The last day in Kuching...

14 June 2008



Our last day in Kuching and the time we had to depart for singapore.
Everything was in a rush. The souvenirs matter had to be dealt with...and we wanted to have one last walk around the area. 2 weeks passed by that fast.

This is what i had every morning. Toast, jam, tea and orange juice. O hyeah, not to forget, honeydew!

This was the wall where we could leave our marks . Unfortunately, i forgot due to lack of time. But...cool huh!




It was 4 people to a taxi to reach the Kuching airport. Cant believe our Kuching adventure ends there.
Kuching was memorable. My first skylift ride. My first trip away from home for so long. My first time staying in a budget hotel with so many people at once.

From senai we came, to senai we went back to take the coach to singapore.
Air asia, no complaints.



Farewell Kuching. Thanks for a wonderful time.

___________________________________________________________
That very same night (well..late at night) we arrived in Singapore.
First shock :
we must not receive calls. it would cost us a bomb at the rate of rm 3 per min.
Second shock :
Our place of residence was changed yet again.
we were shifted to kent ridge residence where they had lots and lots of staircases.
Looking back, although we panted a lot, whined a whole lot more, it was fun in a way.
There are some things that happened on that night that i would of course rather forget . It changed my perspective on people. On trust. But , lesson learnt. You have only yourself to depend on.

Culture and Fun...day off....

Never mix work and play.It's as simple as that.

When we worked...we worked our asses off ( erm...really?? hehhee)

To unwind, there were the activities planned for the weekends...

7th June 2008 for example...

Everyone involved with the joint programme got up early that morning. Wearing our new UM-NUS Joint Programme shirts, we were to go to Damai Cultural Village to soak in the culture, sight and sound of Sarawak!

All of us were looking forward to the outing (of course lah...since it meant no work for the day). The 'bosses' gave us one whole day to enjoy without having to worry bout work! heeeee.....
And of course, u always enjoy urself more when it's not u who have to foot the bill...riiiittteee??
We first took group photos . Erm...don't ask me why a certain someone just loves posing like that.Let me introduce you to the group D members...James, Zul, Efa, Samantha, me, Wesley, Fuqaha, Dora , Azhar, Zhiqin.To get to the orang Iban house, (was it?hmm...) we needed to cross the bridge. Because of my stupid fear of heights, i actually took some time to get across. Luckily there was no one right behind me... When i got back , i saw that some of them even dared to cross the bridge in the fanciest manner! How embarrassing for me...ish..it was like learning how to walk all over again...hehehheThe passport they gave each one of us. You stamp it yourself at every checkpoint. I think i still have the passport stashed somewhere in my camera bag.hmm...Inside one of the houses. They did dance performances and even sold some kuih ubi thingy. Nice...especially when u were as hungry as us! haha.Grinning like urkel is my specialy it seems. Now, where's my Laura?!?!?....gosh...lame...The sumpit! We just had to try it out. Disgusting or not...i wanted to see how my aim was. The result? ....ermm....left much to be desired. I think out of the 3 for a ringgit that i paid for, only 1 actually landed newhere near the target! aww...i guess there goes my chance of ever becoming a successful orang asli!!!!..(and yeah...my mouth din touch the thing at all, i swear!)"Orang Penan semua cuti,"said the guy. He was the 'orang Penan on duty' .hahahha. owell...since he did give us the whole talk about gambir and stuff...might as well take a picture with him....(orang...jgn marah tau! XD)As mentioned before, almost at every stop, there were native dances being performed for the guests.
I waited for quite some time to have a go at the swing. Those are fake screams yeah. Although i reli felt that i could fall backwards given the momentum of the swing.Aji seemed cool and collected. One of the people living in the Cultural Village taught me how to use the 2 sticks. and before we knew it, the whole gang was there, trying it out for themselves and getting the other guests to participate! A demo was done by the guy in red but as expected...noone can ever beat the master eh....hehehheheh. We had fun tho. U never know when the sticks could clamp ur skinny feet! Off we went for the cultural performance. Dances by the different ethnic groups in Sarawak were shown....We realized of course that they used the same people to do the various kinds of dances. It was funny to see the same faces over and over again....
Orang....meet Orang Penan. Remember this guy? i took a photo with him earlier on at the Penan hut. And the next moment, he's performing on stage as well. Very entertaining. Especially the bit when he called out one of the audience to the stage. Yuchi was of course the 'victim'. Poor girl....we videoed her getting harassed on stage. I'm sure she'll never forget her trip to Kuching after that!
The sumpit lesson: As it was clear the target was too far, the guy made her move right to the target and shoot. heheehhehe. *pop* good teacher! yea rite...As for the show's closing, everyone was invited on stage to dance together. The tutors were being such a sport, joining in...Again, lunch was on them! Look at us have a go at the foooooodddddd......
Excitement?!?!...Jumping shot...wat else rite...Next up was the short visit to Damai Beach to unwind. Everyone was already falling asleep in the bus...but the fresh air sure woke them up. or....should i say...the heat? hehhe.


