Fun Taiwan: My Observations And Thoughts

My Taiwanese friend told me on my first visit there that the island state is a very safe country and was she right. A girl can walk alone at 11 p.m. and not worry about being mugged or attacked. There are posters in the MRT advising what to do in the event of sexual harassment. There are clear designated waiting areas at train stations for females at night. I never felt unsafe or threatened when I was there. They clearly respect the weaker sex there. There are a lot of motorcyclists but everyone respects the law and no one would try to mow you down. No mat rempit and no snatch thieves for sure!

Taiwanese make life easy for everyone. It’s a tourist-friendly country with plenty of helpful signs in both Mandarin and English. It’s a disabled-friendly country with many ramps and facilities for the disabled, and also if you are travelling with wheels like a stroller, trolley bag or even a bicycle. There are many lockers at the Taipei Main Station, Taipei Main Station MRT Station, train stations, even at Taipei 101! You can also find clean washrooms everywhere and they are all free of charge. The washrooms there have two types of toilet: the squat toilet and the sit-down ‘throne’ toilet. And you can refill your water bottle for free on some trains and some buildings (airports, Visitor Information Centre...) and have a choice of hot, warm or cold water at no charge. I didn’t have to buy water at all over there.

The island’s transportation network is comfortable, modern, reliable and very efficient, be it the MRT, normal train, high speed train, even long-distance and local shuttle buses. Everything runs like clockwork.

Taiwan is a technologically advanced country. All the hotels, hostel and guesthouse we stayed at provided free WiFi that’s fast, fast, fast!

Taiwanese are generally very environmentally friendly and aware. It’s very clean; you’ll be hard-pressed to find litter anywhere. I don’t know what fuel they use over there but I sure didn’t see any black smoke emitted from any vehicle. If you ever have any prejudice against the Chinese, about some of them being unhygienic or spitting everywhere or littering, Taiwan and its people will prove you wrong. I can say with confidence that in terms of cleanliness and hygiene awareness, Taiwan is more ‘Islamic’ than Malaysia.

Taiwanese are also conscious and aware of their health. You will find people walking with their umbrellas or donning their big sun hats to fend off the sun everywhere (unlike here, where I’ll be asked if it is raining whenever I carry my umbrella. The sun did feel quite intense there and the locals apparently all know the harmful effects of the sun and its UV rays (and don’t forget pigmentation!).

I must admit I was a bit apprehensive while planning this trip as I recall from my first visit to Taipei that the locals hardly speak any English. I was worried that I would have problems travelling around, problems communicating and asking for directions and enquiring about food ingredients, and worse-case scenario, majority of signs in Mandarin. It didn’t help that the Taiwan promotional booths at the MATTA Fairs (they participate at almost every MATTA Fair) have brochures all in Mandarin. Well, I can tell you that while there are those who do speak English especially among the young and surprisingly in other cities. What I also found interesting was even the stallkeepers at the night market in Kaohsiung could speak English but not their counterparts at Shilin Night market in Taipei...

You don’t have to worry too much about food as being an island, Taiwan is able to offer you a choice of seafood (noodles, oyster omelette, sushi...). There are also vegetarian restaurants (some are strict Buddhists) although we didn’t actually manage to find any. There are also a few halal restaurants especially in the bigger cities. Taiwan is also famous for its bubble tea and sweet desserts.

Overall, I’m glad I decided to revisit Taiwan. I wouldn’t mind a return trip either. There is still a lot of Taiwan that I haven’t discovered. And like I said before, why not? It’s a convenient friendly clean safe beautiful country to visit. I dare say it’s comparable to Japan in terms of its beauty, safety, efficiency, modernity and cleanliness. What’s not to like?

