Tune Hotels.com, Kuching

I didn't think that I would be staying in any Tune Hotels so soon after my last experience with Penang's Tune Hotel. Granted most of the Tune hotels were built in strategic locations, but I remembered the Tune Hotel in Penang was a bit too cramped. It was alright for a night, but to stay for 3 nights with someone I have never slept with (hehe.. hold on to your imagination, don't let it run wild. My sleeping partner in Kuching was Aunt Annie), I just couldn't imagine how we could stay and not get onto each other's nerves.

Nevertheless, the hotel rooms were booked, and I should be grateful that someone spent some time booking the rooms for us. We were supposed to stay at the Singgahsana Inn, but the rooms which we wanted were booked much earlier.

So anyway, this is TuneHotels.com, Kuching. Like I've said earlier on, the Tune Hotels were built in strategic locations and the one in Kuching was located in the heart of Kuching city.


The Kuching Tune Hotel is just opposite Hilton Hotel.

And it is very near to the Kuching waterfront. I took this picture from the window of my room.

The negative part of this hotel is, you have to climb more than 10 steps to reach the reception area. The ramp for people who use wheelchairs was at the back of the hotel. It would be very inconvenient for people who could not climb the stairs.

This is the reception area. It's quite clean, but has one kind of smell, not unpleasant and I think it could be the disinfection chemical they used or some kind of cleaning chemical.

The receptionists were very helpful. I like the idea of a 20-minute internet usage for the guests' convenience. If you brought your laptop and intended to use the internet in this hotel, be prepared to pay RM12 per block of 24 hours.

Oh by the way, don't be fooled by the "from RM8 or RM9.99 or RM18" promotion per night. The concept is something like AirAsia's. You may or may not get it, depending on the dates you choose and that's just the basic cost. If you want air-conditioning in your room you'll have to prepay credit hours in blocks of 12 or 24. A block of 12 hours air-cond credit cost RM13.49 and 24 hours cost RM21.00.

A towel rental and some essential shower basics cost RM5 and you'll have to add a RM10 deposit for the towel, refundable when you returned the towel.

The hotel charges admin cost of about RM9.90. And don't forget about the 10% service charges and the 5% government taxes.

You'll need to pay a refundable deposit of RM5 for your room key card and they only give you ONE card.

So let's just say that you managed to get the RM8 room promotion, and if you only want to stay a night you need to be prepared to come out with at least um.. let me do a quick calculation.

1) Room charges - RM8 + 0.80 (10% service charges) + RM0.44 (5% government tax) = RM9.24

2) Air-Con charges (12-hour block) - RM12.85 + RM0.64 (5% government tax) = RM13.49

3) Admin charges - RM9.90 + RM.050 (5% government tax) = RM10.40

The total bill comes up to RM33.13 and this excludes the towel rental and deposits mentioned earlier.

The hotel room is still very very cheap after adding all the extra charges.

Oh, I forgot to mention a few more things. The check in time is at 12pm and you'll have to check out by 10am. That's a bit too early for some people, so please take note. If you have an evening flight and need to deposit your luggage somewhere, you can ask the Tune Hotel's receptionist for help and they'll charge you RM1 per bag.

If you forgot to bring your hair dryer, you can rent one at the reception for RM1 per day with a refundable deposit of RM30.

There isn't any jug kettle in the room but you can rent them at... ah, it's free, but you'll have to return it within 2 hours. I'm not sure if you need to pay a deposit. Probably yes.

As for the one-eyed monster, the TV, I'm not a TV/movie fan so I never got around to asking if we could rent a TV. I don't think so. The room is pretty small.

The snack corner shares the same floor with the reception counter. If you don't mind spending a little extra for snacks you can get at the Giant supermarket just minutes behind this hotel, then this is a good place to have a cup of drink with your room mate.

The corridor is alright, not too narrow, but I did wonder why the corridor was not fully carpeted. And I missed the floral paintings on the wall along the corridor. Sigh. I saw them in Tune Hotel Penang and fell in love with the paintings. In Tune Hotel Kuching, only the reception floor had this floral painting.

We were given only 1 key card and you can see that most of the time our doors were not fully closed. We booked 4 rooms and specifically asked the receptionist to put all of us near to each other. Most of the time, one of us will be in the other room and to avoid troubling our roommates, we left the door slightly ajar.

Surprisingly the room space was much better than the one I stayed in Penang. This one looks like a normal standard hotel room, only thing the room is much smaller.

I immediately cheered up when I saw the room. I was actually dreading to sleep in the room similar to the one I stayed in Penang last month.

The bathroom was more spacious too. :) - Definitely much better than Penang's.


