The last bit of the holiday was the stopover for three nights in Kuching in Sarawak. We had stopped briefly in Sarawak on the way to Kuala Lumpur five weeks earlier. From the air one sees the chocolate brown Sarawak River snaking through the lush, emerald green jungle. We arrived about midday after a meal of nasi dagang, my favourite Malay dish, on the aeroplane. We checked into the Holiday Inn. A room with a view over the Sarawak River. Although I arrived jet lagged I have had five or six hours of chemically induced sleep on the flight from London to Kuala Lumpur so I am ready to hit the shops in Kuching until bedtime local time. I successfully manage to get some local currency out of the Maybank teller machine. I then go to a photo shop and buy half a dozen rolls of remarkably cheap Fuji film. The next day, after breakfast at the hotel, we go for a ride around the city on the tourist bus. It is just an introduction to get the lie of the land. After that we walk the esplanade. On the way back the mood takes us to cross the river to go to Fort Margherita named after the wife of Charles Brooke, the second white rajah. The Fort gives a good view of the city from across the river. Being the second full day, I have booked a trip to the Cultural Village. Here there are several different types of dayak longhouses, Malay and Chinese farm houses. Even though the village is not the real thing because it has been built for tourism, it is nevertheless very interesting. Following this tour of the houses we enter into a very cold air-conditioned theatre for a cultural show by people in their native costumes. The cultural village is close to one of several jungle-clad limestone mountains rising very steeply out of the surrounding plain. The top of the mountain is above the clouds. It is so steep that I wonder how anyone could climb up there. It is the last full day and I want to see the museum that we had passed on the bus the first day. The museum is a very distinctive European-style building perched on the top of a hill. The architect responsible for the building was French and he modelled the building on a town hall in Normandy. Inside the building they have constructed the interior of a Dayak longhouse. The displays include displays of the local flora and fauna and it was very interesting. After this I headed for the river and made another crossing heading for the Astana which was the residence of the Brooke’s who ruled Sarawak until the Japanese invasion. Unfortunately the Astana is not open to the public.