Kuching | Sarawak | Tourism Malaysia

Mad dogs and travel writers go out in the midday sun,” I was telling myself as I braved that fiery ball at that very hour to check out a market.

This was the Sunday Market on Satok Road. It was hot — perhaps 34 seething tropical degrees — as I trudged through the city centre, past the giant gilded mosque and along a big, wide boulevard that would get me there.

‘Cats’ frolicking by the waterfront

Here in Kuching, capital of Sarawak, things are not always as you might expect. The city’s “open market” is held indoors and the roof of a multi-tiered carpark conceals the best seafood pavilion in town.

So it was little surprise to me to be heading for a Sunday Market, on my guide’s advice, on a Saturday.

The market was as expected — big, colourful and exotic, with anything from sea turtles to durian on sale. I bustled my way around these skinny crowded corridors, my white floppy sun-hat, which I used to mop my brow, could absorb no more. Neither could I.

A tambang drifting down Sungai Sarawak.

I had been told about the city’s waterfront development.

“It was a joint venture between the Federal and State Governments and two Municipal Councils,” my guide had informed.

Hoping that proximity to water might help to cool my brow, I headed for the river.

Arriving, I found immediate relief in a waterside gazebo. Joining other wayside stoppers here, I could refresh myself with a long cool drink and watch the colourful tambang (sampan ferries) cross the stream. There was even a hint of an upriver breeze. My energy returned.

A promenade runs along a 900m stretch of the river’s southern bank. It is lined on the land side with neat cultivated gardens interspersed with bright and modern public facilities — kiosks, pavilions, shaded seating and the like. I took a stroll. Others were doing same — couples, families and teenagers in all their latest trendy garb.

Tua Pek Kong temple in Kuching

Greetings were exchanged. An eager throng of schoolboys arranged themselves in front of my camera, and there were screams of delight as the shutter was released.

The east end of the walkway is blocked off by a clutch of new hotels — the Hilton, the Holiday Inn, the Riverside Majestic — their gleaming newness matching most of what you see along the river. Yet not all is new.

At the promenade’s west end is the “Square Tower”. Built in 1879, it replaced a wooden fort that was burnt down in a miners’ rebellion. It now houses a multimedia information centre. There is also the elegant old Chinese History Museum, and on Jalan Bazaar, Sarawak’s oldest Chinese temple, Tua Pek Kong. Built in 1843, it is the present-day site for the annual Wang Kang Festival that commemorates the dead.

For Kuching’s most celebrated edifice, though, you look to the river’s northern bank. Here is Fort Margherita. Seeing this splendid white castle, its battlements mirrored in the Sarawak river, gets you curious about the man who put it there. The story smacks of “Boys Own” adventure and romance.

In 1839, James Brooke, an English wayfarer of means, sailed into Kuching in his heavily fortified schooner, The Royalist. Ingratiating himself with the Sultan of Brunei, he combined superior weaponry with slick diplomacy to put down what for the Sultan was a worrisome tribal rebellion.

In gratitude, Brooke was installed as the Rajah of Sarawak, a post he and his descendants held for the next hundred years. His successor was nephew, Charles. It was he who built the fort, which he named, after his second wife, Ranee Margaret. It was designed to secure Kuching’s river approaches from pirates and from any other threat to the city and the Brookes.

The waterfront — TOM COCKREM

With the fort on one side of the river, me on the other, and those curious little tambang abroad, there was but one thing to do. The river taxi ride was an experience in its own. Standing on the bow, the ferryman managed somehow to wield two long punts to manoeuvre the boat to and away from the jetty. This done, the outboard took over and you‘re motored across. Passengers were expected to throw the exact fare — 10 sen — on the deck as they disembarked.

Fort Margherita is now a Police Museum. It displays lots of military paraphernalia, old uniforms and such. You can also wander up and around the winding staircases. Doors lead into the officers’ quarters, out to the battlements and up to the topmost turret.

From here, Kuching’s riverside setting is thrown into handsome new perspective. Directly below are the lush rambling gardens of the fort. The city squats snugly on the river’s edge. Defining the foreground is the leafy promenade, old Chinese shophouses cram the middle distance and a generous spattering of skyscrapers — more reminders of Kuching’s opulence — punctuate the skyline at the rear.

Further, pleasant discoveries awaited back on the southern bank. One of the pavilions was an open-sided theatre, where free concerts are held. I was fortunate to catch a traditional Islamic Gong Dance, followed by a youth orchestra belting out the hits of . . . well, not quite today.

There is also an excellent handicraft centre — a great place to buy blowpipes, head-hunter swords and beaded jewellery from the Iban or Bidayuh tribes who live upstream.

Back along the promenade, you appreciate more the scope of the development. To think that previously this entire south bank hosted derelict warehouses, was subject to flooding, and was virtually an unmanageable bog. Even more impressive is the up-keep of the area.

Completed in 1993, there is not a trace of graffiti, no breakage or signs of neglect. The gardens are impeccable. All along are big shady flame trees (“Flame of the Forest”, they are called here), red-stemmed “majestic palms”, morning glory and rhododendrons. Signs exhort care and consideration — “Littering spoils the waterfront”, “Your care will ensure a beautiful waterfront”, “Plants need to grow. Please don’t step on them”.

Clearly, these messages are heeded. The people of Kuching are respectful of their idyllic river rendezvous. It’s a blessing for all us heat-weary travellers that they are.

Article is sourced from www.thestar.com.my and story is written by TOM COCKREM

Location, Driving Direction and Map to Kuching, Sarawak.