Day 3: Damai Beach Resort - Kampung Buntal

Our last day by the beach, we woke up to the perfect weather. No rain, no scorching sun. After an awesome buffet breakfast, we hit the sand. The tide was coming in so the waves were quite high. But since we were not there to do any actual swimming, staying just by the water's edge was enough. It was a great experience and everyone had a great time. It was with great reluctance that we said goodbye to Damai Beach Resort.
We stopped off at Kampung Buntal for Friday Prayers and lunch. Lunch was at a quaint little open air restaurant named One Buntal Cafe (next to Serimah Enterprise). The food was simple, unpretentious and quite delicious. Truly kampung style. Their Assam Tenggiri is a must try and the sambal belacan was superb.
We then stopped off at the many roadside stalls to buy salted fish, belacan, terubuk, prawns & Pais. Pais is a local delicacy that looks like otak-otak but is eaten with rice.
Hopefully, one day we'll come back to Damai.

Day 2: Damai Beach Resort

As the rain steadily drizzled outside, we headed for the next destination on our trip, Damai Beach Resort. Located close to the famous mountain Santubong.
The resort was packed but somehow we managed to score a gorgeous chalet a few steps away from the beach. By around 6 pm the weather cleared and everyone hit the beach. And what a beach it was too. Beautiful, pristine, white sands and an amazing view as far as the eyes can see. The kids had a great time splashing in the waves and building castles in the sand.
Dinner was a seafood feast at a well known seafood haven, kampung Buntal. We went to a small place called Restoran Selera Masam Manis. Not much to look at compared to the other bigger seafood places there. It was however the only Malay owned restaurant. Previously I had tried one of the huge Chinese seafood restaurants and really liked the food, so we were hoping that this place can also live up to expectations.
We had steamed terubuk, sweet & sour siakap, buttered prawns, sotong goring tepung and veggies. The sweet & sour fish was absolutely delicious, the steamed one was also very good. I liked the butter prawn too (though no one makes better butter anything than Hj Shahrin Low). The only disappointment was the squid, instead of being crispy coated, it resembled squid fritters (cucur). The price was relatively cheap too, all that (plus drinks) was less than RM 160.
By the time we got home, everyone was knackered and fell straight into bed.

Day 1: Merdeka Palace, Kuching

After arriving at Kuching International Airport as the sun was setting in the horizon, we made our way to Merdeka Palace Hotel & Suites. This is my second stay here. The last was under very different circumstances. My brother and his little family had already checked in prior to our arrival, so we immediately made our way to our 2-bedroom suite high overlooking the Kuching skyline.
The kids were delighted with the spacious rooms and immediately started running everywhere with their cousin. As we were sitting down to take a short breather before heading out for dinner, we were lucky to have a perfect view of an amazing fire-works display.
Dinner though was a bust. It turned out that we had driven straight into throngs of people celebrating the Sea Deity Festival. Roads were closed, cars were lined up by the roadside. So we headed back to the hotel and ordered room service. By the way, the Hainanese Chicken rice here is simply delicious. :)