Haircut

“Time aku beli seluar dalam la cashier dia cun,”

“Huh?”

“Takde, saya cakap: masa saya beli seluar dalam lah cashier dia cun,”

Since I have overpaid my credit card I decided to get replacements for some of my torn underwear. And since Parkson’s was having a Bonuslink point sale I decided to  drive to town to get them in addition to getting a new hair cut (which looks now a bit like misplaced pubic hair...).

The cashier was indeed really cute. Tiny and cute. She had a good giggle afterwards and I bet she’ll be telling that story for quite some time. Being a cashier can be very boring and uneventful. I know. I used to work the till at Oxfam.

Another reason I drove to Parkson’s was because the only McDonald’s in Sibu is across the road from it. Then I browsed around for a replacement disc for The Three Musketeers which I bought a couple of months ago. The previous one had such bad audio and video quality it was unwatchable. That’s what you get for buying pirated stuff I guess. It’s a hit and miss affair. I’m not proud of it but I do watch pirated DVD’s. Everyone does. Well almost everyone. I have stopped using pirated software though. Those things can cause nasty system crashes. Besides, I don’t need many software to live. Only Microsoft Office. Adobe Acrobat is free and so is Internet Explorer.

Dr Zul said he often had trouble getting the barbers in Sibu to cut his hair this short and would go instead to the army camp. I entertained the idea of doing the same but I didn't know the way to the camp. Now I have this toilet brush head. It honestly looked awesome immediately after the guy finished. Meh, at least HE liked it.

Also today whilst having the car serviced I discovered one of Sibu’s jewels. There is a stall next to the Chung Hwa Secondary School that makes the tastiest ‘perut sapi masak kicap’ ever!

News

These past two days have been filled with various surprising news. For instance I was surprised to find out how soon I was getting transferred to anaesthesia, I was surprised how much I have spent on household appliances, and I was surprised to find out that I have in fact over paid on my credit card bills. The last one may not seem that bad but if you take into account that American Express is pretty much a useless credit card and paying that extra money meant it took away the opportunity cost from other things (e.g. iPhone 4s, and Celcom doesn’t accept American Express – at least not online) it starts to wipe that grin off my face.

Another startling if not unexpected news is that CS Chia is getting married in June. Things like these tend happen to most people, but it was startling in the fact that after not hearing any news from her for a good deal of half a year and suddenly a bomb shell like this was dropped. Meh.

I also found out that some time last year on call allowances were hiked up, from RM150 to RM 200 for medical officers, and that change had not been implemented in my previous workplace. Maybe they were waiting for the right time (i.e before election season) to implement the change. Regardless, it was merely news and I won’t see the money for a good couple of months anyway. They were looking for me to sign a statement back in Kajang but since I am quite literally an ocean away (a sea maybe) I had to ask Saw CL to sign it for me as he is the only one I can think of that is still in Paediatrics Kajang (I could probably had asked for Zeehan or Razi but let’s face it, I’m closer to Saw anyway).

In addition to that it turns out that Hafiz won Anugerah Juara Lagu for the 2011 season. I thought maybe Faizal Tahir or the Jaclyn-Ning-Shila trio would have won it. Those were the better songs in my opinion and Juara Lagu is a song competition, not a singing competition. I guess the judges may have had to judge based solely on the night’s performance and arrangement and Hafiz’s Fistula in Ano Awan Nano was arranged better for the competition than it usually is heard on the radio. This news was also accompanied by the news that I have used up more than 3GB of my allocated 4GB of download limit this month. (I knew I shouldn’t have watched too many of that porn Juara Lagu repeats.)

Change

Dr Nolan called me last week to tell me that I will be transferring over to anaesthesia in February. Of course when I first arrived in Sibu Hospital I did ask to be posted in either anaesthesia or surgery. However, now that I have somewhat felt more comfortable being in Emergency I was havi second thoughts. In the end though, I made my decision somewhat based on past experiences and current service requirements.

I chose to go and report to the Anaesthesia department tomorrow and here are some of the benefits of doing Anaesthesia in Malaysia:

Air cond. The main reason. Of course the Emergency Department in Sibu Hospital has got air conditioning but Anaesthesia is virtually the only specialty that GUARANTEES an air conditioned workplace for a doctor in the Malaysian Ministry of Health. For those of you who have never had to (be forced to) wear a white coat in the sweltering heat and humidity of Malaysia, you just won’t understand... (ps: I think white coats are stupid, even more stupid to have people wear them in Malaysia... with no aircond)

Limited need for communication. There is an enduring problem with language barrier between me and the people here that I am still struggling to get around. In the Emergency Department this can be a rather significant and even dangerous handicap as a VAST MAJORITY of problems can be diagnosed (or misdiagnosed) by history alone. From my experience in Anaesthesia before, we generally have little need to talk to intubated patients.

