Blogs from Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia, Asia

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Asia » Malaysia » Sarawak » Sibu May 11th 2018

Wednesday 9th May 2018 Our flight from Miri to Sibu on Tuesday was on time and we found a really nice little new boutique budget hotel right in the centre of town. The food here is wonderful. It seems that it gets better with every kilometre south that we travel. In both Sabah and Brunei, the food is good, it is mostly halal Malay cuisine, not particularly spicy, whereas in Sarawak, it is far more exotic, spicy and varied. We ate the best Indian ever, the night before we left Miri and our first night here in Sibu we feasted on very spicy Chinese BBQ spare ribs, chicken in plum sauce and fried rice. Tonight, we had crispy duck followed by mango, durian and coconut rolls. Delicious! The town is very busy because it is polling ... read more
Typical street Chinese quarter Sibu
Down by the riverside!
Just booked our boat tickets for Thursday

Asia » Malaysia » Sarawak » Sibu May 11th 2018

Friday 11th May 2018 Well now! Kapit is a bit of a dump! It is by far the dirtiest town we have ever seen in Malaysia and we have probably risked our health eating there! However, we didn’t journey three hours up the mighty Batang Rejang to see Kapit. We journeyed up the mighty Batang Rejang to journey up the mighty Batang Rejang; and we are glad we did. We stayed one night in Kapit and got the first boat back out this morning at 7.30 a.m. to head back to Sibu and the lovely little boutique hotel the “Hi-Inn” where we had left our rucksacks. The river is majestic and the express ferry boats plough along it, past dredgers, coal barges and timber barges up to a little town called Song where some folk disembarked. ... read more
"Coffin" boats at Sibu jetty
Disembarkation at Kapit jetty
Kapit's attractive waterfront!!!

Asia » Malaysia » Sarawak » Sibu April 29th 2015

MIRI TO SIBU & KUCHING (Now safely home - but-Just catching up on my blogs!) These long journeys, as part of our 1000 mile trip from Kotal Kinabalu in Sabah, through Brunei to Kuching in Sarawak, make us appreciate the size, scale and the landscape of the Island of Borneo, the 3rd largest island in the world after Australia and Greenland. Ruth and I catch a local bus from Niah Junction on the road beyond Miri to Sibu. It is very comfortable - just 3 armchair seats across each row. A 5 hour journey with 2 stops. Typical Sarawak scenery - miles of oil palm plantations with occasional purpose built longhouse accommodation for workers and scrappy secondary forest. Little agriculture or industry apart from a few palm oil refineries. The road has few cars but many ... read more
Roasted pigs heads
Roasted birds heads
Tasty chicken & beef satay

Asia » Malaysia » Sarawak » Sibu May 21st 2013

After the Niah caves, it was a 5h journey southwestwards across a good chunk of the state, towards Sibu, the confluence of the Batang Rejang (Malaysia's longest river) and other major distributaries, and also the second largest city of the state. It was from here that I intended to head upriver to one of the riverside towns lying deeper within Malaysian Borneo, from where perhaps I could pay a visit to a traditional longhouse. I'd read in Wikitravel that Sibu was a bit of a sketchy town, home to shady characters connected to the timber barons of the area. I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Having already been to both Miri and Labuan, places with notable nightlife, and finding both places in fact much less seedy than their reputations suggested, I thought this aspect of ... read more
Sibu's Shady Characters
Space Shuttles
Sibu Central Market

Asia » Malaysia » Sarawak » Sibu January 21st 2013

As I lay sweating on a matrass, with unseen bugs dropping on me or crawling over me, and confused roosters crowing loudly at random hours of the night, while less confused dogs kept howling and barking at intruders only they could see, I asked myself why I had thought it was a good idea to pay top dollar for this particular experience? Here I was in a semi-traditional longhouse, on a river close to Batang Ai National Park; with me were two Australians who were clearly just as delusional as me, since they too would, by the end of it, be paying a lot of money for what can only be described as self-inflicted torture. I had met Sarah and Tom in Kuching, where we had hatched this strange plan which involved, what we all silently ... read more
Kuching
Kuching
Kuching

