Monday, November 13, 2023

Brompton Sarawak Tribal Ride 2023 Day 3 : Official Kuching City Ride

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Brompton Sarawak Tribal Ride 2023
Day 3 : Official Kuching City Ride
Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia Day 3: Sunday, 17th Septemper 2023
Distance: 28 km.              |               Level: Medium
Time: 8:00am to 11:30pm            
Time Taken: 3hrs 30mins (including stops at check-points, regrouping & rest, start & end gathering at Kuching Waterfront, and lots of photo opps).

This is page 1 of a 3-page blog, Click Here To Go To Title Page.
<D2: Singai Rustic Ride        |        Go to Other Days            |            Bikes On Planes>

Route Recommendations, here're some tips on cycling in Kuching, Sarawak:
1. Getting to Kuching.
    Kuching, the capital city of Sarawak, is served by several airlines, with direct flights from major cities in Peninsular Malaysia & East Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Jakarta. Click here for to book flights to Kuching via Sky Scanner or Expedia.

2. Route & Traffic Conditions  
    The ride route goes around Kuching City and its outskirts, with visits to several of the city's places of interests and crossing the Sarawak River twice (first at Datuk Patinggi Haji Abdul Rahman Bridge & second at Darul Hana Bridge). The route is fairly flat (except for the climb up to the Kuching North City Hall Building) with mixed shaded and unshaded sections.

3. Weather
    For Sarawak in September, the weather will be moderate. The average air temperature ranges from 31°C (88 °F) during the day to 22°C (72 °F) at night. September is the wet season month in Sarawak, which means that there could be frequent rains.
    A useful weather forecast site is AccuWeather. For more detailed weather, including cloud cover and wind speed, use Weatherspark and Ventusky.

4. Places of Interest
    En route were several places of interests, some of which we visited and others we did not for lack of time (Note: click on GPS coordinates for directional map to respective places):
    - Cat Statue Padungan (GPS: 1.55348, 110.35878).
    - Kuching Waterfront (GPS: 1.55863, 110.35288).
    - Tua Pek Kong Temple (FB link) (GPS: 1.55719, 110.34898).
    - Sarawak Museum (GPS: 1.55477, 110.34348).
    - Kuching Civic Centre (GPS: 1.54776, 110.34384).
    - Satok Suspension Bridge (FaceBook Link) (GPS: 1.55513, 110.3239) spanning across the Sarawak River.
    - Kuching North City Hall Building (GPS: 1.58678, 110.33417).
    - Cat Musuem (GPS: 1.58634, 110.33402).
    - Sarawak State Library (GPS: 1.58342, 110.34991).
    - New Sarawak State Legislative Assembly Building (GPS: 1.56937, 110.35005).
    - Sarawak Flagpole (GPS: 1.56027, 110.3486), tallest flag-pole in South-east Asia.
    - Fort Margherita (GPS: 1.56055, 110.34944).
    - Darul Hana Bridge (GPS: 1.56120, 110.34593) spanning across the Sarawak River.
    - Kuching South City Hall (GPS: 1.54880, 110.36390), with it's unique architecture.
    - Borneo Tribal Village (GPS: 1.48624, 110.1327) at Kampung Apar, Bau.
    - Carpenter Street (GPS: 1.55826, 110.34568).
    - Malaysia-China Friendship Park (GPS: 1.51599, 110.36505).
     
5. Food
    Breakfast: Kolo Mee at Choon Hui Cafe (GPS: 1.55273, 110.35431).
    Lunch: Sarawak Laksa with large prawns at 126 Laksa (GPS: 1.55807, 110.35516).
    Dessert: Event ice-cream at Sam's Ice Cream (GPS: 1.55767, 110.35367).
    Tea: Belacan Bihun, Sarawak Laksa (Malay style), Rojak Buah, Kankung cuttle fish, Ice-kacang at Lock Ann Ais Kacang (GPS: 1.57415, 110.29584).
    Dinner: Sarawak Laksa with oysters & Kueh Chap at Padungan Kueh Chap (GPS: 1.55596, 110.35561).

6. Accommodations
    Kuching offers a range of hotels, hotel-suites from affordable to 5-starred, with prices ranging from MYR100 per pax per night onwards. Three of us stayed at a 3-bedroom suite at the newer wing of the Merdeka Palace Hotel (GPS: 1.55627, 110.34400), at about MYR103 per pax per night.