Opportunity for private works. Anaesthetists in Malaysia make amongst the most money of any specialty. Enough said.

Continuity of basic sciences to application. Anaesthesia is one of those specialties where you can almost witness the interaction between all those basic sciences that you have learned in your early days of medical school and what you do to patients. Most other specialties don’t let you ‘see’ it as clearly as any of those weird and wonderful anaesthetic drugs.

On calls. Working shifts in the Emergency Department while provides for some advantages in terms of time, only allows for passive call claims – which is not a lot. Though there will be less time for locum (which pays a hell lot more, sigh).

Plus I have a great deal of respect for Dr Nolan. He actually went through all that trouble to get me into Anaesthesia and asking him to let stay ‘a little longer’ in Emergency seemed not right. Not many deputy hospital directors in Malaysia who would actually put their staff’s interest as a priority over current service requirements. In that sense I consider myself lucky.

In other news, I fixed the washing machine’s leaking hose. It must’ve been nicked during transport.

Happy Chinese New Year

Esther said that I should plug my ears with cotton buds if I wanted to sleep on Chinese New Year. She was right. People in Sibu sure as hell know how to celebrate.

I spent more than 1 hour in town waiting for the fireworks. This was at 8 pm. There were a few bangs here and there but I couldn’t get a decent show. After a while I decided to pack up my tripod and headed home. I was on double shift the next day anyway.

Then it all happened. At around 11.30pm or so while I was about to shut my eyes the fireworks started in earnest. It’s amazing! There are fireworks all around the area. All of Sibu must’ve lit up. The only thing similar that I have experienced before was in Putrajaya during the annual fireworks festival for Merdeka Day. This is even better! It’s all around me. Everywhere!

I guess there are less restrictions to getting fireworks here in Sarawak then it is in Semenanjung.

Guy Fawkes Day doesn’t even come close. Hell, this one is even bigger than the other New Year (the normal one, you know, for not Chinese people...)

Tua Pek Kong Pagoda was proper lit up for Chinese New Year. There were lots of people burning those giant incense and praying there.

All this was happening right outside my window!

Happy Chinese New Year Everybody! (I don’t care if you’re not Chinese, neither am I, I’m wishing you a prosperous New Year as well ;D)

Technical Difficulties

“Dear valued customer, your phone application cannot be offered due to technical issues.”

Such was the message that I received from TM earlier today. It’s sad. It’s very sad. It means that I am stuck with Celcom Mobile Shitty Broadband. It means slow snail like internet. It means that I will continue to get nervous whenever I open Maybank2u because it might hang in the middle of a transaction. It means no online gaming. It means no downloading animes and mangas. It means no streaming video. NO STREAMING PORN!! AAAA!!!!! What am I to do?!

Surely an answer is to move out but looking at my allowance eligibility and rent prices around Sibu it doesn’t seem a feasible option right now. Even if I do upgrade my current connection there is still that annoying download limit to content with. I don’t want a download limit. I want fast unlimited internet.

Wait, before I continue this pointless rambling (pointless because it won’t change anything – infrastructure wise I can’t get Streamyx here) I should take a look at what I DO have – I have internet connection. It’s slow and unreliable and overpriced but I still have one. There are pros and cons to this, I’m sure. Let’s analyse the situation;

I can’t play online games anymore. I used to play 1 or 2 rounds of Company of Heroes every day after work. This is not necessarily a good thing. In fact it was a bad thing. The time that I used to play games can - and should – be better spent exercising. My belly is BIG! Hell if someone had stuck a pink cannula at 90 degrees to it, it probably won’t reach my abdominal cavity and get stuck in the fat layer. This also means that all that effort playing Mass Effect and upgrading my Cherry Shepard will be useless..

I can’t watch streaming porn T.T   This has got to be good thing. I’ve been trying to give up porn for a long time. In fact my New Year’s resolutions for the past 8 years have been to stop watching porn. I failed every year. Some years I failed on the 2^nd day of New Year’s. Some years, about 4 hours after the clock struck midnight. Maybe with this unforeseen limitation I can finally achieve that goal (interestingly I have given up on giving up porn for a New Year’s resolution this year).

I have to focus my internet usage to things that really matter. Like email, concentrating on writing a good blog piece before uploading it, news, Wikipedia, porn, MyCPD online, guidelines etc.

I still want high speed internet...

Maybe I’ll call them again after Chinese New Year.

Mukah

“Itu Dr Ong tu mau datang ka? Itu macam saya juga, sudah kena penyakit PTB,” said Augustine.

“Hah? He got TB?”

