A Small Town Park

On the way to the Malaysian-Indonesian border recently I had the chance to drop by at the thriving town of Serian, a 25 minutes drive from Kuching city. Within a tight space of not more than 2 acres I noticed some amount of Federal funding has been spent on the landscaping and public amenities for the town's populace. I am happy to note the use of elephant ears( Alocasia ) in the planting detail giving the place a unique touch of the strange yet refreshing image of the wild into the typically sterile concrete jungle of small towns in Sarawak today as they race to catch up with the only two cities in Sarawak i.e. Kuching and Miri.

This open space is partially covered by a unique structure that I guess can be used for many functions like open air performances, official gatherings etc. But in my travels throughout Sarawak most of these open park amenities are hardly used because of budgetry constraints. We may have the funds to build physical infrastructure but lack much in 'filling the content' to these cultural spaces. The long walkways coloured red above intersect the park and I thought was practical since an attempt to overgrow it with two climbing plants species have started and may take sometime for the plants to crawl over the walkway superstructure.

This was the surprise . Handrails made of stainless steel seen at the edge of the park.

Garden platform project done!

The area to the right has been filled up and levelled to make way for concreting. Simple wooden form work are installed to keep the concrete in place when pouring. I have intended to make the garden spot more livable by creating this space for passive creation,like reading, drawing ,etc

I did this project by myself. The hardest part being mixing the cement with sand, stones and water. However take it in stride and in no time you'll find that you are capable of becoming a contractor. I would estimate concreting works above about 20% done.

Here's a view from the house towards the jungle ,taken after all concreting works were done.

And finally, the last bit of work consisted in concreting the first step from the garden to the house. The wordings on the step indicated that the project was completed on 18th May which was timely before we take the road to Kuching.