In some ways this seemed to be a slightly surreal holiday. I'd come across The Kebun on Trip Advisor sometime in July and mentioned it to Mei. She was keen and contacted Adrian who said they were quite booked out until mid-October. We were quite happy to holiday then and asked a couple of friends who might be interested and finally it was Sharon who could make it.
October proved to be a busy month. I was caught up with trying sort out where Chronicle People and Hypnosis Works would operate from as our lease was expiring - all this while Johann and Joe were caught up with various other things.
Mei was busy at work and then we organised a Wong family lunch gathering at our place on the day before our departure and a dinner with Mei's dad and sister on the same day. So the holiday kinda crept up on us and seemed to lack some of the build up characterised by research and shopping that our other holidays have.
So it was that we found ourselves still packing an hour before we were due at the airport. All was right in the end and we were at the airport with enough time to have a cup of tea and a light meal. The flight in to Kuching was uneventful and as we came in we found the weather rainy - our bags were damp from having been out in the rain on the tarmac as they were unloaded. Still, our spirits were quite sunny especially when I found a nice offer for prepaid Internet access. For RM30 I had a voice and data plan that was bound to be more than sufficient for all 3 of us.
The Kebun is owned and run by Adrian and Olivia and it was she who was at the airport to pick us up. On the 45-minute drive to The Kebun on the outskirts of Kuching, we discovered that she and Adrian have owned the place for some years. It began as a weekend retreat and stayed that way for the best part of the previous decade before they decided to turn part of it into specialty lodging about 2 years ago.
So what exactly is specialty lodging? Well, at The Kebun we got a kampung-style bungalow which was once part of a movie set - The Sleeping Dictionary, starring Jessica Alba in fact. There are 2 bungalows and a long house on the 10-acre plot - we got Olivia's Bungalow which is nearer the entrance and a little larger, with enough beds for 5 in 2 bedrooms. Adrian's Bungalow is a short walk away and has space for 4. The longhouse can hold 10 or so. All this is set in beautiful surroundings with vegetable and herb gardens, goat pens, chicken coops, enclosures for ducks, geese, guinea fowl and turkeys and even a couple of small ponds. Oh, and a little stream that ran just next to our elevated back verandah.
Adrian and Olivia do have a place to stay on the farm, for a farm is what it really is, though they actually have their home some minutes' drive away.
Our bungalow had a TV which Sharon watched news on at night, stacks of DVDs if you wish - and we didn't (why would we when we were serenaded by insect and animal sounds at night?) - a stocked fridge (soft drinks, beer, tuak, cheese, butter etc etc), a well-equipped kitchen and bedroom air-conditioning which we hardly used.
You can make your own breakfast with milk, eggs and sausages provided free. And you can have meals in as part of the package too. We usually had packed lunch which was fried noodles, fruit and vege on one day and fried rice with the same accompaniments the next, and we had dinner in too.
The Kebun is kind of like a cross between a B&B, an overseas friend's house and a small hotel. Some things you do yourself, other things you get as part of a package and some other things you pay extra for like the drinks in the fridge. Well, not the tuak which was complimentary. And which was finished not long after I discovered it…
What you probably wouldn't get anywhere else is a free GPS-equipped car as part of the package. We used this extensively and it made our holiday special and hassle-free.
What I am getting is ahead of myself, so back to our ride in from the airport. Olivia made a slight detour to a little shop where we had our first taste of Sarawak Laksa which is not at all 'lemak' like the laksas I'm more accustomed to. But it certainly was delicious.
I had the Sarawak Laksa which was delicious...
It was raining as I said and the weather report wasn't encouraging. Still, when we did get in to The Kebun, our spirits lifted and not just because the rain also did, but of course because the place is just so endearing. You turn off the main road, head towards the Matang Wildlife Centre and then turn right onto a narrow, winding, hilly road that crosses an old wooden bridge before rising up towards a peak from which you get some expansive views of the surroundings and then a metal gate and a driveway past a goat pen and a geese enclosure to your bungalow nestled amongst lush greenery. It’s a drive home I would never tire of.
The drive in to The Kebun.
A neighbour's house. We thought it was abandoned but later discovered it was not.
Olivia's Bungalow.
Olivia’s Bungalow rests on a slope with the back verandah jutting out towards a stream and the gardens and ponds behind. A deep front verandah looks up the driveway and is a comfortable place to sit and relax. A table and some chairs would be a nice place to have breakfast though we chose to have ours in the kitchen. Sitting here you’ll hear the honking of the geese and the occasional bleating of a couple of goats just a little way up the driveway - a surprisingly relaxing symphony.
The front verandah.
Sharon and Mei in the living room.
Getting ready for a meal in the amply-stocked kitchen.
Remarkably though, no one bothers to lock up around here. Well, we couldn’t even if we wanted to as we never did get a front door key. Thing is that you just feel so safe - for yourself as well as your belongings.
At the far end of the living room is a little hallway with doors to the two bedrooms, a door to the only bathroom, a door through to the back verandah, and the kitchen. Every room, including the bath, was spacious enough to accord comfort and the three of us never felt helmed in at all. How could you though, when every window opened up to verdant greenery and brought in the sound of insect and bird call, the rustling of branches and leaves in the wind, and fresh air. And despite the moquettes (for which we had plenty of quite effective mosquito coils) we did leave most of the windows open most of the time.
The back verandah was a lovely place to enjoy a cigar and some tuak and to have a chat in the evenings. Which is something we did most nights.
Our bedroom which had a queen and a single bed. And a wardrobe. And a dressing table. And a baby cot. And a clothes rack... It was big...
The door to the back verandah
The back verandah.
Off the back verandah. You can see the path leading down to the stream and a hint of the gardens on the other side.
What a lovely view out one of the kitchen windows. How nice to prepare a cup of tea while looking through this window.
Looking back up at Olivia's Bungalow.
'Friend' or his brother. Quite hard to tell them apart. Cute fellas who came around sometimes.
One of the ponds.
The geese next to the driveway.
The two fellas are near the geese too.
Whereas this lot were round the back in a much larger pen.
A view along the stream.
These silly guinea fowl were so nervous, all I did was swing the camera lens and they;d all scurry to one side. When I swung the lens to follow them, they all came scurrying back the other way.
Herbs and vegetables and other plants...
A couple of ducks along the stream.
The path to the jetty.
Adrian came by later that evening and he turned out to be a restless, energetic guy. Tall, loud, funny and with a glint in his eye that said in equal measure ‘Let’s have a beer’ and ‘Don’t mess with me’. I liked him immediately and when he found out later that I liked the Tuak and offered some to me to take home to Singapore, I liked him even more.
He showed us the car and clarified a few things and we started planning the next day’s itinerary - it was to be Gunung Gading and the hunt for Rafflesia.
More information on The Kebun can be found here.
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