Fun Taiwan: Days 4, 5 and 6 – Taichung, Sun Moon Lake, Taipei and Taroko Gorge

Sunday, 14 September 2014

We woke up early today and went down for breakfast just after 7. Taiwanese breakfast is very healthy: congee with condiments, pau, vegetables and bread with jam and butter. We left at 07:40 and made our way to Gancheng station (it was actually a bus stop; the bus station was across the road). SM had picked  a brochure with details on Sun Moon Lake pass where you pay only NTD360 for a pass containing a boat voucher (worth NTD300), a Sun Moon Lake Ropeway round-trip voucher (worth NTD300), a round-the-lake bus voucher (worth NTD80) and Shuishe-Xiangshan Bus one-way voucher (worth NTD26). What a bargain! You can buy the pass at Nantou Bus office (directly behind the bus stop) or at the Visitor Information Centre at Sun Moon Lake. The bus arrived at 07:50 and I used my EasyCard to pay for my bus fare. The bus was quite full and reflective of the popularity of the lake.

We arrived at Shuishe Visitor Centre at 09:40 and after storing our bags (there’s a luggage room at the Visitor Information Centre and you can store your bags at no charge at all), we walked to Shuishe Pier. The boat left just after 10:30 and it stopped at Syunguang Temple Pier before continuing on to Ito Thao Pier. We actually got down at Syunguang Temple Pier (in our defence, the announcement was in Mandarin and we didn’t know the boat was following the reverse route). Fortunately for us, we managed to rush back and re-board the boat to Ito Thao before it left. We disembarked at Ito Thao and walked to the Ropeway Station and queued for the cable car up. The cable car ride gave us a bird’s eye view of the lake and the hills. As we didn’t pay for the pass that includes the Formosan Aboriginal Cultural Village (it would cost us about NTD650 if I recall correctly if we bought entrance ticket on the spot), we decided to ride the cable car back down.

We took the Lakeside Trail back to Ito Thao Pier and took the boat back to Shuishe Pier. We collected our bags from the luggage room and sat down to wait for the 13:20 King Bus to Taipei. We could of course take the Nantou Bus back to Taichung and travel to Taipei by train but we would reach Taipei slightly later compared to if we had just taken the bus plus it would cost us slightly more. The fare by King Bus was NTD460 and you have to buy the ticket at the ticket counter (can’t use EasyCard on this bus). The lady at the ticket counter had informed SM that it would take more than 4 hours to reach Taipei. ‘Whoa,’ I said, ‘Good thing we are early and leaving at 13:20 and not later.’

The bus arrived and we boarded and at first the bus was quite empty but it later stopped at Puli, I think, and a lot of passengers got on. So many passengers in fact that the bus was almost full within an hour of leaving Sun Moon Lake. And true enough, we arrived at Taipei West Bus Station at 17:25. I thought Taipei West Bus Station was the same as Taipei Bus Station and we spent a long time staring at the map, confused. Oh, we did try asking people but surprise, surprise, a lot of the locals couldn’t speak English. In this sense, even the locals of Kaohsiung, Tainan and Taichung are better in their command of English. A cabbie showed us the rough direction, another said it was too far to walk to, but finally we managed to get directions and our bearings sorted.

We arrived at EasyMind Guest House at the 12^th floor of a building further down Chengde Road at 17:55 and checked in. Our room was a tiny one with bunk beds and bunk lockers. It did have a balcony though. After prayers, we rushed out and took the MRT to Zhongxiao Dunhua Station and went to find Ai-Jia Qingzhen Beef Noodle Place, a halal beef noodles restaurant we had read about but alas, after walking a few blocks, we found the right address alright but the restaurant had closed with another in its place. Just our rotten luck then.

We retraced our steps back to the MRT station and took the MRT to Taipei City Hall. From there, we took bus no. 5 to Taipei 101. There used to be a free shuttle bus from Taipei City Hall to Taipei 101 but no longer. We had dinner at the food court at Taipei 101 and went to look for Star*ucks (I read that you get to travel up the building to where Star*ucks is and not have to pay for the trip up to the observatory deck) but we were out of luck again as there Star*ucks no longer has an outlet there. We left after dinner for we had an early start the next morning anyway – although we actually ended up trying out the different routes to Taipei West Bus Station to familiarise ourselves (the airport bus back to the airport leaves from Taipei West Bus Station. When we rode it from the airport, it dropped us at another entrance to Taipei Main Station). I had an early flight on Tuesday morning.

