Blast from the past

I didn’t know anyone in Sibu before I came here. Well, this turned out to be not quite true. The past seem to have a sneaky way of catching up to you.

During my first few days working in the emergency department I had to make quite a number of referrals to the respective departments. Now, the one thing one should not do to an acquaintance that one has not met for over 8 years is to continuously bug her all day with referrals. Needless to say, when I met Ming Shuan again after such a long time and such annoying referrals, her first words upon seeing me was, “You aa? I’ve been wondering who this Aizat was. Sooo irritating,”

It must be a hidden talent of mine.

Another person that I ran into a few days ago was Miss Yap!! “One of my MOs had a heart attack. Are you interested in Surgery? If you are I can go talk to my boss,” Naturally one could not let go of such an offer. Plus, she mentioned that surgical medical officers here are very well trained. However, I realise that “to get in” with my limited knowledge and abilities is gonna be difficult to say the least. Faridah the HO said that there is a view that Miss Yap brought me along with her to Sibu just as there is a rumour that she came to Sibu because of a certain Mr Ooi (this is of course not true...). Apparently it's because she came looking for me in the ED last week, presumably regarding the cargo transport thing.

However, since I have no plans for my future at the moment, maybe it’s time to look seriously into that MRCS thing... Oh but wait, what if that guy actually had a heart attack secondary to being a surgical MO?

 View from my balcony

The other quarters

 The HO flat is rather nice. I couldn't be sure whether this one was the female or male flat son I didn't go in to take more photos.

There is a tennis court but I don't think it's been used for quite some time. There is also a basketball court further back.

Moving in

“Rugi kalau awak masuk kuarters. Awak punye elaun perumahan banyak. Elaun wilayah, elaun perumahan wilayah, elaun perumahan. Elaun perumahan aje dah dekat RM400 tau,”

“Tapi saya takde transport. Lagipun saya tengok dalam slip bulan ni elaun perumahan saya RM250 aje,”

“Itu sebab Selangor masih lagi bayar gaji awak. Maybe sampai Februari nanti Selangor bayar. Tapi kalau awak nak masuk kuarters jugak saya boleh sain kan,”

My Head of Department is a Malay fellow from Serdang. Apparently he just got transferred here last year although I never did ask whether it was by his own decision or not.

I moved into my quarters on 20 Dec 2011. This place is old. Well, not pre war type old, but certainly older than those quarters in Putrajaya. It has 3 bathrooms. The plumbing looks new though and the toilet bowls are pristine white, so they must be new. It’s fully furnished but there is a distinct lack of a kitchen stove and certainly no big black metal oven that won’t look out of place in here (so I can scare little children by saying I’m gonna roast them inside it).

There are 4 rooms. These rooms are by no means big but there are still 4 of them for one of me. It’s scary. This place has the character of a scary movie set. There are 6 flats in this particular building. I think there are 1 or 2 unoccupied ones. Mine is in the top floor. At night I sleep with the corridor lights on.

 This door is heavy. Which is a good thing because it always closes behind me. But it can also be a bad thing if it closes behind me without me having the keys. 

 Furniture is provided but I suspect that the mattress was left by the previous occupant.

 All the windows have this metal netting. I guess its meant to prevent kids from climbing out from the 3rd floor because it sure as hell cant keep mosquitoes out at night

 This is the second corridor - for hanging laundry. This photo is looking back at the kitchen.

For what it's worth the pipes look new. They're even approved by SIRIM.

Food for thought

Now let’s continue from where we left off...

The first 2 days of work was rather interesting. There were a lot of things that Sibu does differently to Kajang. For one, not all cases that warrant admission need to be discussed with the MO on call of the respective departments – this is true only for paeds and ortho though, which makes me wonder how could they actually control their admissions.

The appointment system uses a computer system called TPC (TelePrimaryCare) which is in fact VERY impressive for a centre located an ocean (well, a sea) away from the MSC while the hospital located just down the road and which in fact receives a lot of patients from the MSC (i.e Kajang) still uses piles of paper to arrange their appointments.

Each patient carries a summary of their past medical history in the form of a patient card that contains some summary of past clinic visits, admissions and investigations. Therefore the comment “I wish we had a previous ECG to compare this with,” is not that commonly heard. This also means that the language barrier problem that I alluded to earlier is not as crippling to my day to day dealings as initially feared (although my inability to converse in Iban is still a significant handicap).

During my stay in Perdana Inn I would usually get food from a Pasar Malam in Sibu town. Its located in the parking lot in front of the converted Palace Theater, near Premier Department Store (what??!!! There’s a department store in Sibu??!! – Oh yes there is! There’s even a Parkson! And a Tesco! Wait... it’s actually DAesco...).

