A Week without Sunday in Kuching - Day 3 Part B

7/10/2009

Instead of waiting for his return, we decided to go the Gersik village to see Dayang Salha's layered cake, famous for it's multi-color layer designs. We were allowed to enter the kitchen to see the procedures but unfortunately they only made Swiss roll on that day. Samples were placed on the table in the hall for free testing. F-R-E-E. So you can understand we needed the afternoon nap for at least 1/2 in the air-conditioned house, waiting for our bloated stomach to digest. Yes, that was what had happened at that time.

We headed back to Al-Fayad. Anuar finally returned. We ordered traditional food like Pansuh Manok, a traditional bamboo chicken cooked along with 15 kinds of herbs and Umai, an appetizer made of prawns marinated with lime and onions), and also their special's Al-Fayad Punch.

It took us 3 hours to have this meal! Gastric juice penetrated and burst out from our stomachs already. Plus, his appetizer and special punch were so sourish, adding to the pain of hunger we had to go through. He said the Pansuh would need 3 hours to prepare so we had to wait.

Then, Pansuh came. The wait was worthwhile when the smell flew out from the bamboo as he poured the essence from it. We began to eat like hungry wolves.

The whole meal costs 139 bucks. My heart cried thunderously, and I told myself, may the rain wash away the pain...

We spent the whole afternoon there since rain started to pour. He took out his giant umbrellas to keep water from splashing in. Since we had nothing to do, we sat down to discuss tomorrow's trip. Anuar came to us, telling us he also organizes trips (it's like rent-me-a-day kind of thing. But not as male escort, of course!), for 150 bucks per head. So we decided to tour with him, giving up the cultural village tour.

Anuar served us a cup of warm coffee as we were chit-chatting with one another, and also William.

William, a Belgium bagpacker who had been a week in Sarawak is very close with Anuar and his family. They called him their godson. He's a carpenter and also a brilliant mountain climber (yes, climb! those 90 degree's type of mountain!). He was extremely shy and quiet. All he did was smiled in his big built body and answered our questions for him one by one.

Anuar said he will be here for a month. He will bring him to travel across all regions of Sarawak, starting from the West all the way to the East (Bintulu and Miri). We were served a tiny portion of curry cooked by William with instructions from Anuar.

A little background info about Anuar, after an up-close interview with his wife:

He was a chef from Holiday Inn but quit to try his luck as an insurance agent. Due to tough competition from the Chinese, he couldn't continue in that line and also faced some legal problems. 6 months ago they moved to this place and established their own restaurant by their rented house and built the shelter all by himself. The name of his restaurant is named after his son, Fayad.