Frame and stockyard

Visit www.rainforestfringe.com

The 2nd Rainforest Fringe Festival that showcasing the beautiful and the best of Sarawak is currently held in Kuching from 6 to 15 July 2018. Last Sunday, we also acted as tourists enjoying the confounding festival around the city.

We started off our lovely Sunday with the delicious kolo mee breakfast in Kim Joo. Then we had a short walk in the quaint and quiet Ewe Hai Lane and saw this quaint frame maker shop.

Apparently some of the shops around here have a small banner hang in front of their shops, introducing the history and nature of business. We found it a good move to promote their stories to the international tourists.

A banner hanging in the front

And while we were busy reading the description on the banner, the owner of the frame maker shop came out to greet us. A friendly 88-year old uncle in white singlet who came from GuangZhou in 1945 to Kuching via Singapore. The same uncle as seen in the banner!

The old uncle could only speak Cantonese but luckily my hubby was fluent in the dialect so both had a wonderful time talking and joking. The uncle was reminiscing on the olden days when he came from China and showing off the timeless newspaper articles on his shop.

The men were cracking a joke

After bidding the uncle farewell, we went to our Sunday service. In the afternoon, we drove to Borneo 744 in Bintawa to visit the first Big Bad Wolf book sale in Kuching.

We have never been to this part of Kuching as it is an industrial area. Blessed the road signs showing the direction, otherwise we would be having a hard time finding Borneo 744.

The stock yard

Used to be a factory or warehouse in the past, now it has turned into an exhibition hall. Still, the feature of the warehouse is there. The place was so lovely with events and crowds. o longer a deserted warehouse in a nowhere land. And even more surprisingly, we found many interesting stuff, and old and vintage there.

We bought a pack from the popcorn truck

Into the warehouse

What to eat, guys?

Used to carry some goods during its day

Tin

Container cafe

Wooden window

A drawer

The stock yard as they named it, was a food court on one side of the warehouse. We hang out for few minutes at the food court, admiring the confounding decoration of the place with old, recycled stuff as well as industrial materials. Then we walked over to the other side of the stock yard where the BBW was located.

We came for this sale

Fiction novels

Posters

Children books

A part of the Rainforest Fringe Festival, the BBW was packed with mostly parents and children scouting through the books. Not a big display; just bite-sized book sale as it claimed in its advertising materials.

After grabbing few books and paid for them (luckily no long queue at the cashier at that moment), we walked around to check the other arts and culture exhibition.

Made from soda can lids

Soda can lids bra, anyone?

Arts workshop

I love this tapestry

Busy carver

Carved art

Local-made shirts and bags 

Handicrafts of bags, baskets, weaving 

We didn't spent long in Borneo 744 as the weather was very warm in the afternoon and the boys were restless after they got what they want.

After been to here and there that Sunday, we spent the rest of the day at home, hiding away from the scorching July sun. And everyone got new books to read and enjoy.

Come back

I said, I wouldn't come back here because the place was packed and the new supermarket, Everwin has opened. However I had to eat my words and did so not so long ago.

It was a weekday, the last week of the school holiday. My 12-year-old girl had her tuition in school that day so left me and Jay at home in the morning. Jay wanted kolo mee (as usual!) and he specifically requested to go to 38 Food Street. I wasn't particularly interested to go there but for my son's sake,  I had to accommodate to his request.

We reached there slightly after 11am and we managed to find a decent parking space right in front of the food court. Maybe it was a weekday, so the food court wasn't so full and we were able to find a table to have our lunch.

The last visit was when I had chicken rice and Jay had to wait so long for the kolo mee to be served then. Before that I did tasted the kolo mee and it wasn't that good and authentic.

I was more clever this round, asked the stall how long that I would need to wait for the noodle. Thankfully not long as they whipped up all the queue. So my boy had his kolo mee in quick time while I went to this char chu (stir fry stall) named Chai Shu which is next to New Satay House.

