Kuching! - Day 1/4

830am - Was woken up by a string of smses..including one tat read 'wat time is the flight ah?' This set the tone for our super relak, super nuah, super clueless(N.B. applicable to only ONE pax) 4D3N trip..

845am - Our second proper preparation for the trip was a hurried 5 mins converation while wei was rushing to work 'i have a conference call at 9am'..at least we got some items settled..we confirmed the flight time, agreed that we'll each get our own travel insurance and decided that wei will bring along a duffel bag as checkin luggage..

130pm - On the train to airport..Wei called: i'm packing now and i can't find the duffel bag leh..what bag u using? can we check in yours instead? ZXL: I'm using a backpack which can't be locked..AND i'm already halfway to airport.. Wei: OH..ok, how about we just check in my whole bag lah? ZXL: i guess so..

155pm - A sms came in 'Wahaha..i reached the ariport faster than u'

Upon arrival in Kuching, we took a cab downtown and arrived at this budget hotels area. With no prior bookings, we basically went into a few hotels(more like motels) and asked to look at their rooms - Wei commented 'i feel like we're shopping'

Settled upon a decent looking room, struggled a bit with the reception who spoke as limited english, as we did malay..and we're ready to explore the area. The receptionist vaguely pointed out a direction to us and off we went.

Came to this shopping mall..where we went around the dept store no less than 3 times, just trying to figure our way to another level. Managed to locate an exit and went out into the streets. We were hoping to find some authentic local cuisine..With not much clue(all we had was this map torn off from a magazine), our stomachs dictated we spend no more than 15mins searching and we ending up at a safe but nondescript jap restaurant.

We had no particular plans for the evening..'maybe we can catch a movie..IF we find a cinema'..so we continued wandering around the area..And just across the street from our dinner place, we spotted this happening makan place and we turned to each other 'how did we miss this place just now' Nevertheless we went to take a look but found no way in/out other than through the carpark..'building design is not their forte' is a phrase that we found ourselves repeating N times during the trip..

We made our way back to the first mall where we found out that they do have a cinema afterall..Of course, we spent another 15 mins just trying to get out of the dept store, discovered a lift, took it and voila, the cinema is right in front of us. Harry Potter at 830pm, timecheck: 830pm, perfect! Bot the tics & we made our way into the cinema in the dark..all the while trying to find the seat number on the ticketstub..until we randomly asked someone where to see the seat number? 'Free seating lah' ohhhh...

Never the HP fan..i din quite understand the movie(nor the previous 5 installments)..but well, it was 2 hours' entertainment for RM9..no complaints :)

When the lights came on, we only had one question. No, it wasn't 'So who was the half blood prince?' but rather 'how do we get out of this place?!' Taking the lift did not seem viable as it would only lead us to the confusing dept store with no exits(and we doubt it was still be opened at 11pm)..so we did the next best thing, we followed the crowd to this staircase which led to the carpark(again!). With no better idea, we decided we would just walk our way out through the carpark..for the 2nd time in a nite..does nobody here take public transport at all??

Building design is definitely not their forte..