Rainy Kuching!

The temple which was having a birthday celebration

Yes the rainy season is in full swing in Borneo and there has been flooding and landslides for several weeks now in various places. Tuaran seems to have been fine but the streets of Kudat were flooded last week as have several other places in Sabah with the rain from the mountains making the rivers burst their banks. Anyway last Wednesday I went to Kuching, a place I love, and one it seems I haven't been for ages so I was excited about the prospect of doing some Kuching shopping. That was not the real reason I was there however and before I had time to do my shopping I had two days of meetings with the Symposium committee at the Hilton. "Symposium" seems to be a slightly pretentious name for a conference which is going to be held on 4-6 March and is involving the teachers that we are working with in the schools. There are going to be keynote speakers who are well known in the EFL world and then lots of workshops run by the teachers and mentors. It is going to be a huge event which entails so many things to think of I'm glad there is a committee of 20 strong to cope with it all. I am responsible for communications which involves the media, film crew, PR company, social media etc.... most of these things I wouldn't have had a clue about last year but am just about holding my head above water and I have had a couple of meetings with film companies who are obviously trying to impress me - which I find rather odd!!

Chinatown

  Anyway, I won't bore you with all the details now as the next few weeks will be getting busier with all the organisational details. Sarong and Ko have an order for 50 "Miss World" sashes in a batik pattern for the committee and helpers to wear so I had to choose and buy enough sarongs. It looks like Sophia and I will be sewing frantically as well. Anyway back to my shopping. I came back with another bark mat for my house which are woven by the Iban tribe. Each of them are different and it is so difficult to choose but I'm pleased with the one I got. The other things I bought were cheap wall hangings and wooden holders to make my walls look more colourful. Of course I was looking longingly at the carvings, totem poles, furniture etc. but they won't fit in the suitcase. Maybe next visit I might be tempted!?

Delicious Sarawak Laksa 

  Kuching has a large Chinese community and after two days in the Hilton I moved out into a small hotel in  Chinatown which was charming if rather noisy. On Friday night it was one of the Temple God's birthday and there was a huge procession of lions, dragons, drumming, flags etc all in the pouring rain. It was such a shame for everyone but they seemed to keep going until late despite all the rain. The next night there seemed to be lots of drumming again which someone thought was just the preparation for the lion dances for Chinese New Year which is fast approaching. It continued to rain over the weekend and it seemed strange to see the river so high and brown, however Kuching is still one of my favourite places even in the rain!