We left Kota Kinabalu and the state of Sabah this morning and an hour and a half later, we have now arrived in Kuching, the capital and most populous city in the state of Sarawak. 

Even though we are traveling from one state to another within Malaysia, we had to clear customs again. Apparently, peninsular Malaysia is run by a federal government which is different than the state governments in both Sabah and Sarawak. We get the feeling that all the parts of the country don’t get along as well as they could.

Kuching is said to be one of the cleanest cities in Asia.  The city has an uncanny affiliation with cats; the name phonetically resembles the Malay word for cat – Kucing.  There are tons of cat statues all over town.  Our new guide, Mashor, showed us a few of the huge cat statues on the way to our hotel.  The cat family sits in a roundabout on one of the main streets by the river.  Locals often dress them up for city holidays! 

Then we checked into our hotel, the Ranee Boutique Suites, rebuilt from two traditional 19^th C shophouses.   

A Ranee is the wife of a Rajah; the White Rajahs were a dynastic monarchy of the British Brooke family who founded and ruled the Raj or Kingdom of Sarawak from 1841-1946, when the last Rajah bowed to government pressure and ceded his rights over Sarawak to the British Crown.  

The five suites in the hotel are named for Margaret de Windt, the first Ranee of Sarawak, her daughter-in-law and three of her granddaughters.  Our room is Sylvia for the daughter-in-law of the Ranee and has a view of the Sarawak River.

Across the river is the Sarawak State legislative building. 

The Darul Hana Bridge is pedestrian bridge over the Sarawak River, sort of S shaped with a funky cloverleaf at the south end. 

We have some free time this afternoon, so we wandered around the Kuching waterfront area. 

The white tower was once part of the city’s defenses built in 1879 to guard the town from raiders.  The building started as a guard post, served time as a prison, and now might be turned into a restaurant! 

There are lots of murals and street art in this part of the city.  Some fun ones use doorways, windows and power wires to add to them.

We wandered down India Street, the place to buy clothing and fabrics in Kuching.

At a small kiosk across the street from our hotel we indulged in three tea Ice Cream, soft serve made from Teh C, sweetened condensed milk tea.

Dinner was at an Asian fusion restaurant called Bla Bla Bla. We tried Midin, rainforest fern salad, that we have been told is only found in Sarawak. 

Also on the menu was pepper beef, chicken in pandan leaves and Singapore style vermicelli noodle stir fry. Some local Sarawak rice wine, Tuak, rounded off the meal. Yum.

After dinner we wandered back down to the Sarawak river to watch the Darul Hana musical fountain.  The legislature building and the bridge light up at night. 

Tomorrow we start several days of touring around the Kuching area.