Kuching Day 2: Borneo Cultures Museum & My Brother's Birthday Dinner

The brother asked whether we wanted to go for a morning swim at the pool before breakfast, and surprisingly we agreed! Not quite sure why we thought it was a good idea to swim in freezing cold water on an empty stomach! 😅

Infinity Swimming Pool on the 23rd floor

Checking out the hustle and bustle below

Great view of Mount Santubong in the distance

See if you can spot the famous cat statue
(Kuching means 'cat' in Malay)

Smaller kids pool

There's a small gym and Kids Club behind the pool chairs

We were starving by the time we met for breakfast and were devastated to find out that the famous Kuching kolo mee stall was closed! 😩We had to drive a bit further out to Trevi Cafe instead!

Trevi Cafe
(Address: Level 1 & 2, Block 5, Saradise Edge, Lot 19844, 93350 Kuching)

Group photo of our whole family taken by the staff

Big breakfast

Seafood platter

Food was good and we enjoyed the private secluded corner in the 2nd floor of the restaurant.

After breakfast, we dropped our parents off at the hotel and headed to Borneo Cultures Museum, which came highly recommended by the brother & sister-in-law. It cost us RM 50 per adult and RM 20 per child (12 years old and below).

Distinctive architectural building of the Borneo Cultures Museum

Buying tickets from the counter

There were 5 floors of galleries, including a children's gallery on the 2nd floor! The Littlest loved it!

"Love our Rivers" was the current theme at the children's gallery

Imagine going on a trip to through the rivers on sampans

Small playground for the kids!

The Littlest enjoyed it very much!

Hands on activities for the kids

Learning about waste and the need to reuse and recycle

Interactive board teaching kids about waste and recycling

We headed next to explore the "In Harmony with Nature" gallery on the 3rd floor, the "Time Changes" gallery on the 4th floor, and the "Objects of Desire" Gallery on the 5th floor.

Cool lighting and ambience as we learnt about Kuching's history and culture

The waters that were an integral part of Borneo life

A typical traditional ethnic house built above ground, which can be used as communal quarters

Interactive wall to enhance our experience

Another interactive area

Traditional masks demonstrate the art of the people

The making of wedding outfits

We spent about 1.5 hours exploring the galleries and had a great time! 

The Littlest and I also visited the "Pristine Seas: Bringing Back the Ocean" exhibition presented by the National Geographic on the 1st floor. It was a special gallery that showcased the work of the Pristine Seas project and will be opened until 13 April 2025.

Amazing photobooth at the entryway! It felt like we were under the sea!
Love the photo the Littlest took of me (she told me to pose by looking up *laughs*)!

Photo with an actual skeleton of a whale!

Incredible photos captured by National Geographic of the wildlife in the seas!

The moving waves were projected onto the floor! It was very cool!

The Littlest and I loved this exhibition! Super amazing! Definitely highly recommend for you to visit this museum!

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If you have more time, you should visit the Natural History Museum just across the road. For us, we were happy to return to our hotel to rest.

In the evening before dinner, we walked to the mall at Pullman Hotel to check it out. There was nothing there for us except the supermarket (huge and full of interesting things).

Goceli at the mall at Pullman Hotel

We had dinner at Ukemochi restaurant to celebrate my brother's birthday! 🎂🥳

Ukemochi on the 22nd floor of Sheraton Kuching Hotel

The restaurant kindly gave us the semi-private corner of their restaurant with amazing views of Kuching!

Group photo taken by a staff

Super yummy and authentic Japanese food

Love the sushi platter! 😋

The handsome birthday boy! 😀

Cheers!

The restaurant was very generous and provided us with additional complimentary sake as they knew we were having a birthday celebration! We were hosted very well by the manager and highly recommend this restaurant! 👍🏻

After dinner, the sister, brother-in-law and I headed for our evening massages at Borneo Wellness & Spa.

Borneo Wellness & Spa
(Address: Lot 237 & Lot 238 , Section 48, Jalan Green Hill, 93100 Kuching, Sarawak)

The massage was for slimming hence it was quite painful (especially if you have a lot of cellulite!) but it was good overall.

After our massage, the brother-in-law suggested that we explore the night market at Kuching Waterfront, just a 5-minute walk from the spa.

Kuching Waterfront beautiful lit at night!

Sarawak Legislative Assembly

Water fountain display

Darul Hana Bridge

The lights were beautiful! It was a good end to a great day! 😊

Continue to >> Kuching Day 3-4: Spring Mall, Muara Tebas Seafood & My Reflections
<< Back to Kuching Day 1: Sheraton Hotel & Vivacity Megamall

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Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia as well as other travel itineraries!