The space in front of the bed was wider than Penang's.

But... the room was infested with cockroaches. Maybe the word infested is a bit too strong. The first night, I found 1 cockroach in my room and I killed it with my sandal. The 2nd night I saw another one near the ceiling. It was too high to reach and it crawled to I don't know where because it suddenly disappeared. My dad found 2 cockroaches in his room too. The 3rd day, we saw someone from the housekeeping department and told her about it. She knew about the cockroaches and told us that she had already sprayed our rooms. I didn't want to complain further. The sad thing was, this hotel is only 2 months old (or so I've been told).

And well, the air cond was leaking and the walls were plain unlike the room I stayed in Penang. Okay, I'm not going to say anymore. I kind of like this hotel but wished that they would clear the cockroaches once and for all.

Kuching Waterfront, Sarawak

If you have absolutely nothing to do in the Kuching, just walk along the Kuching waterfront. If you hate to perspire then that's too bad because the weather is really hot and humid most of the time.

We came across this site and my dad said this could be the market place once before the traders were asked to move to another site. I think they want to extend the waterfront walking area.

The kids, Esther and I enjoyed an 8-minute boat ride which cos t us RM5 per trip. It was cheap till we found out that it would only cost us RM3.20 if we didn't ask the price. :(

My parents and aunties were looking forward to the Kuching River cruise they heard so much from Aunt Annie's friend. We went to look for the ticket counter but it was closed.

We saw a bunting near the ship which says TICKETS SOLD HERE but no one was around. Fortunately there was a phone number printed on the bunting and Esther made the call. It seems that the sunset cruise that evening was fully booked by a big group of Singaporeans and we were advised to go for the cruise the next day.

The aunties were a little disappointed. We had already planned not to go anywhere that day because of the evening cruise. So what did they do to occupy their time? You'll find out in the later posts. :)

Bring and Sze-En posing with the felines. :)

We reached our hotel at 1o.30am. Everyone was surprised that it was still so early. Well, duh, of course lah it was early because we woke up at 5.30am to go to church at 6.45am.

Riverboat ride in Kuching, Sarawak

On the way back from church, we passed by the Kuching Waterfront. This is the Sarawak river which flows into the heart of Kuching City and till this day many Sarawakians still used the riverboats to get to the other side of the river.

We were strolling along the waterfront, admiring the view, wishing that there was a river as wide as the Sarawak river in Seremban when we saw people getting out from a riverboat.

Feeling excited for the kids, Esther checked out the price of the boat ride. She told him that we just wanted to go to the other end of the river and back to the starting point. He wanted RM5 and we thought we had a good deal. I read somewhere that it cost RM1 per person to get to the other side of the river. Much later we found out that it only cost us 40cents per one way.

I guess we got cheated because there were 2 other passengers beside us. My parents and the aunties didn't want to experience the boat ride, so the 4 of us, Esther, Sze-En, Brian and I went in the boat and made sure we were seated evenly. Even Sze-En knew that if she would sit next to Brian, the boat might be lopsided.

It was a lovely ride. I think we only sat in the boat for less than 10 minutes. He boatman asked us if we wanted him to take us further and it would only cost us RM10. We said no because my parents and aunties were waiting for us.

Hmm... I'm surprised that Esther could take this ride. I thought she would get sea-sick.

Soon it was time to leave the boat. I could see that the kids really enjoyed the ride.

Sunday Morning in Kuching, Sarawak

We attended the 6.45am church service in St Thomas and it ended about 8.05am. Breakfast was on our minds as soon as we came out of the church. Most of us didn't have proper breakfast because we didn't want to get up earlier to have a good meal.

We were supposed to meet Rach's friend for breakfast but he was down with flu. Left alone, we didn't know where to go and so we asked a couple of church goers who were kind enough to lead us to a restaurant. We had to walk further away from our hotel, but since it was still SO early, we didn't mind at all.

We saw our first live cat on the way to breakfast. Someone said that if you want to see cats in Kuching, you'll have to go to the Cat Museum because you can't find any cats in Kuching. So, there you go, our first live cat lying arrogantly on a sidewalk.

The two girls brought us to this shop and told us we could get the the Sarawakian laksa and the Kolo mee here. These two noodles were famous in Sarawak.

My dad and I had Kam Pua noodles. Something like Kolo noodles but the Kam Pua noodles are thicker.

Sze-En had Kolo noodles.


My mom had her Kolo noodles custom made. She wanted black soy sauce and some vege.

Esther and Aunt Chris had the Sarawakian laksa. They said it didn't meet their expectations at all. I can't remember what Aunt Annie and Brian ordered.

