Just recently, I relocated from Manchester, UK to Kuching (map), Malaysia and I would like properly introduce you all, my Local Guides family, to my hometown!
Personal history
I was born in Malacca (map) to an army dad so as a family we did move a bit. When I was around 4 (I think) we moved to Selangor (map) where we stayed in a suburb of Petaling Jaya. And at 6 years old, we moved all the way, across the South China Sea to Kuching.
I did my primary and secondary education in Kuching before leaving in 1998 to Singapore (map) to do my A-Levels before hopping onto a plane to Leeds (map), UK to do my degree. Upon graduation in 2004, I found a job in Oldham (map), moved to Manchester (map) in 2005 and made it my home.
Fast forward to 2020 and Iāve now relocated to Kuching to spend some quality time with my parents before figuring out what career options I should take. You can actually watch the crazy travel vlog that I did to document the experience!
So thatās the general time frame and Iāve actually spent more time outside Malaysia than I have in it! And the last time that I was in Kuching was in 2005 and 2009. A lot of things have changed and I can honestly tell you that I feel pretty foreign in my own hometown!
Fun facts about Kuching
- Kuching is the capital of Sarawak, which is the largest state in Malaysia. The land area of Sarawak is 124,450 km2 which is about 37.7% of the size of Malaysia (329,847 km2)
- Kuching was granted city status on 1 August 1988.
- The population count based on 2019 info is 570,407 people. You could say weāre a small city and sometimes itās reflected in our more laid back attitude.
- As we are situated in Borneo, ecotourism is a major industry here and Kuching is the primary gateway for tourists wanting to visit Borneo.
- Within an hourās drive away from the city centre, you could be sat sunbathing on the white sands of Damai Puri Resort & Spa (map), going jungle trekking at Matang Wildlife Centre (map), satisfying your foodie cravings at the old style charm of Siniawan Night Market (map), seeing orang utans at the Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre (map), playing golf at Malaysiaās first Arnold Palmer designed course at Damai Golf and Country Club (map), learning about our cultural diversity at the Sarawak Cultural Village (map), or even bargain hunting for local and Indonesian products at the weekend markets in border town Serikin (map).
- Kuching is the only city in Malaysia that has two mayors; one governs the north, the other the south.
- Folks from Kuching are called Kuchingites. And folks from Sarawak are called Sarawakians.
- The demographic of Kuching is very diverse and thankfully, all the various races integrate well with each other. It is very common for Sarawakians to speak 2 or more languages: both Malay and English languages are compulsory to learn at school and most families would also have their own dialect (Hokkien, Hakka, Iban, Bidayuh etc).
- We have a Cat Museum (map), a CATS FM private radio station, Cat Statues (map) at roundabouts and cats, cats, cats everywhere!
Kuching, the Cat City
Kuching is called the Cat City because in the local Malay language, the word for cat is ākucingā and is pronounced in exactly the same way as Kuching.
Another story to the origin of the name is that it came from the word ācochinā which is a general term for port/harbour used by China and British India during the trading years.
And yet another story says that the name comes from the longan fruit, popular trading item, which locally is called ābuah mata kucingā or the cats-eye fruit! And yes, the longan fruit with its seed, does look like a catās eyeball!
Whatever the true origin is to the name, the people of Kuching have adopted the cat as its mascot and you can certainly see tons of cat statues throughout the city! If youāre a cat lover, it is so fun to find these statues and take some lovely selfies with them! And if youāre not a cat lover, you just havenāt met a cat cute enough to melt your cold, cold, coldā¦ coldā¦ heart. Assuming you have one. 
Calling all Kuching Local Guides
I am still trying to get used to the hot and humid weather here and getting my bearings on where everything is since nothing looks the same to me anymore and my memory is pretty rusty too! And Iām also keeping a semi low profile whilst the coronavirus is still out and about (Iām living with my parents so need to make sure that weāre all safe) but I am reaching out to all the Kuching Local Guides out there and would love to get in touch!
Is there a community set up here? Do folks do meet-ups? When I was in Manchester, I was helping to coordinate meet-ups with the Local Guide community there and I would love to replicate that fun social circle here in Kuching! If you are from Kuching do introduce yourself in the comments below or if you know someone from Kuching, please give them a nudge! And if you want to know more about me, you can read my Connect Live 2020 application post which, I think, gives a reasonably good summary of my work with Local Guides!
I hope that you have enjoyed this short introduction to Kuching! If youāve ever been to Kuching, do share your experiences in the comments below. Or if you want to know more, Iāll try my best to answer your queries. This is a whole new chapter in my life and Iām keen to share my journey exploring Kuching with you all so do expect more future posts on my exploits! It may take a while though for me to build up enough photos/videos/reviews to put into a post!
This is the start of a new series and Iām calling it the #ThePurrfectCity. So do watch out for the hashtag or go ahead and search for it too on Connect to see if Iāve added any new posts to the series. Thanks for reading and stay safe!
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