“Penyakit Takut Bini,”

Yesterday, 18 January 2012, I and a bunch of people from the Emergency Department went to Mukah for a day trip. This thing has been planned since about 2 weeks ago and we were all very excited about going. Initially the plan was for it to be a photography trip to take nice pictures (and umai!!!)

There were 7 of us – myself, Ong, Boy, Daus, Desmond (Anyek), Airahman,  and Janah (the only girl). We had a rendezvous in front of the department as both Ong and I were post night shift. We set off at around 10 am in 2 cars. We decided to take the Sibu – Selangau – Mukah road as going there via Tanjung Manis required us to take ferries which we might have missed departing as late as we did.

The initial road out of Sibu was atrocious compared to Peninsular Malaysia standards. It wasn’t very smooth and there were potholes everywhere. To think that this is the road most cases coming in from Selangau and Mukah would take...

The roads were reasonably empty and we reached Selangau in a little under an hour. The town itself was very small. Maybe the size of Sg Jelok back in Kajang but the district health clinic (KK) was imposingly huge. Daus said that it is one of the busier Klinik Kesihatan in the division. There is only one doctor for this clinic.

KK Selangau

We continued the journey with me and Ong sleeping for the most part (or rather attempting to sleep – the bumpiness of the road was awful). Along the way to Mukah there were lots of longhouses by the road. These were primarily Iban areas and the major economic activity seemed to be palm oil planting.

We reached Mukah after about 2 hour’s journey. After crossing the somewhat famous Mukah Bridge which lies across the Mukah River we were in Mukah (wooow.....). The majority of people in these areas are Melanaus and they speak a totally different language (again??!!). Even some of the guys here found it a bit hard to communicate as they’re not Melanau themselves. Not for Janah though. She is Melanau and her kampong is in Mukah.

The first stop upon reaching Mukah was the jetty (I was too excited to get umai!). Fishing boats dock right outside the main market in Mukah so you can be sure the fish are all fresh. In fact some of the sharks they brought up were still alive! The town and market area themselves were not that big. Including the main town area it’s about the size of Bentong. They do have a KFC, a Sugar Bun, and an Old Town Cafe though.

Desmond’s mom had him buy some ulat mulong while Boy went looking for sago. The Mukah Division with towns such as Mukah, Oya, and Dalat are famous for their sago. Traditionally Melanau people were the ones to produce them. Processed sago is packed in RM2 packets of around 50-100g each. They appear like little breakfast cereal pellets and is eaten in the traditional Melanau manner either with rice or like rice with fish. Some sago is also processed into tebaloi.

But we still haven’t got umai! A little walk around the wet market and we found a section where men with cute little knives were cleanly filleting fish, slicing onions and chillies. We have found umai section! Here’s a tip – if you want to look for the umai section just follow the smell of fish, lime and onions.

Umai is - according to Ong - “Sarawakian Sushi”. The filleted fish are placed in plastic containers separate from the condiments. Each set is RM10. However if look at the quantity of fish that you get for what you’re paying, this easily becomes the best value for money sushi anywhere in Malaysia.

Abu should pay me for advertising his business :P

Abu

The next question is where to mix and eat the umai. Janah then told us that her grandmother invited us to go to her house which was nearby. Just bring the ingredients. Before we set off, Desmond decided to treat us by buying another packet of ulat mulong. Each packet was around RM5. According to Janah's grandma the usual price is usually RM50 - RM70 per kg.

There isn’t any longhouse in Mukah. Melanau houses are similar to Malay houses, Melanau people look like Malay people, Melanau clothings are similar to Malay clothings but they speak Melanau and eat Melanau food.

One of Janah’s aunts prepared the ulat mulong while another mixed the umai. We had a really tasty lunch at our Melanau host’s place and then went to the beach which was right behind the house.

Preparing ulat mulong (mulong is Melanau for Sago) - Melanau style

They are sometimes eaten raw but for beginners perhaps having it cooked first is better as they are rarely - if ever - sold after they have stopped moving.After the worms are washed they are pan fried without oil. Usually they are still moving at this point. Add some salt to taste. After awhile they will start to become oily and smell like baked gula Melaka.

Cooked ulat mulong has a caramel brown colour. By this point they have stopped moving. You are not supposed to eat the head but no one told me this. I must’ve eaten like 6 of these delicious babies before someone told me that. Hampeh... I won’t say they taste like chicken because they don’t. It’s hard to explain the taste but there is a coconut milk like after taste to it. I guess the best way of knowing would be to eat it yourself.

Our host – Janah’s grandma. She doesn’t speak a single word of Malay. And I don’t speak a single word of Melanau. Although she did mention that she had met me before - on her trip to KL many years ago (I’m absolutely certain we have not). The kid is Janah’s niece.

