Kuching: The Hidden Gem Of Sarawak, East Malaysia! What’s the Cost Of Living There? Be Surprised!

Welcome to Kuching, the state capital of Sarawak, East Malaysia! Did you know Sarawak is the largest state among the 13 states in West and East Malaysia? If you cut out the state of Sarawak and superimpose over West Malaysia which is Peninsula Malaysia, it is almost the same size. In today's video we're going to explore what is it like to be living here in Kuching so we're going to give you the cost breakdown for the different categories like food, groceries, accommodation, how much does it cost

to rent over here, transportation, shopping, entertainment and many more. As usual we're going to go on the ground to get you the latest updated pricing so watch on! So before that do hit the Like button, Subscribe to join our YouTube family and let's go! If there's a thing that you must do when you're in Kuching, it is to eat kolo mee. It's Sarawak's famous dish and this one here is John's. It comes with black vinegar, check this out, it's a black vinegar kolo mee and he didn't add any ingredi

ents so this is RM6 per bowl. And yes I'm hungry today so I added for mine. Mine is not black vinegar, mine is a white type and it comes with a lot of extra ingredients so it cost RM15 per bowl for this and we're drinking this Teh C Special which comes with their palm sugar which is also a very famous thing in Sarawak. Another dish you must have is the famous Sarawak laksa and a bowl will be RM9. Another popular local dish is koay chap and a dish can start from RM8. Guys, we're going for dinner

and guess what? We're actually going to go to dinner via that little sampan to cross the river. That's where our dinner destination is. I'm so excited taking a sampan to go to our dinner! Oh my God! We're currently in the south side and we're heading to the north so the river actually splits both sides and in the north that's where awesome Malay cuisine can be found. And it's so fast! It's just a one minute boat ride and now we're across the other side. We came from there right and now we're her

e and the boat ride is RM1 per person. We're at this place called My Village Barok for dinner, very authentic Malay and Sarawakian cuisine. So start start off with drinks. This is John's teh peng, RM3, this is my longan with lemon RM4.50 and then we've got this special ayam, I forgot the name, what's the name but it's really apparently very good, one of the specials. This is RM14. We eating the same thing. This is actually lamb, only lamb right, it's RM20 cuz lamb is expensive in Malaysia and t

his is their special vegetable, Midin, I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing it right, this is about, I think, less than RM10. So let's dig in! Welcome to Lepau, the name means Farm Hut and it is a tribal fusion cooking. They use several different cooking methods from different tribes such as Kayan, Melanau, and Bidayuh. Our local friend brought us here for a night out and the food is amazing, so so well done and so tasteful. And guess what? The prices for six dishes and a kettle of drink is only at

RM162. On a cold misty Saturday morning, our friends brought us to a 100% authentic Foochow kopitiam to savour Foochow food. Many Foochows were from Sibu and Bintulu  then they relocated to Kuching. Coincidentally, John's mom is Foochow from Sibu. We tasted delicious dian bin hu and also bak kueh, kampua noodles which is the Foochow version of kolo mee. Welcome to Bako River which is actually located 30 minutes outside of Kuching City and amazing seafood can be caught here for a really great pri

ce. We ate really well with large prawns, fish head bihun soup and succulent vegetables oh and this squid which is John's favorite. So this is a local dabai right which is the black olive that you can find in Sarawak and what you do is you soak it in hot water for about 10, 20 minutes and it becomes this and you pour some soy sauce in it, I know soy sauce in olives, and when you eat it, it's got a cheese like consistency to it. Look at that. It is so delicious. This is the only olive that you ca

n eat it from this way. You guys will never guess where am I? We are actually on the sixth floor on top of a car park and this whole place is full of seafood! Amazing, isn't it? And we actually ordered four dishes so this is a sotong goreng tepung and then we got vegetables, we've got lala kamheong and the star isn't here yet. It's the butter prawns. It's crazy and this is apparently a very popular spot it's already almost 9:00 at night and people are just streaming in right and there's waves of

people who has already left. So let's dig in! Four dishes including three seafood ones only cost RM91 at Top Spot, imagine that. After almost a week of eating Sarawakian food, we're here at Saradise. The Al Dente is the restaurant name and we are ordering pizza and a beef stew. The pizzas and the pastas are around RM40 to RM50 per dish and the mains from ranging from chicken to lamb to beef is around RM50 to RM70 per dish. A hearty Italian dinner comprising of salad, pizza and a main cost us RM

