Nine years ago, when I sat for the first time on a bend of the Sarawak river in Malaysian Borneo to soak in a glittering pink sunset, Kuching's riverfront was a seductive but deserted place.
Behind me, the 19th century Old Court House -- the magnificent administrative building constructed by the Brookes -- the "White Rajahs" who founded the kingdom of Sarawak and ruled it peacefully from 1841 to 1946 -- lay mostly abandoned.
