A short holiday in Sarawak.

From the 17th.October 2008 till 20th.October 2008 I was in Sibu, Sarawak visiting an old friend , a Chinese guy but whom I regarded as a brother . He has been inviting me many times to go to Sibu , Sarawak where he is residing .A former Klangite who has left Semenanjong since 2002 . To sustain his survival there , he runs a food outlet in the town centre. His speciality is on Semenanjong menu and this probably appealed to some of the Sibu Chinese population . Although the income derive from the business is just a meagre one , it however is enough to sustain his daily expenses there .

One would wonder why a stranger like him would want to start a new life in a place like Sibu where the majority of the population are the Foochows . Well , according to Ricky the name he is popularly known , he first came to Sarawak in 2002 following a friend for a holiday . At the same time his personal life had a bad turn and his family was a total wreck . He was penniless and his wife and children deserted him . He then decided to remain behind in Sarawak in order to forget his pasts . At fist he stayed at the oil town of Bintulu but later decided to move to Sibu .

I first visited him in 2005 when he was residing in Bintulu . Thus this is my second visit .To make this visit possible I placed my booking with AirAsia about a month ago . Though officially the passage would cost only RM.78.00 but after all the plusses it came to RM 258.00 for the whole journey to and fro . However it is still cheaper than MAS .

I had earlier planned to stay in a hotel , but Ricky insisted that I stayed at his house where he was a tenant there . Incidentally the landlord was a divorcee and who happen to like Ricky . It can be considered that they were like husband and wife .I was given a room to myself complete with the air-conditioning .

In the evening we went to town .We also visited a timber tycoon's office situated not far from Ricky's shop . I was surprised when the timber tycoon told me that one of his children had won a JPA scholarship to study engineering in USA. At the moment he is preparing for the AAD US programme at the UiTM Shah Alam prior to departure for the US . Not only that , he also told me that this year about 60 students from Sibu alone got the JPA scholarships . I asked him why there were so many students from Sibu who won the scholarships and he told me that he was close to the SUPP (Sarawak United People's Party) leadership and that SUPP had demanded the scholarships from the Federal government in return for having won impressively in the last General Election . I thought to myself no wonder , there were less Malay/Bumiputra students who were awarded the JPA swcholarships this year . If the Sarawakians who got the scholarships were deserving poor students I would not mind also . In this case rich people such as the timber tycoon's children were given . This is certainly not fair .

On 18th.October 2008 we left Sibu on a river ferry to go to Daro , a small fishing town situated upstream the Rajang River . It was a 2 hour journey and the fare was RM.17.00 per person . It was an exciting trip on the largest and longest river of Malaysia .The people living along the river lead a simple life far away from the hassle and buzzle of city life .To them having enough to eat , a place to sleep and for the Ibans if there is enough supply of 'tuak' or cheap beer for them to be 'on the air' is enough to make them happy .They would do anything ( of course it include voting for the BN ) the government ask them to do . Pity them , their votes are so cheap .

From Daro we hopped into a van ( a taxi sapu ) to go to Matu-Matu . As there were no transport available there we asked the van driver to send us firther to Oya . For that , the driver asked us to pay RM.18.00 each . Matu-Matu and Oya were small sleepy towns . There was nothing interesting there . There were many acres of idle land which could have been made into good use for oil palm plantation or padi farming .

We were stranded in Oya for almost 5 hours . We were told that there would be a bus service from Oya to Mukah town at about 5.00 pm. Having waited for about 5 hours we began to get restless .There was no hotel there and if stranded there , it would be a great inconvenience to me especially for I need a decent place to ease myself and to perform my prayers .However through the persuasion of a Chinese shopkeeper in Oya , two Malay guys agreed to send us to Mukah for RM 40.00 on their Proton Saga car . It was only about 45 minutes drive .There was no need to argue over the high fee imposed on us for we need to go to Mukah badly in order to check into a hotel .Upon reaching Mukah ,we checked into a small hotel but decent enough for the night's stay .

Mukah is a small district where there is a District Office and the Police District Office . There are 2-3 banks and some shops . There is also a new town centre about 2-3 kilo metres away .

The next day after breakfast at about 7.30 am we checked out from our hotel and walked 2-3 kilo metres to the new town centre to board a bus back to Sibu . It was a long walk especially to me due to my knee pain .The ticket cost us RM 18.00 per person and it was a 4 hour journey . The road was terrible and the bus had to go slow due to that . I wonder how the government allow such a condition to persist for years without any effort to improve the situation . If it were in Semenanjong the people would have made noise and complain to the highest authority . There was a halfway stop over for about 15 minutes for the passangers to ease themselves . We reached Sibu at about 1.00 pm.

In the evening we went to a place called Cheku to eat durian . It was a durian season in Sarawak . I ate some . Unlike my friend Rcky , I am not a good durian eater .

After dinner , we just stayed in the house .

The next morning we had breakfast at a mamak shop where we had roti canai .( There are not many mamak shops in Sibu .I was told there are only 2 mamak shops there ). Then we went to the market to buy some fish to be brought back to Semenanjong for I did not want to come back empty handed .My wife would put up a sour face on me . I bought some salted terubok fish and ' bilin ' vegetable ( which looked like pucuk paku , but it's not ) which could not be found in Semenanjong . Ricky also bought me some buah rabai which is also could not be found in the Semenanjong .Unfortunately ,I did not like the strange fruit . As I was not feeling hungry , I skipped my lunch .

We left for the airport at about 6.30 pm . Having said goodbye to Ricky and his girlfriend at about 7.40pm I checked into the airport . I had my dinner in the plane . The plane touched down in KLIA LCCT at about 10.30 pm. My son Azman and his wife were waiting for me there .

I am grateful to God for the safe journey .