It was high time for my department to have its teambuilding – new boss, new colleagues – and after some surveys, the majority voted to have it in Kuching in mid-October. I opted to buy my ticket myself and shortly after, upgraded myself to business class. We were to depart on staggered basis so I decided to fly out in mid-morning so that I could have time to rest.
On Thursday, 13 October 2022, we landed in wet Kuching at 12:42. I didn’t check in my bag but my colleagues’ bags came out swiftly. I decided to join the guys and after listening to them dither, I suggested going directly to Damai Beach Resort as we would have a free afternoon and evening in Kuching on Saturday anyway. So after querying a cabbie (he quoted RM85) and searching (Grab cost RM72), I decided to check Maxim and managed to get a Perodua Aruz for RM51. The driver was nearby and three of my colleagues joined me. The drive took slightly more than an hour and was I glad that I decided to head directly to Damai! We arrived after 14:30 and had to register with the guard at the gate first before we could proceed to the lobby. I was told that my chalet wasn’t yet ready (although my colleagues’ rooms were) so I decided to perform prayers first.
I was not happy to be told that chalet 419 still wasn’t ready when I returned to the reception and after waiting for 20 minutes, I was given chalet 321 instead. So I went to collect my bag which I had wheeled to chalet 419 and dragged it to chalet 321. The room was a bit dark because one or two lights weren’t working. I proceeded to iron my clothes before going off to buy some food for dinner at the nearby foodcourt. The guys were having a meal but I didn’t join them as it was threatening to rain and I wasn’t keen to be caught in it on my way back to my chalet. The day cleared after a while and I went for a walk along the beach and was surprised to see the fierce and heavy waves pounding the beach.
My roommate arrived much later and told me she hadn’t performed prayers so I waited for her, all ready to open the door and all. After a while, she rang and asked where I was. I told her I was in the chalet waiting for her. She told me she was in the chalet too and wondering where I was. Eh? Turned out she was given the key to chalet 419 when she checked in. So I sauntered over and found that chalet 419 was better, brighter and looked much more comfortable than chalet 321. The only thing was the air-condition wasn’t switched on so my mate contacted the reception to inform of this before following me to chalet 321. She agreed that chalet 419 looked way better and more welcoming so she helped me carry my things to chalet 419. Luckily the two chalets are very close to each other.
Someone from the hotel came over to turn on the AC and explained that the previous guest complained of some stench emanating from the chalet so we started breathing in but couldn’t detect any funny smell so we told her we wanted to stay. I had to return chalet 321 key and get another for chalet 419 so had to make another trek to the lobby. It was a good thing it didn’t rain at all despite the earlier dark clouds. It was getting dark then and my mate went out to have dinner at the foodcourt. I decided to stay in.
On Friday, we rose early as prayer times are sooner over there. I decided to go for breakfast after 07:30 while my mate decided to go earlier. I was not amused to find that my card didn’t work after coming back from breakfast. I decided to change the card later as we needed to join the rest and walk over to the Sarawak Cultural Village – after some group photos.
We entered SCV and were greeted by some staff who then proceeded to lead us all to some Zumba steps. Man, it was exhausting alright and I didn’t want to exert myself too much in view of the Amazing Race to follow. We had to answer a series of questions by visiting various ethnic houses and yes, some houses are built some feet above the ground and we had to scale steep staircases to reach the main room/hall. We also had to perform simple challenges before submitting our answers. Then we had a brief tea break before telematch (I don’t know why this activity still exists!). After that, we went into the theatre for the cultural show (air-conditioned!). We had another round of group photos after the show before returning to the resort for lunch. I was disappointed with lunch as most dishes were finishing and there wasn’t much choice to begin with.
After re-activating my chalet card, I returned to the chalet to perform prayers and rest. We ventured out at 15:30 for our CSR activity of picking litter off the beach. The beach was pretty clean so we finished pretty quickly. As a token of appreciation, the hotel provided us some drinks, sandwich wraps and fried noodles. I then returned to the chalet before venturing out again to watch the sunset.
We had an indoor BBQ dinner that evening. We also had door gift exchange, best dressed awards and lucky draw awards.
On Saturday, it was back to work with our discussion of the department’s business plan for 2023. That took almost the whole morning. We finished just before 11:30 and I went back to the chalet to finish packing. For some reason, most of us couldn’t enter our rooms and luckily I spotted a hotel staff and asked for help. We finished packing and after a final check, left the chalet. We piled our bags onto a buggy and walked to the restaurant for lunch.
The bus arrived at 13:00 and after loading our bags, we set off for Kuching – only to stop barely a km later as someone had included some bags belonging to someone else (hotel staff? Or guest?). Fortunately, it didn’t take long to locate those bags and we were soon on our merry way back to Kuching.
We stopped en route at Kubah Ria to stretch our legs and shop for some souvenirs to bring back. We then stopped at Warisan Layered Cake House at Jalan Tun Ahmad Zaidi Adruce for layered cake shopping. It started raining heavily when we were there and it didn’t relent until much later that evening.
The driver stopped near Riverside Majestic to let a colleague and her family down before continuing on to The Waterfront Hotel. The bus couldn’t get into the lobby drop-off, so we had to get down in the rain and retrieve our bags. My bag was among the first in so it was buried deep in the belly of the bus and I had to lift out some bags before I could even spot mine. Then I hurried into the hotel, eager to escape the rain.
We quickly parked our bags next to a pillar, made our way to the check-in counter, fished out our MyKads and then filled up our details at the next counter. I had observed the procedure and within no time, we had finished writing up our details. We then asked for our room cards and were in the lift in no time. It pays to be kiasu, you know.
I had a quick shower before performing prayers. We then ventured out to the Main Bazaar, yes, in the rain but I had already asked if I could borrow an umbrella from the concierge. I ended up buying some costume jewellery after dinner at the foodcourt of Plaza Merdeka. After dinner, we returned to our rooms and after prayers, I finished packing and rested.
On Sunday morning, I had planned to have my breakfast by 07:50 as I had an early morning flight to catch. A friend called me and I was only able to end the call after 34 minutes. So I had a hurried breakfast – which I dislike doing – before rushing back to the room for my bags. I checked out and arranged for Grab to pick me up. The driver was nearby and it took less than 15 minutes to reach the airport. I didn’t have a lot of luggage so I chose not to check in.
We landed at KLIA at 12:45 and I reached home just before 14:00. So that was my second trip to Kuching and third trip to Borneo this year. Syukur Alhamdulillah.
