The highlight of this week was our trip to Sematan.

But having a car at our disposal for three days facilitated a few other outings, too. For example:

-- Lunch at Big Veggie:



-- A trip to La Promenade, which included coffee at Black Bean (where we also finally bought a French press, having looked for one for ages):




-- A walk around the Library area



-- A trip to Kilang Kacang, a nut-and-snack shop that is absolutely heaving in the run-up to Hari Raya. We passed it the previous day, when it was creating its very own traffic jam. We got in yesterday just as it was opening. It was already buzzing, and the guys out front were hard at work managing the parking. It will never be our sole nut supplier, but it did have some very interesting stuff:


-- A return visit to the Thai temple. We walked here in 2021, but because of the restrictions at that point we couldn't go in. It is definitely worth a look:








-- A decadent session at Roots & Bliss, which we found out about from this Tatler guide to Kuching cafes. It was the only one in the list we'd never visited... The decor is very cute, and the waffles and "pockets" are nicely done. A little naughtily indulgent, true, but Nigel reckoned he needed to celebrate surviving his nasty encounter with the bitey thing. We'll go back another day to check out their cheesecake, which the young woman who served us spoke very highly of...









So that was our car time. Today we were back on foot. We were happy to see that the Big Padungan Cat now has all his Hari Raya regalia and scenery (some of it seemed to be a bit slow to arrive):



And Jalan Padungan has swapped its festive lanterns for festive ketupat:


I'll close with a couple of the wackier things we spotted while out and about in our car: