11 Mar 2011 – Greetings Again from Cat City!
KCH postings 7 Mar 2008, 15 May 2009, 26 Mar 2010. Must like it here to return every year since 2006!
Kuching KCH/古晋 officially the City of Kuching (431.01km2/166.4 sq mi, pop app 600,000),is the capital and most populous city of the East Malaysia state of Sarawak. It is the largest city on the island of Borneo and the 4th largest city in Malaysia founded by the representative of the Sultan of Brunei in 1827
More than 150 years ago, Sarawak was essentially KCH. KCH was known as Sarawak first, then the word Proper, was added to Sarawak, thus Sarawak Proper, so as to distinguish it from the larger Sarawak which, in 1841, consisted of only the area between Tanjung Datu and the Samarahan River. In 1872, Sarawak Proper was given its present name, KCH, under the rule of the second Rajah of Sarawak, Charles Brooke.
KCH was named after a tidal stream called Sungai Kuching/River Kuching that ran between the present-day Tua Pek Kong Temple and Chinese History Museum. The stream originated from Bukit Mata Kuching/Cat’s Eye Hill where there was an abundance of a local fruit called Green Longan (Isau, Dimocarpus longan ssp malesianus), vernacularly known as Mata Kuching/Cat’s Eye. KCH is thought to derive from the Malay word kucing=cat. Many of the locals refer to KCH as the Cat City but it more likely comes from the Chinese word for port cochin coupled with the Malay name mata kucing for the longan fruit, a popular trade item.
Thu: Tiger flight roared on schedule into Cat City. Uncle Yat Ming somehow lost his baggage after claiming it… must have been the excitement of seeing brother Lawrence again after an absence of over 50yrs! All’s well that ends well, thank goodness some honest soul found the bag and called the police and the happy and rightful owner reunited with his bag 🙂
Thanks to Lawrence for dinner@Top Spot****with my favourite veggie, medin/FiddleHeads which is wild fern found only in this area.
Appreciations to Lawrence & Mabel for hosting today’s lunch***@Telang Usan Hotel in the company of family, Mabel’s brother Raymond and his Danish guests.
Just got news about the major tsunami after a 8.9 earthquake Japan with the footage on TV all confusion right now, but looks bad and the tsunami could be on its way to other places. To the people in that area, please stay as safe as they are able to.
Did you know that the word tsunami, which is now being used worldwide, is a Japanese word? This is indicative of the extent to which Japan has been subject to frequent tsunami disasters in the past – Junichiro Koizumi