7. Communicating with Each Other
    When travelling in a group it's important to be able to communicate with each other, especially if one got lost.
    Pre-paid Malaysin SIM cards can be obtained at most airport or from any mobile phone shop. Click here for a guide to buying Malaysian Sim Cards.

8. Communicating with Locals
    Bahasa Malaysia is the official language of Malaysia, it will be good to know some basic Bahasa Malaysia for daily conversation. Most older Malaysians speaks quite fluent English, while many of the younger ones have a good grasp of English. Many Chinese Sarawakian speaks Mandarin or Hokkien or Teochew.
    Look out for the tourist information booths at airports, railway stations or bus stations, the guides manning the booths speak very good English and do give good tips on where to visit, directions, train and bus schedule.

9. Navigation
     At the towns and cities, we used Google Maps to navigate to various places of interests. Do note that Google Maps does not work in Cycling Mode in Malaysia, so use Walking Mode but do be aware that sometimes recommended routes are against traffic.

10. Service Your Bicycles & Carry Tools and Spares
      Before leaving on your tour, it will be good to service your bike and bring along some spares like tubes, puncture patches, brake pads and the relevant tools.
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PRELUDE
The day before buses had ferried us to Redeem Centre at Bau for a challenging yet interesting ride around the he foothills of Mount Singai. Today, we ride a tamer route around Kuching City and to it's outskirts to visits several places of interest.
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The ride route goes around Kuching City and its outskirts, with visits to several of the city's places of interests and crossing the Sarawak River twice (first at Datuk Patinggi Haji Abdul Rahman Bridge & second at Darul Hana Bridge). The route is fairly flat (except for the climb up to the Kuching North City Hall Building) with mixed shaded and unshaded sections.
Distance: 28 km.              |               Level: Medium
(Click here for Singai Rustic Cycling Ride Route Map)

7:00am- All participants gathered at the start point, Kuching Waterfront. There were a lot of mingling around - chatting, joking and of course B-bicycle talk too. Group photos were taken of the participants from different countries and states. Above is a combo of the group from two islands - Penang & Singapore.

There were lots of other fun too, with good music and a few professional dance leading us, we all dance joyfully in tandem.

And more camaraderie with new friends .... emulating a Haka dance! 

And admiring bicycles accessories like this orang ulu basket - very appropriate for the event Tribal theme.

Leonard taking his "best" friend along for the ride.

8:00am - Rolling off.....
The official camera man and his trusty assistant goes ahead first, ready to film us in action!
(Better put on our best.... mesti ada gaya! [local lingo for "must have style" 😆)

Followed by the participants, all smiling and eager to see what the route holds.

1. A father and his child in a Brompton fitted with a child seat adapter.
2. Leonard with his "child" sitting in a Large Brompton Basket Bag.

First off, a ride into Kuching old town, passing by the Pandungan Cat Statue and the Padungan Arch.

Riding through the old town at Pandungann, the streets are shady with rain trees. Some sections of the street had heavy traffic, but drivers politely let us through while an orang utan mural looked on.

8:15am - the first checkpoint, the Kuching Civic Centre, is in sight. Here we stop for the first regroup. This place also houses the Sultan Iskandar Planetarium.

8:45am - At Jalan Satok; it's getting hot. This local buddy of ours, anticipated the heat and had one of those small umbrella attached to his helmet.

At the Datuk Patinggi Haji Abdul Rahman Bridge (GPS: 1.55502, 110.32510), first crossing over the Sarawak River. To our left is the Satok Suspension Bridge which we rode on during the Kuching Night Ride, a couple of nights ago.

8:50am - At the second checkpoint, the Petrajaya Shell station (GPS: 1.56668, 110.32104).
Larry and a new friend taking the opportunity to compare notes on their bicycles.

9:15am - Just after the Jalan Semeriang Round-about, I saw a large crowd of the cyclist at the junction of Jalan DBKU, the road leading up to our 3rd checkpoint - the Kuching North City Hall Building. It's quite a steep climb, understandably many decided not to tax their riding legs. Above photo shows a montage of this building.

Housed with this administration building is the Cat Musuem, the first of its kind in the world.
good bird's eye view of Kuching.
Short of time, we didn't visit the museum, but still it was a worthwhile climb up as along the way and at the top were good Bird-eye's Views of Kuching. 

