My Sarawakian Sojourn (Otherwise known as What I Did With Whatever Free Time I Had After Finishing Lectures in Kuching) - Part I

Saturday - 7.30 pm.

At last, a long day of assessments finished. I don't think anyone outside the education industry really has a firm idea of what superhuman effort is needed to sit through 6 hours of hearing students give a presentation on a topic of their choice. Some of them do try hard, bless their souls. It's always a pleasure to get students who try their best, even though they don't deliver a superb piece of work. Bravo to them.

However, you do get the other side of the spectrum, where even after being given 3 weeks the best they can come up with is a scrap of paper that was just jotted down a half an hour before their presentations...sigh...

Anyway, I'm rambling. Back to reality. 7.30pm, and my student Rackford agreed to send me back to the hotel for a long-deserved rest. Upon reaching, I straight away did a flying dive for the bed... perhaps on par with the Malaysian diving team, but with the grace and style of a hippo belly-flopping into the water... I longed to close my eyes and forget the world, but I knew Rackford would be along shortly to pick me up, so I dragged myself out of the bed and take a hot, hot shower...Full blast...

Fast forward...

Photo taken from here

The Kuching Riverfront... A beautiful place, reminiscent of the promenades they have in Paris. Charming little booths dotted the walkway, some with traditional craftsmen peddling their wares, charming mini longhouses, beads, and Pua cloths; but mostly the booths were of food...glorious food...enticing smells of food wafted into my midst... Familiar smells of food back home, yet strangely exotic, infused with the flavours of Borneo...

"Are we there yet?" I asked Rackford, my stomach already playing Beethoven's Sixth Symphony...With a little bit 'Wild Thing' (The Troggs - 1965) thrown in.

"Not yet sir" Said Rackford with a smile. "First, we have to go on that" He said, pointing to a strange-looking vessel on the water... A sampan... With a top... Painted in bright yellow... With the DIGI logo splashed proudly on top...

Photo credit here

Curiouser and curiouser... In the words of Alice in Wonderland.

After a short ride on the sampan we arrived at our destination - Kampung Barok - A quaint little kampung turned eating haven, bustling with life. My students said that it was one of the most 'happening' places in all of Kuching, and that If you didn't book a table in hours in advance, you would have to wait for hours before you actually get a table...and even a couple of hours before you got your food! OOOhhhh Mama!!!

Kampung Barok. Photo credit here

We had a blast! The food was good, and the company was excellent! It's moments like these that I treasure, where I get to know my students, where they become real people with their own stories to tell...

At the end of the day, through the toil and trouble we go through in and out of the lecture rooms, it's the students who make everything worthwhile...

I love my students.