SARAWAK GETTING EXPENSIVE

 

For this entry, I would like to elaborate about the facts of Sarawak nowadays.

Yesterday, I got one friend in a forum complaining about Sarawak. Although the problem is not very significant, but it must take into consideration. In July 2010, he and his family came to Kuching for traveling purposed. That is the first time they went to Kuching.

At first, they were impressed with Kuching International Airport that look quite similar with KLIA. The city also very nice with the balancing of the insfrastructure and the planting landscape. They also said Kuching is a very lovely city to live when they saw the those village opposite the waterfront. But there are something that didn't satisfy them. They have to dig deeper into their pocket to pay for the accomodation and tourist-related services. 

He said, he had been travelling in various destination including Kota Kinabalu and Miri. From what I understood, he claimed that the hotel room rate, transportation fares as well as service charges from tourist agencies were relatively higher compared to Sabah and other state in Peninsular. For example, the cab service charges from Wisma Satok to Sarawak Plaza is RM15. The service charges is not worth it with the distance between two points. Even the hotel room rate is very high for 4 Star Hotel, about RM260/night. I was pleasantly surprise with the room rate. Perhaps they went to Kuching during Sarawak Regatta Festival in July. What I'd heard, all hotels management conspiring each other to increase the room rate during the festival due to the over whelmed of the tourist in the city. So, what can I say is they being in the wrong place, at the wrong time =)

He also said as far as cost was concerned, the only consolation was that the price of food was cheaper than elsewhere. I admit that Kuching is a food paradise among the food lovers. Then i asked gain, are you got anything else that bother you in Kuching? He said, that's the only thing that unsatisfied him and his family. However, he suggested that the relevant tourism authorities must take positive measures to ensure the pricing for tourism-related services were competitive with other destinations in the region.

p/s: I didn't tell him about being in the wrong place, at the wrong time during Sarawak Regatta =)