The first thing I noticed about the Mukah beach is that it is filled with... logs! There were logs and branches for as far as the eyes can see. Maybe some of the logs that were floated down river escaped out to sea and then were washed up the beaches.

Janah. Real name Norzanah. She is a staff nurse at our emergency department. I don’t know why but Malaysians seem to have a tendency to pronounce names with a ‘Z’ as a ‘J’. Like how Zeehan became Jeehan.

The only people from the trip missing in this photo is of Janah and the guy holding the camera (me). This was taken at Janah's grandma's

After the beach it was time to say goodbye to Janah’s grandma and visit the Pesta Kaul site. According to the Sarawak Tourism Board’s brochure Pesta Kaul is celebrated in April. The place was of course rather empty that day apart from some Mat Rempits hanging around. There wasn’t anything else going on so we proceeded to get some umai to take back home to Sibu from the market.

On the way back we stopped by Kingwood Hotel as recommended by a few people at the hospital. We were told there is some great scenery to photograph. There was just an overpriced hotel and a beachfront of reclamation rocks...

We departed Kingwood Hotel’s beach at around 6 pm and reached Sibu a little under 2 hours later. All in all it was a very fulfilling (and filling) trip and I gained quite an insight into Melanau culture and food (mostly food). Interestingly I thought the food was dominated by the sour flavour. Even the sambal belacan was more sour than spicy. Interesting stuff. The visit to Janah’s grandma’s was easily the highlight of the trip.

Umai consists of strips of raw fish mixed with lime juice, onions, and chillies. If you go to a restaurant they would have mixed it up for you but this one from the market has all its ingredients separated. The guy at the Mukah market will even wrap it in newspaper and ice if you tell him that you are going to take it back all the way to Sibu. It really is UMAI!!

I told you they have Old Town in Mukah :P

Justifications

“So why did you choose to come to Sibu?”

I get asked that question a lot ever since I got here. It usually comes right after people find out that I actually volunteered to come to Sarawak.

First of all I should clarify it here that I DID NOT ask to come to Sibu. I merely requested that when I get transferred out of Kajang, I would like to come to Sarawak as my first choice with Sabah and Perlis being the second and third options respectively. Coming to Sibu was based on the directive of the State Health Department. The policy that House Officers MUST leave the state in which they did their housemanship does NOT apply to Sabah and Sarawak though. So when I tell people that that was the case in my old place, people were genuinely surprised.

Secondly I am of the opinion that I don’t actually have to justify any of my life’s decision to anyone. In fact I don’t even believe that I have to justify them to myself. To quote The Joker “I’m like a dog chasing after a car. I won’t know what to do with one if I do catch it.”

However, since I got asked that question a lot, I think that it’s about time that I sit down and try to come up with some appropriate reasons for my decision. Surprisingly it was not as easy as I thought...

Some of the usual answers that I gave when people asked me the above question:

“I wanted to expand my horizons. Gain some experience.”

“Travel opportunity.”

“Money. I can get more allowance maa...”

“They told me I can learn more here in Sarawak.”

Of course these are knee jerk answers. Answers that I gave to questioning individuals merely in order to be polite. The real reason I came Sarawak? Well, after thinking about it for some time (after of course I actually  MADE the decision), I came up with the following list, and they are not in any particular order:

Money. I have always been very bad with money. By all logic I should be reasonably wealthy by now. However, I still drive my father’s car, haven’t got a house, and my savings seem to always get depleted. By coming to a place where there is hardly anything to spend my money on, I was hoping that I may get to save some of it. The extra allowance? Well there is actually a reason those allowance exist. Prices of goods here are not that much cheaper than in the Klang Valley. In fact many things, especially  factory produce are more expensive here than back home. The price of property and rent are also surprisingly rather high, nearly as expensive as KL – e.g. RM1000 per month for a 2 storey terrace house; RM200,000+ for a still un-built 2 storey, 3 bedroom terrace house. Madness. And I just found out that if I get my EPW, I am not eligible for an ITP.

Perspective. Being on the inside, it’s very difficult to see ourselves as viewed from the outside. Although it is not impossible. 6 years in the UK have thought me the value of different perspectives. There are many ways to look at myself, the people around me, and my own country, but only if I am prepared to shift my perspective. Me coming here is merely one of those ways. It was not necessary but is still a reason amongst many. I trained as a HO in a hospital where many of the MOs were themselves trained and have been at the same place for years. Sometimes, if not very often, their attitudes, words, and actions betray their lack of perspective. I don’t want to be like that.

I wanted to run away. From almost everything. Marriage, responsibilities, relationships, family, my past, myself. However the irony is of course that the past is notoriously hard to shake off. I wanted to be different person. A better person. I wanted to start anew.

