A morning stroll at the Friendship Park

Took my Grandpa & Mom to the new Friendship Park at Jalan Song near Tabuan Jaya this morning. We left the house at 7.15 a.m. and reached the park 15 minutes later. It was an easy Saturday morning drive.

The Friendship Park was still under construction when I last saw it in 2005. It was officially opened in May 2006. A friend told me that we could have dim sum there from 7.30 a.m. onwards. Added motivation to wake up and take a nice stroll around this serene park.

What's the deal with the Park you might ask? The Chinese Goverment in China has a habit of building gardens/parks in other parts of the world to symbolize their friendship. Not a bad idea at all.

This is what you see when you turn into the drive way to the Park. I call it the "fondling cats" statue.

Main entrance to the Friendship Park of Kunming, Yunnan & Kuching, Sarawak.


Our first stop - feeding the kois, tilapias, etc. With proper fish feed of course! I saw a young girl threw in a whole piece of bread into the pond. Err....maybe she wanted to choke the fish?

Sarawak fountain but no water in sight???


The Tao Ran/Beijing Pavilion


The Kunming Pavilion/Huai Feng Pavilion - a hexagonal pavilion to commemorate the glories of Admiral Zheng He (or rather, "Cheng Ho" as we all knew him in our history text books).


Tranquil surroundings of the park. Nice pond with lots of kois and other varieties of fishes.


Ah Meng (Orang Utan) - our famous furry friend in the State of Sarawak & Panda holding up the garden seat...Hey! Looks like the Orang Utan is thirsty. Care for a soda???


A nice marble carving of our State Bird - the Hornbill.


Since Kuching means cat in Malay and this is Kuching City, I supposed "Kitty" must also be honored/featured with the Panda. Hmmm...!


This is Zheng He's "Godzilla-size" tribute in the Park. Explorer extraordinaire, ultra-smooth diplomat and yet, the most under-rated Admiral of all times. He should have enlisted Chris Columbus "publicist" back then. Born in Yunnan, China c.1371, he undertook the world's biggest naval expedition 100 years earlier than Chris Columbus. Admiral ZH made 7 voyages in 23 years. Chris who-is-it???

Historically speaking, ZH was also responsible for creating the Peranakans (or the Babas and Nyonyas). Whether he was a "noble gentleman" or not, he did escort 500 Chinese maidens from China to Malaysia who eventually married the local men and have descendants like my Grandma.


Soon it was time to have our yum char. So we walked back to the RH Tea House for some dim sum.


Entrance to the tea house. Love the folding doors.


The verandah - not that great on a "gloomy & about-to-rain" morning.



Love these tables and chairs - very "antiquited" look.


Jasmine green tea - yum char!

Dim sum - siew mai, har kau, char siu pau, tau sa (bean) pau, etc.


And three yam puffs. Yummy!

There should be more parks like this one in Kuching.