Sabah Trip 3: Semporna

I realised upon reviewing my two previous posts that my English isn’t very good. Shame.

The Tun Sakaran Marine Park consists of a cluster of protected islands off the coast of Semporna

Anyway, we spent pretty much the rest of 11^th December 2012 in Semporna. By the time we booked the trip to Mabul it was already too late for the lady to take us there as the package was meant to start in the morning. I didn’t mind that too much, although it did mean that we have wasted one full day of travelling. Like I mentioned in my previous post, in retrospect we probably should have just gone straight to Semporna from Tawau airport instead of spending the night in Tawau town itself.

Dragon Inn in Semporna. We didn't actually stay there but it was a floating village styled resort and I thought that it was interesting to take a picture of  

 

Swim kid! SWIM!

 

This slight hiccup did mean that we got to explore a little bit of Semporna. It was quite disappointing that the gateway to some of the most beautiful places on Earth can be quite dirty. Well, the sea water was so clear that it could probably put the sea around Kapas Island to shame, however, there was a lot of garbage. I mean A LOT! Hell, some of these kids were literally swimming in garbage. People of Semporna, shame on you.

Entrance to the water village. People were actually living on top of all that garbage

 

Near the market in Semporna. At least they were having these clean up campaigns going on. Maybe there is hope yet

 

Some of the locals took boats from this jetty which is also where all the day's catch was being brought ashore by the local fishermen. These boats go to... somewhere

 

We had a walk around the market and even ventured a little bit into the water village there. I thought walking around the water village was quite interesting. They seem to produce quite a lot of dried fish there.

Dried fish

Later on, after the tiring walk around the area, we went for a foot massage session. It was painful! Damn that lady really knew how to hurt my feet.

They actually put grated chees and 'gula Melaka' on their 'pisang goreng' in Semporna

 

We stayed at a place called Sipadan Inn for the night. For dinner, we had ‘ikan bakar’ at a restaurant near where we stayed.

 

Sabah Trip 2: Tawau to Semporna

We arrived in Tawau at nearly 6pm on 10^th December 2012. It was getting dark. It gets dark rather early in Sabah. Tawau airport was arather small regional airport catering to domestic flight needs and apparently ours was the last flight in. As is customary, I had to take a dump upon reaching Tawau. Unbeknownst to me, the guards actually locked the main door of the airport while I was taking a shit! WTF??!!?! I’ve never in my life heard of an airport locking its gate before 7pm before.

While waiting for the guard to arrive to open the doors (I was later chastised for not informing him that I was going to take a shit. What kind of airport requires you to tell the guard that you needed the toilet? What was I supposed to say? “Excuse me, I need to crap myself so please don’t lock the main gate while I smear your bowl with diarrhoea”?) I was told by the lady at the office that I now had two options of getting to Semporna. Since Tawau Airport is somewhere between Tawau and Semporna, we could either take a direct taxi there for RM100+ or so, or we can go to Tawau town by taxi for around RM40 and take a bus the next day for around RM14 to Semporna. Since it was getting late and we thought that it would be nice to also visit Tawau, we chose the latter. In retrospect though, if we had had a larger party, we probably should have gone straight to Semporna as the taxi fare can be spread cheaper between us.

I also gave Song a ring when I arrived in Tawau (yes, apparently Song JR now resides in Tawau, a fact I only remembered that upon reaching there).  Unfortnately he was in Lahad Datu so we couldn’t meet up.

It took about 1 hour or so to reach Tawau town where we spent the night at LA Hotel which I thought was great value for money. In the end though, I was too tired to actually go out and about in Tawau, though from what I’ve seen, it was a somewhat bigger and nicer town compared to Sibu. Cleaner too.

The bus station in Tawau

I know it says RM14.30 on the ticket but in reality we were charged only RM10 for the trip to Semporna. Apparently 'talun' meant jungle

 

The next morning we left the hotel at about 8am to get a bus to Semporna. The bus station was within walking distance from LA Hotel and apparently the earliest bus to Semporna was at 9.30am. There wasn’t much to see along the road from Tawau to Semporna but for some oil palm plantations and a few little villages. The road quality was rather good for some far off place. I slept for most of the journey.