Monday, 15 September 2014

We left at 06:35 and walked to Taipei Main Station, via Taipei City Mall (which is linked to Taipei Bus Station). This is an easier route in my opinion as it means we walk in indoor comfort the minute we enter Taipei City Mall. Just follow the signs to Taipei Main Station or the TRA (Taiwan Railways Administration referring to normal trains) or HSR (High Speed Rail for the high speed trains) signs. You’ll need to get down the escalator at one point and cross over (below the street-level road) to Taipei Main Station.

We arrived at 06:55, just in time for our 07:08 train to Hualien. Hualien is on the east side of the island and latitude-wise is further south than Taichung. We reached Hualien at 10:01 and after asking at the Visitor Information Centre, rushed off to take the 10:20 shuttle bus which went to Taroko Gorge. A one-day Easy Go Shuttle Bus costs NTD250 (a two-day pass costs NTD400) and we bought our tickets at the counter near the bus stop. The bus was small and quite full. It took us two hours (!) to get to Yanzikou Trail where the Swallow Grotto is. It took us fifteen minutes longer as there was a landslide along a stretch of the route and we had to stop as only vehicles travelling in one direction could use that stretch at any one time.

As we had sat through five hours of journey, we stretched our legs by walking along the trail and looking over the gorge. There was a service area about 600 metres away from where we got off the bus. We walked for about 1.5 km before turning back. We took the 13:35 bus but got down at Xincheng Station instead of travelling further to Hualien Station. Had we known, we would have just bought train tickets to Xincheng instead of Hualien. Hualien is further south and you need to travel longer on the shuttle bus to get to Taroko Gorge. The ticket back to Taipei cost less too than if we had taken the train from Hualien. We managed to buy the 15:31 train tickets back to Taipei but had to change seats (not change trains) at Luodong Station. Well, we’d rather change seats than take a later train.

We arrived at Taipei Main Station at 16:39 and walked back to the guest house.

We went out that evening after evening prayers and after timing how long it took to walk to Taipei West Bus Station, we took the MRT to Shilin to check out Shilin Night Market. Again, we discovered that the local city folks don’t speak much English and we had dinner only with some help from a girl. After dinner, we browsed some stalls at the covered Shilin Market and bought some souvenirs. Well, just two t-shirts and two magnets for me. We returned back to Taipei Main Station from Jiantan Station. I bought some sushi after returning my EasyCard at the Information Counter at the MRT station. Then we walked back to the guest house.

I went to bed after 10 pm as I had another early start the next morning.

Tuesday, 16 September 2014

I was woken up by loud noises from the lounge sometime after 1 am and was quite pissed. Somehow I managed to fall asleep again before getting up at 04:15. Had a quick shower before performing morning prayers and finishing my packing. SM decided to accompany me and we left at 5. The streets were deserted save for some cleaners sweeping the street. We went into Taipei City Mall but had to de-tour a bit as some areas were still closed and at the Main Station, we had to de-tour too. So much for plotting a trolley-bag route to Taipei West Bus Station for the past two evenings! We reached Taipei West Bus Station at 05:23 and the bus to the airport was already there. I quickly handed my ticket and boarded the bus and the bus left a couple of minutes later.

We reached the airport at 06:05 and I went to drop off my bag. For some reason, we cannot check in power banks so I had to get my power bank out and carry it with me. I had some sushi before clearing security and despite the apparent long queue, it was a fast process. There were many comfortable sofas, free Internet stations, shops, washrooms, even a room called Ladies’ Dressing Table, nursing room and massage room. Amazing. I cleared immigration after that and proceeded to browse some duty-free shops before making my way to the gate. I spotted a sign for prayer room and found it was close to Gates B1-3.

We boarded at 07:35 and the plane took off at 08:00. I dozed off for a short while and when I woke up, watched The Fault In Our Stars. I wouldn’t watch it at the theatre; I’d prefer watching something fun and happy if I have to pay for it.

We landed at 12:35 and my bag came out at 12:50. I took the bus to KL Sentral before making my way home. That was it, my second trip to Taiwan. And what a satisfying trip it was too!

