Out of Samsara, into Nirvana

I still couldn't sleep after finishing Wayne's World last night so I decided to get this blog up to date and therefore i stayed up all night. Oops.

I had to be at the airport at 5am for my flight to Kuching so I figured I may as well just stay up. I did set six alarms just in case and I got about an hour of power nap in between blogging sessions. Checking out of a Tune Hotel is easy peasy - hand over your key and towel and you're off. 

I did have a great Chinese taxi driver who was asleep in his car with his wife outside the hotel. He did use the meter, however he also spent the entire journey telling me about all the white man countries he's been too. It was very interesting but it was far too early in the morning! All I could really think about was getting my hands on a nice cup of coffee.

I completed the document check for my flight and then went through to the departure lounge. I parked up at the boarding gate for a while and surfed the net, uploaded some more photos and had a quick look on Facebook. 

Once again my Air Asia flight left early, came in ahead of schedule and didn't take as long as anticipated. This was my fourth Flight with Air Asia and they have all done this - left early, taken less than the scheduled flight time to arrive and obviously arrived early at the destination. No other airline I have flown on in living memory has been able to do this.

Having left Samsara behind, we arrived in the Nirvana that is Kuching early. I needed a coffee badly, so I sat at Old Town White Coffee and had an iced white coffee. I then caught a cab to Tune Hotel Waterfront Kuching in Jalan Borneo.

My first impressions of Kuching are that it is very green, lush and pretty. This is from what I could see coming in to land, as well as what I saw on the cab ride from the airport. Lots of green, lots of palm trees, lots of lush prettiness. Quite unlike Melbourne, which is back to being dry and brown and shrivelled again.

Arriving at the Tune Hotel Waterfront Kuching, I was very happy with my second Tune Hotel experience in Malaysia and this hotel certainly did not disappoint. Unlike Penang, there were no armies of nasty little ants marching around. The room had a view of the Hilton Hotel next door and I could make out a tiny glimpse of the river.

Despite what people are saying on Trip Advisor, I have had plenty of space as a solo traveller to move around the room in both Tunes I have stayed in. Sure, trying to do yoga gets a little squishy but you deal with it. Gees, what do people expect for about $10 AUD a night? Cavernous expanses of rooms? Get real!

First stop after dumping my bags was Deli Café Patisserie on the Waterfront esplanade for a slice of strange Hawaiian pizza and iced coffee with grass jelly in it. Yes, another Groupon deal. It was a good snack after my flight and I was starting to get a little peckish. After Deli Café, I walked along the row of shophouses and bought a few small souvineirs, including another beaded bracelet, similar to the green and pearl one that I bought in KK three years ago, except this one is red and white.

I spent a while looking around, bought another Sarong (this time it was red, with a Borneo design on it and made in Borneo) before it was off to Odyssey Spa at the Grand Margherita (via the cat roundabout, which I'll post a photo of once these camera dramas get sorted, probably from Singapore now) for a one hour traditional Borneo massage.

I won't go into the dramas I had with having booked a female masseuse and then rocking up to find a teenage boy (oh HELL no!), but after a word with the hotel manager it was sorted an hour later which gave me time to look around the shopping mall next door.  The massage itself was wonderful. What makes me giggle is that here the masseuse gets up on the table with you! So strange. Mind you, these ladies are tiny so they probably need to do so to get into your knots and tangles! 

I walked back to the hotel and it was check in time. Again, I wasn't disappointed with my room. The bed was of course extremely comfortable, the shower powerful and the aircon cold and breezy. The location is excellent and the staff super friendly and helpful.

I had a two-hour nap to make up for the lack of sleep from last night before waking, updating Facebook, downloading my photos to my iPad and then setting off in search of Tandoori Palace for a North Indian Tandoor Ramadan Buffet dinner. I found it pretty easily with the help of GPS on my iPhone (never travelling without it - awesome dude) and arrived at smack on 6pm. I had a great meal with naan bread, tandoori chicken to die for, a nice bitey butter chicken, rice, veges and a rose flavoured milky drink that was amazing.

I was lining up for seconds (having not had lunch) when two Aussie guys who are originally from Sydney rolled in and asked me to join them. They were an absolute scream - one lives in KL and the other in Texas, so we were comparing notes on everything. After dinner we went our separate ways - them off to enjoy a $1.20 AUD Tiger Beer and me to have a walk up the esplanade before bed to try and get some of the awesome dinner moving through my digestive system.

I met a lovely Malay man at the Night Bazaar down past the square white tower who was selling the Songkot hats worn by Muslim men. He told me all about the history, the different types, about the different heights and it was really interesting. Turns out he's also a taxi driver and gave me his "name card" (as they are called here) for next time I come back to Kuching as he can drive me around - awesome! I now have contacts in Langkawi, Penang and Kuching who are reliable and awesome!

After my walk I went back to the hotel for an early night with a movie. And here I am - utterly exhausted and ready to sleep.

I'm loving Kuching so far and can't wait to go exploring tomorrow.

Goodnight all!