The Rough Guide to Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei (Travel Guide eBook) by Rough Guides

Author:Rough Guides
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Travel, Southeast Asia
Publisher: Apa Publications
Published: 2023-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Kuching waterfront

Beginning along Jalan Gambier and continuing for just over 1km until it peters out close to the Grand Margherita hotel, Kuching’s central waterfront is where most visitors begin exploring the city – almost everything of interest is within 500m of this esplanade. Sporting the odd fountain and several fast food kiosks, it has a somewhat sanitized feel, but a sprinkling of whitewashed colonial buildings, tranquil river views and the shophouses of Main Bazaar and Jalan Gambier make for a worthwhile wander.

For views alone, the best time to turn up is around 6pm on a fine day, when you’ll be treated within an hour to a fiery sunset behind Mount Serapi (one of the peaks of Kubah National Park), casting an orange glow over city and river. To get an aerial view, head up to the cinema on the top floor of the colourful Medan Pelita building on Lebuh Temple, where a large balcony offers a fine vista over old Kuching. It’s possible to take boat trips on the river (see page 276).

Along the Main Bazaar

The fast-gentrifying Main Bazaar is home to a few guesthouses and tour agencies, plus a rash of souvenir shops and a gallery, the odd attempt at a posh café, and a handful of more traditional shops. At its junction with Jalan Tun Haji Openg lies the Old Courthouse that used to house many of the region’s tourist facilities but has been now rented out to an assortment of high-end restaurants. Built in 1874, and sporting impressive Romanesque columns, the complex is fronted by the Charles Brooke Memorial, a 6m-high granite obelisk erected in 1924. Stone figures at its base represent the state’s Chinese, Malay, Dayak and Orang Ulu communities.

Diagonally across, on the waterfront itself, the single-turreted Square Tower is all that’s left of a fortress built in 1879. An earlier wooden construction burned during the 1857 gold-miners’ rebellion. The trio of compact 1930s buildings next door, once belonging to the Sarawak Steamship Company, now house the so-called waterfront bazaar, a disappointing collection of souvenir outlets; you’re better off checking out the touristy shophouses opposite.

Chinese History Museum

Eastern end of the Main Bazaar • Mon–Fri 9am–4.30pm, Sat & Sun 10am–4pm • Free; no photography allowed • 082 231 520

The squat, pale orangey-pink Chinese History Museum was built in the 1910s as a courthouse for the Chinese community, after which it became the Chinese Chamber of Commerce. It’s a source of pride to the local Chinese in a country where state-run museums often snub traditions that aren’t Malay or to do with Indigenous cultures. While the artefacts are modest, apart from the half-sized carving of an emperor and empress, the museum gives a decent account of how nineteenth-century Chinese migrants opened up western Sarawak to agriculture and mining.

Around the Padang

Jalan Tun Abang Haji Openg leads away from the riverfront past a smattering of colonial buildings just beyond the courthouse complex and close to the Padang. Unfortunately the area’s character has been diluted by the brash Plaza Merdeka mall

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