Experience. So that when the day comes, I can say that I’ve been there and done that. Many of the people in my previous work place talk a lot about how there is better training to be had in Sarawak, and about how “housemen these days” are being too pampered and are unwilling to serve the nation. Many of these people had in fact never worked in East Malaysia themselves. I don’t want to be like one of them. Although I'm still waiting for that blow pipe injury...

Gratitude. This may sound corny but coming here to work is my way of saying thank you to my country. Ever since I was 13 I have received a lot from my country. I went to a boarding school and received some the best education funded by this country’s tax payers. I went to college and university on money paid by the Malaysian people. It’s my way of expressing my patriotism I guess. There are a lot of doctors in Peninsular Malaysia as it is already. Might as well come serve the people here. Besides, I was getting sick of screaming “Nyet!” anyway.

However, I guess the single most important reason, based on the person that I am is perhaps this:

Why not?

Hard Drive

The roads in Sibu can be very confusing. Esther said that it is in fact possible to travel around the town centre on foot as it is not really that big. However when you are in a car, it may feel as if the town is actually a lot bigger than it is. Most of the roads are one way streets. Therefore you may at times have the feeling that you have been at a certain place before.

I got the car a few days back and I took it for a spin around town two days after that. The roads are not very smooth but acceptable enough. It won’t break the suspension any time soon. The first place I drove to was the laundry shop near Premier Department Store. My mom did send me a washing machine but not only have I not installed it, I can hardly move it to where it’s meant to be installed! It is that heavy.

Laundry is by weight. Mine reached to nearly 5kg...

Parking in Sibu town centre is generally by parking coupons. This is somewhat similar to Port Dickson. Over here they come in little booklets of 10 coupons each costing RM4.25 per booklet which can be obtained from little booths near parking lots, petrol stations, and selected shops. Each coupon is for 30 minutes and you are meant to scratch off the time when you start parking. All this was enthusiastically explained to me by the Foochow traffic warden auntie that happened to be issuing a parking fine to the next car. She also told me that if I am going to start parking at any time between 12pm and 1.30pm, I might as well scratch off 1.30pm on my coupon as those times are considered free parking. Interestingly the traffic wardens around these parts have outfits not dissimilar to road construction workers with their straw hats and scarf covered faces.

Public Transport

It’s probably worth mentioning about public transport in Sibu.

There are of course a myriad of ways to get around in Sibu. It’s just not that convenient. The bus that I usually take is run by a company called Lanang Bus. The bus companies around here seem name themselves based on roads around Sibu. Another example is Teku Road Bus Company. The fare from the Hospital to the market in town is RM1.80 and I think the conductor auntie in the bus already recognises me. The ride is bumpy and unpleasant because of the age of the buses but the good thing is of course there are few passengers. Plus there is a distinct lack of the smell of body odour from deodorant deficient Banglas. However there is a lot of cigarette smoke smelling Indons. Maybe these Indon fellas should give their cigarette money to all those Banglas to buy deodorants, and then Malaysian buses will smell a lot nicer. (I know that sounded racist but I’m a Malaysian. I’m SUPPOSED to be racist.)

The taxis cost a lot. The starting price on the meter is RM10. However since no taxi in Sibu actually uses a working meter, most of the fare are based on general consensus and negotiation. Of course the price will never be less than RM10, that’s required by law (strange how people seem to obey some laws and blatantly disregard others...). The average cost of travelling by taxi from town to the hospital is RM20. Most taxi drivers will hang around the hospital after delivering passengers to the hospital because the long distance between town and hospital means that they will incur losses if they don’t have a passenger for the return trip. Taxis here don’t seem to operate past 8pm. Which leaves us to the next form public transport available in Sibu – the kereta sapu.

If you walk around the bus station near the ferry terminal you will find people offering transport service via unmarked cars – typically a Kancil with torn seats or a Wira with fading paint (they always seem to be Malaysian cars). These are known as kereta sapu. My first encounter with these guys was when I was waiting for a bus with a few girls at a bus stop when an unmarked Kancil stopped by and asked the girls if they wanted to go somewhere. Initially I genuinely thought that this was how people woo girls around these parts. “Rather archaic,” I thought. However, this in fact was standard practise amongst kereta sapu operators. They are faster than buses, cheaper than taxis and of course totally illegal. This means that it can be rather dangerous since theoretically there is no guarantee that the operators will not just kidnap you and whisk you away to work as a resident prostitute in one of the logging camps up river. However, in real practice most of these guys are well known to the locals and since you can share the journey with other passengers going along the same route, it is actually rather safe. In fact, you are perhaps more likely to get raped in a KL Metro Bus than if you hitch a ride with one of these guys.

