11-25-19 - Upside Down House
/Day 162. Kyle & Leanne joint blog.
John’s Big Sauce Tours is back in Kuching. A Big Sauce day is when our eldest John fully plans and leads us all on the attractions, excursions and meals for the day. Given he’s a history, religion and culture buff, a great researcher and a natural teacher/planner, the arrangement works great, saving us money and time.
We head towards the waterfront area of Kuching with its colorful walkway running parallel to the river. First stop, the Tua Pek Kong Chinese Temple which faces both the water and mountains ensuring good feng shui for its devotees. The temple has presided over the Kuching Bazaar since 1770 having been renovated many times. The main image represents Tua Pek Kong which means ‘the great uncle.’ At the time of the Japanese invasion in 1941, the temple survived unscathed even though many nearby buildings were entirely demolished by bombs.
Kuching means ‘cat’ in Malay thus resulting in it being known as the city of cats. There are cat statues throughout the city and as we walk down the streets, we see real cats walking and jumping abound. We see three cute cats on the way to the Hong Sam Si Temple which is a Taoist Hockien temple.
We make our way to the Old Courthouse which contains a museum dedicated to the inspiring life of Margaret Brooke’s, the Ranee of Sarawak at the end of the 19th century. Margaret was born in France and moved to England with her family where she was then married at age 19 to Charles, the second Rajah of Sarawk and moved to Kuching. The Rajah was the British ruler of the state of Sarawak which was occupied by the British. Margaret used her unique position as queen of this kingdom to advocate for change and became a champion of women’s education. She formed a remarkable bond with the people of Sarawak who she would come to see as her own. She is revered by locals who attribute their positive multi-cultural attitudes in part to her openness and leadership as the area’s first Ranee.
Next stop is the Masjid India Bandar Kutching which was the first mosque in Kuching and was built by Datuk Patinggi Ali in 1847. It is situated on a hilltop overlooking the river bend. A new mosque, which serves 4,000 worshippers, was built on the same site in 1968 and its distinctive golden dome is a recognized landmark of Kuching.
From there, we go to the Gurdwara Sahib Kuching which is a Sikh temple first built in 1912 at the site. As the Sikh community grew, the temple was found to be insufficient and was demolished in 1980 to make way for a new building. The ground floor contains an exhibit showcasing the history of Sikhs in Kuching. We peruse the exhibit and visit the worship room on the top floor for mediation.
Next we go to St Thomas Anglican Church in following our religious pilgrimage theme. The church is closed but we see displays for the upcoming Christmas celebration. We then head to a nearby mall for lunch. While the kids are content with Subway, Kyle heads off to find local food. To his chagrin, all the local food places are sit down restaurants leaving him to choose between only American fast food chains of Subway, McDonalds, Pizza Hut or KFC.
We then try to see two museums that were unfortunately closed so we instead head to the Natural History Museum. The museum is small consisting of only two rooms but they have did have a real-life 14 foot crocodile that ate a person in the river in 1993. The victim’s family organized a group to hunt down and kill the crocodile which was stuffed and embalmed is now staring at us in the museum. Note to self not to take any river swims in Kuching.
Next, we visit the Chinese History Museum. Our crew is liking these smaller yet filled with great punch types of museums. For instance, this one tracked the immigration patterns of Chinese to Kuching, who have been here for centuries, as well as describing Chinese ethnic groups, Chinese festivals and all its unique musical instruments. A small museum with a big punch!
After many various places of worship and museums, the teens are definitely looking for pure fun. So John leads us to the Upside Down House Museum which is an Instagrammers dream with all the furniture and accessories literally glued to the ceiling. We are instructed to take photos and then edit and rotate them 180 degrees. Viola! The furniture is now on the ground and we are upside down on the ceiling. We take the silliest “spiderman” photos and have a ball doing it. Leanne posts several on Instagram with her upside down on the ceiling and the title “make sure your Airbnb comes with gravity included.”
We head out to the riverfront for dinner. We walk the entire length of the waterfront and settle on a Thai street food vendor that cooks the food from a street cart and serves it up at tables set up on the water. The total cost for all seven of us is $40. At less than $6 per person, this is probably our cheapest dinner yet. Fabulous deal to end a great day in Kuching.
