Kuching Waterfront Revisited

As part of our Kuching trip, we would make a routine trip to the Kuching Waterfront area. This year we did the same, especially since Kuching has added a newly added Dana Hana Bridge.

Our first stop would be the Tua Pek Kong Temple which is located at one end of the Waterfront and a must-visit for the tourists. Bernadine and Geraldine accompanied and be our tour guide of the day.

We had a group photo in front of the giant censer or incense burner in front of the temple. Here is the vast censer that I was talking.

Here are the offerings from all the faithful devotees to pray for their beloved family members' protection, good health, good fortune, and prosperity.

Our next stop across the street is the Chinese History Museum. It traces the history of the Chinese community in Sarawak. Exhibits include the early trade routes, initial migration from China, traditional trading activities, and political history until recent years. I did not take many photos as we did visit the museum and can be found in my earlier blog about this.

After the museum, we took a stroll along the Sarawak River along the Waterfront. We took a photo with the iconic Darul Hana bridge and the Sarawak famous DUN building at the back.

This is an S-shape pedestrian suspension bridge with two viewing decks that offer an excellent 360-degree panoramic view of the Sarawak River. Here is a picture of us together with the bridge and the Sarawak State Parlimen behind us.

I love these photo of both of us on the bridge.

Here are our family photos.

Here is Issac’s.

Here is Annabelle’s

Here are some of things Alvin captured during our walk around the Old Court House areas.

Sarawak Tourism Complex Kuching

Renee Museum Kuching

Old Court House

Court House

Main Post Office Kuching

Finally, we came to the Main Bazaar and Carpenter Street Kuching and concluded our half a day tour here.

Chinese New Year Gathering

It is such a rare occasion that all the cousins can gather at the same place and the same time. Thus they decided have the photo session.

Here are all the girls squad with their different poses.

Here are the boys and girls.

Another shots of them.

Here are the group family photos that we managed to take all in during lunch time.

Kwanjai Bamboo Garden @ Pa Phai Sang Suk Market Phatthalung 28 Dec 2019

After our trip to Napokae Rice Learning Centre, we headed to Pa Phai Sang Suk Market.

The journey to Pa Phai sang Suk Market was quite a distance. May be due to we were going to a more rural place.

I believe it is a very famous market among the locals. When we arrived, there were a few men directing the traffics in front of the entrance of the market.

They were directing visitors to the parking area which is located at the opposite of the road. We paid a small parking fees.

This rural market among bamboo forest, called “Pa Pai Sang Suk”. “Pa” in Thai, means “Forest”, “Pai” in Thai, means “Bamboo”, and “Sang Suk” in Thai, means “Create Happiness”.

So, the whole market name means “bamboo forest creates happiness” or “create happiness from bamboo forest”.

The market is divided into 5 zones; namely, Pa Phai Sang Suk Market, a relaxation area, children’s activities, a learning zone of the Kwanjai Bamboo Garden, and a pleasant bamboo forest.

It is open every Saturday during 7.00 a.m. - 5.00 p.m. And the market is open only one day a week which is on Saturday.

The bamboo forest much helps the local people and visitors feel refresh while walking around the market to buy the things they want and it did create a beautiful scenery.

It is one of a unique experience that we have as we did not encounter walking under the shades of such a nice bamboo forest area.

The green market where people in the community bring local food, rare local desserts, fresh vegetables, fruits as well as handmade products for sale at a reasonable price.

There are many interesting stalls shops which were built by natural bamboo. Most of them are presented in ancient Thai foods styles which are very interesting. This is one of them – ice cream wrapped with banana leaf.

There are various kinds of Thai foods selling at “Pa Pai Sang Suk”. We do not know what is this call, but it seems like the Bánh Cuốn or steamed rolled rice pancake that we ate at Saigon.

It is better known here as Chu Cheong Fan, eat together with the homemade sauce. Different is it is incredible delicious and yummy!

We came to a stall which crowded by a lot of people, and we were curious about what good food that was selling. It is actually pan fried steamed sticky rice pancake.

Surprisingly it is really delicious! It is just a simple and normal ingredients – steamed sticky rice and beans, turns out to be very delicious snacks.

We passed through a stall selling worms and insects for snacks. Well… this is not the first time we see this but this is the first time we see in bulks!

The stall next to it was selling some sort of Thai locals made sambals. We did try some and it is indeed nice but so spicy!

We did not buy it because we were thinking that we still be travelling and cannot keep it.

Then we came to the famous stall selling “Khao Yum”,or it is better known as Nasi Kerabu in Malaysia. Mat Salleh called it as Rice Salad because the dish is mixture of various variety of raw vegetables with rice.

I like “Khao Yum” better because the portion of vegetables are more than the rice compared to Nasi Kerabu whereby it is a rice dish and the rice is more than the vegetables. And it taste really yummy!

We came to the drinks stall. The unique part is that they use the bamboo as the container to serve the drinks.

Besides all these that we tried, there are so many stalls selling local Thai foods with reasonable price starting at only 1 Baht!

All these are some of the food that we saw at the market, namely Thai coffee, Thai traditional desserts, rice or noodles with curries, and so much more.

And of coarse I saw some exotic Thai food too. We really don’t dare to try it! I just took some photos only.

At end of our stroll in the Kwanjai market, we came to the area which are handicrafts and art stalls. There are various handmade and art pieces for sale.

There is a small lane filled with various types of bamboo species at both side of the lane. It is a popular spot for photo taking. We did the same thing that everyone will do here!

It is such a nice place to visit. One should never forget to come here to experience something nature and difference!