The last rather popular mode of public transport in Sibu is the kereta sewa. Despite the name, these are usually vans that act somewhat like buses. Prices tend to be fixed and they are slightly more expensive than buses. I say slightly because the difference is only twenty cents or so. They are faster than buses as they tend not to bother with a designated route once capacity is reached. They have a bad habit of stopping nearly anywhere to pick up or drop off passengers. Once, one of these vans stopped to pick me up when all I wanted to do was cross the road! I didn’t make any signal that I wanted a ride and yet this van just stopped in front of me with the driver urging me to get in. Maybe me scratching my crotch by the side of the road is universally understood as “I need a ride, please stop,”

Kereta Sewa

However, since my car has arrived, I will be using less of these different modes of transportation from here on out.

The bus stop in front of the ferry terminal. This is where most intra city buses terminate. At the end of this covered area is where you can find the kereta sapu operators and in the parking space of a building on the left (which is the market) you can find all the licensed kereta sewa. Tua Pek Kong Pagoda is in the background.

Cargo

My stuff has arrived!! They of course decide to choose the least convenient moment to come knocking at my door – when I was at work!

I was surprised at the amount of things my mom packed for me. I only asked for the books. Instead there was a washing machine, the old TV, a fridge, my bed (!!), and nearly a dozen boxes of various stuffs from mops to bric-a-bracs.

I have never planned on staying in this flat for long, namely because I can save more money by renting outside and because of the flooding. However, since I still have no other place to go to (the house I was looking at won’t be available until February) and due to the surprisingly HUGE amount of things now in my living room I guess I’ll just stay here for awhile longer.

My flat is on the 3^rd floor, the one on the right. There is no elevator and it’s nearly impossible for me to lift the washing machine and refrigerator on my own. So I guess I’ll just stay here for awhile while looking for a new place. The good news is I’ve got personal transport now!

Drip

Buildings in Sibu drip. I’m not kidding. It drips bloody everywhere! I have no idea where the dripping comes from. I hope it’s not toilet water. Having been deprived of a car forced me to walk everywhere and on more than one occasion have these drippings hit my head/shoulder. WTH!!

p/s: I just saw on Facebook that Adam/Tyson/Donna just passed away. That's actually very sad...

Language Barrier

View from my balcony at night

“The town is ok, just be careful of some of these Foochow Chinese. They can be rough”

Lee was from UM. A KL guy. Somehow he got chucked here by the mighty hands at the Ministry. During my first few days here he’s given some good advice like:

“You definitely need your own transport”

 “Food may be a bit hard for you to get, but there are nice places in Taman Harmoni”

 And “Don’t worry, Iban is easy to pick up,”

Well, the Iban language has roughly the same sentence structure of Malay so in that sense is not that hard to understand. The problem for me is of course vocabulary. Over the past few weeks or so, I’ve tried to build up some simple vocab by starting an exercise book. The staff at my workplace was naturally more than eager to help out.

When I first got here one guy told me that as a rule of thumb you should add “ai” to a word to ‘convert’ it from Malay to Iban. For example:

Jalan = Jalai

Makan = Makai

Although this should not be applied to ‘parah’ as ‘parai’ in Iban means 'dead' (A nice little upgrade there).

Of course I started off by learning simple words:

Nadai = don’t have

Bisik = have

Kemik = passing urine

Pedis = pain

Au = aye

So my first functional Iban sentence that I’ve been using in the department was something along the lines of “Kemik bisik pedis?” which in the language of ‘proper’ doctors would translate into “Do you happen to be suffering from dysuria?” (add unnecessary fake posh British accent to taste).
I still have a lot to learn and hopefully I can grasp it fast enough before some serious shit happen, like this one time when I asked a guy:

“Bisik tabin? (fever)”

“Bisik”

“Berapa lama? (I still haven’t learned the equivalent phrase in Iban)”

“Hari Lima,”

“Ooo lima hari...” at which point the M.A. intervened;

“Dr, hari Lima tu Jumaat, bukan lima hari”

“Jumaat? Semalam la!” thank god for that...

At least I don’t have to scream “NYET!!!” anymore (‘push’ in Burmese... I guess).

My Bahasa Iban exercise book. It's got a 'Burung Kenyalang' on it! Proper Sarawak that...

I'm gonna need help with this one. Maybe I'll use it as an excuse to ask one of the student nurses out.. :P

p/s: "Kitak" does NOT mean "us"

Water under the table

My flat is flooded! It's been raining heavily and water from the pipe outside overflowed into my flat. Luckily I didn't put any carpet or mat as I initially planned. Gonna fetch the mop now.

