Kuching on a nice and sunny day

There is somewhere public where you can catch amazing views of Kuching city. No, not Civic Centre, although that’s quite nice too. It’s the 9^th floor of the Medan Pelita, which is where Star Cineplex is. *CoughAgainIncludingNamesToGetMoreGoogleHitsCough* And yesterday, after watching Shrek 3 with my brother and sister, we wandered around while waiting for transport and found ourselves enjoying the scenery while people-watching, or in my brother’s case, car-watching from the 9^th floor.

From one side, you can see the “Golden Triangle” of Kuching, where the hotels and shopping plazas are with the beautiful greenery adding a soft touch to the “concrete jungle”. Here you can see the tallest building in Kuching, which if I’m not mistaken is Gateway, with that huge red OCBC Bank ad at its top.

Then another side, you could see the river, the old Main Bazaar shops and across the river, the Dewan Undangan Negeri building construction site, which looks huge. The building itself is next to the old Fort Magherita, a fort built during the English colonial era and which was later turned into the Police Museum. And a little further on it’s other side is the Astana, where the Governor of the state resides. Ah, what a contrast between old and new. All these buildings are along the Sarawak River, and opposite them is the Waterfront, very green, very nice looking from the top actually.

And if you move to the other side of the Medan Pelita building, you can see another different view. On a clear, sunny day like yesterday, you can see Matang Mountain in the far distance. Off to the left is the Merdeka Palace Hotel. And in front of you, you can see the old Bishop House (or is it Guesthouse?) surrounded by beautiful greenery and situated in the same grounds as the St Thomas Church. Next to that is actually a Chinese temple, not included in photo. In fact, if you look closely in this photo, you can even spot the golden domes of the mosque in the old town side of Kuching. See.. one photo in Kuching can supposedly capture places of worship of three different religions. But, that wasn’t my aim at that time, so hence I only have this to make do with.

So, this is Kuching for you, a mix of old and new, a place still grounded in rich history and culture yet forward looking, my hometown. Who wants to come over to Kuching for a visit? Rainforest World Music Festival is on from the 13^th to 15^th July, very good reason to come over. Haha. Somehow this has turned into a tourism promo…