Back to Bintulu

After a 10 hours journey through Sarawak's green countryside we arrived at 7.00 pm yesterday evening ( 27/4) in relative darkness at our farm in Bintulu. Throughout the whole journey the skies were cloudy and we encountered light showers briefly towards the middle part of the journey. Before leaving the house in Kuching I had a short morning workout in the garden. Planted plants where necessary and applied manure heavily to some of the beds. I was very happy to see the planting results to the front garden so far. Thus after I finished the early morning workout I took this close-up image of a pink canna ( inset) and the front garden too before departure. Canna blooms will last for about a week because other buds on the flowering stalk will open up in succession.

The front garden with orange flowers of the ixora coccinea at the foreground and two pink canna blooms in the middle background.


As usual our two cats Inul and Mama Daisy joined us to make this their 14th trip to Bintulu in their record breaking attempt for the most travelled cats in Sarawak. More stories of their adventure can be gleaned here.

On this trip we visited the town of Sarikei with about half of the journey covered. I insert below a picture of Sarikei 's express boat terminal. In the days of river transportation the terminal was very busy because it was the only means of travel to and out of the town. While today the mode of travelling by road is more popular it cannot yet replace the express boats for upriver or downriver destinations .

Boats at Sarikei Express Boat Terminal


A river scene at Selangau, the last leg of the journey.

Most longhouses or 'kampungs' in Sarawak are sited along major rivers to capitalise on its water resource for drinking, bathing, washing, cooking, etc,. and for means of transport.

The farm at 7.00 pm showing a new moon on the western sky.

Sarawak Sights

Typical of our 600 km journey from Bintulu to Kuching today were the cloudy skies, rural countryside with paddy fields glowing in colours of gold and ochre. It's harvesting time. We encountered only two spots of isolated rain after the town of Sibu and Sri Aman and there again only for very short spells. We left Bintulu at 9.30 am and arrived Kuching at 8.00 pm after two pit stops at Sibu and Sri Aman rest area.

Sibu Sights (and surprises )

We had lunch at Sibu, after a 3 hours journey from Bintulu, and parked our car at the multi-storey car park above which resembled more like a corporate building or a bank. First surprise.

Sibu is the only town where poultry are wrapped in newspapers and tied with raffia strings to enable easy weighing. And to the farthest end of the picture, ducks included. Surprise no.2.

This human powered vehicle is called a rickshaw. Yes, it's not for show. You can take a ride around Sibu town with it. Such antiques are absent from the streets of Bintulu or Kuching. Third surprise.

I think Sibu has the most express boats, pontoon wharves, speed boats and motor launches in Sarawak. There's no doubt about it. Express boats are highly powered and lenghty metal boats ( left of picture) that can carry 40-50 passengers and are used to travel upriver destinations where the engine power must be sufficient enough to go against the fast river currents. Years of experience have made Sibu express boat makers the preferred choice of river transportation operators from Brazil to China. Sibu exports express boats. Fourth surprise.

Well, there be more surprises in store. In the meantime, Kuching here we come!.

A Fruitful Tuesday

Last night it rained heavily but when I woke this morning the weather was fine. It struck me that today I have to pay a visit to Bintulu town to check my mail and pay the 3G Phone bill so that I can carry on interneting without interruption  when the long end of year holiday starts with the X'mas day off this coming Friday, Malaysian time.

To start the day I climbed this jackfruit tree ( artocarpus interger) in my farm and collected 30 nos to give away to my brothers and sisters and relatives in town.  This year most of the fruits are attacked by insects that bore through the thick skin and rot the fruits. Therefore in order not to lose the  fruits to insects,  I decided to pluck them early i.e. when they are still unripe to be used as vegetables instead.  Below is how we cook the young jackfruit as vegetable. 

Guide to preparation: Remove the skin, cut the young fruit into 2 cm cubes and boil it with pounded chillies, onions, garlic, shrimp paste ( belacan), lemon grass in coconut milk. Boil for about 15- 20 minutes.

The creamy taste is very yummy, yummy,yummy!

Next to the jackfruit tree I found these two varieties of mushrooms, one white which is edible and the other orange which is a bit poisonous. They sprout easily these days due to the rainy season.

Later while in town, I dropped by a Melanau kampung house by the river to get the above shot. The speed boat is powered by a twin 200 horsepower outboard engines. Normally these boats are rented by fishing enthusiasts or tourists for deep -sea fishing  or sightseeing the Bintulu coastline or river.

The feather-leaved palm tree at the center of the picture is the familiar coconut tree.

These boats are also rented by timber merchants or traders who need to inspect their logs when loading onto timber ships that  anchor about 10-15 km offshore before they are bound to foreign destinations.

Lastly after having collected my mail and paid the telephone bill, I bought other provisions at this Parkcity Shopping Mall. I found this X'mas tree to be the biggest and the highest this time around.

This year I noticed too that the shopping crowd is thin as most people are tightening their belts in view of the gloomy days ahead when  we will face tougher times due to the severe recession which is now a confirmed reality in US and many other developed economies.

I guess we just have to be moderate, I mean very moderate in our spending now.

Want to barter jackfuits with me anyone? 

Sights of Sarikei

Sarikei is a town midway from Bintulu to Kuching if you travell by road. We dropped by the town on our journey to Kuching ( 1/12).  It is popular for its small, juicy and sweet pineapple variety called 'Nenas Sarikei '. This tall public sculpture of the pineapple fruit is done in ferro cement style and nicely coloured to depict the shape and colours of the ripe fruit.

The main entrance road to Sarikei town.

The Bus Terminal

The Express Boat Wharf Terminal

The express boats refer to those long, high powered and extrememly fast boats which are custom built to speed against the strong upriver currents. This picture is taken at low tide.  At high tide the pontoon will rise with the tide.

River bank at low tide.

A much slower motor launch is sandwitched between two express boats. The motor launches are being faced out as passenger crafts due to its slowness.  However they are still used to transport heavy or bulky cargoes to destinations up or down river. Costs of transporting cargoes by motor launches are much cheaper but delivery time is slow.

A well decorated high water tank for the purpose of pumping water to  a higher level thus enabling more water pressure by gravity to neighbouring homes or premises around Sarikei town.

A CU View  of the 'Nenas Sarikei '. The expanse of the 'nipah' palm vegetation that grows along the river indicates that Sarikei is a riverine town and accessible either by road or river. There is no airport or airfield in Sarikei.

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.