The bus was actually pretty comfortable though I wouldn't recommend using the toilet

 

We reached Semporna in the afternoon where a friend’s friend who works as an AMO in Semporna Hospital picked us up to the jetty. Near the jetty area there were a lot of tour operators. Small businesses that offered cheap travel packages to the islands off Semporna. We went to Billabong Scuba which offered a package trip Mabul Island with day trips to Sipadan for RM350+. I thought that was a good deal since what I could find on the internet cost nearly RM2000 for such packages. Unfortunately since I was not a PADI licensed diver and I didn’t have a permit I couldn’t actually go to Sipadan. Mabul however, was more than amazing.

The bus stop in Semporna. You can try walking to the jetty from here but I didn't fancy it in this weather

Sabah Trip 1: Sibu to Tawau

We set off from Sibu in the early hours of 10^th December 2012 via taxi. It cost about RM35 to get to the airport from where I live since the introduction of taxi coupons not so long ago. I suppose this is a lot better than the greedy scheming bastards of taxi drivers in Sibu trying to rip you off whenever possible before they renovated the airport.

They way the Maswing's promotions work somehow made it cheaper to infact get a ticket from Sibu to Bintulu first and then to Kota Kinabalu instead of a direct flight. So we decided to take that route as it also offers an opportunity to visit Bintulu (again) in the process.

 

 The brand spanking new Sibu Airport. The people are still shit though...

 

Interior of an ATR 72. I love this plane!

We arrived in Bintulu after a bout 40 minutes of flight and took a taxi to the Tamu. There was a supposed ‘Malaysian Food Fair’ there but as with all such ‘events’ in Sarawak it was nothing more than just an extended pasar malam (or siang, as is the case).

 

The taxis in Malaysian airports generally operate via a coupon system. one goes to the coupon counter and purchase a taxi coupon that one then hands over to the taxi driver. It's a good system as a lot of Malaysian taxi drivers are dishonest schemers (such bitterness there...)

I didn’t get my passport checked in Bintulu because it was still well within Sarawak. However when we arrived in Kota Kinabalu at around 3pm, I had to produce either an entry slip, or my passport with a stamp that said ‘Akta Immigresen 1959/63’ which made me felt like a foreigner in my own country. 1Malaysia my ass...

 I had no idea what these are for but since I've never seen these before, I decided to take a snap

 I've been to Bintulu's tamu before. However, I decided that it was probably worth taking a second look

Apparently, Bintulu is famous for it's belacan. The more traditional way of packaging them are as shown above. The cheaper versions come in plastic wraps

 

KK International Airpport was nice. It had that same generic look as many smaller major airports in Malaysia but that is not necessarily a bad thing. We had lunch at Mary Brown. I’ve never had lunch at Mary Brown before and I thought that the Mary Browns here in Borneo was of a somewhat better quality than the ones in the Peninsular.

 

 Kota Kinabalu International Airport is located by the sea side! How cool is that! I know Changi is also by the seaside but this place has it's runway parallel to the beach. and the water looked so nice!

 

Airports in Malaysia tend to look the same. This is KKIA

We then took another flight to Tawau where there is the closest airport to Semporna. The whole idea of this trip was to make our way to Sipadan Island in Sabah and Semporna is the embarkation point to get there. The plane from KK to Tawau actually made a stopover at Sandakan for 20 minutes so all in all it took a total of four take offs and landings on Maswing’s ATR 72 to reach Tawau from Sibu.

 Sabah has a lot of these water villages as a lot of it's major towns are located by the sea. This one is in Sandakan, which I thought looked the best from air

 

Finally arriving in Tawau. These propeller driven planes are actually quite smooth. By the time we reached there it was already getting dark at 6 pm.

 I guess I should add here that this whole trip was planned pretty badly as I had absolutey no idea as to where I was going and how to go abouts getting there. However, as with all of my trips, I put value in the journey as much as the destination (sounds quite the bullshit doesn’t it? Hahaha). I’ll continue the story in my next post.

Sabah: Intro

It has been quite some time since I last posted in this blog. The reason being there has been hardly anything interesting happening as of late, compounded by the fact that I have been rather busy with SKT and CPD and whatnot.

