In an effort to get the most out of our one night of decadence we turned up a couple of hours before the check in time of 2pm on Christmas day. We felt slightly guilty leaving our trusty but rather worn out Fata Hotel, to the point that we lied to them about where we wanted our taxi to go (I'm not really sure why we bothered as we would be returning to their hospitality to the next day).
On arrival they let us know that our room wasn't ready yet (boo), so we adjourned to the hotel bar, probably the swankiest place we had been into in Kuching so far. In an effort to recreate a tiny bit of the atmosphere at home I ordered a margarita. It was a frozen slush puppy style one though so although tasty, it didn't quite have the blow-your-head-off effect of the ones from home.
The very helpful chap who we had checked in with arrived as we worked our way through our second round of cocktails in the totally empty bar and let us know our room was ready. We were on the 10th floor overlooking the river. It was a gorgeous room with a totally stunning view.
Clairy got the mince pies we had somehow managed to locate in Ting and Ting's Chinese supermarket (made in Essex of all places), and I got us going on the rum and cokes. We moved the sofa in front of our mahoosive window and settled down for some cosy drinks.
Clairy got to work on the home made party hats. Check out the stunning job she did. Oh so shiny! Bendad thought they were made of PVC in our Christmas skype.
Mince pies...in Borneo...who would have thought it eh!
Obviously we were quite amazed, hence the endless series of pictures.
Oh god yeah, she's loving our private bar with a view and a mince pie.
Clairy snapped some nice shots from the window. This is Jalan Carpenter which is the old Chinatown district.
And this is the new civic centre finally approaching completion. I just love that roof.
I attempted to do a multiple piccy panorama of the view. This next pic is made up of 16 pictures all stitched together. It kind of worked, but you can see from the edges of the window that I'm not very good at keeping the camera in the same place. I do actually quite like that effect though. Do click on the piccy for a full size view.
After a couple of rum and cokes we decided it was definitely time for the pool, and we weren't leaving those Christmas party hats at home.
We did get some pretty funny looks from people, as you might expect.
What a gorgeous Chrimbo girly!
We headed back up to our room to slip a few more drinks down before heading our for the Christmas meal. Clairy's hat sadly hadn't survived the swimming pool. Mine was in danger of disintergrating due to my endless perspiration. It was a bit of a shame as we had planned to wear them out to the meal as well.
Clairy looking positively tiny on that huge king size bed.
We were working our way through the bottle of rum quite steadily. You can just about make us out in the reflection here.
Kiblat! It took us a surprising amount of time to figure out this meant Mecca.
Before we headed out I took a series of photos of the town from the same position. I'm quite pleased with the effect, particularly with the rain coming in from the left hand side.
Nice...Surprisingly un-blurry for my notoriously shaky hands.
Continuing our decadent theme we got a taxi for the 10 minute walk to our chosen restaurant Blah Blah Blah. It was actually chucking it down by this point so it was fair enough I reckon.
It was a really beautifully designed setting. To get to the area where we had chosen our table the day before, you had to walk over pool of absolutely enormous koi carp swimming around some raised flagstones. I was struggling by this point to hold the camera still, but the pics look so much nicer without the flash.
A big ferny Buddha.
Happily awaiting our meal.
Gorgeous girly with her lychee vodka.
When the food came it was absolutely stunning. Incredibly tasty, HUGE portions and beautifully presented. Clair went for cashew nut buttered prawns, and they were enormous and very tasty. I was quite jealous of her sauce.
It was so good we had to get a piccy from both sides! This was probably one of the top meals we have eaten on our entire trip. I went for the duck with mango, and it was fantastic.
For our veges we went for an absolutely lush tempura, which was well spiced with chilies and had lovely nutty batter, and the midin in shrimp paste, which is about as good a vegie as you could get for the fern obsessed Clairybell. It is pictured below, and is a local speciality.
Clairy also loved what they had done with the Christmas tree. Stuck it in a chandelier! Nice.
Full satiated we decided we could just about manage the walk back to the hotel. Clairy snapped a piccy of her favourite Christmas street light, the pretty hibiscus flower.
The hilton with its comedy Christmas lights...
Of which my favourite had to be this chubby 3D snowman.
Oh go on then...a final cocktail in the bar before we headed upstairs. I went or a long island iced tea...it contains the most varieties of alcohol. Strangely I always seem to pick this one when already flying along.
Clairy went for another margarita. Shortly after we had to leg it back up to the room because we just couldn't deal with the horrific lounge singer laid on.
Ahhhh...there she is, all cosy in that enormous bed. Clairy assures me this bed is the closest that any have come to my beautiful mattress-duvet combo back home.
As a demonstration of just how incredible the huge flooofy cushions were, she shows how they retain the shape that she has squashed them into. Top class.
The next day we rang reception 'just to check' that we had a late check out as we had been offered by the staff when we enquired about prices...and they agreed. Bonus! We therefore lounged around in bed until 1pm when we sadly had to go back to our more reasonably priced accommodation.
A totally unique Chrimbo experience. What lucky buggers we are. We bloody loved it.
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