For the first night I ate rice with umai from a food court near the pasar malam. Then I ate rice with umai from the pasar malam itself. Then I ate rice with umai from the pasar malam again, from another vendor... though I did ask for buah dabai that time. I’ll post a picture of rice with umai when I feel like having rice with umai again (plus or minus buah dabai).

On Monday 19 Dec 2011 I finally managed to completed all the documentation required to get the keys to my quarters. It went a bit like the following:

First I needed the signature of the Hospital Director (who was absent at the time so the ‘Pemangku Pengarah’ signed it for me) as the one leasing out the place.

Then I needed the signature of a witness. The lady in charge of quarters was happy to oblige in this regard.

Then I needed the signature of my Head of Department to prove that I actually work here.

Then I needed to get a duty stamp for the document from internal revenues (LHDN) to legalise the documents.

Then I needed to go to the Sarawak Water Board’s office to get running water reconnected.

Then I needed to go to SESCO (Sarawak Energy Supply Company, they don’t have TNB here) to pay a deposit of RM450 to get a document to be taken to LHDN to get a duty stamp to legalise the said document so that it can be submitted back to SESCO with the stamp and signature of the Hospital Director so that I can get electricity. I was initially quite confused..

Then I needed to bring all these documents back to hospital office to get my keys and pay RM600 as  deposit for the quarters.

I moved in the next day.

p/s: today I had my first kampua goreng - it looked and tasted like maggie goreng... (maybe it is)

Admin stuff

There are a few things about Sibu that will just not sink in unless you are actually here. First of all everyone speaks Iban in Sibu. I mean everyone! Even the Malays speak Iban amongst themselves. Iban is THE lingua franca here. So it sure as hell is difficult to fit in here unless you can speak Iban... or maybe Foochow. Secondly, people here do to a certain extent feel detached from things happening in ‘Malaysia’ proper. In the words of one the ambulance drivers “Sebenarnya kita dekat sini sepatutnya tak payah nak sibuk-sibuk pasal hal Anwar (Ibrahim) ke apa-apa hal kat Semenanjung tu. Diorang kat sana, kita kat sini.” And finally the people here are very religious, especially the Christians. Even more than those in Newcastle. And considering how Christmas is just around the corner, that strong religious belief becomes more apparent now.

On my 2^nd day in Sibu I started off with applying for my work permit. It didn’t take long but it did cost me a bit as I had to take a taxi from my hotel to the Federal Buildings and then to the hospital. Clearly someone has to look into this law. It’s from 1963 ffs!

At the hospital I was introduced to Dr Nolan who is the acting Pengarah as both the Pengarah and Timbalan Pengarah were not around. After some discussion regarding how I wanted to spend the rest of my life (i.e thinking about things or cutting people) I was posted to the emergency department.

I also got to sign the first piece of the puzzle which will in due time become the contract for my quarters application but this was still far from approval. So resigned myself to the fact that I will have to cohabit with the cockroaches for some more nights (the other hotels were full).

The head of the emergency department was a big Malay fellow called Dr Zul who was apparently from Serdang before coming here. I thought he was quite a reasonable guy. I was then introduced to the rest of the team – all of whom were originally from Sarawak, except Ahmad the HO - who was from Kelantan. Later I would find out that there was another guy who was originally from UM and got transferred here before me. But other than that everyone was either from around here or married someone from around here.

Initially I applied for 5 days of leave from Monday to Friday to get myself sorted, thinking that I will get the weekends off. Apparently not. ED uses a shift system, so for the next couple of days I came to work by bus.

I had to wake up early to catch the morning bus to work the next day. While waiting, there was this lady that came to me and offered to sell me a tortoise! What do I do with a tortoise? Apparently I’m supposed to eat it. I politely said that I don’t eat tortoises. I didn’t ask how much.

The ED here is thankfully not the ‘pasar’ that Kajang’s ED is. Things seemed quite under control. This is ironic seeing as how Sibu Hospital actually receives referrals from 6 surrounding district hospitals, the furthest of which is 3 hours by speed boat. The facilities are what you would expect from a district hospital with specialists although it did irk me that UFEME/UPT took 4 hours to complete!! People in Kajang should be grateful to the lab staff there. It’s next to impossible to get BUSE (without the creatinine) within 1 hour and we have to be extra judicious with requesting for CEs.

