Sarawalicious...

Kuching....

Sibu...



Miri...



I miss you all...

The Richest city in old days

Why the richest? Sure, it is rich for nothing but petroleum…but that is old story…
Seahorses, the symbol for Miri…I think the existence of seahorse in sea around Miri makes Miri the city of seahorse…You can find the Great Mr Seahorse in new Marina Bay in the seaside…Breathtaking scenery!!nice view and nice food…they serves Italian cuisine in antique house by the side of the sea…

Behind us is the antique house

Bollywood style running

Actually, Miri is our transit point for our journey to Mulu National Park…Paiseh to Yun Yen…Indeed, she and her family treat us nice and warm…especially her mum Hakka style dishes..Delicious!! Oishit!! Thank you aunty and uncle!!
Mulu National Park, I will never forget You!!! You can travel to Mulu either by Maswings for 30mins or by car and then boats for 10hours….Which one would you choose?Of course, the former la…
A let-down to Mulu is that our packages didn’t include the Famous Pinnacles (5D4N package)…You may ask what is pinnacle? Check it out!!

Not bad, our trip to Mulu included the largest cave in the world – Deer cave, where you can see those nasty bat and bat shits…Of course, Abraham Lincoln’s profile is another attraction…On top of that, other famous caves include Lang cave, Lady cave, Clearwater cave….
Our moods in Deer and Lang cave are spoiled by the ‘cats and dogs’…As they ‘rained’ the Mulu. Luckily, it rains after our visit but we had no chance to view the bats coming out from cave for food…I had to say we have a great time running in the rain!! Wet though with umbrella….haha…
On the way to Clearwater cave with boat, we stopped at Penan long house purposely for its morning market selling not food but craft…We bought a lot here…I get a special flute here..It is so extraordinary…It is blown with NOSE…sound like so Orang-Asli…

It was taken while on the way to Clearwater cave

Moreover, I get some flat hardshell nuts, again, it is not for eat but for massage…
Our last stop at Clearwater cave is a river, where we spent our noon there having our lunch and swims there….COOL!! I mean the water…It is clear but not crystal clear as the way it should be due to the rain.
Nevertheless, we have to come back again for the pinnacles…for our guide – Khairul…Ah Keong, Mat and many of them over there…

From left: Zi Yen, Sharene, Yun Yen, Khairul, me, Mat, Ah Keong, Jia Yin

Fishing around inn

To make the matter worst, our tour in Mulu become more ‘FUN’ with 2 strangers, talkative uncle and aunty…LOL…headache!! We are not only in same tour in Mulu, but also in same plane for leaving Mulu and also Sarawak…

The old couple request us to have a photo before we go for boarding


Simply Wilson
My journey was cheered up with the presence of Wilson
He is an artist as well as a poet and musician…
I was impressed by his masterpiece placed around the hotel lobby…And I did have a chance to chat with him for a while and not forget to take a photo with him…
He is basically origin from Scotland but stay in New Zealand…graduated from an art school and now he is a full-time artist…He was invited by the hotel manager to come over for 8 months…actually, he has a mission on his own – he gonna to draw a painting about Sarawak that is specially for the state for tourism…Below are some of his great work…mainly oil and charcoal paintings…

The Swan city

One of the most favourite pic. taken during the whole trip

I found a specialty in each city of Sarawak – each of them is symbolised, whether it is an animal or food. We have cat for Kuching, swan for Sibu, pineapple for Sarikei, Seahorse for Miri….
Swan and Sibu? You may ask why both are related...of course, it comes with a stories, perhaps a legend….in old days, swan taught people in Sibu learned how to make sago from the sago trees during starvation…That’s why in Chinese sago is named as ‘Suo Er’, 硕莪, ‘Er’ means swan…
Sibu, indeed, it is a different from other cities…Fu Zhou culture makes it distinguished from them…You will found that the food, language, culture are totally different…
‘Ang Zho Bak’ is famous dishes among Fu Zhou folks…Besides, Midin (paku-pakis), ‘Ang Mo Loi’ (shells) and ‘Ding bian Hu’ are specially found in Sibu…Most of the mentioned food are served by Chung Eng’s family…Thanks for that!!Unforgetable…
If you never try ‘Gong Bia’, you are never been to Sibu…RM1 for 5 of it, cheap and nice!! Those with meat and other contents such as kaya taste better!!
Actually, there is not many places to visit in Sibu except ‘Tua Pek Gong’ temple, ‘Jiang Bing’ garden…But you can buy many things (local products), namely pepper (quite cheap compared to Kuching), tebaloi (Sago biscuits), Bario rice, dried kolo mee, sago (instant snack)… Sure, I get a lot of pepper from there, Emm..almost 5kg for about RM100…1kg kolo mee and some tebaloi…Damn heavy!!

