Day 63 (8 August): Colonial Outpost in the Jungle

I spent the day today exploring the city of Kuching, which I found to be one of the most pleasant cities I've been to of its size (around 350,000 people) anywhere. I went to the Sarawak Museum (with exhibts on local industry, wildlife, and tribal populations,) the Islam Museum (detailing the history of Islam in Malaysia,) a Mosque, a Sikh Temple, a Chinese Temple, a Hindu Church. I also explored the city's colonial buildings, markets, and waterfront. At the end of the day, I took a boat trip on the river to see some of the outskirts of town more and still found that the local houses, while on stilts in traditional style, looked quite modern.

Observations:
1) The tourism authority and investment. I went to the tourism authority office to book accomodation in a local national park where I planned to spend the next two nights. There, in addition, to the local tourism information, I found materials on how to become active in investing in Malaysian Industy; I also found materials on how to buy a second home in Malaysia. I think its interesting and quite smart of the Malaysian government to be promoting such things through the tourism offices. This seems like what one of the goals of tourism should be in 'developing' countries although I'm not sure that Malaysia really is one, although it could still use foreign investment.
2) Language. I haven't mentioned this yet, but the people in Malaysia's command of English is excellent; it seems to be everybody's second language. On the streets in Kuching it is also common to hear Mandarin Chinese (as the Chinese population in Kuching is greater than 30%) and even a bit of Japanese among the older people (perhaps as a result of the Japanese occupation of Malaysia before WWII?) Since I know at least a bit of all three of these 'second' language it makes walking around and interacting quite comfortable.
3) Big business and museums. Shell Oil sponsored one of the exhibts in the Sarawak Museum on the Oil Business in Borneo. I guess this makes sense since Shell wants to promote the idea of being a 'Socially Responsible' business and it is a big part of the 'industry' in Sarawak at least from a monetary perspective.
4) Entrepenurship. I ended up in a long conversation with one of the local merchants about what he should do and what strategies he should take since he is thinking about opening a local hotel. He was asking me very detailed questions on what I thought, etc.
5) Temperment of people. The people in Kuching are hands down the friendliest people I have met on my trip so far. They genuinely are interested in talking to people who have travelled to Borneo and want to help them have a good experience.