I really need to get a hold of the language quickly as I’m having huge difficulties communicating with the patients here. Other than that I suppose it could turn out to be fun working in ED here although I was hoping that I get sent to Surgery or Anaesth. I’ll see how it goes. As Iris told me:

“Think of it as an extended elective in Borneo. People pay a lot of money to do their electives in Borneo for 3 months and you get paid to go there... for longer than that.”

The Rajang was not as big as I thought. The water level did come up close to the bank though.

They call Sibu 'The Swan City' but in fact I haven't seen any swan in Sibu except stone ones...

O that's why

I think this place is called "Pintu Gerbang Sibu" or something like that.The hotel I stayed in is behind the white building on the left. This photo has a lot of noise...

Day 1

I flew to Sibu on a MAS airplane (I can claim for transport) on 15 Dec 2011. Upon arrival a friend of a friend of my father’s picked me up at the airport. Upon arrival at the airport there were construction works going on, therefore it was a rather uncomfortable experience having to wait in line for immigration. For those of you Malaysians who have never been to Borneo, you have to present your passport/IC to the immigration officer upon arrival. The officer will then issue a leave of stay receipt that you should re-present to immigration upon departure from Sarawak. This is rather odd considering Sarawak has been part of Malaysia for more than half a decade. I’m sure half my patients in Kajang who were from Indonesia didn’t go through as much hassle as this when they entered the country in their boats.

The plane that took me to Sibu

My father’s friend’s friend then helped me look for a hotel to stay after which he took me to the hospital. I initially booked for 2 days as i figured that I may need the extra day to move in the new quarters.

At the hospital I reported in to Pn Norlia the administrative assistant for medical officers. As I was not issued any document from JKN Sarawak in Kuching I submitted the ministry’s letter. The Pengarah, Timbalan Pengarah, and Pemangku Pengarah were all not in so I didn’t get to know which department I will be posted to on my first day. At any rate I was to settle my work permit first before starting work anyway. Wait, what? What work permit? I need a work permit? I’m working for the Malaysian Ministry of health, not the bloody NHS. Why do I need a work permit?

Hospital Sibu

“Ni Dr bawak surat ini ke Jabatan Imigresen untuk dapatkan work permit ya,”

“Errr satu hal lagi, itu hari saya ada call pasal kuarters?”

She then put me in contact with the relevant personnel;

“Ooo kuarters ada, Dr datang esok untuk isi borang dia nanti minggu depan tunggu kelulusan,”

What? Minggu depan? It was a Thursday and ‘minggu depan’ meant at least another 4 days. At least the hotel stay costs only RM45 a night but that place is way too far in town.

“Dr betul ke nak tinggal di kuarters? Biasanya dr kita sewa rumah di luar,”

“Kalau ada yang dekat boleh la saya sewa di luar terus. Saya takde transport buat masa ni so kalau duduk luar tu susah sikit la,”

“Ada satu dekat Tmn Permai, depan hospital ni, RM280 sebulan, tapi rumah yang kat belakang la,”

“Walking distance ke?”

“Kalau nak jalan jauh sikit la. Lepas tu ada anjing. Kalau lari laju boleh kot,”

Great, if I want to rent somewhere close I have to outrun the dogs to get to work? I’m from KL! I don’t do walking to work! Do you know how unfit I am? I take elevators to the 1^st floor. That’s what Klang Valley people do!

“Takpe hotel tu nanti boleh claim,” That afforded me a bit of a relief.

Immigration

So we went to immigration with En Bong an IT officer who also transferred in the same day as I did to get my work permit. As I was unprepared for this I did not bring my passport with me (which I needed to get the permit) and had to return the next day.

Bus ride

I decided to take the bus back to the hotel as I knew I would have to familiarise myself with it if I were to commute to town on a regular basis (taxi here has a starting fare of RM10, and there’s no meter – well there is a meter inside but no one uses it).

At the bus stop I met quite a decent looking chap and casually asked him (in Malay, which is a dead giveaway that I’m not from around here, not to mention in my accent) which bus I should take to get to the market (the hotel is near the market). After which the wind blew from his direction and I could smell alcohol from his breath! At 5pm! Instantly I thought to myself “Shit, bad idea. Quick look the other way. Maybe he’ll forget that I actually tried to talk to him!”

“Mau pergi pasar ka? Bas 5A. Aku juga mau pergi pasar. Awak bayar tambang aku boleh? Aku juga mau pergi pasar,”

Crap, too late.

As is the tradition of mildly drunk people at a bus stop, this guy couldn’t stop talking to me. He even tried to sell me his shoes for RM10! It was at this moment that I realised Sibu is not another small town in provincial Malaysia. It is in fact a small city with people who should be approached like in any other small city – there’s a variety of them and its best to quickly learn their ways.