Back in Sibu

For RM20, not only did I get a smooth ride back to Sibu, I also got to watch Dylan Dog with no audio (there were subtitles though).  We probably could’ve seen another movie if not for the dvd player resetting when the boat ran out of power half way down river. That’s right, the ‘express’ that I was on ran out of power (albeit transiently) in the middle of a murky river known to be infested with leptospira, meliodosis, and crocodiles, in the middle of a thunder storm. Great experience if you can’t avoid it.

All in all I thought Kapit was worth visiting – more for the travel experience than for the destination.

The boat reached Sibu at around 5.30pm and the sun was beginning to set. Another thing that one should realise about Sibu is that the sun seems to be a little ‘early’ here. You see, there was a time when Malaysia actually had 2 time zones. One for West Malaysia, and another +1 hour for East Malaysia. However, back in the eighties some guy called Dr Mahathir thought that it was quite annoying to have 2 time zones for a small country like Malaysia so he decided that ‘West Malaysia’ should follow their ‘Eastern’ counterpart’s time. So you see, Sibu actually has the ‘correct’ time zone as oppose to KL.

Malaysian rivers are polluted. There is no need to sugar coat that fact. People throw stuff into them then it messes with their flow. Then you get floods. It’s a simple fact. If we don’t want floods, we just have to learn to take care of our rivers. The water pump above can only do so much. Eventually its gonna get overwhelmed.

Kapit

The fact that I am posting this trip report in a few small chunks belies the fact that it was a mere day trip.

We reached Kapit at about 1.30pm. My first impression about the place was that it wasn’t that ‘ulu’ at all. It was in fact a small town. Maybe about the size of Tanjung Malim town centre. (If you’ve never been to Tanjung Malim you should go check it out. They still have railway gates with bullet holes from the Emergency and I was told it’s the best place for pau in Malaysia).

Bernard said that despite having lived in “these lands” for the better part of 22 years, he still has never been to Kapit. This was hardly surprising. Apart from the fact that there is no other way of getting here but by the river and by air, there isn’t much to see in Kapit. The jetty seemed relatively new and this was where people got off to get boats to go further interior (just who would want to do that?). There’s a school near the jetty but I suspect there must be a few more around the area. There is a post office, a few hotels, and a wet market that was quite bustling.

I think I figured out why I wasn’t able to upload photos for my previous post. For this trip I’ve tried shooting RAW with my Canon 600d. Just to try it out. There are a few advantages to shooting RAW; namely I can readjust the brightness, contrast and even the picture style later on. The problem is of course the file sizes are HUGE. While I can easily get around 1000 shots if I shoot high quality JPEG on my 8MB SD card, shooting RAW means I only get around 200+ shots. Plus the images are not readily usable until after post processing and converting them to JPEG (...). In hindsight, for a non professional who just wants noise free pictures to record my travels, I don’t find shooting RAW to be worth the trouble. In fact to upload them here I had resize these photos to less than 1% of their original size and quality so that I don’t have to tear my hair off waiting.

The town square is a tiled piece of land about the size of a football (soccer if you’re American) field. Apart from these decorative shields around it there’s a concrete tower with what I assume to be a sculpture of eggs in a basket.

On the way to Kapit, I saw quite a number of long houses along the Rajang. Some old, some new, some had parabolas on them, and I think I saw one flying the Singaporean flag. I didn’t know there were Singaporeans living in the long houses!!? (Maybe it’s just some Iban fellow with a fascination for Singapore... or flags.)

Even more so than Sibu, the main language spoken here is Iban. Although most of the street signs are in Malay or English, it belies the fact that hardly anyone here speaks either those two languages.

As I mentioned earlier, logging is a big thing around these parts.

I stopped by a restaurant near the roundabout in front of the SESCO building as I got really hungry after the boat trip. I had mee papan (which turned out to be hot plate noodles) and roti canai special (just because it had ‘Special’ in its name). It turned out to be just a big roti canai with sardines and egg inside. The sambal however, is worth mentioning. It’s sweet. Even sweeter than Kelantanese ‘akok’. It’s more like Thai chilli sauce than sambal.

It started raining right after lunch so I had to cut my wandering around short and return to the jetty. Fort Sylvia, which looks more like a kampong house than an actual fort is actually right outside the jetty building. It was closed that day.

These boats are the main means of going further up river. Good luck.

You are required to register your name before embarking on the ‘express’ (as the locals would call it) home. It makes it easier to identify your bloated corpse when they find it a week later if the boat decides to sink...

This Celcom Mobile Broadband thing is giving me headaches. If I seem to ‘binge post’ here every now and again it’s because I have to write my posts in Microsoft Word a few days earlier while waiting for a high speed ‘window’ to post them.

