About Me

Welcome! My name is Joseph Archibald and I put this site together after spending some 10 weeks in

Sarawak over the winter period of 2008/09. Originally from Scotland, and then having lived in the Rugby area of England for the past 7 years, I decided to venture to warmer shores and thus began my “love affair” with Sarawak and Kuching – the capital city.

Infact, I enjoyed my time there so much that not only did I build this website but I’ve also re-located too and now live life in a lovely appartment within the city of Kuching. Life is good!

How do I make a living and pay for my bills? No, not through a large inheritance. I work online – making simple little websites and advertising. I also have done some writing for other clients, but only take that on when I’m in the right frame of mind – that sort of work is very fast and very furious and it drains me rather rapidly!

Do I miss the UK? No! I miss cheese but other than that I don’t miss anything. My family still live in Scotland – my parents in Edinburgh and my sister and her family in the borders. I chat with them and email back and forth, which is enough – we are all used to living far apart and communicating a couple times a week or so.

And what is so wonderful about Sarawak and Kuching? Its a personal thing. I did not appreciate the “red-tape” mentality that is becoming so rife in the western world. Its too confining for a free soul such as myself to feel comfortable with. No, I’m not running from past demons. Sure, much of the past 8 years or so has been tumultuous, but life goes on.

Cost of living here, in general, is very affordable. I meet folks from the UK who live here on peanuts. £200 a month – selling their own artwork for example. That’s about $300 US at the time of writing. Try and live in the UK or the US on that income and you’ll be in for trouble! I do, however, earn a bit more than this – quite a bit, so my quality of life is really very good – much better than it would be back home.

My apartment is rented. Its 3 bedroomed, very spacious, marble and wooden floors throughout. There is a 40 meter swimming pool just 10 meters from my front door. The gardens are manicured – palm trees, tightly clipped hedges, hibiscus flowers, orchids etc. How much do you think that costs each month? The pound sterling is very low against all other currencies but even with this, I pay much less than I would in the United Kingdom. I suspect in the UK the cheapest I would get something similar would be well over a thousand pounds a month ($1500 US ++)!

Anyhow, please enjoy the site. Its not particularly large, I know, and it may be that I add a lot more to it in time. I obviously make no money from it so its more of a passion and the ability to share what this part of the world has to offer to you.

(Update, I was using Google’s AdSense program to make a tiny income but have since replaced this with HotelsCombined. I feel this will simply enhance the site and your own experience rather than debilitate. I get a tiny commission from any click-throughs on those ads on my site here, thus helping to improve the value of my own time spent on the site ensuring its quality and it is up-to-date).

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Please do contact me if you would like to ask anything at all!

josef.archibald@ymail.com

Best wishes to you!

Regards

Joseph Archibald