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.
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.
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.
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.
I was in Kuching from the 3rd
to 4th 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.
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 18th 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.
