(Part 2) The trail continues

Crossing this courtyard garden, the visitors will face the Chinese designed archway entrance to Carpenter Street, but before crossing the street, turn to the right to see two odd century-old buildings, the Pavillion and the Round Tower.

The former is a squarish building with a unique design and is now the Textile Museum. The latter looked like a rural medieval Spanish building and was a government dispensary.

Opposit these two building is the impressive Old General Post Office, perhaps the only building employing Corinthian columns in this part of the world.

The far end of the General Post Office is the St Thomas Cathedral built during the reign of the first Rajah. Walking across the road and pass the Merdeka Palace Hotel is the famous Sarawak Museum, which was said to be built in 1871 on the advice of Alfred Russel Wallace, another famous naturalist and comteporary of Charles Darwin. This side tracking from the Post Office to the Museum may add another hour or so to the trek, so unless time is on your side, this part of the walk may be left out, but one would be missing a vital part of Kuching’s attraction

Next, on entering the Chinese archway into Carpenter Street, another old world charm of antiquated shophouses greets the visitors. This almost century old street houses many furniture shops, trading houses, two temples and many traditonal Chinese-run coffee shops or affectionately known as kopitiam.

There are two street junctions here where even older buildings can be seen, the China Street and Bishopsgate Street. Some old tinsmith and metalworks tradesmen still ply their trade here.  They are a  truly a vanishing breed.

There is a Chinese Temple, the Hiang Thian Siang Ti built by the Teochew, a Chinese dialect group from South China, who were among the earliest immigrants to settle in Kuching. There are several backpackers inns along this street as well as “boutique” tea house, (kopitiams with attitude?) for the discerning locals and visitors. Many are worth a visit as they have interesting menus.

Ewe Hai Street is  actually the continuation of Carpenter Street which ends at the junction with Wayang Street. Another temple, the Hong San Si Temple stands at this intersection. This temple was built in 1843 by another dialect group of Kuching, the Hokkiens. The unique feature of this temple is the intricate designs and images on the roofs. All these three temples are familiar with visitors and Hong San Si even print brochures describing its background and welcome them to browse around and take photographs.

As you exit the Hong San Si Temple, turning left is a short walk to the Kuching Waterfront, where the pink rectangular one-storey building of the Chinese History Museum is situtated. The Museum archives some interesting artifacts and contains a wealth of information of early Chinese immigrants to Sarawak during the Brooke era. The building itself was built in 1917 and has a court governing the local Chinese population and later converted into the Chinese Chamber of Commerce.

Across the busy intersection in front of this museum is the Tua Pek Kong Temple where the trek starts, thus ending the trek. It may be worthwhile to take another leisurely walk along the Kuching Waterfront to savour some scenic views of Kuching with the Matang mountians in the background, or take a ride on the tambang, the water taxi, to the opposite bank of the river to visit the ground of the White Rajah’s Astana.

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