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.