Kuching.
We took a taxi from the airport to the hostel. we had aprehension about our choice of hostel as another hostel in the book was apparently popular with westerners and this was where we were going to spend Christmas, But as soon as we got here we knew we made the right decision. The two guys who own the place Lido and Jabet who are brothers are so cool. They made us so welcome right from the start. For example the next morning as we were eating our free pancake breakfast the were jamming on their guitars for our benefit and played some Credance Clearwater revival - it was class
23rd Dec
We chilled out in the morning before putting our christmas plan into action. We booked ourselves in for Xmas dinner in the Hilton Kuching for 7pm on xmas day, we then went shopping for the essentials - Cadburys roses, Ferrero rocher, christmas pudding, and some tiger and then sought out santa hats
24th Dec
After walking around and finding the catholic cathedral for going to midnight mass later we found ourselves walking through shoppping centres listening to christmas music. Later we returned to the hostel where the guys had a few christmas dvds ready to watch for us. That evening we thought we would go for a nce meal in a posh restaurant but to our surprise the first 2 restaurants we went to were both full so we ended up in a nice one and had turkey and stuffing and it was lovely.
Thinking there would be only a small turn out at mass we headed down by taxi with approx half an hour to spare, when we got within a kilo,etre of the cathedral alarm bells started going off in my head, there was double and triple parking on the dual carriageway which had been reduced to one lane. There were thousands of people present, we managed to work our way to the entrnce doors but there was no way in it was soo full. The choir were amazing. We were the only people in the congregation with blonde hair! Peoplecame up to us during and after the mass to wish us happy christmas - it was really nice.
25th Dec
After our breakfast we donned our santa hats and headed out for a walk around the city, practically we walked past said merry christmas or made a nice comment about our hats either way we were all smiling so we did our bit to bring christmas cheer! The back to the hotel to feast on the chocolates watch xmas movies and ring home.
Later we went to the Hilton for the buffet christmas dinner - it was heavenly and after abot 7 or 8 courses we were stuffed. There ws a band roaming around from table to table singing xmas carols and elvis songs - strange combo but it worked!
26th Dec
After a lte start we took a tour to the Orang Utan centre about an hour outside Kuching where we say actual Orang Utans this time. they really are quite clever and move similar to humans
27th 28th
Enjoyed our last
Comments
Merry New Year
Merry New Year lovers...hope you're celebrating in style there in Hong Kong. Blog is fantastic-keep up the good work. Nic xxx