Friday 7th April- Orang utans In the morning, we headed back to the waterfront, to walk to the Islamic Museum. Although, along the way, we were distracted by the colourful and fragrant food market. There were stall upon stall of fresh fruit and veg, a few Indian stalls with oober cool mounds of vibrant coloured chili paste. Mum was mega impressed by the presentation of each stall- ie the carrots were made into little pointed mounds and tied neatly. They also had bean curd, which looked, interesting. We were further distracted by the sounds of slicing and dicing from the fish market. Mum, not being a fan of fish in the slightest, braved it for the cultural experience- and it was so worth it! Just check my photos- there was any type of fish you could ever imagine and more. Yet the smell was fine cause they were all freshly caught. I got some highly amusing pics of the fish mongers with their fishes- they were very keen to show them all off to us. Everyone was so friendly at the market- not in a sleezy way- just genuinely happy to see us, ask us where we're from and show us their produce. The coconut slicing guy asked for my pic, which I took with him, but then he got loads of stick from his mates- mum found that funny. From the "wet market", we walked to "Little India" and "Little China" town, which consisted of many dress fabric shops, repair shops, blacksmiths, traditional healers- loadsa diff stuff. We came across a nice park and Gran was impressed that the grass cutters stopped their cutting to let us past- I personally thought that they stopped to google us but I'd like to think Granny was right that they were just being polite. The heat was fair extreme by this point, so we took refuge in an oober posh hotel- "Merderka Palace" and were chuffed to find air con and a café. We had a drink at the café then got some delish food in the Hotel's Italian restaurant. Must say the food we got in Kuching was spectacular. We went to the lobby of this hotel to catch a taxi and it turned out to be pretty much.. a Palace- was just posh as. We couldn't believe the Lonely Planet had described it as "a bit dark and dingy"- that's why we didn't go and check it out- now we were thinking- this place is amazing- but the hotel we stayed in was good as well though. Headed back sharpish to our Hotel, cause we had a tour booked to see the orang-utans. As you've prob heard, I loved the orang utans so much on the East Coast of Sabah, that I visited the sanctuary twice, so I thought I'd have to show mum and Gran just how impressive they are. The reserve in Kuching is different to that of Sabah, The orangutans are pretty much wild, and do not rely on the feeding platforms, so it's less likely to see them on a visit- but oh my it was worth it! When we arrived, the taxi driver warned us that the weather was about to change- ha! A friggin full on monsoon hit us. And what did we not bring? A brolly or a rain coat between us- hilarious! We all got to the platform, absolutely sodden- but soon enough a cheeky male came to the platform for a few bananas, but was scared off- and we soon saw why. In the distance, we could see entire trees being pulled horizontal- seriously- this orang-utan was huge. He was the size of the gorillas I've seen in Edinburgh zoo, if not bigger and his coat was indescribable. It was perfect- like he'd combed it, and sooo long. It fell from the top of his back, down the entire length of his body, and when he sat on the platform, his thick, ginger hair lay behind him- it was hard to think he was real and not just a big guy in a suit. As Gran said- it was worth coming to Kuching just to see him. We could tell he was Mr Dominant Male cause of his size, coat as well as his hyoge face. He had a massive dark face, extending out at the cheeks and it looked pretty solid- where as the other orangutans have cute soft, round faces. He was a bit camera shy and turned his back to us- in addition, the rain was pelting so hard that it was really difficult to get a photo of him, which was a bit of a shame. When he swung away into the rain forest again, everyone was in complete awe. Next, came down a tiny female that we thought was a baby. But the guide told us that this was the Dominant Male's girlfriend and that she was about 10 years old. God help her for breeding with that mahuusive giant is all I'm gona say. Back to the hotel- all a little bit soggy and got changed and set out to another of LP's recommendations- Tom's Place. Had some trouble finding it at first, since most of the maps are a bit dodgy and tend to miss things like roundabouts out. But thankfully we found it and it was def worth it. Had a kind of NZ feel and the food was intense. Was highly amusing- the waitress took mum's order of Lamb and she kept saying "Are you sure- will you eat it all?" etc, we were like "YES". And when it came it was just what the doc ordered. All the food was fab. Was a bit fatal to be seated in front of the cake display. Ended up getting some yummy deserts. But we think that they took mum's apple crumble for a little trip sightseeing in the back of the kitchen before we actually got it. Took like ½ hour to cut it up for us. Back to hotel for sleep.