121. Kuching offers a wide range of food offerings for your breakfast, lunch and dinner needs. At the hawker setting, you'll find there's such a wide variety of choices that sometimes you just can't choose and dessert as well. Do you know Sarawak has so many dessert options like Matterhorn, White Lady, ice kacang, cendul, they have them all. If you find that it's too hot to eat out or sometimes it rains in an open air hawker center, you might want to take refuge in an air conditioned food court

that you can find in the shopping malls. It's roughly around 20% more expensive in this air conditioned food court, starting around double digit say RM10 to RM11 for their base prices. If you want to enjoy local cuisine at a very comfortable air condition setting like this cafe, you can. They serve up excellent Sarawak lalksa, ayam penyet and also nasi goreng.  Delicious! Look who's here in Kuching! It's Zus coffee, our favorite brand of coffee in Malaysia and guess what? In Kuching alone, Zuus

has opened up eight different outlets spread out all over Kuching. That actually shows the huge demand of coffee in Kuching itself. As we travel around Kuching, we noticed more and more cafes are sprouting out and most of them are actually highlighting the flavor of the Sarawakian coffee beans. It's not very often you get to drink gourmet Sarawak coffee in an old shop house like this, full of character. This is John's coffee latte made by Sarawakian coffee beans, their own house blend and this i

s my ice latte with Gula Apong. Gula Apong is actually from their palm tree which Sarawak has in abundance so this is palm sugar. EverRise is one of the leading supermarkets in Sarawa and this is where you can get all your produce, especially if you like to save cost and cook some food at home. They have pretty much anything that you want from locally produced stuff as well as imported goods like wine, beef from Australia and lots  more. Besides EverRise, a homegrown brand, there are other super

markets for you to shop comfortably at for your cooking and grocery needs. The property market here in Kuching is really interesting and I'm going to make some reference to KL, Penang and Ipoh and the great thing was because we have local friends here talking about the market so we got insiders perspective. There are few factors that determine the property market. One of them is local demand and another one is the foreign expats that's in that city and the last one which is important is tourism.

In the case of the two big cities in West Malaysia, KL and Penang, they have a lot of local demand and foreign experts and more importantly tourism strength so it's actually more robust in terms of the property market in these two cities. In the case of Ipoh, there's a lot of local support because there's a lot of rich and affluent people in Ipoh. Think of the old tin miners. That's why they're also able to prop up the property market plus the increasing growth in tourism. In the case of Kuchin

g, which is the capital city of Sarawak, it's really interesting. There actually a lot of old money, the rich, affluent, wealthy families here that's actually coming from Sinu and Kuching itself and a lot of them set roots here in Kuching. Because of the robust timber and oil and gas Industries, a lot of Sarawakians made their money and put their Investments here in Kuching and that's evident by a lot of new private developments that you can see all over. So Kuching's actually very similar to Ip

oh, has a lot of land so there's a lot of landed property over here. At the same time, you're seeing very new condo developments as there's a growing tourism industry so the price point sits something similar to Ipoh and Penang kind of price range. So for landed property, the older development say a two storey Terrace House, three to four bedrooms, it's roughly around half a million ringgit and it goes up to RM1 Million and above for the newer developments. The Condominiums interestingly are abo

ut the same price point as the landed housing. The older developments are about RM400k- RM500k and the newer ones goes closer to RM1 Million and above. For the condos here for rental, you have fair number of options here. You can get a two or three bedroom two bath condominium or a three bed, 4 bed, 2 to three baths landed property in a double storey terrace house for between RM2000 to RM3000 per month. Kuching is huge and as one of our local friends shared with us, the public transportation sys

tem is virtually non-existent. Like this shelter that's behind me, it looks like a bus stop but it's not. Actually it's actually a taxi stand. So the locals here actually own their own vehicles whether it's a car or a motorcycle and I can share with you that motorcycles are not very common here as well because Kuching is just that big. The Malaysian branded cars are very popular here and we tend to notice that the cars are bigger so you're looking at 4x4 vehicles and also SUVs because the roads

are very wide and very long. If you're a foreigner living here, you can get around with ride hailing as well like Grab. t\The cost is between RM6 to RM7 for short trips to RM15 to RM20 for peak hours and that's the kind of cost range you're looking at. Interesting thing that our local friends share with us is we noticed there a lot of cars that are double parked on the streets and he shared with us that it's quite common for Sarawakians to do that and what they do is they leave their phone numbe

r on their car so that if they need to shift, you'll just have to call them. Another interesting thing we noticed is the incremental amount for parking as you park longer. Apparently that's supposed to deter people from hogging the parking lots. Welcome to The Spring, one of two main shopping malls in Kuching and honestly, you can pretty much get anything that you want or need right here. From restaurants, bakeries, shopping to all your accessories. Walking around the mall right, actually kind o

f reminds me of two malls in Penang which is Gurney Paragon and Gurney Plaza and this Spring Mall kind of represents the best of both of these two malls in Penang. And you can find very similar brands in the two malls in this Spring Mall. Now if you're looking for luxury high-end Brands you still need to go to KL or Singapore. However you have Michael Kors, you got Bath and Body Works, Sephora, Coach just to name a few, oh and Rolex as well right. So you do have some brands but not the high-end

