I was in Kuching from 22 - 24 October and stayed at Grand Continental Kuching. Its my first stay at the hotel after so many trip to this cat city. Reason: its a boit out of the city's attraction. Even though not far, but its quite a walk to the Waterfront the place to be when one feels bored in Kuching, especially her visitors. So, I prefer the hotels nearby the Waterfront so that I can laze around even past midnight at the stalls along the river. Market Street is also far from this hotel and that makes it not my preferred place to stay.
However this time my stay was sponsored and I have no chice but to stay at the Grand Con. My three day stay this time is a bit bored. It was raining nealry the whole day. The evening I arrived it rained heavily and continue into a drizzle till late at night. So my plan to walk to the Waterfront has to be shelved.
Grand Con provide Broadband Access and Wifi. But the service is not free. Charge for an hour is RM 10.00 and RM 35 for 24 hours. Do you think it is woorth to spend that much for a short access to the World Wide Web. In fact most Grand Continental Hotels do provide internet service but at a cost. I just wonder why they still charge guest for the access when most other hotels provide them forFree. Internet access nowadays should be part of the free facilities for hotels just like complimentary coffee and tea in the room. Another setback for the hotel is there is no mineral or drinking water provided. Usually hotels provide complimentary mineral or drinking water in rooms of at least two 500 ml bottles. Forme Grandcon is not my preferred hotel whenever I travel if I were to pay for the accomodation.
As I said it was a wet visit to Kuching and that restricts me from going anywhere since I do not have any transport. Only when a member of the organiser came to take us to the Dayang Salhah's Kek Lapis at Kampung Gersik, did I have the opportunity to buy some kek lapis to take home. It is cheaper to buy the cake from Dayang Salhah's own outlet than to buy from sellers elsewhere. I bought three bar of cake at RM 10.00 beach. If I were to buy them from sellers somewhere else it would cost between RM 15 - RM 18. To get to the outlet is easy. One can take a sampan ride (Pak Tambang) from the Waterfront near the Khatulistiwa Restaurant opposite The Hilton. The fare for the sampan is RM 1.00. Upon reaching the other side of the river, walk along the road towards the right for about 100 metres away. The outlet is tucked betwen kampong house on the left and walk in through the small lane.
Them we went for supper at Satok for Kolok Mee and roasted chicken wing. Kolok mee is a specialty dish synonym to Sarawak.
Kolok Mee is a type of noodle dish commonly found in Sarawak. It is served throughout the day - for breakfast, lunch or even supper. It is made of egg noodle, blanched in water that looks like instant noodle and served in a light sauce with some condiments like shredded beef.The difference with Kolok Mee and the Wantan Mee, that is popular in Peninsular, is that Kolok Mee is not drenched in dark soy sauce and water is not added to the noodles when served. But the taste is still pretty amazing.
Another must buy not to be missed by visitors to Sarawak is the Ikan Terubok. The place to look for this salted terubuk is at Satok market. I bought three salted terubuk and three unsalted. The fish can be packed nicely to be taken home. A well packed terubuk masin can be kept in the boxes for about two weeks.
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