Needless to say I did pay for his bus fare to the market as I didn’t want any trouble on a bus with a drunken guy. I thought I had my fair share of drunks on a bus back in Newcastle but apparently not. I did not buy his shoes though...

The busses in Sibu are like those old mini busses and Len Seng busses in KL. They still have conductors, they still don’t have air conditioning, and they still feel like riding a camel (yes, I have rode a camel before).

Hotel

If there is such a thing as ‘Shady Hotel Capital of Malaysia’ , Sibu must be it. There has got to be more cheap hotels per square mile in Sibu than in anywhere else that I’ve ever been to.

I stayed at a place called Perdana Inn. When I first checked in, I didn’t get the chance to properly inspect the room as we were in a hurry to get to the hospital. When I returned that evening a realisation as to how shady the place was dawned upon me.

When I entered the bathroom there was rag on the sink. The hotel staff must’ve forgotten to remove it after cleaning the place. To my horror there were cockroaches crawling out of the rag when I switched on the light! The air conditioning was working but the controls looked as if someone had smashed it open. The view outside was of an ugly pink building despite the place being actually visible from the Rajang waterfront. And then there was this lingering smell of cigarettes...

As I sat on the bed that evening I summarised my situation up to that point; I had no place to stay in the long run, I had no work permit, I didn’t know anyone here, everyone speaks in a language I dont understand, and I’m going to be sleeping with cockroaches that night. Suddenly this whole ‘let’s go to work in Sarawak’ thing seemed like a very bad idea...

Coackroaches came out of that rag. THAT rag!!

Lets go to Sibu

After returning from East Java I got rather ill for a couple of days. A few days later we all went to Segamat for my cousin Khairul Ikhwan’s wedding. After which I realised that I had to submit my CPD book before I leave for Sibu as it needed signatures from my previous bosses. Thanks to Wan Zahiah, this was accomplished rather smoothly a couple of days before my flight.

Another helpful entity in my transfer process was the finance department of Kajang Hospital who helped arrange for transport of my belongings to Sibu. For this I am extremely grateful. However, it also meant that I would be without a private transport for a couple of weeks. I also called the hospital office in Sibu to ensure that I at least will have a place to stay that is within walking distance to the hospital until the car arrives. The following conversation took place a few days before I left for Sibu:

“Ooo kuarters memang ada,”

“Boleh tak saya apply?”

“Dr kena datang sini dulu untuk isi borang”

“Tapi memang ada la. Saya ada tempat nak tinggal la?”

“Ada,”

Of course I should have perhaps asked how long the ‘isi borang’ process would take before I could move in...

Marriage is in fact a contract

I had to carry one of the ‘hantaran’s

On the way back we encountered this burning truck! The cargo must’ve spontaneously combusted in the hot sun. As this fireman was trying to put out the flames, his colleague was taking photos of him in action. I suppose there is something sexy about a man with a big hose heroically squirting its load in the heat.

Jawa Timur

After reporting in to Kuching, I had to come back to Putrajaya as a holiday was planned by my mom for us to go to Surabaya, Indonesia. This was at the invitation of my mom’s uncle, Tok Din who himself was invited by a wealthy Indonesian hotel owner whom we now call Pak Haji. How all this came to be is subject to quite some confusing stories involving Pak Haji’s grandson, Singapore, and Tok Din himself. Regardless it was quite an interesting 10 days worthy of a novel in itself not least because of Pak Haji’s new young wife, family conspiracies and a sprinkle of alleged black magic.

Anyway, an interesting thing that I would like to share about Indonesia is the photo below of a road construction project. No doubt Indonesia is a rich country with poor people due mostly to corrupt politicians but as it stands today, Indonesia is perhaps the most ‘mature’ democracy in South East Asia (according to international indices) and this is reflected by the signboard below:

It basically says that the project was funded by money from taxes paid by the people. In Malaysia, an equivalent would say something like “Satu lagi projek kerajaan Barisan Nasional”

Origins

Back in November 2011 I found out that upon completion of my houseman ship in Kajang Hospital I was to be transferred to Sarawak. Where exactly in Sarawak was not mentioned in the letter as is was the tradition of the Ministry of Health. This did not come as a surprise as I was the one who put in the request to be transferred to Borneo, be it Sarawak or Sabah. Upon knowing this Iris suggested that I should write about my experience working here, and the best way is of course via a blog. Thus this will be where I shall document my life in this new place that I have never been to and have heard so little about.

