Still pushing on the pulling door

Kuching People

Saw Kenwooi's blog reecntly and his latest blog post was about the food in Kuching during his visit back in November. So I thought maybe I could post something about Kuching as well.

1. Hokkien

If you don't know how to speak this dialect, it's a huge disadvantage because almost 80% of the chinese in Kuching speaks that dialect even if they're not 'hokkien lang' (hokkien people). I find it difficult to speak that dialect as I'm teochew which is pretty similar to hokkien but sounds softer and more polite. No kidding. Anyway, I can understand the dialect but I don't really speak it. Sometimes I find it difficult to respond when people speak that dialect to me but I'm trying to adapt to the pronunciation of it. I also find that Kuching people are more similar to Singaporean. Why? Because we speak the same dialect in general and we share the same cusses. I somehow realize this during the days in PLKN. Sabahan speaks more like KL people and Kuchingnites sounded like aliens to them.. Hahah..

2. Food

I'm not sure about other places, but Kuching people can crack in Kolo Mee every morning and drink their favourite 'kopi O' every meal in any coffee shop. Others might feel that it gets really boring eating the same food everyday. But we can do it if it's Kolo Mee because it's every local's favourite and I'm pretty sure every single guy out there has their favourite store as well. Weird but true, it's hard for me to eat sausages and bread in the morning but stuffing myself with 'Kolo Mee', 'Sarawak Laksa' or 'Kueh Chap' is as easy as ABC.

3. Cars

Kuching people love cars. Be it man or woman, you see both genders drive sports car in Kuching. Where did the money come from? Ferrarri? Lamborghini? Nissan 370? Skyline GTR? it's so common here in Kuching man.. Other than that, most of the drivers drive like they are government. I mean most of them, not everybody. Some don't fucking care to hit the signal lights when they wanna' turn into some junction or whatsoever. Some follow the ass of your car as if Mafias are chasing you down. They also like to install some fancy super bright I-donno-what-led-or-something front light that blinds you when you're driving. That's kinda sad, but true..

4. "Unfriendly Face, Friendly Heart"

I start to realize this is quite true ever since I started making new friends. It's funny how people show their 'really-cool-&-chill-face' (lansi) when they don't know you. I started to clarify this fact in the gym. Everyday, you get to see new faces that you have never seen before, talk to the people you have never greeted before. It's just so clear that their face is exactly like =/ before you talk to them, and their face changed from =/ to =) after you start talking to them. Why? You ask me? I donno' too but that's how a lot of people act. Well, there are still friendly and funny people out there, but most of the guys act really coooooool. Besides, it's not good to smile to anybody you don't know as well (especially to teenagers) because they will look back at you as if you were gay.

5. Not so outgoing

If you ask any local about the tourism spots in Kuching, they'll say "uhhh.. donno? got meh?" Honestly, we love to go traveling, flying our asses to KL/etc is a lot of fun, go there and spend our penny on clothes, for entertainment like Sunway Lagoon, Genting Highland and etc. But we don't do it in Kuching, Borneo Highland? Fairy Caves? Mt. Santubong? Jong's Crocodile Farm? Semengguh Park? Many many many locals have never been to those places before. Sometimes, it's funny to see tourists who are here for like maybe 2 weeks have visited all the places I mentioned. Like I said, I don't even have the cat statue photo and I have to grab it from somewhere else. That' how we roll.