However, last week I went for a trip to Sabah and there were quite a few interesting things to share.

I will be posting my trip in series of posts because the whole thing took about 5 days. I must say that it was quite an enjoyable trip.

There was a promotion by Maswings where you get 50% discount on a few destinations so I decided to take advantage of that got myself a week's worth of holidays to go to Sabah.

Home Visit

My parents came last week to Sibu in conjunction with the Malaysia Day. For most peninsular folk, Malaysia Day is a relatively new thing that was rarely mentioned prior to Najib’s tenure as Prime Minister. Regardless, it has always been a big thing here in Sabah and Sarawak.

My mom was understandably not very happy with my living conditions and decided to take matters into her own hands and not only did she purchase another full roll of PVC mat, she also supervised the installation of the said flooring. Now I can walk in my own house barefooted. Thank you mom.

She also brought up the issue of Pauline which I tried my best to evade. Bottom line is she is going to get me someone else to marry because nurses apparently don’t make good wives...

Roti Canai Goreng

I took the 8.30 am express to Kapit from the Sibu ferry terminal. The fare this time was RM20 and it was for the 3^rd class seat. The boat was not as packed as the last time I went there. I arrived in Kapit after about 3 hours during which time I spent sleeping mainly because the night before I was up hanging out with Pauline.

Initially it took me some time to find the exact place where the roti canai goreng was sold. However, after a few phone calls to Sherlyn the HO I finally found the place. It’s actually located inside Gelanggang Kenyalang which is a food court and once inside it wasn’t so hard to locate the stall.

On the number 17 stall in Gelanggang Kenyalang in Kapit one can find some newspaper cuttings regarding its famous roti canai goreng. The stall next to it serves the accompanying drink, the air agar-agar which is basically green jelly poured into milk.   

I thought it was a bit crazy of me to go to Kapit just for a roti canai goreng (actually I had 2), but guess doing something crazy like this once in a while can’t hurt...much

Sarikei Pineapple Fest

During the weekend of 1^st September 2012, I went to Sarikei for its annual Pineapple Festival. The venue for the event was in front of the Sarikei district council office. In addition to the main stage where there was a Ngajat competition (among others), there was also an extended pasar malam around the premises.

To be honest there was hardly any pineapple at all despite its name. The only pineapples were to be found at a decoration near the main stage and the big concrete one by the river (which is there all year round anyway). So, in that sense, the festival was quite a disappointment.

 

They might as well call it Sarikei Chicken BBQ Festival. There were certainly more of those than there were pineapples...

If you look hard enough, you can actually see the pineapples

Mother and Son

“Let’s see her photo again,”

I hand her the iPad

“Well, she’s pretty. Like that actress. Is she Malay?”

“No, Bidayuh,”

“Muslim?”

“Christian,”

“Is she going to convert?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t asked,”

“You can’t marry her if she is not a Muslim,”

I’m very well aware of that.

“If she converts just to get married, it won’t be a very good thing,”

I honestly am not sure about that.

“She’s a nurse?”

“Yes, a staff nurse,”

“Nurses work irregular hours. It’ll be difficult to look after children,”

So do doctors.

“I mean, just look at your aunt. Sometimes she comes home in the middle of the night. Sometimes doesn’t even get to see her kids,”

Yes, I got the point the first time around.

“I can help you look for someone you know. Maybe a teacher, a lecturer. Lecturers seem to have a lot of free time to bring up children,”

I don’t know any lecturer. I don’t actually know what they do, except maybe, errr... lecturing?

“She’s from Sarawak?”

“Kuching,”

“Sarawak is very far. Very difficult to travel during Hari Raya and such,”

That’s not what you said last time.

“Just find someone closer to home. It’s very difficult to travel back to Kelantan as it is. KL or Selangor would be great,”

 

Ok, I know where this is heading. Can I start crying now...