Fun Taiwan: Days 2 and 3 – Kaohsiung, Tainan and Taichung

Friday, 12 September 2014

We checked out after breakfast this morning and stored our bags at the reception. We then walked along Jianguo 3^rd Road and almost by accident, stumbled upon Sanfengzhong Street, a long food market street. It sells onions and garlic, dried mushrooms of every size, seaweed, packed snacks, pickles... the only thing I thought was strange was the absence of customers. We then turned into Zhonghua 3^rd Road and walked until we hit Central Park, and on to Kaohsiung Star Place where there are LV, Gucci and Ferragamo boutiques (we wanted to enter but the boutiques only opened at 11 and it was only 10:30 then) and then we took Wenwu 3^rd Street and turned here and there until we reached Kaohsiung Sky Tower. We stopped for a short while before turning back and heading to Far Eastern Department Store. We went in to find a washroom but when we saw the elevators, I had an idea and suggested we take the elevator the highest floor for a bird’s eye view over the city. So we rode the elevator to the 17^th floor and there were doors leading out to the deck where we enjoyed a view of the sprawling city. How fantastic is that?

We browsed the bookstore at that level before taking the elevator down. We crossed over to Sogo but there was no supermarket there so instead we bought some buns from a mini bakery outside Sogo. Then we took the MRT from Sanduo Shopping District Station to Weiwuying Station (EasyCard not accepted in the Kaohsiung MRT though), changing train at Formosa Boulevard where the Dome of Light is (the largest glass work in the world). At Weiwuying, we took the exit that led us to Kaohsiung Mosque. We met a few Mainland Chinese Muslim women outside the mosque and although we couldn’t communicate at all, we somehow managed to get together to have group photos. Haha, that was quite funny actually. We then went in to perform prayers and as the Friday prayers started just after we performed ablutions, we joined in the prayers too. After lunch, we dropped by the halal Indonesian restaurant next door and had beef noodles for lunch.

We took the MRT back to Kaohsiung Station and went to collect our bags at the hostel. After a brief rest, we set out for the station and bought tickets for the 15:29 train to Tainan. We reached Tainan after 63 minutes and went to our hotel after dropping by the Visitor Information Centre at the station. The girl at the Visitor Information Centre had pointed out the building to us and I must say my heart sank when I saw the drab ugly building. Fortunately, this is one of those instances where we should not judge a book by its cover. The building may be drab outside but the hotel and our room are at least brand new, or at least recently refurbished.

We went out in the evening and went to Shin Kong Mitsukoshi and Focus Square before crossing the street to the food stalls opposite. I didn’t buy anything though and had buns instead for dinner in the room.

Saturday, 13 September 2014

After breakfast, we checked out and left our bags at the reception. We then went to wait for the 88 Anping bus (waited at the wrong bus stop at first, no thanks to the hotel people). The 09:30 bus came at 09:50 and we boarded it. It cost only NTD18 one way and it took us more than an hour to reach Sunset Platform, the last stop. We got down and walked for a brief while before getting on the 11:30 bus to Anping Fort.

We walked for an hour in Anping in the hot merciless sun. It was 36C and blazing hot. We reached the bus stop for the bus back to Tainan City just seconds before it came along.

Back at the hotel, we rested and enjoyed the lobby air-conditioning comfort before dragging ourselves over to the train station. We bought the 15:03 train tickets to Taichung and sat at the waiting area. There was a 7-11 and a Sushi Takeout outlet and we bought sushi for our late lunch. Sushi Takeout accepts EasyCard by the way.

We arrived at Taichung at 17:09 and were met with a huge crowd at the platform, in the station and outside the station. Wow, I thought, this must be a huge city indeed. Even Kaohsiung, the second largest city, didn’t feel that crowded. We battled the crowd and made our way to our hotel. I was happy to find that the roads in Taiwan are all have English scripts in addition to the Chinese characters and finding our hotel was such a breeze that we didn’t even need to resort to asking for directions (I had earlier printed off maps from Google Map for locations of our lodgings and we relied solely on those maps. Thanks Google Map!).

We checked in, had a quick shower and performed prayers before venturing out. The Restaurant District was literally a few steps away from the hotel although we only saw Vietnamese stalls there. Oh, we did bump into quite a few Indonesians in Taichung. We stumbled upon Wellcome Supermarket (the first we came across thus far in Taiwan, all others had been convenience stores) and bought some groceries for the following day. We then returned to the hotel and rested. I relied on tweets (WiFi is fast in Taiwan!) for footie updates.