This is only seen in Sibu Bazaar...Cute!

Don’t expect to buy souvenir here as they are much more expensive than Kuching and most of them are imported from Kuching…Regrets!I don’t buy enough from Kuching as thinking will get cheaper one in Sibu...
With 6-7kg of my stuffs, I continued journey to Miri with ‘lou-yah’ (old) bus…8 hours, it took my time, energy, mood away...Lousy roads with no lights…Doing nothing on bus besides chatting…

Kucing?Kuching?

If you didn’t visit the famous cat sculpture in the Kuching, you are not qualified as being to Sarawak…haha..
Actually, this tour is really packed but full of fun & joy..
Food in Sarawak is a bit different from west M’sia. I still feel that west food tastes better for same dishes found in Sarawak….Sarawakian, don’t blame me..for instance, laksa and rojak..Laksa would taste like our Curry Mee, but with aroma of variety of spices..Perhaps, you will taste it better if you don’t treat it as our laksa

National Museum

On the boat to opposite of Kuching waterfront - DUN & Fort Magherita

Our ‘tour guide’ is nobody else but Su Ee, my junior…responsible, nice, friendly….as well as his friend, Handsome….haha..
In Kuching, we have a great time especially in Bako National Park & Sarawak Cultural Village…

Bako is really a very nice place to visit..a MUST-visit place…though there are also others national parks
We spent 2D1N in Bako…What so special about Bako? Of course, it is special for its weird-shaped stones and Proboscis monkey (long-nose monkey)…You pay RM35 per boat and you can have a ride around the seaside…
Awesome…you must come to see them all yourself, purposely for the cobra-shaped stone standing still in the sea
A walk to Telok Paku & Telok Delima provides you the greatest chance to view the Proboscis monkey…if you are lucky…I did have this chance but just can’t see it nicely barely with our eyes…perhaps, binocular can help
Besides, you can find some cute and special creatures around Bako, such as Pitcher plant, one-handed crab, wild board, fish with legs…just to name a few..
Great sunset, where you can share with your beloved…but friends, too…

Sarawak Cultural Village (SCV) is not uncommon for all travellers to Sarawak…you may be shocked with its entrance fee of RM60 for adult..haha…but with that price, we can spend for 4 peoples…Why? Cause we are students…so happy to be a student…Remember ask for student price when you travel to any places…
Here is a journey where you can have a view of all kinds of the Orang Asli houses at once: Orang Ulu, Penan, Iban….Everyday they will perform for you their culture in forms of dances, mostly. At the end of it, you are invited to go up stage to have a dance with them…FUN!!Our ‘Siao Cha Bo’ was being invited by the performer to have a try on using blowpipe as he was attracted by her laughter..

Sarawak, Here I Go

Nervous?
Kan Cheong?
Nope…I was not that nervous…It was nothing difference compared to a bus, instead, it was just an airbus..
So fantastic…my first tour in east M’sia involves air, water and land…
Fly:KL-Kuching, 2 hours
Ferry:Kuching-Sibu, 5 hours
Bus:Sibu-Miri, 8 hours
MASwings:Miri-Mulu, 30mins
Duration:
6-13May 2009, 8D7N tour
Places visited:
Kuching: City tour, Kuching waterfront, Museum, Bako National Park, Sarawak Cultural Village
Sibu: City tour, Tua Pek Kong temple, ‘Jiang Bin’ Garden
Miri: City tour, Mulu National Park, Marina Bay, ‘San Qing Dian’ temple
Budget:
Overall, about RM1300-1400 was spent for all expenses included souvenir

So long...

Can't wait to add my photo while travelling in Sarawak..
Wait for me...