Hari Raya

Photos for the recent posts will be uploaded later once I get access to them (ie my computer). I noticed that most of my recent photos were actually taken using the Canon EF 50mm f1.8 lens that I got for a bargain of RM300 plus RM50 for a UV filter. Although it doesn't have the convenience of a zoom, the sharpness and speed of this lens is just amazing. Which is why for the Hari Raya period I took the trouble of packing both the nifty fifty and the kit lens.

The day before Hari Raya my father registered our house with the local mosque so that we can get people to come over for Eid takbir and visit. Registration is necessary simply because a large part of the population of people living in the housing area where we live actually went back to their own villages for Eid. So after Isya prayers a bunch of people from the mosque went from house to house (registered ones) for takbir. There was a distinct lack of fireworks around where we live due to the population being mostly pensioners and retiring government servants. This was perhaps a good thing. Less amputations for the local hospital to deal with.

The next day, after the Hari Raya prayers, as is the tradition in our family, we went to grandma's house in Kampung Pandan. Despite its name, Kampung Pandan is not very much a kampong at all, and is located very close to KL. There we met up with the rest of the extended family and had more food to eat.

We then set off for Kelantan to visit the other grandma (father's side). The next few days were spent visiting graves, relatives and friends. I had a lot to eat. A LOT.

Thus was how I spent my Hari Raya.

Balik Kampung

Formatting posts using the blogger app using an iPad is nigh impossible. However, I seem to manage it by using the blogger website's formatting tool without much trouble. If the next few posts seem rather disjointed and haphazard it is because I am most of these stuff in retrospect. There is quite a backlog that I feel like I should deal with and I seem to be able to manage it during downtime while I'm on call.

I finally got my free tickets ( referred to as flight warrants ) via AirAsia for my Hari Raya celebrations. According to Dr Zul from the Emergency Department, they usually have some seats reserved for flight warrants during festive season. Granted the cost is usually almost ten times that of a normal booking. It was perhaps my fault that the tickets actually cost around RM450 one way. Apparently people usually submit their warrant applications three months before Eid instead of my one month. The reason it was AirAsia instead of MAS was apparently because all MAS seats were sold out. However, despite having to fly AirAsia, the warrant actually provided me with a total of 20kg worth of luggage and an in-flight meal. The meal became moot as I was fasting and I used up 15 of the 20kg baggage allowance for some Sarawak layer cake that I brought back as a souvenir. I was allowed to pack the meal as take away though.

My last few calls in ICU before the Hari Raya period was surprisingly rather good. Maybe it merely felt that way because Pauline cooked me dinner for iftar for the last couple of calls before I went off. Bliss.

I boarded the AirAsia flight to KL at around 10.30am on the Saturday before Eid and arrived shortly after noon. There were - as expected - a lot of people on the flight, most of whom were teachers on flight warrants. Maybe it's just me but it does seem like most teachers in Malaysia are actually from Kelantan. They are everywhere.

Kuching to Sibu

First of all I'd like to apologize for l hiatus. It has been a very hectic month with a rather tight on call schedule due to my week long Hari Raya holiday. I'm trying to write this blog post on my iPad via the blogger app. It is not great. First of all the iPad never was a great tool for prolonged typing and this app was originally designed for the iPhone instead of its A4 sized cousin. However, since the only blogging time that I can get these days are during down time whilst doing on calls, I will try to bear with it as much as possible.

A lot has happened since my Kuching trip. About one week after I got back to Sibu, I made another trip to Kuching. While the main reason for it remains Pauline, there other factors that led me to make the journey... again.

Admittedly by this point I was already infatuated by the Bidayuh girl from Bau, and when she told me that she was going to drive back to Sibu by herself, I sensed an opportunity to experience a road trip, see the Sarawak country side, and maybe grt to know her better. Thus I offered to accompany her (as a second driver) on her journey back to Sibu.

And on Friday the 10th of August, I took a Maswings flight to Kuching at around 10 pm. It was on board an ATR 72 propeller plane and this one was in itself a rather novel experience for me. Maybe when I was a lot younger I flew on a Fokker F50 but the memory of that eludes me. Anyway, it wasn't as bumpy nor as noisy as I expected it to be and I simply loved Maswing's lighthearted safety briefings. They gave Milo and a pack of crackers for the flight. It was a pleasant flying experience and I can recommend flying Maswing if you intend to travel around Borneo.