To be continued

Fun Taiwan: Day 1 - Taipei and Kaohsiung

I had been planning to revisit Taiwan since my first visit in March 2007. As I hadn’t any fixed destination for the Malaysia Day weekend, I started researching and promptly decided, OK, I would do Taiwan again! I scoured the flight fares and times and MAS’ schedule suited me better (it would actually cost me slightly more to fly AirAsia – even if I wanted to and I didn’t – and the schedules didn’t suit me at all) and because I procrastinated, the fares had gone up by the time I decided to buy my ticket. I then explored flying into Kaohsiung and out of Taipei (Cathay Pacific would be the best option; it involved a stopover in Hong Kong for both legs though, meaning longer travel time) but at the last minute, I decided to check PYO Travel website and guess what, the MAS fares were lower there by RM208 and the seats for both legs were pre-booked for me (5A for both legs!)! This was only the second time I used PYO Travel: the first time was when I booked Hotel Royal in Macau after scouring other sites:

Firefly Holidays (w/o breakfast): RM986.40

Hotels.com (w/out breakfast): RM962

Go Holiday (w/o breakfast): RM905.36

Ratestogo.com (rates change every day): RM816 then RM827

PYOtravel.com: RM797

Anyway. Back to the Taiwan trip. I bought my flight ticket on 21 July and set about planning my route. It’d be a whirlwind packed trip and I was determined to cover as many places as possible. I already have some brochures and guide books on Taiwan so I referred to them and Wikitravel of course. Now, you may ask, ‘Why Taiwan?’ Well, why not? I know the country is a very safe country like Japan. My Taiwanese friend told me that a girl can walk alone even at 11 pm and no one would harm her. And I don’t need a visa to enter Taiwan unlike China and Korea. I let slip my plan to SM on 4 August and she bought her tickets six days later. Finally the day arrived and we were good to go.

Wednesday, 10 September 2014

Now, our flight was at 01:25 on Thursday, 11 September, so we departed for the airport this evening. Met up with SM after midnight at the boarding gate.

Thursday, 11 September 2014

We boarded the flight at 1 am and I dozed off during take-off. I was about to fall asleep again when I was woken up by a cabin crew who wanted to serve me my meal. I was hoping the meal would be served closer to landing but no, it was served sometime after 2 am. I was already up so I chose noodles with chicken. Tried to fall back asleep but failed of course. I finally got up at 5 and went to the bathroom to perform ablutions for my morning prayers.

We landed at Taoyuan International Airport at 06:15 and I quickly disembarked. I had told SM that we needed to hit the ground running literally as we were travelling to Kaohsiung that afternoon and the train trip could take anywhere between 4 hours and 25 minutes to 6 hours and 49 minutes (actually, there is one service which takes 8 hours and 22 minutes and as it is the longest and also the costliest, we didn’t consider this at all of course). I cleared immigration within 15 minutes of landing and went to the washroom near the conveyor belt to freshen up. SM emerged later as she sat further back in the plane. We left after 10 minutes and took the airport bus to Taipei Main Station (return ticket costs NTD230). The trip took us 50 minutes.

At the Taipei Main Station, we searched for lockers to store our bags and then bought the 3 pm train ticket to Kaohsiung and the 07:08 train ticket to Hualien for the following Monday. I had already searched the train times and cost online prior to the trip – the website is easy to navigate and really helped us in planning our trips and budgeting. After buying the tickets and storing our bags, we made our way to the MRT for the train to Shilin station. We bought an EasyCard prior to entering the MRT – it works like the Octopus Card in Hong Kong and Touch ‘n Go here –and users enjoy a 10% discount on fares. Deposit is NTD100 and if you return your card, a NTD20 will be deducted.

At Shilin, we got down and after buying some buns from a bakery near the station, we walked to the nearby bus stop for the bus to National Palace Museum. This museum is among the best in the world and as I didn’t manage to visit it on my first trip, I really wanted to visit it this time. There are quite a few buses going to the museum, you just need to check the destination of the various buses.

