Cruising by the Sarawak River

The Sarawak river cruise boat is parked at the pontoon by the Kuching waterfront area. The late afternoon sun casts its silver rays on the still waters of the Sarawak river and against the backdrop of hotels and apartment buildings that line up the waterfront area.

Some foreign and local tourists are aboard on the top deck of the cruise boat admiring the scenery. The cruise boat operator charges RM 48 per pax for a two hours journey along the river to see the sunset, river scenery,food and drinks and music and dance performances on the boat.
Tourists by the bus loads line up to board the cruise boat in the late afternoon sun i.e. around 5.00 pm.

Gambier Street sellers

Walking through the shopping area at Gambier Street (Kuching city), I noticed the shopkeepers have no qualsms about displaying their wares right to the very edge of the '5 foot way' here called 'kaki lima'.

A unique way of displaying and storing her goods. Never knew that a wheelbarrow can be used to sell canned or bottled drinks. In this case it would be easy for her to move places .

The Astana by the Sarawak River

I went to downtown Kuching city today to do a bit of shopping. On the opposite side of the shopping area stood this rustic view of the Astana which is home to the present Governor of Sarawak. Back in the colonial days it was the residence of the Brooke's family who became the 'White Rajah ' of Sarawak for more than a hundred years. The beauty of Sarawak River is its stillness which is occassionally disturbed by the small boats that ply the river or the colourful small ferry boats called 'perahu tambang' that transport residents or visitors across the river at a token price of 40 cents per one way trip.

Selling on Kuching sidewalks

The King of Fruits, the durian is back in town.  Here at Mile 7 town ( formerly) and now renamed Kota Sentosa a trader pitch up camp temporarily by the sidewalk to sell his collection of durians. People gather quickly to check out the quality of the fruits, where they come from, the price obviously and perhaps to try their skill in selecting the best fruits to buy. In the case of the durian you cannot tell the book by its cover. They may look pretty outside but once opened  may reveal flesh that are unripe, stale, bitter or plain rotten. Ah, and that's why you just have to trust your skill.

A little distance from the durian's crowd I saw this assortment of artificial flowers made from plastic that overflowed from the shop into the sidewalks.  Mile 7 town is about 7 miles from Kuching city and even though considered small I find the business activity here very buzzling due the presence of five army camps that are spaced out from Mile 6 to Mile 11.  Mile 7 becomes the center of shopping for the army personnels and their family members. The army camps are the main economic generators for the Mile 7 township.

4 C's shopping at Satok night market.

The Sunday market at Satok,Kuching city starts regularly on Saturday afternoon and will end the following Sunday afternoon to make way for street sweepers and cleaners  clean up the place come Monday.

On any office days ( Mon - Fri ) the place will resume to become paid car parking areas.

I visited the Satok Sunday market area Saturday night and found the place buzzling with night shoppers who prefer to go out after their day's work and  the temperatures much cooler. The choices of fruits, vegetables,meat, fish, textiles, magazines, handicrafts, cooked food, etc here are a plenty.

The recently popular 'dragon fruit ' which is a kind of cacti are seen in the foreground. A kilo of these red-fleshed fruits can fetch RM 8 - 12 a kilo depending on size and quality.

Orchids in various forms and sizes are displayed. They can either be local varieties or imported ones.

Bargaining is the accepted behaviour here. If you don't bargain the extra profits goes to the trader.  Drive a hard bargain and you'll be pleasantly surprised at how cheap things can be at the Satok Sunday market.  To recap, I find that people shop at the Satok night market for the four C's. Convenience, Choices, Cheap and Cool.