 

Arriving in Kuching, I took a taxi to Drop In Guest House which was in the Padungan China Town area. It cost me RM26 by taxi coupon from the airport which was cheaper than taking a cab from the airport in Sibu to the hospital where I work. Drop In was very much a

youth hostel / B&B and they do offer single rooms. I got mine for RM35 per night. Bathroom and toilet were shared but there was hardly anyone else there when I arrived. For the mentioned price, one can get breakfast as well. Padungan was where the cat in Baju Melayu was but unfortunately, the outfit was removed before I could get a photo of it.
 

Pauline picked me up in front of the temple and we went to get some souvenirs for people in Sibu. There was some ikan terubok and we also bought layer cakes. The main difference between the RM10 and RM20 layer cakes is that the former are made with margarine and the latter with butter.

It is perhaps worth mentioning that at this point in time, while it can be concluded that we were going out, we were trying to keep it a secret from our work colleagues. There has been a lot of text messages exchanged between the two of us during her holidays and we did go out for dinner and movies on more than a couple of occasions.
 

The road to Sibu from Kuching was of a slightly better quality than the Sibu-Bintulu stretch. While potholes were not uncommon, they were significantly less compared to the latter.
 

We stopped by Ranchan waterfall to have a little rest and once again near a petrol station just outside of Serian. I drove for a couple of hours between Serian and Sri Aman and I must say that the drive was quite pleasant and not just because I was traveling with a girl I liked but also because there were very little twist and turns as compared to driving along the KL to Kelantan road back in Semenanjung. The scenery along the way was not much different than that of Peninsular Malaysia with jungles, villages, and plantations along most of the trip. We arrived in Sibu after about six to seven hours including time spent sleeping for awhile.
 

All in all while the drive itself was not particularly interesting, the journey on board a propeller aircraft, discovering the cheap and rather cool Drop In Guest House, and time spent with her made the journey worthwhile.

Video

I went to the office today to check up on my air ticket application. It’s been approved!! Woot! This means that I can now apply for a ticket home. The accounts lady didn’t sound very hopeful that I can get a ticket though, seeing that Hari Raya is in 2 weeks time or so. I’m still holding my hopes though. There usually are adequate flights to Kuala Lumpur during festive seasons anyway (I think). At any rate the whole thing is already in the pipelines so it shouldn’t be too long now.

While I was there at the office one of the clerks asked me if I had any more videos of the Gawai celebrations. Apparently they found my YouTube upload and were wondering if I had anymore.

Kuching Weekend

State Legislative Assembly Building

I was in Kuching from the 3^rd to 4^th August 2012. My previous visits to the capital of Sarawak have mostly been for business and as such I have yet to actually properly see some of Kuching’s attractions. Granted the first time I was there was when I was a medical student on holiday with my family.

Kuchings!!

I took the evening AirAsia flight into Kuching and arrived shortly after 7 pm which was in time for iftar. Pauline fetched me from the airport and we went to have dinner at Kuching Central. Much like KL Central, Kuching Central is the main bus terminal in Kuching. There are shops and a food court within and I had some claypot mushroom chicken - which was nothing interesting really.

There were 3 main cat sculptures that I could find in Kuching. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of the one where the cat had a Baju Melayu on in conjunction with the upcoming Hari Raya celebrations

Kuching is rather vibrant at night – for a city in Borneo. For someone who hails from as dull a smalltown like Sibu, it was a rather refreshing change. I mean, they have a 24 hour McDonalds! Beat that Sibu! You suck!

Then we visited the waterfront along the Sarawak River. The place has a walk by the river with multiple small food kiosks with a view of the Astana and the new State Legislative Assembly building across the river. At night the scene did look rather pretty and certainly beats walking in fear by the banks of the Rajang at night back in Sibu (again, Sibu lost! Sibu sucks! Hehehe)

Fort Margherita was however quite a disappointment. It was more like a blockhouse than a fort really. I am not sure whether one can actually go inside the building because it was nighttime.