We reached the museum after 9 am and paid NTD250 for the admission. If you’re carrying a backpack or bulky bag, you would need to leave it at the cloak room. We split up and agreed to meet at the entrance at 12:30. There are three floors and I covered all rooms although I must confess that I did breeze through some displays. Photography is not allowed by the way. There were very long queues to some of the more popular and rare displays like the ivory carvings and jadeite cabbage.

I finished just before 12 and was dithering if I had time to go to the other building when SM came up and told me there were paintings and calligraphy in the other building. I had seen some earlier so we agreed to leave. It was already blazing hot by then and it was with some reluctance that we left the cool sanctuary of the museum. We waited for the bus and then took the MRT to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall.

The memorial hall is flanked by the National Theatre and National Concert Hall. A park surrounded the Memorial Hall Square. We spent some time here taking photos and helping take photos of others. We left just after 1 pm, having agreed that we’d try to change our train time to 2 pm instead.

Back at the Taipei Main Station, we spotted a TRA ticket counter and went to ask if we could change our tickets. Thankfully, we managed to communicate this and not only got them changed at no charge but the lady managed to help us find seats next to each other. We then went to search for our lockers (and my, were there many lockers at the station, even at the MRT station! How convenient do the Taiwanese make life easy for everyone!) and finally managed to locate our lockers.

We boarded the train and made ourselves comfortable for the journey. The bathroom in the train was clean and guess what, there were even water dispensers in the train! In fact, I noticed this at a lot of places – at the airport, the Visitor Information Centre at Sun Moon Lake, in trains... like I said, they really make life comfortable for everyone. I didn’t have to buy water at all in Taiwan! I normally buy bottles of litres of mineral water when I travel.

We reached Kaohsiung at 18:42 (it was already dark by then; sunset was at 18:07) and went to look for our lodging. It was actually only four minutes away from the station (I had purposely searched for a hotel/hostel near the station). By the way, if you take the High Speed Rail train, the HSR station is different and you’ll need to take another train or taxi to Kaohsiung Main Station.

After checking in and freshening up, we walked to Liuhe Night Market. There was a lot of seafood on sale (grilled squids, grilled baby crabs, seafood noodles), and other stalls selling drinks, souvenir and clothes. Most of the stall keepers there knew some English and some even warned us that they used beef oil or had pork in their food. We had seafood noodle soup for dinner before returning to the hostel.

To be continued

Merdeka Day Weekend 2014

This trip was planned in mid-February 2014. I had initially planned on departing KL in the evening but changed my mind and bought a flight departing in the afternoon. I decided not to stay at my timesharing hotel and instead searched for a boutique hotel. As luck would have it, there is one such hotel at the Main Bazaar so I immediately booked a room.

I left for the airport from work on Friday (took half-day afternoon leave) and took the 13:20 KLIA Express to KLIA. I wanted to buy some bread for the next day’s trip but couldn’t find it at any of the convenience stores at KL Sentral so I had to search for it at the airport shops instead. I bought one of the last remaining two loaves and two buns before going in to the domestic departure terminal. Made my way to the departure gate after performing prayers.

We took off about ten minutes after schedule and landed at Kuching International Airport at 16:50. The bags took a while to emerge. I went to Tune Hotel’s counter to ask if we could take the airport transfer but was told no as we were not guests at Tune Hotel despite me telling that I had taken the transfer from the city to the airport on my last visit when I stayed at Riverside Majestic. The people at the counter wouldn’t relent so we went to the taxi counter. The taxi to our hotel cost RM26.

It took about 25 minutes to reach the hotel as we were caught at a long traffic light. After checking in, we had a cuppa before venturing out. We walked along the Main Bazaar all the way to Tun Jugah Mall, stopping in between at Tune Hotel to enquire on the transfer back to the airport, and at some food stalls behind Parkson at Riverside Shopping Complex. I was not surprised to find that we could buy our airport transfer tickets at the counter at Tune Hotel and told the lady that we were denied at the airport earlier. She said it should not have happened, we should not be denied from buying tickets even though we were not staying at Tune Hotel because the airport transfer is not an add-on to the hotel room. I wonder why the counter at the airport refused business. Here you have people willing to pay for your services so why do you have to be sticky about it? The transfer costs RM9.99 per person with minimum 2 persons travelling so if you’re travelling alone, you’ll have to buy two tickets. Well, RM20 still beats RM26 so we bought two tickets each as we would be taking different flights back to KL.