My lunch? This nest of crispy noodle! Yes, tomato crispy noodle. I was actually a bit disappointed when my noodle was served as it wasn't what I expected. Dull-looking tomato gravy unlike some that serve with more tomato (red or orangey in colour) thicken gravy but to my surprise, my noodle gravy tasted good when I tasted a sip of it.

Not too strong with tomato base but just enough flavour to dip and mix the nest of deep-fried crispy egg noodle in. I quite enjoyed the noodle except I prefer them to omit the livers in it. But it was worth the price paid (RM6.50).

I also ordered fried rice with egg (RM5.50) for Jan's lunch. Bet she enjoyed it as she finished the whole pack.

He asked for it

We had a casual Father's Day dinner after been feasting for few days with our KL friends. 

The big man wanted something simple and light like porridge and since it was his day, he chose the venue. In the end, we went to Woon Lam Cafe for dinner.

Why we went there? As far as I knew, there wasn't much at night in this coffee shop. Apparently I was wrong. My hubby used to patronize this cafe & bistro in the building next to the coffee shop and he happened to notice a new stall there one evening. Chok Kar Cheong recently opens its 4th branch in this coffee shop.

My man used to enjoy its congee in Tabuan Jaya and it has been ages since we went there for its congee.

So that evening, my man asked for his usual. Pork congee with 2 condiments, namely the salted mustard and pickled olive. He felt so contented with his dinner.

Other than porridge, they also have stir-fried and rice dishes on the menu. For my palate, I went for salted fish fried rice. It was amazingly satisfying and good.

Both Jan and I had fried rice but I went for salted fish while she had Chinese sausage version. Both of us left no grain untouched. You know how good the fried rice was.

My boys shared this big plate of fried kway teow. I tasted it, rather bland. Maybe the cook forgot to add some salt to it. Lol.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the casual Sunday dinner. Bet we would be coming back here whenever we think of good fried rice or comforting congee next time.

Half day only

Our friends were flying back on Sunday afternoon, so we were left with half day only to bring them around. We planned to venture into the city centre that morning.  Just the old part of the city covering Main Bazaar, Waterfront and across the river.

*from friend's facebook*

We brought them to Lau Ya Keng for Chinese breakfast.  One must not leave Kuching without eating our renowned Sarawak laksa. Our friends had tasted kolo mee the day before in Our favourite kolo mee shop, so now they must have Sarawak laksa and kueh chap.

Sarawak laksa RM6

Kueh chap

Kolo mee

I also couldn't resist a bowl of laksa that morning so I ordered normal size for all of us. They enjoyed the laksa so much and complimented on the broth. We even ordered another bowl of laksa broth for them. Not a single drop of broth left in their bowls!

After that we had a walk along the Carpenter Street to the temple across Lau Ya Keng then to old courthouse and waterfront.

Courthouse

Darul Hana Bridge 

We took a sampan (RM1 each) across the river. First experience for everyone but I did took it once before but back during my secondary school days.

Sampan

We had few minutes view of the river and its surrounding before we had to embark to continue our walk to the fort. Some more, we took the wrong turning at first and had to walk back to take the right village road.

But along the way, we got to see the old Malay houses.

Wooden gate

After a long and sweaty walk, we managed to reach Fort Margherita. The cooling interior of the Brooke Gallery was a welcoming for us, away from the sun. We spent almost an hour in the fort.

*from friend's Facebook*

Entrance to the gallery

Then we walked back to the jetty to catch a boat back to the other side.

Chinese History museum

We had a quick stop at the Chinese History Museum in Waterfront before we went to get some souvenirs at the Main Bazaar and headed to our car.

Our lovely friends gave us a Sarawak kek lapis and a hati parek.

I love hati parek cake, a popular Sarawak cake. Main ingredient being the raisins, this black, sticky and sweet steamed cake is something like a Christmas pudding, minus the booze.

One of the closed shops in Main Bazaar

That concluded our short holiday in Kuching with our friends. Nice to go around and become a tourist in our own home. We could never stop discovering new things and new places in the place we called home.