After breakfast, we went to look for the Sarawakian Laksa paste. Some of our friends asked us to help them to buy since we were in Sarawak.

The locals said that we could find them in the Indian Street.

So we walked a little further to get to this street.

We didn't find any but we found some some very nice designed Sarawakian T-Shirts here.

My mom, Aunt Annie and Aunt Chris took a long time to choose the T-Shirts. The weather was good.. not hot at all and we waited patiently for them to buy their stuff.

We went back using the waterfront way route but was delayed because... check the next post out. :)

St. Thomas's Cathedral, Kuching, Sarawak

The day before Esther checked out the St Thomas church service timetable. The English service was at either 6.45am or 8.15am. Guess which one we went to?

Of course the earlier one :). Esther and I made the decision and all the aunties were grumbling. Nevertheless, we ALL got up early. Aunt Annie got up the earliest I think, at 5am. I woke up at 5.30am.

We started walking only at 6.35am. We were told that it would take us about 15 minutes to get there on foot.

We roughly knew how to get there but we still asked around to see if there were any shorter ways to get to the church.

We used the shorter way and passed this Chinese temple. This was the 2nd elaborately decorated Chinese temple I saw in Kuching. The first one was the famous Tua Pek Kong Temple just opposite the Kuching waterfront.

At 6.50am we reached the St Thomas chuch compound. We could hear the a hymn being sung. Sze-En was especially excited about going to this church. She knew it was going to be different from the church she usually attends. Her mother had warned her not to make any noise and that she had to sit still throughout the service.

We were late and had to sit way back. Poor Sze-En couldn't see a thing because a pillar was blocking her from seeing what was happening in front. Soon she got so bored that she turned around and told her mom that she missed her own church. According to Aunt Chris and Aunt Annie, this Anglican church service was almost exactly the same way the Catholics conducted their services. There were certain things they did which I was wasn't comfortable too like the invincible cross sign they did with their hand and they recited certain things from a book. I never expected this in an Anglican church. Anyway, this was a new experience to me.

The church service ended at 8.05am. We saw the time and were amazed that we actually got up early to attend the 6.45am service.

One of the entrances to the St Thomas Cathedral.

We went for breakfast after the church service. It's just so weird. Back home we would have thought of lunch and not breakfast. :)

Kuching, Sarawak - Day 1

Our Kuching trip was planned last year, Aug08 at a friend's funeral. AirAsia was having a zero fare promotion and the aunties wanted to go somewhere. Later I check the website and managed to book all 6 of us at RM170 per person. We paid RM160 the airport taxes, admin fees and fuel surcharge and the additional RM10 was for the baggage charges. The 6 of us included my parents, Aunt Annie, Aunt Chris, Esther and I.

Early this year Esther thought it would be good to bring Sze-En along. When Aunt Chris heard that Sze-En was going, she thought of Brian, her grandson and wanted to bring him along too. We okayed it and Esther proceed to book his flight ticket. His ticket cost about RM288. This was Brian's first time on the plane and we were all so excited for him.

Our flight was scheduled to leave for Kuching at 7.10am. This means that we had to be at the airport by 5.30am which also means that we had to get up as early as 3.15am.

Uncle Guru and Mtc was kind enough to wake up early to fetch the 8 of us to the airport. We pre-checked in online the day before and what we did as soon as we arrived at the airport was to get our boarding passes verified and checked in our luggages.

Then we proceed to Gate P11 (that's where we were supposed to board the plane) and looked around for something to eat. I saw a "snack attack" food cart (the same food they served in the AirAsia flights) and to my surprise they were priced much lower than what we would have paid on the plane. The nasi lemak (and other main meals) were priced at RM5.50 and they have added in a free cold drink to lure us (who were still half-asleep at 6am in the morning) to buy from them. FYI, the nasi lemak on the plane cost RM9 WITHOUT the free drink.

Esther bought the nasi lemak set and I took the spaghetti set. Esther took a bite of the nasi lemak and scrunched her face. It tasted like yesterday's food, she said. I tried her nasi lemak and had to agree with her. We didn't finish the nasi lemak. My spaghetti didn't taste as good, and with the help of Sze-En (who loves spaghetti as long as it is not spicy), we managed to finish most of it.

Since it was Brian's first plane ride, we let him sit near the window. Sze-En did not particularly enjoy her plane ride because she gets air-sickness especially when the plane takes off or land. This is her third time flying and what she does was to prepare herself mentally and try to sleep during the entire plane ride.
Sze-En is now quite tall and she assumes that Brian will let her rest her legs on his lap, but no. After a while he kept pushing her legs down till Esther had to tell Sze-En to either curl or cross her legs.