Departing for Kapit

On New Year’s day, right after finishing my night shift at about 8 am, I took the bus to the docks in town.

I bought tickets for the 10.30 a.m express to Kapit. This one makes a stop in Song along the way. The weather was bright and sunny. The tickets cost RM20 one way so it’s RM40 return. The guy at the ticketing box said that it takes about 2 plus hours to get to Kapit so there will be enough time for me to roam around then come back on the last boat at 3.15pm. They actually allocate a seat for you because there is a maximum number of peoplethat they can actually take at any given time.

The seats are actually rather low down. Below the water line in fact. These boats are long. They take about 100 passengers each.

I find it odd that they only check for tickets when the boat was well under way. I mean what are they gonna do if they found someone with no ticket? Throw him into the Rajang? The cabins are rather modern and quite comfortable if neither you nor the person next to you are not fat. The seats are rather narrow you see. We also get a free movie – Fast and Furious 5 in this case – but without the audio as the engines are really loud.

Along the way, I saw quite a lot of lumber mills. Logging is a big thing around here apparently. The Rajang is filled with stuff floating down her. Logs, branches, plastic bottles, bags, human corpses...

Yes, there are human corpses that float down the Rajang. Over the past 2 weeks the police brought at least 2 of them to our hospital, and they always seem to be during when I am on duty. And they always seem like they have been in there for the better part of a week! The only thing that smells worse than a rotting drowned corpse is a rotting drowned corpse that has been in the water for a week.

When they brought in the corpse for me last week, one of the nurses told me “Eee!! Awak pergi tengok mayat. Kalau saya kahwin dengan awak saya sik mau (don’t want) tidor dengan awak malam ni!” apparently there is such a believe amongst the Ibans...

The ride was rather smooth. I guess rivers don’t have waves as high as the sea. There was considerable river traffic along the way. Barges, speed boats, long boats, dredges, all ply their trade along this murky river. Like many rivers in Malaysia, it won’t be Malaysian if we don’t actually pollute it. Yes, I saw many a people throw stuff into the Rajang - plastic bags, drink cartons, food wrappings. It’s a national past time I guess. Then everyone bitch about the government not doing anything to prevent floods...

(I can't seem to upload the photos properly)

New Year plans

New Year’s Eve was spent working the night shift so I didn’t get a chance to see the Sibu New Year’s fireworks display. Apparently they have it every year. It didn’t turn out as bad as I had expected although the first yellow zone case of the year for me was an old lady complaining of being “unable to sleep”... it’s those people partying love, it is the New Year.

Over the past 2 weeks of working in the emergency department, we have been getting quite a lot of cases coming in from the surrounding areas. Saratok, Sarikei, Daro, Kanowit – to name a few. However, apparently the absolute worst place to be in according to Faridah is Kapit. Well, seeing how it takes about 3-4 hours for cases to actually arrive from Kapit, the place must be really “rural”.

“Access is by speed boat. So the last case that you can refer is around 4 p.m because after that the express boats will not depart anymore. It’s too dangerous to navigate the river in the dark,”

“But what if you have some RTA (they don’t call it MVA here, hell the whole rest of the world don’t call it MVA. Semenanjung people are weird...) with ICB, or intra abdominal injury?” I asked.

“You have to bear with it until the next morning I guess,”

At that moment a realisation became firmly implanted in my head – the doctors there are proper hardcore.

We once had an open book fracture arrive from Kapit. In place of what I expected there to be a hip immobilizer was a bed sheet wrapped around the guy’s hip.

“What’s a hip immobilizer? I’ve never seen one,” Faridah makes me sound so pampered by the equipment that we had in Klang Valley.

“Once I had to transport a guy via helicopter to Kuching in the driving rain. Made me wanna puke. The pilot didn’t seem to know what he was doing. I was sure the helicopter wasn’t flying straight for the most part. I thought to myself – no more am I doing this,” she told me once. “But my friend had it worse though. His patient self extubated in the helicopter in the driving rain on the way to Kuching. Had to bag all the way coz there was no way he could’ve intubated in the helicopter,”

Damn it, even the HOs here are hardcore. And I was bitchin about how the ambulance drivers in Kajang were endangering my life by their driving....

So, after hearing all these stories about the other hospitals in the surrounding area, I thought to myself that I HAD to find out where exactly is this Kapit place. On Google map it’s just a dot in the middle of the jungle. I wondered how it would be like to transport a patient on a boat down the Rajang and how far exactly is the place.

Therefore on New Year’s day, right after my night shift, I took a shower, changed into something more comfortable, grabbed my camera, and caught the next bus to docks...

I’ll continue this tomorrow, I’m too sleepy now...