The last stop for the day was the Cat Museum. Was too tired by then to be taking photos. And matters did not help as the museum does not allow any sort of photography indoors. What i can say is that, the money could have been put to far better use than on maintaining memorabilia on anything and everything CATS!!! Don't get me wrong, the cat pictures, the cat miniatures, cat posters, cat this...cat that..are cute...but a whole museum dedicated to cats? hahhaha...owell...we were in KUCHING after all ehhh......and how i miss doraemonn....


Remember i once said that i wondered whether we were in Kuching to do work or eat? ...Well...that night..we had yet another dinner, hosted by Sarawak PAM chapter. Buffet style. It was the mingling session and in conjunction with Hari Gawai, booze was of course free flow. With everyone in a high mood (food was great! so great that the cake was finished before i could lay my hands on them!), we were told to share our experiences so far in Kuching. Never tot i would have to be the one to go up from my group. Honestly, i just wanted to stay quiet in Kuching...lay low...if u know what i mean...*Ehem* hahahhahha.Group pic.can u spot me? Hint : I'm the one in red...duuuhhhh....

The drinking was getting a bit too serious...so me and a bunch of others sneaked off. And FYI, it was only orange juice for the rest of us.

Partying over. Urban report to conclude the next two days ...and to be followed by measured drawing.....arrrrggghhh.....

Urban Study. Meeting New People...

More lectures...and more gift exchanges being made.

Trying out new places is always fun when it comes to food...and on one of the nights, we took the boat to cross over the river to have our dinner. It costs rm0.80 for a return trip.I paid a lil too much that nite. Never went there again..ahaha..
The group got merrier once we were joined by the NUS girls...

Early next morning marked the start of the next part in this joint programme..: the Urban Study Report.
10 of us in group D assigned to study the site within the suggested boundary of Site D.

To make things easier, we split ourselves up into User Demographics, History and Townscape Qualities. Pic taken while having breakfast with them. This particular stall sold air ular. Noone was daring enough to order it tho...*sigh* hahahaha.
Under the sweltering heat, it's always nice to rest under the shade of one of the stalls while ordering a cold drink....but ....it was burning a hole in our pockets! Food and drinks in Kuching are not that cheap....especially when u're constantly on the lookout for halal food. Imagine having to fork out Rm 1.80 minimum everytime u decide to sit down somewhere. Haha..i sound like such a cheapskate...but while in Kuching, i found myself spending more money on water than anything else!
the money spent was all worthwhile tho...when u get to see sights like these...
the mosque has undergone a few renovations and when i went there, was still undergoing construction.

Second day of urban study...
The four of us under townscape qualities actually studied our site together this time around. Unfortunately, something good doesnt last forever. We already knew the state the area we were studying was in....but we didn't think it had gotten that bad. As we walked around, with our big cameras (oops...make that MY big camera) and our sketch books, we received many glances in our direction. Everyone wanted to know what we were doing in that area. Some approached us in a friendly manner...but an incident actually left a bad mark on our stay in Kuching.

" You're not from Kuching. You don't belong here!"...that statement really saddened us. Especially since the old lady who yelled at us did not even consider that we had with us our singaporean counterpart.

"We are not government people"...we said that in our defence.

I guess i understand her worries..Kuching is ever changing and most people do not agree with the rate it is changing. For example , their market was to be demolished on the day we were to leave Kuching ( which is 14th of June) and their scenic waterfront will soon be obstructed by high class hotels....

How i loathe capitalism. How come we think more of profitting than for the benefit of the people? What's worse is that...they say they do it all for the people...

Well...we did meet a few nice people...like the chinese medicine uncle who din mind spending some time explaining the history of the place...and of course the taxi drivers who smiled and posed for my camera.....:D

Ok...i'm ranting too much...pictures pictures!
I think something bit my face in the dormitory...did i always look that chubby?!?!?! XDDDD
Wesley and his watercolour rendering of site D. i helped out a lil?;p
sometimes i pity the poor owner of Singgahsana...40 students (especially archi students) living under the same roof is never a good idea. We kinda trashed the place up what few days we were there. But reli...Singgahsana must be one of the most comfortable backpacker lodge ever! I won't be surprised if i find myself wanting to visit again...

Hitherto, it has been the stories of our urban study ...where we had crits every few nites after collecting data. Will continue soon on our outings and *gasp* MEASURED DRAWING!!!!!

Of lecture series, heritage trails, and...EATING!!!

After a restless night, a whole new chapter begins....in Kuching.

Photo courtesy of Pak Lahh

Lectures were held opposite the Lodge, at the Harbourview Hotel. To me...although the lecture series were informative, my sleepy brain just could not retain that much information at one go...so..."paham-paham" sajelaaa....

We were too busy preparing the souvenirs for the guest speakers anyway to bother to pay full attention to what was going on in the room! hehehe...

Enough bout the lectures then...we were later divided into groups of 10-15 for the heritage trail around the historic district of Kuching.