The plan ride lasted for 1 hour and 45 minutes. We were asked to fill in a health declaration form each and deposited them to the airport personnel as we were about to enter the building. At the immigration counter we were given a slip which states our personal details and a clause stating that we could only be in this State for ninety days. I felt like I was a foreigner. :(

A few days ago I checked in the internet for our transportation in Kuching. There were certain tourist places I wanted to visit and I also wanted to know the cost of visiting those places and how to get there. As I was surfing, I stumbled upon Tune Hotel's airport transfer in Kuching. It cost only RM20 per saloon car and was operated by Golden System Car Rental & Tour S/B. When I clicked into their website, a blank page appeared. Thinking that there was something wrong with my laptop, I gave Esther the link and asked her to check the website. Same thing. A blank page appeared.

I didn't bother much about it because I knew that the other taxis cost RM22 per car.

After collecting all our luggages, we went to the taxi/tour agency counter. I saw a booth operated by Golden System Car Rental & Tour and immediately went there and asked for the price of a taxi to Tune Hotel. She said it was RM8 per person. I told her that the (Tune Hotel, Kuching) website I went to said that it was RM20 per car. She kept insisting that it was RM8 per person. After a while she said that the lowest price she could offer was RM25 per car. She asked whether we did a pre book online. I said no because we couldn't even enter the agency's website. She said that we could have send an email to them. I told her again that we tried to go into the agency's website but the page was blank. After arguing for a while, I gave up. I went to the normal taxi counter and book 2 cars for RM44 (RM22 per car).

We arrived at Tune Hotel 15 minutes later but couldn't check in yet because the check in time was 12pm and it was only 9.30am at that time. We kept our luggages at Tune Hotel (RM1 per luggage) and book 2 taxis to take us to the Sarawak Cultural Village. The aunties, my mom and Brian managed to retain the same taxi driver who took them to the hotel. He then called a fellow taxi driver to take the rest of us and off we we went to get our tickets for the Cultural Village. The first taxi driver said he knows of a tour agency who could offer at a lower price. It cost RM60 per adult (Children below 12 - RM30) at the entrance of the Cultural Village and only RM45 (Children below 12 - RM28) here at the Borneo Exploration Tours & Travel.

Some 45 minutes later, we found ourselves at the Sarawak Cultural Village.I found this place more interesting than Mini Malaysia. The Sarawak Cultural Village had 7 authentic ethnic houses built around a man-made lake.

We spent about 3 hours here. What did we do there? We saw the cultural show which lasted about 45 minutes, we checked out all 7 houses, we posed/took lots of pictures and we had lunch there. Was it value for our money? I would say, if you have never been there before, you should go. My parents and aunties did complained that it was hot and humid and they decided to skip visiting most of the ethnic houses.

Since the Damai beach was very near the Cultural Village, the taxi drivers took us to the Damai Puri Resort and Spa to have a "look-see, look-see" of the beautiful beach. It was so much nicer than our polluted and dirty Port Dickson.

Our next destination was the Cat Museum. Fearing that we would never see a cat in Kuching (the Malay word for cat is kucing) , we agreed to see some stilled cats. :) We spent about 40-45 minutes here.

After that, the taxi drivers took us back to our hotel. We checked in, showered and go ready to go for dinner.

Everyone who knew that we were going to Kuching said that we should go to Topspot Seafood for dinner. It was walking distance to our hotel, so we did a little exercise (by walking to our destination lah) before we had dinner.

There were many seafood stalls here and we didn't know which ones were good. We chose the one nearest to the entrance. I think it was called Lung Leong Seafood.

We had a good variety of dishes. We called 6 dishes, but I only took 5 pictures of 5 of them because the last dish, steamed fish, came so late that I forgot to take a picture of it. The food was good. The dishes here came out pretty fast (except for the last dish) despite the place being jam-packed with people having dinner too. The meal cost RM125 (USD36 or EURO 25). It was so cheap.

And the barley drink here cost a bomb. RM2.20 (about USD 0.60 or EURO 0.45) for a glass of barley drink. Aunt Chris said it was worth it because it tasted so good. In Seremban we could order a glass of barley for only RM 1.00, but the taste was more of sugar than of barley.

After dinner, some of us wanted to walk along the waterfront. It was only a few minutes walk from our hotel. We ended up not going because most of us were very tired. It was only 8.30pm, but we had a long day.

While Aunt Annie was bathing, I saw a cockroach coming out from underneath the bed. I screamed, not because I was scared, but because I was so surprised to see one in a 2-month old hotel. Quickly I hit it hard with my sandals.

After that I kept my bags closed and made sure there weren't any food packets left open. I slept with the fear of cockroaches running up and down underneath the bed.