On the way down, sight of a large mural of a cat at the side of the Petrajaya Giant Hypermarket. There are many statues, murals referencing cats in the city, as Kuching in Bahasa Malaysia means cat. Officially the city is named after cats, but there are many versions how the city got its name, we will come to that later.

9:40am - Fourth check point; the Sarawak State Library. We didn't go into the library grounds but stopped at a lay-by of the main road called the Pustaka Jogging Area (GPS: 1.57988, 110.34925), which has a good view of the library across the Tasik Pustaka lake.

From that lay-by (and perhaps even before that) there were jogging path/cycling lanes leading all the way to the Jalan Pustaka junction near the Wisma Sumber Alam. From that junction the lanes swung away from the main road and led back to the library, running along the lakeside. A few of us took to riding a short stretch along this lanes.

Ahead was a good shady stretch along Jalan Casuarina - so named because there were tall casuarina trees along this road. We rode the round-about ahead where we made a U-turn back to ride pass the Sarawak State Stadium.

Forty-five minutes later, riding up a gentle slope leading up to the Old Sarawak State Legislative Assembly. The concrete sunshades of this building reminded me of similar ones at the Malaysian Parliament Building in Kuala Lumpur.
After this it was a short stretch in the Sarawak Botanical Gardens, which led us the .....

..... entrance of the New Sarawak State Legislative Assembly Building. Next to it is the Sarawak Flagpole, the tallest flagpole in South-east Asia. At 99 metres tall, today the 25m X 12.5m Sarawak Flag at the top was fluttering proudly.

We cross the Darul Hana Bridge again, it looked as majestic during the day as when we cycled over it during the Kuching City Night Ride two days ago. Today's sunny day with nice puffy clouds against a bright blue sky made it all the better.

From the bridge we see the contrasting skyline of the Kuching: to the south-eat were the State Legislative Assembly Building & tall hotels. While to the north-west were serene village houses of the kampungs.

Just almost at the end of the ride, I saw my fellow riders sitting at the steps of the Sarawak Plaza shopping mall, all of them were smiling happily; wonder what brought this about!

Their smiles were brought about by yummy ice-cream sponsored by Sam's Ice Cream.
Interestingly, these were packed in cups bearing the Brompton folding bicycle logo - so there you have it; it's Brompton Ice-cream!
From here we rode back to the start point to collect our finishing medals.... Hurrah!

The organising team, ride leaders, marshals & sweepers.
Many thanks again to Bromtpon Sarawak & W.G. Cycle for a splendid organising of a smooth ride.
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POST RIDE


After collecting our medals, a few of us rode to the nearby 126 Laksa Restaurant for the best Sarawak Laksa served with very large prawns.

Afternoon tea-time at Lock Ann Ais Kacang: we had Sarawak Laksa (Malay style), Kankung cuttle fish, Rojak Buah, Ice-kacang and Belacan Bihun.... er.... the beehoon unique taste and strong aroma is an acquired taste.

Evening outing & meals: enchanting night view of the Padungan Arch.

Dinner At Padungan Kueh Chap, dinner of Kueh Chap and .... 

.... Sarawak Laksa with oysters. All the dishes were served with young coriander/cilantro sprouts (Wan Swee in Hokkien).

The following morning we went shopping around town for Sarawak's favourite products.
Visited the Saras Spice shop to buy the best pepper in the world, ie Sarawak Pepper.
We also pop into the Dayang Salhah Kek Lapis shop in Kg. Gersik to get another favourite - Sarawak Layered Cake!

Okay, let's get back to how Kuching got it's name. Several sources cite the name origin, most having to do with cats (kuching in Malay) or even after longans called "Mata Kuching" in Malay. But the most interesting one is perhaps it's called after old wells, in Mandarin old well is called Koo Ching. A mural in town shows this.
Whichever the case is, most importantly is that we enjoyed our cycling in the city and it's outskirts!

Above is a YouTube video of our Day 3 ride around Kuching (credits: Reel FX Studio)

Click here for a Face Book Reel of our the official Brompton Sarawak Kuching Ride.
(Click Speaker Icon to unmute!)
(For more photos of Day 3 Ride, Click Here)
This is page 1 of a 3-page blog, Click Here To Go To Title Page.
<D2: Singai Rustic Ride        |        Go to Other Days            |            Bikes On Planes>
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