The middle pic shows 'the gate of life'...

It was a tiring walk...but what better way to get to know a place...
Mr Mike Boon of Sarawak Historical Society, a very friendly man!

Getting to know the locals??....hehehe The end of the heritage trail...at the waterfront...overlooking the astana. Days like this make me wonder if modernisation is worth all the sacrifice the historical sites have to suffer....We had our official welcome dinner...seafood! At that point in time, i really wondered whether we were there in Kuching to work or..stuff ourselves The reps were told to fill up the vacant seats at the lecturers' table...so regardless of whether we wanted to or not...Pak Lah, me, Gilbert, Xin Yu shifted tables to have a go at our tutors' food! nyahaha....

Mike Boon is really not the person to have seated at the same table i tell you that. He made sure i always had something in my plate. Every time i finished my food, thinking "i'm full...that should do"...more food lands on my plate! At the end of our 2 hour dinner, i felt like i could roll off the hill we climbed in order to reach the open restaurant.
That is why, i later joined the guys for a mini photo session by the waterfront...just to get rid of the queasy feeling in my 'bulge' of a stomach! XD. I really should not have worn such a small t-shirt....gaahhhh!!!! Setting up the camera at night isnt as easy as it looks. We played around shooting stills and later combined all our 3 flashes to get the group photo...I must say, after the first two test-shots, i'm quite happy with how the picture turned out. I LOOOVVE photography!!!
A nice end to the day...i even started to get to know my roommates whom we've been awkward with....aaahhh...Things sure were looking up...

Here we go! UM-NUS joint programme...

Note : This blog is a continuation of my friendster blog which unfortunately is maxed out on space due to the overload of my many photos! XD

Well, let's let pictures speak a thousand words...

About 2 months back, instead of going for practical training as planned by the faculty, me and 19 others signed in on a joint studio programme to be held between UM and NUS.

About 2 weeks went by without any news, and truth be told, quite a few of us were worried that the programme would be cancelled at the very last minute and the 20 of us could possibly be left hanging...

Fortunately, that was not the case. Unlike our LI counterparts, we had an extra month of holidaying. I slept like a log, watched tv till my eyeballs felt like popping out from its sockets...and...u get the drift!

Let's now fast forward to the date of departure to Senai Airport....

1st of June 2008 :
Started my day by reaching the studio at 9 am to distribute equipments to fellow participants. People might have thought of it as weird that my whole family came to send me off ...but ...leaving on that day, made me feel like not going for the programme initially as my younger sister was going to leave for korea while i was supposed to be in singapore!

I can't stand farewells.
I cry when i see others who mean something to me cry.

We were punctual....for the first time in my uni life, the 20 of us were punctual! At 11 am sharp, all of us were already sweating our asses of at the bus terminal. But then, we were told that we would only be leaving at...11.30!!

what else did u expect us to do then?....

while waiting for our bus...

11.30 am sharp. The University Malaya chartered bus left campus ground and made its way to Senai Airport. We made a few stops to have lunch, toilet breaks and reached the airport in approximately 5 hours.

As it was still early to board our plane, we walked about and decided to eat.
I swear i've never been that mistreated as a customer ever.
Knowing particularly well that it is an airport afterall, surely every single one of their patrons would be lugging a considerable amount of luggage.
But..no...the moment our huge group entered Mary Brown's, we were told to leave our bags outside.

Have you gone mental? Who would leave their bags unattended?!?!!?

It's the principle that counts. If you can't handle seeing us bring in our bags, then you can live without our business. Maybe it was the way the worker was 'asking' that got me soooo soo frustrated!Of course, i never raised my voice to the worker. hahahaha....

I guess everyone was just tired. The heat certainly got to a few people. As the UM-NUS entourage consisted of around 45 people, we had to check-in at a go. People queueing behind us did not seem at all happy about that. The Senai airport was crowded and the efficiency was unfortunately....low.

I got yet another taste of a woman's bitchiness...but we'll leave it at that la yeah.


Waiting to board...*pic courtesy of Pak Lahh*


On board the flight AK5706 to Kuching. Sitting next to these two...was...well...*ehem*

It was already late when we reached the Kuching International Airport. A bus dropped us off at the Singgahsana Lodge where we were all divided into 2 dormitories for girls and 2 dorms for boys. Upon request by the tutors, we divided up ourselves so that UM and NUS would be able to mingle.

In my room, there was us 5 malay girls : Izza, Yuchi, Efa, Sucy and me plus the other girls whom i got to know later on as Dora, Xin Yu, Keh Ni, Si Ni and Lei Ya. Things were pretty awkward at first....but we managed to smoothen things up as days passed....thank god!

Most people were oredi hungry at that time. After dumping our luggage, we walked to Khatulistiwa where we had ..erm...supper?

Food was great. Thanks for the treat!

And no...i was not drinking beer. The chrysanthemum tea itself got me high.....hehehehe...

So that marks the end of the first night in Kuching. The beginning of a whole new experience and possibly ...friendship?