August 28,

We were up by 0700, had our Javas and breakfast of Muesli with milk. We readied and packed leisurely. I even blogged some. Jeff returned the key – this place wanted it returned to a mailbox. He texted the host and we were out by 1130 – loaded up in the car. We will leave Kuching for a couple of nights, but we will return after that.

Before we left we went to the Cat Museum. We thought it was odd to have a cat museum, but Kuching means “cat” in Malay. So we had to go. At the entry we paid 15 RM total, with Jeff using a senior discount again. This is $3.55. It was a very… busy(?) museum. There was all sorts of cat odd memorabilia: posters, cat knick knacks, comic strips of cats, movie posters of cats, some private collections of cat stuff, a few taxidermied pet cats, even a walk-through exhibit on big cats- lions, tigers, leopards, ocelots, etc. If you are a cat lover, this is your place. We got “catted” out and left after about an hour.

We loaded up and went to lunch at “Chica.go 7” in a shopping mall. I had Chicken Chop with cheese and mushroom sauce; fries; and coleslaw. Jeff had Spicy Fried Chicken; mashed potatoes with gravy; and coleslaw. Cost us 44.50 RM, which is $10.53. We went to a grocery store, then headed out of Kuching. It’s about 70 miles to our destination. It will be our 33rd anniversary on the 29th. So Jeff planned a little getaway. At 1530, we hit some hard rain, but it slowed down a bunch, just about the time I was thinking we should pull over. I kept watch after this for any kind of wildlife, but never saw anything. We pulled off at the small town, Lundu to get gas. Put in 50 RM, or $11.83 worth. Then we resumed. The road had been stellar coming out here, actually seemed too nice or built up for this area. We arrived at our new place, Roxy Beach Condo, just outside of Sematan, Malaysia at 1610.

We found our place on the second floor, obtained the keys, and unloaded. We have a great view of the beach, and direct access to it. It was still warm, but we did go out around 1830 for sunset. It was a nice beach, and loads of shells. Sunset wasn’t the bestest but it was good to just be walking on a beach. Nice end to the day.

      August 29,

         Happy Anniversary to us!!!

We got up, having both of us slept quite well! Actually this surprised me as the bed is pretty hard. Glad Jeff slept well… maybe he’s adjusted to proper bed arrangements.🤣  Anyway, we got around having our Javas on our balcony, enjoying the soft surf sounds. The beach has a few more people on it, but they are already coming in. Early birds. We had our breakfast of oatmeal with Nutella.

There was no agenda today, but we decided to go for a drive. We wanted to go up the little point that is Tanjung Datu National Park and is split basically in the middle…half is the nation of Malaysia, the other half belongs to Indonesia. We drove following this big highway 1 til it ended at a big roundabout. It then became a bit smaller road and did the same – ending in a roundabout. It was literally the end of the road! The only way to get about the national park was hiking on trails. We thought about going on a trail but the Rafflesia, the world’s biggest individual flower, was not blooming. So we nixed that. I did not want anymore leeches!!

We loaded back up in the car and puttered around just driving around in some small villages. The only wildlife we saw was a Kingfisher, and a monitor lizard in the road. We then went back to Lundu and found a local street scene. We split a lemon chicken with rice and a lemon iced tea. Then we went to the grocery store and bought an ice cream bar. Went in search of a dessert to celebrate our anniversary and found the local cake shop. Bought a brownie-like cake with a Biscoff topping.

We loaded up and went back to our place and relaxed. Early evening we went down to one of the restaurants in our complex, After 4. We ordered a Grilled Lamb Shoulder with Mushroom Sauce and Fries; and Butter Fish, which was a semisweet, spicy sauce over battered fried fish pieces. We also had some Garlic Bread; I had a lemon iced tea; and Jeff had a Lemon juice. It was a good meal and cost us 91.80 RM, or $21.73.

Then we went back to our room and opened a sparkling wine, and tried to watch the Music Man, but did not have a good streaming reception. Too bad. But it was a good day nonetheless!!