Things Bintulu # Fresh Fishes

Now back at Bintulu, my instincts tell me to rush for the fish market. Fresh fishes is synonymous with Bintulu among many others like natural gas, deep water port, timber country, oil palm country and hydro-power. It has a vast expanse of open sea that reaches the coasts of Cambodia and Vietnam to the north, Thailand to the west and Philippines to the east. But more importantly the local Melanaus who are natural fishermen and sailors were once known to send the last of the remaining pirates off the coast of Bintulu and never to return back. Today they go fishing farther offshore and their catches are sold at the popular fish markets in town. All sorts and sizes of deep sea fishes are obtainable at the fish market. Compare to what I get in Kuching, I'll put Bintulu fishes at the 5- star status while Kuching's on the scale of a 3 -star for freshness and varieties of fishes at the market's tables. The types of fishes easily available are pomfret, tuna, red snapper, sharks, sting rays, cuttlefish and prawns.

Fish being dried on the fish market jetty and plank walk.

Note the feather-leaved 'nipah' palms ( Nypa fruticans) that live submerged in water. The leaves are used as palm shingles ( 'atap') and sometimes as cigarette papers and fishing floats. Nypa palms also are useful plants to fight coastal erosion and tsunamis.

My favourite market is the one located at the edge of the village called Kampung Baru. The fish market is built next to the Sebiew River and close to the local fishermen houses.

The houses are very colourfully painted just like their boats due largely to the fact that in open seas, the strong colours of the boats could help indentify them from afar.
Today I decided to buy two young tuna fishes that would be smoked or grilled later at the farm.

Local fishermen's houses are exclusively of timber materials and the posts are practically of the hardest timber in Sarawak called the 'belian'. The belian wood will not rot in water and will last for a lifetime, and may be more.

Early Morning Talk and Work

I was sitting the other day in this corner coffee shop, having an early morning breakfast of toast, one half-boiled egg and tea. The shopkeeper knows me so well that by the sight of me, she will immediately prepare my breakfast favourites and deliver to my table without any order from me. Well, talk about special service! And no extra charges or tips, too. Sometimes I wait here for my worker who stays across river and pays RM.50 for each crossing by a 'kapel tambang' which is a small river ferry boat transporting the Kampung Jepak people to the Bintulu town's side of the river daily. The two gentlemen in front of me seemed very engrossed in their coffee talk, while I was reading the daily newspaper called 'The Borneo Post'.

By the river bank is this big ficus tree, sometimes referred to as the banyan tree ( Ficus mirocarpa ). Anyway, our local banyan tree is huge and is easily distinguished by its numerous aerial roots and thicker and blunter leaf blades. Many times I have seen flocks of the red-eyed starling birds eating the fig fruits on this tree. Today they seemed to be absent. With the light cover of a morning mist a woman street sweeper starts her day's work early. Today she doesn't have to worry about the litter of fig fruits that are left to rot because the tree is not in its fruiting period. The red- yellow car is any typical taxi cab through out Malaysia and yes, it is a Malaysian made car.

A Melanau Kampung by the Kemena River, Bintulu.

A Melanau village by the Kemena River, Bintulu.

This is a view of the Kampung Jepak, from the sawmill I bought timber the other day.

Bintulu was once known only as a fishing village, an out post district from Miri which was its divisional capital some 200 km away to the north. Today, it has acquired its own divisional capital status and therefore is no more a remote village or small town it used to be.

Its original inhabitants were the Melanaus who fought bravely in the hey days of piracy and defeated the most notorious of all pirates roaming the South China Seas of the late 19th century called the 'Illanuns' from Southern Philippines.

The Melanaus today are still fishermen though a large majority of their children have taken up jobs in newer sectors of the economy. Kampung Jepak is one typical Melanau fishing village in Bintulu. Here the village folks build their houses on stilts made of the hardest hardwood species on Borneo Island called 'belian' which can make the house post last for about a  100 years.

A closer look at a kampung by the river in 'batik' painting.

