People are surprised when we say we're going to spend nearly three weeks in Kuching. Tourists spend a couple of days here, and then move off to the abundant natural attractions of Sarawak. But we're not tourists. For us work rules still apply, and our explorations are limited to evenings, meal-breaks, and weekends.

But Kuching is a truly lovely place to work, and its compact nature means you can enjoy a lot in a small space of time.

Here are this week's highlights (the introductory day-and-a-bit are here).

1. Walking. This is such a picturesque city. As well as pounding the historic streets, we've also made brief visits to the Textile Museum and the Chinese History Museum. And walking in Kuching involves meeting lots of cats, of course... If you want variety, you can take the little ferry across the river, and walk the kampongs on the northern bank.

































2. Eating. Our hotel is near Padungan Road. This is a treasure trove of simple little eateries, purveyors of cured meats or herbal teas or pepper products, and bake-shops that are chock-a-block with every known rendering of the Chinese bean-filled-pastry. But it's not a twee and cutesy tourist street. Interspersed with these establishments are motor parts shops and laundries. The city is full of such enclaves. We're going to run out of time well before we've tried more than a fraction. The bottom line is that we've had some fabulous (and fabulously cheap) food this week. Standouts have to include various versions of kolo mee, chicken and mushroom noodles, and some excellent nasi campur selections. For something a little more upmarket, enhanced by lovely river views and pleasant breezes, we tried the James Brooke Bistro and Cafe. I was impressed by my laksa in sweet potato gravy, and found the price reasonable given the ambiance and setting.





3. Drinking (and slurping desserts). We tried some great Sarawak coffee at Black Bean Coffee. But the Bing! is closer, and will probably become our lounge of choice, taking over from Seattle's Best Coffee in Quezon City and the Ma Bookshop in Haikou. Close to our hotel is DP Ice Cream Gula Apong. I've long been a fan of gula Melaka/Jawa/merah, but I completely hadn't realized that it is a product of the coconut tree... (And what we know as palm sugar can refer either to this type of substance or to sugar from the Palmyra palm.) What you get here in Sarawak, on the other hand, is gula apong, which is sugar derived from the nipah palm. Ice cream drenched in gula apong and sprinkled with peanuts is a very, very fine thing. And this is also what you get in your teh C peng special, which is Kuching's version of three-layer tea. Kuching's signature "white lady" is not quite a halo-halo, but still pretty good. Our version involved ice, pink sago pearls, lychees, pineapple, and sweet corn.





4. Taking a sunset cruise on the big old Sarawak River. It's nice that they supply kek lapis (which we'd consumed before the boat even moved) and bring along dancers from various ethnic groups (whom you get to watch on the way back). But the heart of the experience is thrum-thrumming your way around a couple of huge S-bends, as you watch the landmarks slowly slide across the countryside and the sun slowly slide down the sky. As we headed for home, spectacular sunset colours flooded the firmament, and the maghrib call to prayer rang out across the waters. It was as though all was good with the world.









5. Celebrating. Chap Goh Meh reached over into Saturday, and the Merdeka Plaza was still hosting lions, and overseeing the replacement of the perky chicken by the boisterous puppy dog. On Sunday, joining the service at St Thomas's Cathedral was part of my own personal celebration (discreet veil). But Sunday was also the day allocated to Sarawak for marking Pongal. So after church we joined the auspicious pot-boiling for a while.









Nothing to do with Kuching per se, but we also dropped into our local cinema to check out Black Panther. I was inclined to be a little sniffy, but as an Africaphile I've been sobered by the wave of reaction and discussion it has evoked around the world. I'm starting to think it's a question of no-black-skin-no-right-to-comment. So I won't.