Gawai Dayak at the Long House
Trip Start
Nov 14, 2010
1
58
60
Trip End
Jun 10, 2011
Where I stayed
Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia
Thursday, May 26, 2011
We met Angela while she was at work at the tourist office in Kuching on the 27th May. We'd gone into the tourist office to ask about trips in and around Kuching and came away after agreeing to go with her to stay at her family home in the village for the Gawai festival. A guy called Marvin came into the office whilst we were there and he also got roped into our trip. He's sitting with us now in the restaurant having arrived a few days ahead of us.
We spent the rest of the 27th May (our arrival date in Kuching from Kota Kinabalu) exploring the town and many of its galleries and art/souvenir shops. I bought a lovely blue mask with mother of pearl details set into it. In the afternoon we wandered up to the art museum, ethnology museum and history museum all located together just a short walk out of town. It was all good but we were all tired by the end. We went back to the guesthouse and watched movies whilst sprawlled out on the floor lying about in big cushions. This was a great feature of Nomad Guesthouse. It was like getting home after a day out and just chilling out in the communal areas. Nice to not be confined to your room.
The next two days we spent relaxing at Damai beach. It was good to just lie back in the sun and read. There were quite a few jellyfish in the sea so we stuck to the pool. I managed to regain a nice amount of my tan which has been fading away since leaving the Perhentian Islands. Jess and Mum are building up nice tans now too.
We had few issues with getting cash from the machine in Kuching today but we sorted it in the end. Kuching means cat and it's a lovely town - nicer than KK. On Friday 27th I had a call from Loughborough telling me I had been offered the EngD post with Amey. That night we had an AMAZING meal at Junk just around the corner from our guesthouse. £24 for the four of us which is very expensive by our standards of late. But well worth it and delicious. Plus we were celebrating my good news! Jess and I had gnocci. The first night we arrived in Kuching we came to Junk but only had drinks. We ate at Life Cafe and has chinese fried dumpings and sat on the floor.
Chris at Nomad has an infectious laugh. He had us all in stiches today telling us about fat people!
As well as being offered the EngD post, I had also had good news about the PhD post at Nottingham so I had a bit of thinking to do. Today the 30th May I accepted the offer with Loughborough/Amey. So we'll be moving to Birmingham when we get home.