After checking out Popular Bookstore at Tun Jugah Mall (I bought a few books on my last visit to Kuching but didn’t buy any this time as the hotel has a Reading Lounge with its own mini library), we walked along the waterfront back to the Main Bazaar. We returned to the hotel after checking out the General Post Office and Jalan Carpenter. Dinner was had at the hotel. I had the set menu with Manok Pansuh, a local dish.

We woke up early on Saturday (prayer times are about 20-30 minutes earlier than in KL) and went down for an early breakfast. We left for the bus stop across The Court House slightly after 08:00 and of course this meant we missed the 08:00 bus to Bako. So we had to wait for the next bus at 09:00 %#T*)!~U#+~ It’s a red bus with Bako written on the front and the fare is only RM3.50 (unchanged from my last visit). We reached Bako about 40 minutes later.

At Bako, we had to register first and pay for the park fees (RM10 for Malaysians, I’m not sure what the fee for non-Malaysians is). There’s now a boat counter too and it costs RM15 per person one way. You have to buy the return boat ticket at Bako National Park boat counter.

We rode the boat and unlike my previous visit, we had to dock at the sea near the Park Headquarters and wade through the sea. It was low tide then. You have to register again at the Park HQ and indicate the trail you wish to explore. At the end of it, you have to return back and sign out. I guess this is to ensure there are no trekkers or hikers lost or missing in any of the trails. There are 18 trails in total but three (I think) were closed that day.

We set off and walked towards the beginning of the trail, passing the boat terminal. No vicious evil monkeys sighted so far, thank God. We had decided to take Telok Pandan Kecil trail and my, what a challenging trail it was! It was only 1.5 km long or 2.5 km from the Park HQ but it took us about an hour or so on the trail alone. The challenge started immediately where you have to immediately climb up almost vertically. The massive tree roots somehow formed a trail for you to follow and you climb boulders and the stairs provided (in some areas only) and climb up and up until you reach a large clearing with a rather smooth rock surface (instead of earth and forest). I was huffing and puffing and panting before long. Then we followed signs painted on trees after every few metres (yellow signs to Telok Pandan Kecil) and this was where another form of challenge began. Some stretches of the trail were wet and muddy and it was like wading through a very shallow river. In fact, I believe the wet trail stretch marked the beginnings of a small river prompting me to remark a few times, ‘So this is how rivers form in the mountains or higher lands.’ I’m never one who enjoys getting herself wet unnecessarily so I was a grimacing grouchy grumpy cat whenever we had to trek those stretches.

We finally reached the end of the trail and emerged onto a cliff top which overlooked a secluded bay and sea stacks. We stayed for about 20 minutes having our bread and enjoying the view. We decided not to descend down to the beach as it was low tide, content to just enjoy the view from above. We left at noon at trudged our way back to the Park HQ. It took us 50 minutes before we emerged from the trail.

We were making our way back to Park HQ and were at the boat terminal when a family (colony?) of monkeys made its way towards us. There were the normal-sized ones and a few babies and one fierce-looking alpha male. We looked at them warily and they eyed us in turn almost calculatingly. I told you they were a vicious bunch and I was right. We didn’t move as we didn’t want to alarm and appear intimidating but they advanced determinedly towards us. My mate started walking slowly and I followed suit but before we knew it, we were almost surrounded by them as some monkeys circled around and came from behind us. And they started to attack me, yes, just me alone. WTF? What is it about me that have people and monkeys attacking me? One tried to jump on my back or grab my bag – I wasn’t sure which but I know I felt something heavy on my bag and I almost yelled ‘Go away, stay away from me!’ Then the alpha male came and looked like it would attack. I continued yelling and somehow the monkeys stopped their pursuit. I was shaken and stirred and walked away muttering.

