Posted: 17 Aug 2014 04:30 PM PDT

by Matthew Umpang, reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on August 18, 2014, Monday

KUCHING: Minister of Tourism Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg was full of praise for the organisers of the inaugural Kuching Marathon yesterday.

He said the ability of locals to organise such a big-scale event deserved recognition, adding that he hoped to see more of such events held in the state in the future.

"This event (Kuching Marathon) is indeed the new pride of Sarawakians. I really hope it will be included in the Asian marathon calendar soon," he said during the prize-giving ceremony.

He advised the Kuching Marathon Association (KMA) to seek international accreditation.

Abang Johari noted that the Kuching Marathon had its own unique `flavour' and hoped it could help woo more foreign tourists to the state.

"I heard that many of the international participants love the unique combination of scenic beauty and levels of difficulty of this Kuching Marathon. To me, that is a compliment for the people of Sarawak."

One of the features of the marathon is that the participants had to run through traditional villages and various tourist attractions in the city.

For that reason, Abang Johari wanted the event to offer bigger cash prizes in future.

He also wanted all relevant facilities to be upgraded by next year.

"I believe this marathon will one day be as prestigious as the Penang and Kuala Lumpur marathons. That is the standard we are looking at.

"In addition, we should also look at other prestigious international marathons, such as the Singapore marathon, as a benchmark of sorts.

"But I am confident Sarawak will have its own brand of marathon."

Kuching Marathon was jointly organised by KMA and Kuching North City Commission (DBKU).

Also present during the ceremony was DBKU mayor Datuk Abang Abdul Wahap Abang Julai.

Abang Johari and DBKU Datuk Bandar Datuk Abang Abdul Wahap Abang Julai were also present during the marathon's flag off in the morning.

<b>Kuching</b>, Borneo — The Adventures of Samantha and Paul

Posted: 19 May 2014 01:52 PM PDT

Kuching was the first of three stops in Borneo, a "sophisticated and chic city" surrounded with luscious natural parks, all within easy day-visit reach. We'd be in Kuching for four days, staying at the LimeTree hotel, highest rated on Trip Advisor. A white minibus picked us up from the airport, "Just two?" our driver asked. On the surface, and compared to Kuala Lumpur, the city is small, and beyond the golden crowned Sarawak State Assembly and pointed library, it looked like there wasn't much to do. Equally, switching from five star business luxury to a modest but quirky and characterful hotel was a shock to the system. Nonetheless, we loved everything about this city and this hotel, and we could have stayed twice as long — there's so many places to see and places to eat. It exudes a relaxed charm, not unlike Hoi An in Vietnam, or even Paraty in Brazil.

Kuching at night

The LimeTree hotel

The LimeTree hotel takes a lime theme and runs with it, skips with it, hops with it, and then drop kicks it into some sort of lime shaped net. Everything is green; sofas, doors, pillows, toiletries. Drinks are served on green trays with felt green lining. The free welcome drink is a lime soda, made from homegrown limes. Cocktails all have a lime twist. Lime trees decorate the bar and foyer. Then there are the perfect lime puns, the downstairs restaurant named "Sublime", the rooftop bar "Limelight". The shop sells boiled lime sweets and aprons bearing the lyric, "I've had the lime of my life". Juicy.

With so much to do we were diligent in our plans. Within an hour of arriving we'd booked the Bumbu cooking class for Thursday, met the cook ("chef" is a protected title) and paid our deposit. Tomorrow we'd visit Bako national park, and Friday we'd probably go to Kubah national park. The hotel offered tours through companies to these places, but they cost upwards of £50 each. Instead we organised a taxi pick-up and drop off, we'd do it ourselves for a fraction of the price.

Exploring Kuching

Settled, unpacked, and over the newly found crack on the camera's screen (fixed with some sticky tape from reception), we ventured out into late-afternoon Kuching. From the hotel you can walk along the riverfront into town, it's a pleasant 10 minute stroll if the sun isn't trying to melt you. On the opposite riverbank is the prestigious Sarawak assembly, it looks gorgeous, though it's not worth crossing the river to see inside. The air was filled with the sounds of bad karaoke coming from across the river.