Across the river is what people from Kuching would refer to as ‘the Kek Lapis Village’. The real name is in fact Kg Gersik and yes, it is famous for its layer cakes. These are one of the things that people from Peninsular Malaysia identify as a souvenir to bring back home (along with Gambir Sarawak, but we won’t go there). It is quite surprising how many different types of cakes are available here. However, since I already made reservations for quite a large number of cakes from Kak Balqis for the Hari Raya period, I decided to get only a small one from Kuching for personal consumption.

These things  sure as hell rack up the calories

The next day, we went shopping at The Spring, which was a shopping mall. I bought a bottle of Boss perfume at Parkson’s because it was on offer for use during Hari Raya and other occasions (I’ve ran out of CKOne for nearly a year).

Unfortunately we were told that the Astana was only open during Hari Raya

After fetching Pauline’s friend Syila, we went to take some photos at the Astana. I must say though that having 2 hot Sarawakian nurses as your personal tour guide in Kuching made the journey more than worthwhile; even if we did get lost on more than one occasion (to be fair they are probably better nurses than tour guides).

“I saw the chemo patient’s Hb to be 6. So I took a GSH lah,” I wish my HO’s had half the common sense of the nurses here...

I did not end up meeting with our friend Silverlining due to time constraints though. Maybe next time when I get more time off.

Initial Preparations

A Malaysian civil servant who works in a different territory than his/her own (e.g someone from Peninsular Malaysia who works in Sabah or Sarawak) is entitled to free travel back to his ‘territory of origin’ once a year. It is sort of an incentive to encourage people to work in Sabah or Sarawak and vice versa.

I submitted my form last week (I think) and hopefully it will be processed before the 18^th of this month as that is the date that I have chosen to travel back to KL. Aimir said that usually there is no problem with getting the so called free tickets home. However the speed with which it is done can sometimes be rather slow (no surprises there). The bottle neck is getting the authorization, after that they can me those tickets rather quickly. I hope he’s correct in these regards as I have absolutely no backup plan whatsoever. If worse comes to worse and I can’t go home for this year’s Hari Raya celebrations, I’ll just sit quietly in my flat and cry...

I bought a new pair of shoes! Hari Raya is coming up but that is not the reason. Because Hari Raya is coming up, Parkson’s is having a Grand Sale where some items get up to 70% discounts! That’s one of the reasons. The other one is because after my puddle of mud incident, I don’t have any casual shoes to wear for things like travelling and going on dates.

SenQ, where I got my iPad was also having Hari Raya sales and I finally bought an induction cooker after months (literally) of deliberating. It comes with a 'free' stainless steel pot. However, despite having also bought chicken, onions, and oyster sauce I realised when I got home that I forgot the cooking oil! Meh, cooking will have to wait.

Explanation Needed

My daily life usually involves making difficult decisions such as whether to give someone a spinal or general anaesthesia for an operation or whether I should intubate someone or give him/her a trial of non invasive ventilation. However, over the past couple of weeks or so it has gotten slightly more complicated and has left me a bit confused – should I go for one girl over the other, both, or none at all?

Actually, the choice between the two can in fact be rather simple. One of them is already talking about the “M” word even before I started going out with her so it makes it pretty obvious which one I should avoid. I literally travelled across a SEA to avoid getting married and here is someone who brings it up when my headache from the past still slightly lingers.

The problem here however, is that both of them work at the same place as me. So going out with one will make the other feel bad. And that will make ME feel bad. In fact I’m not sure I actually want to go out with anyone anyway. Someone from the same work place nonetheless. Iris said that what I really need – with regards to the stressful line of work I’m actually in – is not some smart ass to argue with after a shit call, but a kind heart to take care of me and a pretty face to look at.

Therefore the conundrum thus lies with whether I should I actually go ahead with the other girl. Several issues there however. First of all, like I’ve mentioned earlier, I am not really in the mood for any form of relationship. Hell, there are several repeating patterns here. This time, just like the last time I went out with someone, I was spurned into it by the people around me rather than because I wanted to. These things usually end REALLY badly because I’m not doing it for myself, but rather for others. I guess I don’t like to make others feel bad. I think of others’ perceptions too much and that is definitely not good.

