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.

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.