Where to start?

I suppose the best place to begin is at the end. As Semisonic would put it: “Every beginning is from some other beginning’s end.”

My last call as a “Paediatric MO” in Kajang Hospital was remarkably uneventful. I guess this was expected as my usual calls were usually rather “exciting”. We finished early that day - 19 Nov 2011 – as me and Saw had to go to IJN for a paediatric grand ward round (which turned out to be rather interesting and a nice addition to my CPD total). After which I just went home and did.... nothing.

The next few days were a flurry of activities; first my sister and I went back to Machang to sort some family matters regarding land etc. Inheritance issues are very sensitive and are best solved at the first opportunity. My late grandfather made the decision that he made for no other reason than to keep the family together, which is sure to fracture if Mek is no longer around (she is perhaps the only reason left for me to ever visit Machang any more really).

That took 2 days. On the way back we were held up by a fallen tree just after Gua Musang. There was almost a festive atmosphere amongst the road users whilst waiting for the tree to be cleared.

Sarawak first contact

On 24 Nov 2011 I took a flight to Kuching. On the previous day I had to show up at Kajang Hospital to collect my report in letter. I didn’t say goodbye to my previous department as when I turned up at the ward, everyone seemed so stressed that I figured it would perhaps be a bad idea to show my face there. Instead I left a chocolate cake in the pantry.

I stayed in a rather decent hotel next to Sarawak General Hospital and reported in to the Sarawak State Health Department on 25 Nov 2011 as was instructed. This was what happened:

“Dr boleh tunggu sekejap tak? Pn Ooi tengah meeting.”

“Erm, jadi saya kena dating balik pukul berapa?”

“Jam 10.30 boleh,”

So wondered around the hospital for about one and a half hours before showing up again at the office at 10.30 am as promised.

“Meeting tak habis lagi lah. Lepas ni diorang pergi lunch break so maybe tak sempat. So dating balik pukul 2.30 lah”

This is surprisingly not surprising nor was it anything out of the ordinary when it comes to dealing with the Malaysian government. So I went around Kuching town and showed up again at 2.30pm as was promised.

“Dr tunggu sekejap lagi boleh tak?  Meeting tak habis lagi,”

Now to those of you who are not used to working with the government of 1Malaysia (Rakyat didahulukan pencapaian diutamakan bla bla bla), this could easily throw anyone into a fit of rage. However, I have had the benefit of serving the government for 2 years prior to this and have somehow developed a certain degree of tolerance to having to wait indefinitely to meet someone.

However at around 4.00pm I got really nervous as my return flight was at 8pm and I was concerned that I may not make it. Finally word was passed on to me that I was to be posted to Sibu. In the end, I didn’t meet Pn Ooi.

Jabatan Kesihatan Negeri Sarawak, located within the compounds of Sarawak General Hospital

The jamban in Kuching Airport is quite clean. There's piss in there.

Starter pistol

Sibu? Lets see, what do I know about Sibu... absolutely nothing. Now that I'm being posted to Sibu I need to at least get some idea about the place. So I turned to the custodian of Malaysian knowledge - the taxi driver. In this case it was an old Chinese uncle and from him I learnt a few tidbits about Sibu whilst being driven to Kuching Airport after receiving the news. These are some 'facts' about Sibu:

1. "Sibu a? Sana makan manyak murah la"

2. "Itu Sibu manyak itu Dayak ooo. Rajang mari"

3. "Itu Foochow a, manyak mari dari Sibu"

4. "Lu mau pgi sana aa, mesti mau jaga-jaga sama itu amoi Dayak punya oo"

5. "Kalau naik kereta dari Kuching 4-5 jam, naik bas mau 7-8 jam jugak, naik feri 4-5 jam, naik belon 25 minit - lu naik aja sudah turun maa"

6. "Lu mau jalan aa baik lu pegi itu Miri sana, Mulu Park. Sibu tadak manyak tempat mau tour"

So on 25 Nov 2011 I was officially considered 'transferred' to Sarawak. My first task was of course to report in at the State Health Department in Kuching where I was verbally told that I will be posted to Sibu. I'm being given a 30 day period so I guess I'll take my time sorting things out for my relocation.

In the mean time I'll be going off for a week holiday to Indonesia and then there's my cousin's wedding to attend to. I'm actually looking forward to working in Sarawak though I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get Kuching seeing how nice the hospital is. I have the faintest of idea as to what to expect from Sibu as I've never been there. One thing is for sure though - it's not anywhere close to Kajang. Below is a pic outside Kuching airport