Secondly, I really, REALLY love the single life. No obligation. No guilt.  It’s the sort of freedom that can’t be explained with mere words. Life without the burden of neither responsibility nor debt – to me that is the very definition of freedom. I’m free to make my own decisions regarding almost everything without having to take into account anyone else. For example I can choose whatever colour my vinyl mat will be (which I will go look for in a short while) without having to compromise with anyone. Or maybe go watch a new movie at my own leisure when it’s convenient to ME (and just me) instead of when it’s convenient ‘to the both of us’. My life my choices. Of course if I were to add in another person in my life it takes away that wanton freedom of choice that I enjoy and treasure above all else.

Then there is also this thing called guilt. Guilt I feel towards my ex really. I mean, I broke up with her because I DIDN’T WANT to be in a relationship. So the hypocrisy of being in one after all that drama is just detestable.

Additionally there are practical considerations as well. I mean how will it all end? What will my mom say? It’s not going to be a straight forward case with this one. Unlike the last, this time it is a Christian Bidayuh girl from Bau we’re talking about. What am I going to do when the reality of the difficulties surrounding this kind of relationship hits home? I’m not a racist (at least I try not to be) but there are hurdles to overcome and a guy like me generally don’t like hurdles. I prefer leisurely walks through life if I can help it.

Looking at the above arguments it seems really clear that I should try to avoid being in a relationship with this girl. It’ll cause me more trouble than it’s worth. Or is it? What exactly is it worth? If it was so easy then why do I keep replying to the text messages? To be polite? Then explain wanting to meet her at ten o’clock the night before she goes on her two week leave despite knowing that I have to be on call the next day. Explain the disappointment of seeing not her name but my boss’s in my inbox after hearing my phone’s new message alert beep (My boss sometimes gives detailed instructions via text messaging when I’m on call). Explain thinking of her when she’s now away and the non stop stupid grin on my face when she was close by. Explain the text messages. Explain the photos in my folders. Explain the previous few posts on this blog. Explain THIS post!

Crap.

Namesake

Here in Sarawak you do get some amazing names. Some are perhaps due to the registration officer’s hearing impairment like Ali Sabat (Elizabeth) while others are perhaps related to their parents wanting to name their children like world leaders like Saddam Hussein and Ahmad Obama.

There are also some controversial ones like Allah and some perhaps define the person, for example Gian Anak Gila. Regardless, these sort of things while may subject someone to ridicule it is nevertheless names given by their own parents and are in fact carried with pride. For that, they are worthy of more praise than some of the people back home who adopt nicknames because their original ones were not ‘cool’ enough.

Like Arrora Salwa (surely her own mother didn’t give her that name) once said “One should treasure the names given to them by their parents because invariably there is a good meaning behind it.”

Sungai Merah

I was supposed to complete a medical report. The strange thing about this particular one was that it was first requested back in January. However, I’ve already completed one, submitted it, and even got paid for it. So it came as a surprise when my name came up to ‘redo’ a medical report that I’ve already gotten paid for long ago. It turned out that this particular one was for a different purup pose. It was just a matter of copying and pasting the details onto a different format.

Since today was an off day, I decided to go to Sg Merah and take some photos. It was less than half an hour’s drive from where I live and the place was supposed to be famous for its market. The market itself was a bit of a disappointment and I didn’t find “Tit” Hardware as described by Sherlyn but I took some photos nonetheless.

Sg Merah was apparently the site where the first Foochow settlers arrived in Sibu. The place now has a little garden and a memorial stained by countless dog poo that the owners never bother picking up.

Mr Wong Nai Siong - I honestly doubt that he actually really looked like that

The garden by the river

The market and tamu were rather dissappointing. Maybe most of the people were already gone by the time I reached there at around 9 am

Hold it Right There!

This may be the beginning of trouble. I never intended to get hooked up in Sarawak with a Sarawakian girl despite it being a common thing to happen to people who come here to work. However, things are happening and it surely is starting to spiral out of control. By ‘out of control’ meaning I can’t seem to control myself from responding to this girl!

The problem here is this - since I broke up with my ex-girlfriend I have enjoyed the single life. It’s great! I can do anything and go anywhere with anyone without any sense of guilt. Lonely yes, but refreshing all the same. Since then I thought that I shouldn’t get into any relationship but things don’t usually go according to plan.

