Locally known as the “Cat City”, the name of the city of Kuching is arguably thought to derive from the Malay word kucing, meaning cat. It is the capital and largest city of the East Malaysian state of Sarawak and the largest city on the island of Borneo, with a population of about 600,000. With its diverse cultures and pride in being the cleanest city in Malaysia, Kuching is considered a totally different experience from that of West Malaysia. Check your atlas to see the two geographically different areas of island and peninsula within the same country.

Just outside the city, in the shadow of Mount Santubong, is the Sarawak Cultural Village, a “living” museum created to showcase and preserve the state’s cultural heritage. Here you’ll find examples of traditional timber and thatched longhouses that represent the homes of Sarawak’s primary ethnic groups that still live that way today. Members of the tribes were on hand, dressed in traditional costumes, to explain their culture and tribal way of life. And, we watched a beautiful folkloric performance as graceful dancers in elaborate and brightly colored costumes and jewelry, told stories through their movements accompanied by traditional live music.

Sarawak Cultural Village, Kuching, Malaysia

Sarawak Cultural Village, Kuching, Malaysia

Sarawak Cultural Village, Kuching, Malaysia

Black pepper and cinnamon are so readily available today we hardly think about it, but this is where they’re from and it’s why this region was discovered by the early sea explorers who came in search of these and other exotic and treasured spices. The unassuming pepper plant, a highly traded commodity in Sarawak, is a flowering vine that produces clusters of berries that can be processed as green peppercorns or dried until the berries are black. Cinnamon is harvested from the bark of the tree of the same name.

At the city’s waterfront are some colonial buildings that hearken back to it’s British rule, a Main Bazaar, and a bustling Chinese district.

With such dramatic diversity on this tiny island of Borneo, between the head hunters of Kota Kinabalu, the poison blowdarts used by the Sarawak natives, and the rich native spices, I marvel at what it must have been like to discover these shores for the first time.

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