Please also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels!

Kuching Day 1: Sheraton Hotel & Vivacity Megamall

The last time I travelled with both my parents and my siblings was to Shen Zhen & Hong Kong in 2007! At that time, only the Hubby (then boyfriend) was present.

Family photo in 2007!

Fast forward 17 years later, we were finally on our first family trip with my parents, siblings, our spouses plus 2 littlest kids! It's a pity that we couldn't find a common date during the school holiday else my older kids would've joined and it'd be full attendance! 🥲

We met at 9am at Terminal 4 to check in at AirAsia. We booked our flights at approximately S$268 per adult/child (no checked baggage). It was pricey for such a short flight but to be expected as it was Deepavali (we saved 1 day of leave)! 😄

Family photo in 2024!

After having breakfast at the Food Court, I joined my Littlest for some fun at the T4 Slide! I didn't join my girls during our last departure from T4 and had been wanting to.

Excited to go down the slide again!

At the foot of the slide
(My outfit: top from Uniqlo, culottes from Reckless Erika)

Sister accompanied the Littlest up the play structure

We finally boarded our plane, which departed Singapore on time at 11.50am. The flight was only 1 hour 10 minutes and we arrived at Kuching International Airport at 1pm, earlier than expected.

Kuching International Airport, Main Terminal

After clearing customs, we headed to AVIS to pick up our rental car. Due to my brother's AVIS membership, we managed to rent a Proton X90 for RM200 a day. Proton was now under the same parent company as Volvo, which explained why the 7-seater SUV looked so similar to the Volvo XC90 that we test-drove many years ago (would have bought it if it were within our budget)!

Our Proton X90 rental car

Spacious seats that reminded us of the Volvo XC90

Modern dashboard fully equipped with touch screens

The hubby loved the drive of the car! We were in disbelief that a Proton was of this level of quality (Protons are now made in China by the way)!

We drove for about 15 minutes to our accommodation, Sheraton Kuching Hotel.

Sheraton Kuching Hotel was one of the newest hotels in Kuching

Complimentary water at the lobby

We headed to our Superior Doubles Room, which we booked via Agoda for $164 per room per night.

Double beds, so that only one of us will get kicked by the Littlest 🤭

TV and study table

Coffee machine and refrigerator

Shower and liquid toiletries

Toilet

Usual amenities were provided

Our room on the 20th floor had a great view of the surrounding area 

View of popular landmarks in the distance

We could spot the uniquely cone-shaped Kuching South City Council and the beautiful Saint Peter's Catholic Church

As our last meal was at T4, we were all famished! We had our lunch at Nomadic restaurant at Level G of the hotel.

Excited to have our lunch

Our food took a really long time to come but when it did, it looked and tasted great! Maybe we were simply too hungry! 😅

Rice with chicken and prawn

Lobster noodles and fried kueh teow

Yummy satay!

After lunch, we drove to Vivacity Megamall, the largest mall in Kuching, for shopping and groceries.

Vivacity Megamall

Bought groceries from Everrise

After shopping, we gathered at my brother's 1-bedroom suite for dinner.

Living area

Yummy BBQ food we ordered via Grab Food

BBQ squid, cockles and vegetables

Cheers! 🍻 

The Littlest and I had originally wanted to swim but we were too tired! We all returned to our respective rooms to rest for the day!

From our room, we could see the unique illumination of the Kuching South City Council building at night! It was such an interesting sight to behold every night!

Very cool illuminations!

The Hubby and Littlest were asleep long before I went to bed (as usual I had packing and net-surfing to do 🤭)! Looking forward to more fun tomorrow!

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P.S: Read about our experiences with Marriott Bonvoy around the world:

• 2018: Sheraton Tokyo Bay Hotel (Japan)
• 2020: JW Marriott (Singapore)
• 2022: Westin Desaru Coast Resort (Malaysia)
• 2022: Westin Resort Nusa Dua (Bali, Indonesia)
• 2024: W Dubai, The Palm (Dubai, United Arab Emirates)

Continue to >> Kuching Day 2: Borneo Cultures Museum & My Brother's Birthday

~~~~~~~

Visit MADPSYCHMUM TRAVELS for the rest of my posts on Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia as well as other travel itineraries!

Please also follow my travel adventures on Instagram via the hashtag #madpsychmumtravels!