Gleiches Land - neuer Stempel^^ (Day 132 of the world trip)

14.01.2020

At around 2:50 am, I woke up because I heard a noise. At first, I thought it was just my imagination. Then I thought it might be coming from the next room. There is a young woman with a baby staying there, and the baby naturally wakes up at night.

But then I heard a clear rustling sound coming from somewhere near our trash can in the room :O So I was wide awake. Whatever animal it was, I wanted to see it :p

I turned on my flashlight and shone it in the direction of the trash can. At first, nothing happened, but then I saw a dark something scurrying under our bed.

That's when I was definitely wide awake :D :D I went to the bathroom for a moment, and when I came back, Jonas was also awake and couldn't fall back asleep. I lied down, but after a few seconds, the rustling started again. This time, both Jonas and I sat up and saw a little mouse!!!

Now, mice are not particularly terrifying, but somehow I couldn't relax. Jonas was clever enough to put the trash can ON the table instead of under the table, so the mouse couldn't reach it anymore. That worked!

The mouse didn't ruffle the garbage bag anymore, but when I heard it tiptoeing, I looked again and only saw it running under the door crack into the hallway^^

Instead of sleeping for the last hour until 4:30 am, I was uneasy because now I knew that the mouse could come in and out at any time :D :D Jonas and I stayed in the dark but couldn't fall asleep, which of course made me feel sorry for him ;-)

Well. Suddenly at 4:40 am, there was a knock on the hostel's front door, and tada! Our grab driver was already there! :O He was not only punctual but even early. Not bad ;-)

We quickly packed everything and had a little chat with him on the way to the airport <3

He had been to Kuching himself just two weeks ago and gave us some tips :) Also, Jonas asked how it comes that Malaysians speak English so well. Our driver explained that it is probably because there are many Indians, Chinese, and "original" Malays living here, so English developed as a common language for communication. That sounded quite reasonable ;-)

Arriving at the airport, we checked our luggage, had a small breakfast from our supplies, and leisurely walked to our gate :)

Since we were both quite tired and Jonas didn't want to deal with his cold during a flight, we spent the flight dozing off and sleeping, and after two hours, we landed on the island of Borneo, specifically in Kuching <33

Since the state here is its own administrative district, there was even a new stamp in our passports!! :D

The first impression was quite positive. It's green and "jungle-like," but the city itself is also really pretty and reminds me a little bit of the streets in Great Britain^^

Using the airport WiFi, I booked a grab taxi that took us to the city center and our hostel for less than €3. Grab is just great here in Asia!!!

Our hostel is called "Noisy Room," and apparently, the name is often quite fitting. But when we arrived in the morning at 10:00 am, everything was quiet, and we were greeted by a sleepy man.

Our room is small. There's a double bed and just enough space to put all four backpacks. It's not possible to lie down or place anything. There's also no expected private bathroom. Instead, there's a not particularly clean shared bathroom, but well. It's cheap and sufficient for us since we don't plan on spending much time in the room ;-) :D

A bit tired and disappointed by the dingy room, we then planned what we wanted to do today. The main reason why we're in Borneo is for the national parks, but even though it was still morning, we didn't want to visit one yet.

Instead, we decided to explore the city itself on foot, and I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised!

The tourist brochure lists 25 points of interest, and we visited some of them, most of which are really magnificent and worth seeing!

Typical for Malaysia in general, there are Chinese temples, mosques, and also churches here. Some of these Christian institutions also operate schools here, which we passed by, and yeah.

There's a river flowing through Kuching, and there's a really nice promenade called the "Riverfront." Interesting about the area is that it wasn't ruled by another nation during the colonial era but by a family.

A wealthy British man who grew up in India arrived here by ship and worked with the Sultan of Brunei, who eventually helped him become the first white ruler here. This Mr. Cook and his family ruled the region for almost a whole century.

For this reason, there are several colonial-style buildings here, some of which were built as "wedding gifts"^^

The mosques in the city are also really beautiful, and some are quite modern. One of them is currently being built as a floating mosque and isn't even marked on the tourist brochure yet :p

You can cross the river either by boat or via a complicated bridge. We're saving the other side of the river for a "do nothing day" if we have one here^^

After our walking tour, we ended up at a mall - what else to do? :D :D

It's located between two mosques, and when I entered, I was noticeably the only woman without a headscarf and wearing shorts :O The shops in the mall mainly offer Muslim fashion, especially headscarves. Jonas was hungry, and we actually just wanted to go to the food court, but when we arrived, we found only closed shutters and a construction site :(

So we went back to the first mall we saw here today. On the way there, we passed by a huge building decorated with a lot of gold, but we still don't know exactly what it is. It's very big, but it seemed like no one was there :D :D

Between the building and our chosen mall, there's a green area with a huge, super beautiful tree <33 We took some photos there and finally went into the mall to find something to eat ;-)

The Parkston Mall is quite modern, and in addition to fast food restaurants, there was also a real food court on the third floor - unfortunately, this time, unlike in Kuala Lumpur, without a purely vegetarian option^^

We took a walk around and finally decided on a kind of "buffet." Two of the dishes were supposedly vegetarian, so we tried those with rice. Jonas loved it with his soy sauce, mine was just rice and a little salad :p :D :D

Therefore, we treated ourselves to a vanilla ice cream as dessert, which can be decorated with an extra topping for a few cents. Jonas chose cornflakes, and I had oatmeal, and wow! It was so delicious!! <333

Before we went back to the hostel, we checked out the basement because from our experience, there are often supermarkets located there, and... that was the case!!!

Before that, we went to a pharmacy for blister plasters, but they didn't have any. The consultant sent us to another store, and that's where Jonas finally found them!! :)

While shopping, we went all out^^ Tomorrow, we're going to Bako National Park, where we'll also be staying overnight, and to save some money, we want to bring a lot of supplies with us ;-)

Back at the hostel, we started preparing our bags (especially mosquito repellent!! :O ), and listened to the first rain shower here, because it's currently rainy season^^

We're excited about our trip, which this time we'll be doing without a tour guide, and I'm already looking forward to what we'll see tomorrow - whether it will be "only" plants or also some special animals: we'll see :)