Cat City - Day 2

We signed up for the Sarawak Cultural Village (SCV) tour the day before. A van was supposed to pick us up from the hotel at about 9am, so we headed of to breakfast at a nearby coffee shop about 8.30. Having had no luck with Koh Loh Mee and Sarawak Laksa the day before, we settled for more 'seasoned' food like Wan Tan Mee and Char Kuey Teow instead. I am pretty sure after the food arrived that we have been cursed for bad food in the Cat City. Both dishes tasted bland, very different from KL. These are the food that you can blindly order in KL and you will be pretty sure to get some decent taste. After swallowing down the breakfast, we hopped onto the van and headed to Damai (yes, near the Damai Beach) to SCV. The journey took about 45 mins and my sight was beautifully entertained by the tranquil village life all along the way. Upon arriving at SCV, we were given little books called SCV Passport. As there are many traditional houses in SCV (ex: Iban Long House, Bidayuh, Kelabit etc), we can get each page stamped upon visiting each of the different houses. Cool!

We took about an hour climbing up and down the various ethnic houses. I got to play some of the traditional musical instruments in some of the houses and we bought a few handicrafts from the local people making them there. More aunthentic! Anyway, at the end of the tour we were entertained by a cultural performance at a mini theatre in the SCV for an hour. It was very nice to watch the various types of ethnic Sarawakian dances performed by colourfully dressed locals. At the end of the show, I had a chance to go up stage and dance with one of the entertainers. Became a celebrity for a moment... ha ha ha, just think that I might have the Shakira move ;)

After that, we left back to the hotel and let me see, I can't seem to rememver where we had lunch. So it must be another unmemorable event.

We went to Carpenter Street for the Moon Cake Festival in the evening. Tonight, the crowd was bigger and the whole place was lighted up and blasting with various performances. We had our first taste of Indian food at a Punjabi restaurant ran by an elderly couple. As we were the only customer, they chatted to us about life in Sarawak. The food was nice and we happily walked away to dance the night away.

Our first venture was to Havana, the words lighted up in red on the sign board could be seen from our room and intrigued me from the first day. It was a nice place but a bit pricey. The whole place was pretty long. There was the front portion (the bar was situated here with a couple of sitting cushions), the middle portion (the dance floor) and the back portion (another comfy sitting area with cushions with little pillows and a tv). The good bit about this place is that the front and back portions are seperated from the dance floor by 'almost' sound proof doors. So, you can have a quiet relaxed drink without the blasting sound from the dance floor.

After that, we headed to Rainforest opposite Hilton but was put away by the loud music even from outside. We just wanted to sit, enjoy a good drink and do people-watching. So, we settled for a place called 'Latino' (or something like that) not too far away. It was nice. We got a table right outside with rattan chairs and a nice little candle on the table. Relaxed and happy, we chatted the night away and headed back to the hotel just after midnight to call it a day.

to be continued...