Asia » Malaysia » Sarawak » Sibu June 2nd 2011

Arriving back in Sibu I was amazed at how quiet it was considering that when I left the ferry terminal was jam packed full with people, luggage and chickens. However I should probably have looked into the public holiday norm a bit more as it took me an hour an half of walking around and checking out hostels to find one to stay in that was clean and cheap. Many of them were shut, the clean cheap ones were full and most others were over priced and dirty. Eventually finding River View Inn which was cheap, clean and I got a room on the top floor with a view over the river at sunset I was dying for a shower dripping with sweat, it just wasn't as nice as I was hoping for after not having ... read more

Asia » Malaysia » Sarawak » Sibu May 27th 2011

Taking a bus to Sibu was easier than the previous two buses but only just we knew what time the bus was departing but it was 'full' when we enquired yesterday. But when we turned up and all three of us got on the bus Chris and Charlie to Kuching and myself to Sibu just three hours away. Arriving in Sibu I found the information centre (very helpful) where I learnt that it was the end of harvest festival starting this week, a very big even in Kapit and with in the Iban community. I was given contacts that would help me organise a long boat trip hopefully over night and recommended accommodation for Kapit and told to make sure I took the 730 boat and be there an hour before. Directly opposite the information centre ... read more
SANY1993
SANY1991
SANY1992

Asia » Malaysia » Sarawak » Sibu May 26th 2011

Having booked a taxi to the bus station for 630 to catch a bus to Mukah, about 3hrs north of Sibu, at a time no one knew of cause, telling this the guy in the room the night before I thought nothing of it. Well at 520am he woke me up to tell me the time and asked 'if I should be up now'! Politely I told him I had an alarm set, two minutes later 'did I want a cup of tea' no I'm not getting up yet I don't need too! Two minutes later 'I think I've heard your friends up and talking'! They weren't getting up till 6 why won't you let me sleep? Gave up, got in the shower and got ready. Then Charlie and Chris got up at 610 they were ... read more

Asia » Malaysia » Sarawak » Sibu January 23rd 2011

So, i'm sitting in between a local MP and a big time property developer drinking bad red wine that passes as OK port. Slimy chickens feet are served followed by clear gloopy sea cucumbers - a delicacy that proves people will think anything tastes good if they are left in the middle of nowhere for long enough. Sibu in Malaysian Sarawak is not in the middle of nowhere, but its having a good go at it. The nearest decent sized town heading west is at least a 12 hours drive, the road in other direction leads to Brunei... if you can make it through the jungle. That jungle is dotted with villages and houses but generally, there isnt much there if you turn off the track untill you get down to Borneo. I looked on Trip ... read more
Sleek river ferries
Nothing for tourists here
nasi lemak

Asia » Malaysia » Sarawak » Sibu August 9th 2010

Nach Sibu ging es mit dem Boot. Das kostet genauso viel, wie mit dem Bus, dauert aber nur halb so lange. Zunächst fährt man ein Stück über das Meer, danach geht es in den Rejang, den längsten Fluss Malaysias. Eigentlich wollte ich die nächsten Tage weiter auf dem Rejang ins Landesinnere von Borneo reisen. Jedoch habe ich kurzfristig ein Angebot für zwei Übernachtungen im Mulu-Nationalpark bekommen. Wie ich auf Anfrage feststellen musste, sind diese sehr begehrt und normalerweise nur zu bekommen, wenn man längere Zeit im Voraus bucht. Jetzt hat jemand seine Buchung gecancelt, was mir die Chance auf einen kurzfristigen Besuch gibt. Daher geht es morgen mit dem Bus weiter nach Miri, von wo aus man mit dem Flugzeug zu dem abgelegenen Nationalpark weiter reist.... read more
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