From the waterfront promenade we found new chinatown and the main bazaar. T-shirts bore the Sarawak emblem of a hornbill bird, wrapped in a green Starbucks-esque circle. Shops overflow onto the paths, and there are many cultural craft shops and galleries, some with classic or antique carvings that are both mysterious and frightening. Little stalls on the roadside sell Kek Lapis, tasty layer cakes of all flavours, from chocolate to bright green pandan leaves — tastings are free and we must have bought at least four of these lovely treats. Though the canned "winter melon" and "green tea jasmine" soft drinks were so weird we only took two sips, then bought ice cream and more drinks to washout the flavour.

Yucky winter watermelon and green tea drinks

Traditional Dayak cuisine

For dinner we felt adventurous, looking for some authentic and radical local cuisine. Dyak seemed perfect, it specialises in traditional Dayak recipes — concoctions of flavours with fresh rainforest vegetables that are unheard of. Dayak is a collective term for the indigenous tribesfolk of Borneo. Photos of tribes and traditional tribal acts adorned the walls, alongside oil paintings and peculiar spiralling murals. We started by knocking back a shot of Tuak Indu each, a local fortified rice wine. We weren't sure how much to order, but dishes were cheap, so we ended up with much more than we could eat but with a bit of everything we wanted.

Paku kubok (Giant jungle ferns — midin, stir fried with wild ginger flowers, anchovies and chillies)
Tilapia gulai terung dayak asam terjun (Spicy tilapia soup — with fish head, and orange egg-plant)
Ulam raja (Shallots, wild ginger flower, ginger, lemongrass, lots of chillies, anchovies, lime)

The curly jungle ferns tasted odd, both fresh and pithy. Wild ginger flower is quite delicious.

A tower of Dayak cuisine, Ulam raja Next →

Penonton: <b>Kuching</b> Marathon 2014 - Top 3 winners

Posted: 17 Aug 2014 08:17 PM PDT

Date: 17 Aug 2014

A short race review

The weather was cooling on race day, with a slight drizzle. Gun off for the full marathon was exactly at 3.00 at the Padang Merdeka. On the contrary, the route is not as flat as anticipated, but lots of gradual and rolling hills, some hills gradually stretched up to 3-4km in distance! However the obvious climbs are the slopes at the bridges, and there were about 4 of them.

In the city street before the first bridge, most of the roads were closed from traffic. One big plus point here!

After the first bridge, the route lead us to some kind of suburb/rural housing areas, and maybe because it is still dark, but lots of locals came out to cheer the runners, some with their guitars! I have never see anything like that anywhere else in the entire Malaysia. One big star for the Sarawakians.

And then we left the housing areas for the road around the Palace and Cat Museum. Here you get to run on straight beautiful road with beautiful matured trees. In the dark with just the street light, one can imagine how beautiful these roads looks like during the day. And then roundabouts in Kuching. Lots of huge roundabouts. Another big plus point for the scenic route.

Some stretch were just plain lonely and quiet without any houses at all. I remember this gone into extreme from km 20 onwards and you only get to be accompanied by the rolling hills, and on and off you get to have the exitement of overtaking somebody orthe other way round. Otherwise this part is really mind challenging if you are running alone. There is a station at km 20 that gave out Power-Gel! Another plus point!

Km 32 - km 35 is rather scenic because of the brightly lited Sarawak Energy's building following the Business Convention center. Here another round of free energy gels, banana were given.

As we moved into the city towards the finishing line, there were more slopes to conquer. Which will make it a bit challenging especially at the final few kms.

Along the way, the road were nice to run on, without potholes or such, only some speed bumpers around the housing areas. Plenty of marshalls along the way in every roundabout, junctions and directions boards. In the city, plenty of traffic police were present to ensure the roads are remained closed. Drinks and refreshment are served by the volunteers. In terms of the race itself, the Kuching Marathon organisers has raised such a high standard. The prize giving ceremony was rather chaotic and there was a bit of a wait during the race pack collection, but given the fact that this is the first year, these usually will only improve for the better.

But the biggest highlight of the race is that there are actually people that came out to cheer the runners in some morning while it is still dark that makes me thing the all Malaysians should turn to learn something from the Sarawakian. And another thing...Sarawakians from all walks of life and of all races eat together in the coffeeshops. A bigh thumbs up for Kuching Marathon. Should be considered an annual event.

More photos here