( Batik painting by Kuching artist, Lee Hock Kia)

This painting illustrates well a river kampung scene with its boats, conical sunhats called 'Terendak' as protection against the sun and rain . The roofs are either of 'belian' shingles or 'nipah' thatched leaves. The jetties and walkways are almost of 'belian' planks. Notice how close the houses are to each other. This is a common feature as these houses are connected with each other by a maze of jetties and walkways. In a way being a kampung folk you have to be very careful of what you say or do because the walls have ears!.

Yellow Boats, Blue and Green Roofs by the Kemena River

The evening sun casts its rays on the yellow fishing boats that are moored by the fishing jetties at the Bintulu town riverfront area.  The two big boats on the left are deep sea trawlers while the two smaller ones on the right  are coastal fishing boats. The  blue conical roof is the 'Pasar Utama ' which houses the fish and meat market. The distant green roof is the 'Tamu' or jungle produce market. The Bintulu riverfront near the town proper is one of my favourite hangout anytime I am in Bintulu. It reminds me a  great deal of my childhood days when I had to paddle a tiny boat every time our family needed firewood . Being the eldest boy in the family I was mainly responsible to bring my younger brothers to carry out the job.  Very frightening at times for a small boy especially when the waters were rough and the boat fully loaded with timber from the sawmill across.

Big boats, small boats

I always like fish. I eat it raw, smoked, fried, curried, souped, salted, pickled,barbequed and many other ways I cannot recall off hand. That's why the sight of fishing boats excites me . The above picture is taken at the Bintulu waterfront area next to the Pasar Utama where these boats are parked temporarily for landing and refreshing supplies purposes or shelter from rough seas. The smaller crafts go to sea between 10 - 70 kilometers offshore. The bigger ones carry out their trawlling activities some 50-200 kilometers off shore Bintulu.

Pasar Utama Bintulu

The two cone-like structures by the banks of the Kemena River is the Bintulu Pasar Utama. This twin complex harbours a wet as well as dry market and eating stalls under two roofs. The architecture is inspired by the local Melanau hat called the 'terendak'. This view is taken from across the river i.e. from the ferry boat jetty.

Ferry Boat Arrives

This afternoon I had a closer look at the ferry boat disembarking passengers at the Kampung Jepak ferry boat jetty, in front of the Sim Swee Joo supermarket. Time: 5.30 pm

The main means of crossing the Kemena River for these motorbikers is this small ferry boat. The people of Kampung Jepak rely on this mode of communication to shorten their travelling time to Bintulu town, which is on the opposite side of this river bank. This is a late afternoon crowd . The other way to reach the town is through a 20 kilometer road that runs in a roundabout way further upriver from the Kampung Jepak village using a bridge crossing. While the roundabout way covers a half an hour journey, this ferry trip takes only ten minutes. In times of increasing fuel costs this mode of crossing the river is a lot better than driving the long circuitous road to town.

Crossing the Kemena River

In a relatively short 10 minutes crossing by a ferry boat the people of Kampung Jepak make their daily return trips through this jetty to do shopping or work at Bintulu town at the opposite side of the river. No charges are levied ,compliments from the goverment.

Time taken: 7.30 am, the sun rising in the east.

Bintulu river scenes

I had a half day outing to Bintulu town yesterday and had taken a few shots at the riverside.

There are not many express boats at the Bintulu wharves these days. It seemed that their days are numbered due to the accessibility of remote and upriver areas of Bintulu by a slowly expanding road network .

Bintulu 's main economic stay has always been timber and it is still dependant on this abundant forest resources today as ever. The Kemena River, that is the principal river of Bintulu is the main thoroughfare of tugboats that tows barges of logs to the timber industrial complexes at the Kemena Timber based zone, some three kilometers away from the mouth of the Kemena River. In the distant hill is the Jepak telecommunications tower . The village located down the hilly landscape and partly built in the river is where the local Melanau fishermen live. The above views I took from the wharf edge at Bintulu town proper.