Kuching

First day in Borneo, in Kuching.  Green, colourful and peaceful. A morning stroll along the waterfront, wandering through the bazaars, through Little India and Chinatown (a miniature version of KL!).

We are staying at a small hotel out of the centre with a pool-a blissful bonus in the blistering midday heat. In the late afternoon we ambled back into the town to find ourselves in the midst of the annual celebrations for ‘God’s Birthday’ –as the locals described it.  Hundreds of Chinese dragons, puppets, marching bands, Buddhist pagodas mounted on lorries, animalist ogres, sky-high flags, acrobats, drummers…each ‘wave’ stopped to ‘pray’ at impromptu altars and prayer spirals mounted at the roadside, so although the march began at 6pm by 8pm the roads were completely blocked by stationary tableaux, the noise had reached fever pitch , fireworks were lighting up the sky, we wended our way past the never ending magical event to our quiet abode-a great intro