Kuching A to Z (Part 4)

Thanks everyone for all your great contributions. I'm happy that this " Kuching A to Z" series of entries is still going strong. Keep it up ! Here's what you suggested for the next three letters ...

F

Fata Hotel - pretty centrally located on Jalan McDougall, near St Mary's and St Thomas' schools. Actually I don't know much about this hotel. Never stayed there nor had any visitors staying there. What I do know is that on the ground floor of the same block as this Hotel, there's a cafe that sells pretty delicious porridge (In the photo, the cafe is just out of view, on the right side)

The song "Feelings" was sooooo popular in the mid 70's. Watched a lot of local and international singers crooning it on TV variety shows. I just googled it for more details. Found that it was popularised by a Morris Albert in a 1975 album of the same name. Commercially very successful, but one music critic somewhat unkindly referred to it the "best song in the world to put you to sleep" :-)

Psssst ! Someone mentioned to me a couple of days ago that he could still envision a certain lovely CCF singing it on a local TV show. Hmmm ...

.

F is for Fun Fair. Someone reminded us of the annual (?) school fun fairs that were held at the grounds behind the old Catholic Centre, and adjacent to St Mike's. The fair had many game stalls, like hoopla, mechanical horse-racing, darts, throwing ping pong balls into bottles, shooting balloons etc. (Website Jaga also remembers that other game where you have to light about a dozen or so candles with one matchstick and avoid getting fingers burnt) Then there was also the music DJ playing requests, and our friend remembers Cliff Richard's song "Congratulations" being one of the most popular numbers. (The following video clip may bolster those memories ... aaah, nostalgia!)

G

Grand Margherita - formerly Holiday Inn Kuching. I've already mentioned this in one of the photo posts, so will not repeat it.

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Gambier Road is the road where the p0ultry and wet markets used to be. I believe they were moved out last year. Opposite the markets are a whole series of shophouses selling all kinds of goods - food commodities (like rice, sugar, pepper), hardware, kitchen utensils, textiles and clothes, souvenirs, etc.

H

Hornbill - refers to a family of birds found in sub-tropical Africa and Asia (including of course Borneo). This creature has been adopted as the state symbol of Sarawak, which often refers to itself as "Land of Hornbills". Ironically, this creature is not that easy to sight. In fact, the person who suggested this item said that he had only seen hornbills in a foreign zoo, rather than in Sarawak :-)

Cikgu Hol - our long-suffering BM teacher in Form5. We didn't make his life any easier, as our interests generally weren't in the subject. He was remarkably patient with us. Rarely raised his voice. Wonder where he is these days ...?

Hilton Hotel - a nice hotel overlooking the Sarawak river.

Horse racing was quite popular in the old days. As a boy, I remember going to the Sarawak Turf Club to watch races with my grandparents. These days I believe the excitement over horse-racing is not as intense among Kuching dwellers, except for serious punters.

That's all for this entry folks. Start thinking about letters I,J and K.