Basaga was definitely a nice and unique place to stay for my
4th visit in Kuching. They have very friendly staff and superb
customer service. According to the Internet review, this place is a top yes place to be.
We were lucky to be staying over that weekend whereby they
were offering promotional rates of only RM116 nett instead of RM168.20.
We arrived late in the evening. Get a room in the main house
if you do not want to drag your luggage to the other building slightly away. We
had no choice since we chose the cheapest room.
Turn out to be a very nice room called the courtyard.
Balinese style with the shower being outside the room. The little courtyard is
also part of your room area so you have pretty much all the privacy of running
around naked if you wanted to. You can also leave the room door wide open for
fresh air if you do not mind the mosquitoes.
I found one millipede running around the toilet accessible
from inside the room. The toilet has no door just a curtain and no ventilation
fan either so if you have a partner that has a case of diarrhea there is no
place to escape the smell.
Other than that the room was superb with the bed being
slightly smaller than queen.
Now here comes the catch of paying peanuts and you get
monkeys. The noise. Yes…the big loud noise. You can hear the loud squeaking
footsteps of guest staying above. That was not the worst part yet. There was a
lull after midnight and a reasonable
silence from our neighbor upstairs who was probably already sound asleep. At two am in the morning began loud sound of a lady
knocking the door of the room above us. Then she started calling out the name
of that someone to open the door. It was so loud that we were amazed the person
did not wake up at all as it sure woke us up. The banging and shouting continued
until my hubby went outside and told the lady to stop it.
If this was not enough to get us annoyed about booking a
cheap room then the 5 am rain shower
sure did. The raindrops on the zing roofing sounded like firing machine guns.
It was another hour before the rain goes down to a drizzle and we could finally
find some peace after all that cahoot.
At 7:30 am we head
down to the reception. Our regret was paying in advance two nights stay for the
place. The tricky part was checking out and getting our 2nd night payment
in full. After detailing our night ordeal to the reception, she offered us an
upgrade without further cost. I told her as long as it is less noisy and she
assured us that it is. It turned out to be the same room that the crazy woman
was knocking last night. This time it came with a bigger bed and larger room.
Not as romantic or cozy as the courtyard room but nevertheless it was pretty OK
for us.
Basaga also offers shuttle to selected location around Kuching town. Do take note that Basaga is NOT located near to the waterfront and any shopping mall. You will need a car or hire a taxi to get around.
This trip we managed to visit the Civic Center or Dewan Suarah. It offers a 360 degree view of Kuching.
Later we drop by THE SPRING shopping mall and had our lunch there. I must mentioned to you to try the Arab Rice. Only RM6.80 for a plate of korma chicken. Very delicious. I would definitely go back for more the next time I visit Kuching.
We also tried this very delicious Japanese crepe dessert at Lower Ground Merdeka Plaza Shopping Mall. I ordered the standard crepe cream with slice almond and chocolate topping. It was so good that I had to try making it myself when I get home.