We went to watch Batman a couple of nights ago. Despite me having made plans with a few other colleagues to watch it the next day (I honestly do not mind watching Batman twice – I thought it was a good movie. The one with Heath Ledger was better though). I did enjoy the movie but maybe because the arm rest was too small, or maybe because she smelled nice, I held her hand while watching it. This – is – bad...

This blog was never intended to be about personal feelings but yet again things don’t go according to plan. Meh.

Borneo Cultural Festival

The Sibu Borneo Cultural Festival lasted for about a couple of weeks ending yesterday 15 July 2012. The town square in front oof Wisma Sanyan was set as the venue. There were lots of stalls representing the main ethnic groups around the Sibu and surrounding divisions.

I and a bunch of staff from the OT went to see the event on Saturday, the day before the closing ceremony and the finale of the Kumang and Keling competition. Unfortunately my patience ran out before the results of the said competitions were announced as the speeches by several “Yang Berhormat’s” (members of parliaments) who seemed to enjoy the sound of their own voices too much took too long.

There were lots of food as well. However, they did seem rather expensive for the tiny portions that were served.

Initially I went to the festival site rather early during the day. Apparently nothing was to happen until sunset so I went back home and got myself some sleep.

There were 3 stages set up – Dayak, Melayu-Melanau, and Chinese (not specifically Foochow though) around the town square. Different performances were presented throughout the duration of the week but I was too busy to actually go see any one of them before Saturday night.

Some explanation might be warranted before I further use the word Keling especially in Malaysia. Rest assured that in Sarawak it has absolutely none of the racist connotation that it might have back in KL. However, since I can’t be asked to write it up myself (at the risk of getting it wrong), you can read all about it here.

I initially thought that these tattoos were for real (in which case it would’ve been totally awesome!). However upon closer inspection it was evident that perhaps more than a couple of marker pens were involved. Kak Burak said that a real Keling wouldn’t have that many tattoos on him anyway. The number of tattoos on a warrior is related to the number of heads he would’ve taken.

Apparently most of these guys were army guys from the nearby camp

  Some of the contestants were more than eager to have their photos taken – which was great for me!

There was also a fancy dress / fashion show competition going on. I don’t know who won it but this sunflower girl was my favourite

Anis, Nurul and Pauline - I don’t actually make it a habit of ferrying girls around and taking their photos here in Sarawak... honestly I don’t

This Borneo Cultural Festival thingy is held every year around July so there will be another one next year as well. For the people of Sibu (where hardly anything ever happens) this event is considered to be kind of a big deal.

Rest in Peace Peter

So far July has been a rather eventful month. Beginning this month our OT is seeing some drastic changes with regards to manpower allocation. In view of there being fewer medical officers left compared to previously, the on call system has been rearranged. These days there will be only one anaesth MO on call beginning 9 pm every day. However, in order to lessen the burden of that MO, another medical officer is stationed in OT until 9 pm – effectively being ‘oncall’ until then. The OT MO can claim for oncall however, since he/she will have to run OT cases for the full duration of the following day. So far this arrangement has worked rather well.

Since Dr Shereen left us, we have a new anaesthetist called Dr Kong. She was originally from Sibu but has only worked in our hospital for one year as a house officer before leaving for Peninsular Malaysia. How long she will be with us remains yet to be seen.

Another major news is Peter Ting, the most senior anaesthesia medical assistant passed away on Tuesday 12^th July 2012 during which day I was on call. You get rather use to seeing patients die but NEVER when a colleague dies. He has been ill with colon cancer for a very long time. He will be deeply missed by everyone, especially the OT staff. I remember him best as being the first person to teach me how to do an axillary nerve block and for that (and many other lessons) I will forever be grateful.

Karaoke

After the Gawai open house a bunch of us decided to go for karaoke. A popular joint for hospital staff is Deluxe Karaoke in town. It cost around RM80 for a room and some snacks for the rest of the night (which was maybe 4 hours) and we had quite good fun.

Nurul is actually from Kelantan

Pauline