First Purr From MeowLand...

First of all, I would like to thank our hosts, Jackson and Billy, for making our trip and my maiden trip to Kuching an eventful one. Both of you are the best tour guides, chauffeurs and most of all, priceless friends. Thank you for the hospitality and the offering of the warmth of your cosy home for our first day of stay in Kuching. Your kind gesture will always be remembered. My first stop as an introduction to the town of Kuching is the large cat itself. The cat has been dressed in conjunction to the coming Chinese New Year celebration in the first week of February. Kuching is the old spelling for 'cat' in our national language. Looks like the number of cats overpower the number of humans in the days of James Brooke. James Brooke might be referring to the town of Cochin in India when he named the place Kuching. The local people took it as cat city while I named it the MeowLand. I will not go into the history of Sarawak. If you're a Malaysian, you should have studied about the time where James Brooke took over the reign in Sarawak followed by Charles Vyner Brooke. If you want to know further, go google it. I'm not giving a History lesson through my blog. It will bore you to death... :) That big handsome cat is placed at the entrance of Chinatown. There are more cats to resemble the township. One must always remember about cats when one is in Kuching. If you fail to remember what Kuching stands for, you will be reminded continuously while driving through the city. There you go... you'll be greeted by the white cat siblings. Can't you see the lifted paws as a gesture of saying 'Hi'. Say 'Hi' back okay... be courteous. The cats will welcome you 24/7 you'll feel most welcome in this city. Not far away from the cat siblings, the royal cat family will greet you. Look how playful the kittens are. That one is actually built on a roundabout in front of Grand Margherita Hotel. The first shop that I stepped into was Artrageously Ramsay Ong Gallery. There, I saw a batik donkey in a beautiful basket. I realized that I do miss my donkey at home. Love you, donkey. As I've said I will not summarize this trip into one post, I will separate all the places into different posts. For the first day itself, I've placed my footsteps in many places. From Ramsay's Artrageously Gallery to the Chinese History Museum, took a sampan to cross over the Sarawak River and hiked up to Fort Margherita, filled my stomach with Sarawak's local cuisine and watched movies at home, movies that I've always wanted to watch.

How can I ever thank both of you, Jackson and Billy, for marking 19th January 2011 as the most memorable day tour of my year 2011. Thanks once again.