luxury brands. Now of course this being Sarawak, a very independent state in East Malaysia right, it's got its own unique brands as well that you can find in this mall that you may not be able to find in West Malaysia. This is the second mall that I was telling you. This is Viva City Mega mall and it's huge. So it's got departmental store Parkson 3 levels of it and it's got EverRise Marketplace, a supermarket in this mall so lots and lots of people are here. There are plenty of gym options every

where like this local Brand Level Up Fitness where it cost low hundreds for you to have a gym membership. Otherwise even a hotel gym, which is from Pullman hotels, offers you great gym prices with the pool as well. Welcome to Saradise, Kuching's idea of paradise to meet all your F&B and lifestyle needs. Saradise is where the the upper middle will come and eat, meet, do business and play. Saradise kinds of reminds me of Bangsar in KL and Holland V in Singapore, all rolled into one except on a muc

h much larger scale because Kuching has got so much land. So what's here? You've got drinking joints, cafes, restaurants, IT gadget shops, you got skin care shops, bakeries and lots and lots more! Welcome to Carpenter Street, which is in Kuching and this is like the older part of town, something like a Chinatown. Well the name Carpenter Street is because there's a lot of furniture shops, carpentry shops all around the whole street plus there's a lot of good food, jewelry shops, Sarawak pepper sh

ops, coffee shops all around. This is the go-to spot for breakfast, lunch, a bit of coffee and of course some touristy shopping as well. If you think Kuching is a boring city, well think again! We'll cover lots and lots more attractions in our upcoming retirement videos so stay tuned for that. Okay it's time to budget and I'm jumping right in for a foreigner couple who's retired in Kuching, costing for one person. I'm going to focus on three main categories which is food, transport and accommoda

tion and if you want to have some reference to some of the other cost categories such as groceries and healthcare, you can look at my other Cost Of Living videos such as Penang and KL. And in the food category, I'm costing in for 30 days, of which, 13 days are eating out at food courts, eateries such as hawker centers. Now the basic price of hawker center food, for kolo mee for example, is at RM7 and for food courts, it starts at double digit, around RM10 to RM12, so RM40 per day budget is very

healthy times 13 days that works out to be RM520 for 12 Meals, which is equivalent to 4 days of eating out per month at fancier places like cafes and restaurants RM40 per meal for 1 person X 12 that's RM480 and finally 13 days of cooking at home, that's estimated budget of around RM35 per day and that's pretty generous as well that works out to be RM455, bringing the total of food budget to be at RM1,455 for 1 person. Under transport category, these are the assumptions. It will be a fully paid

Proton X50, a fantastic SUV car at 1.5L. A Malaysian made car that will be shared between the couple and this will be fully paid around RM80,000 and the running cost for petrol will be around five times per month that works out to be RM360 and for the other running cost, your insurance which paid one time a year, maintenance paid one to two times a year, road tax one time a year and parking every month estimated amount will be RM340 so RM700 per month divided by two, it will be RM350 for one pe

rson. Under accommodation category, these are the assumptions. They're renting a three bedroom condominium near Aeon mall, which is near Min Chu Garden, a very prime location. The entire rental will be RM2300 per month, working out to be RM1,150 per person. For household utilities RM320 divided by 2 = RM160, for Internet shared RM80 for around 300 to 500mbps per month and for handphone, that's own individual cost will be RM70 and that works out be a total of RM1,460. Here's the consolidation for

the budget for this foreigner retired couple and they rent a three-bedroom condo and drive a fully paid Malaysian made car. For total expenses it'll be food 60% eating out, 40% home cooked RM1,455. For household items RM100 for your cleaning equipment, your own personal effects. For transport RM350 ring for the running costs. For accommodation, the rental and everything in will be RM1,460. For healthcare, basic healthcare and GP consultation RM100 ring per month and under others where you have

shopping, some lifestyle, gym and all the other added ons, around RM500 and total will be RM3,665 per month. That's around USD$838. And these are the things not catered. The price of the vehicles, the medical insurance in home country and any travel in and out the country and any Interstate travels. These are not covered in this budget. So if you noticed, one can live actually rather well in Sarawak at a budget that's less than 1,000 US Dollars, having your own transport, having lots of space an

d eating well, even have time to go for shopping and gym and other lifestyles and attractions as well. So it's a fantastic place to stay at a very affordable budget. Did you know Sarawak has their own retirement program called the Sarawak Malaysia My Second Home? We have given you a breakdown of the cost of living over here in Kuching, Sarawak and we have given you a foreign retirees budget so for in our next video, we're going to cover about retirement more extensively and we have a special gue

st that will share with you more details on the ground, so stay tuned to our Channel and Subscribe so that you don't miss any of our videos. Do hit the Like button, we certainly  appreciate it and see you in our next video!