Fort Margherita...

That's our iJump photo with Fort Margherita as the background. There's something you need to learn about people from Kuching. They have no sense of time and their definition of near is the Penangnites definition of far. So, I'm going to be totally honest with you. To get to Fort Margherita after the boat ride, you'll have to walk and hike for 10 minutes or more. There's no such thing as near in Kuching. You'll pass by the village area with half wooden and half brick houses built in a haphazard way. In a short distance, you'll be able to see the signboard. SK Gersik stands for Sekolah Kebangsaan Gersik or Gersik Primary School. It's a long walk, not short. Passing by a few houses and then you have to walk up flights and flights of steps. That's before you reach the school. Walk up, walk up... and up and up.. and then you see another sign which makes your face lit up like a bulb. But to your dismay you're still far away from the fort. Keep on walking... walking... walking. Dirty signboard... bird shit? Go on... you'll be walking in a small side path which if I give you a hard shove you'll go tumbling down into the valley with lots and lots of bamboo. There... you finally reach the primary school. That school is so quiet that you can hear a pin drop on the floor. It's too quiet to be a school because usually school has the background music of bumble bees buzzing... in actual fact it the sound of hundreds of people talking at once. So I wonder how many students are there in this school... so quiet. No, we're not there yet... go on.. you'll be hiking on tar road now... Look at our hosts... left us behind to do our own slow walk. They're doing brisk walking. Good for them... are we there yet? There you go again.. a clearer view of the State Legislature building. It's nearer from this side compared to the one I took from the waterfront in the previous post. We're not there yet. Now, just walk further for another few minutes. Can see the fort already... nice isn't it? To my horror, it's NOT open... how could you not open on a weekday?? How could you?? *sigh* That's a long walk and hike up the slope. Well... I'm quite satisfied that I'm able to see the whole fort with my own eyes and snap a few photos here and there. There's an empty tomb of Ranee Margaret, wife of the late Charles Vyner Brooke. You want to know what's written on that slab of concrete, go there yourself... worth a visit. I can't tell you much because I didn't read it.