City or village?

I like this city. The area by the waterfront is small, has lots of historic buildings and is pretty. There are three different Chinese temples within 1 minute walk of my hostel. Driving into the city yesterday, Kuching is clearly a big, modern city, but this is right in the centre looking along the river and the north bank of the river looks more like a small town or village.

I went to the ethnology museum some of which was interesting but was over-hyped by the guidebook. I was expecting more about the indigenous cultures of Borneo but half of the building was taken up with stuffed animals, birds and reptiles collected by a British wildlife 'naturalist', or perhaps better described now as a poacher, in the 19th Century.


Kuching in Malay means ‘cat’ and there are sculptures and street art of cats all over the place. The extra is what must be the scariest looking cat sculpture I’ve seen!