Back at the Park HQ, we signed out and then went over to the boat counter at the next building. Alas, the next boat out was at 2 pm so we had to wait about 45 minutes for it (apparently the first boat back was at 11:00). Again, we had to wade out to the boat and took the first boat back to the jetty. We decided to wait for the bus instead of taking the mini-van back to the city. The bus arrived at 15:10 and we had to wait until 15:30 when its scheduled service began.

We stopped back at the hotel for a while and went out again, walking along the Main Bazaar shops and entering some of them to browse. We were served by a sullen young woman with an attitude at our last shop. What’s with the attitude?

We returned back to the hotel and rested. I had a well-deserved soak in the tub.

After evening prayers, we went to Plaza Merdeka and browsed around. It started drizzling when we made our way back to the hotel. Dinner was again had at the hotel.

On Sunday, we walked to Jalan Satok (yes, walked). It took us only 20 minutes. However, the market has relocated to a trade area near Kubah Ria across the River Santubong. A couple who was driving by overheard us asking an elderly man for directions and offered us a lift. How kind! We accepted it gratefully, after all the morning was getting hotter by the minute.

We walked around the huge market, taking in the sights, smells and scents - there were some fruits and vegetables which were new to me. There are covered stalls and outdoor stalls and a lot of the locals do their grocery shopping here. We also saw some tourists there. We stayed for close to an hour before walking back (yes, we walked!) to Jalan Satok. I wanted to look for layered cakes but alas, the house shop where I bought them from on my last visit looked like it had been left uninhabited for some time. We crossed over to Jalan Kulas and waited for transportation back to Jalan Masjid.

We decided to check out the museum and headed there. I had checked and the website says the museums are open on Sundays and Public Holidays but when we got there, we found that it was closed. WTH. Surely Sundays and Public Holidays are the best time to visit museums and it was Merdeka Day too. Disconsolate, we trudged back to the hotel to seek a brief respite from the fierce sun.

We headed out again about 20 minutes later and took a boat across. Across the river, we looked for signs and trekked up to Fort Margherita. It was well-maintained with a fresh coat of paint and manicured lawns around it but it was deserted. We walked around it before making our way back to the river.

We decided to go to Jalan Satok again to find Mariam Cake House and after waiting ages for the bus to start its journey, we got down and walked (yes, walked again!) to Jalan Satok. We trudged up to the end of the road but there was no sign of the cake house. The lady finally answered my call and informed me that the shop which was listed on the company’s website had relocated... to the market. FFS, we were just there this morning! And why don’t people update their websites? We decided not to bother anymore and walked to the bus stop for the next bus back. It’s pretty walkable but the heat was getting to us.

I continued alone to the Main Bazaar and stopped at the first shop we stopped at the afternoon before and bought some pelikat and batik songket sarong. I returned to the room and had a shower. It was just too hot!

We stayed in and rested the rest of the afternoon, watching a movie. It was still raining when we went down for dinner (again, at the hotel). I don’t know if it was the food or the heat or both but we both felt unwell when we returned to the room. We had enough gas between us to rival Sarawak Energy and to light up Kuching, Bako, Santubong and Damai.

I got up early on Monday morning to use the bathroom. Despite this, I had tummy upset the whole morning right up to before boarding the plane. The breakfast service was slow this morning as it would inevitably be when you’re in a hurry and need to rush. The 24-room hotel is beautiful and tastefully decorated with friendly staff and a lovely ambience. Unfortunately, it is understaffed even for its size and it was glaringly obvious this morning.

We checked out at 8 and walked to Tune Hotel after settling the bill for the 08:30 shuttle to the airport. I was the sole passenger. Reached the airport barely 20 minutes later and went to drop off my bags.

We landed at KLIA at 12:18 but took a while taxiing the runway to our gate. The plane finally came to a complete stop at 12:27 and I rushed out. I was reunited with my bags at 12:50 and managed to take the 13:00 train back to KL Sentral.

So that was my Merdeka trip to Kuching. At the start of this trip, I did wonder why I don’t go to Kuching as often as KK. I think it’s because I always get a bad case of tummy upset after spending some time in Kuching but blame it on my sensitive tummy and not the local cuisine. I hope you had a productive and rewarding weekend too!