Saturday, October 11, 2008

Farewell, Cat City

I woke up at 5.30am .... coughed a little and tried to go back to sleep. I couldn't. In fact, I was very much wide awake. I decided to go online - Thank God for the Internet!

At 9.15am, we went to the Coffee House for breakfast. I wasn't feeling great and didn't overeat.

After breakfast, we went room touring. Ever since we heard about "the largest suite in the hotel" 10 years ago, we were curious about it. The largest suite, also known as "the Pinnacle", is also a duplex and has 3 rooms. According to one of the staff, our former PM stayed there before.

Gretel, the front office assistant manager, was kind enough to show us around. We saw "The Pinnacle" (it's super huge!) and the rack rate for that is RM3K a night. She also showed us some of her other smaller suites.

Ours, The Mulu Suite, is actually the second largest suite in the hotel. The built-up of the suite is 4,000 sq. ft. Wow!!! It is said that this suite is the best looking suite in the hotel and I totally agree with that statement.

By the time we got back to our suite, it was 10.30am.

Lunch was with BobC and June, who took us to a local restaurant where Sarawak Laksa was served. I had some plain noodle which tasted bland. Rajen had the laksa and claimed that it's really yummy!!! I had actually thought of eating laksa, too but was afraid that my cough would get worse.

After lunch, Bob took us to a kampung called Kg Podam in Bau, which is about 45 minutes from the city. He showed us his 6th building project. No .. he's not a contractor. He's actually the co-ordinator of church building projects. He's not a Christian either. It all began when his friend asked him to help out with one church building project. Money was scarce and there were very few resources. From the first project to the current one (7th project), money was always the main problem. Bob is responsible for looking for funds (sometimes it could be selling durians or ice cream.... or even asking for donation), getting the team together to build the church and sourcing for materials - be it new or 2nd hand.

So ... we were at this church called Holy Family Church and Bob was proudly showing us what his team had done.

Because of time constraint, we were there for only 1/2 hour.

When we got back to the hotel, we started packing. The place was so huge, we had to look for our stuff in so many different places! Thankfully, mine was confined to only the bedroom and 2nd hall area.


I managed to rush out to the bazaar (which is about 15 minutes of brisk walk from the hotel) to get some souvenirs for my colleagues. During that time, I took some pictures of the waterfront.

We checked out at 5.30pm. Soli (not sure of the spelling) came to take us to the airport. It was a pleasant drive - no traffic jam, no speeding, etc.

When we checked in at the airport, we were told that the flight will be delayed for 1/2 hour because the flight from KLIA came in late, reason being that there were technical problems. Gulp!!!



The extra time provided us an opportunity to relax longer at the business lounge.

The plane was an airbuss (wide body) and when we saw our seats, we went "wow!" - so much space. Rajen could stretch his legs and they didn't even reach the seats in front of him.

We were given a choice of beef, chicken and vegetarian lasagna. I chose the lasagna and it was simply delicious because of the cheese.

Well... that's it! My Kuching trip has come to an end!

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