Tuesday, 1 June 2010
Got up and packed – yet again, luckily it doesn’t take long these days. We headed down to find everything shut but luckily a very nice taxi driver to take up to the express boat terminal to Sibu.
The boat trip should take approx 4 ½ hours, so we bought some water and got our seats on the upper deck. Figured if the boat sinks we have a better chance of surviving than being trapped inside. Downside after about an hour I couldn’t feel my ass anymore it was totally numb, wooden planks aren’t the most comfortable for long trips. Anyway we progressed from Kuching up the Betang Rejang which is a huge river with many tributaries. There isn’t a lot to see – let’s face it, it seems that the river is just one big logging operation and what is left are palms, so the countryside is still green, just the wrong kind.
We are hoping as we go further upriver this changes. After sitting and standing for about 3 hours the ferry stopped at a small jetty to disgorge a pile of people and their luggage, scooters and chickens (I am sure they aren’t going to a nice backyard like ours). This however did now leave us with a bit of room to stretch out our legs, although wooden planks for sitting on were still uncomfortable. The highlight of the trip were the fellow passengers, some of whom were very interesting, from the local who was very into his music as we had put up with his finger snapping and foot stomping. There was also a massive variety of people who seemed to be chain smokers.
After 5 hours we finally reached Sibu, the first stepping stone in our trip up Batang Rejang. We disembarked in a frenzy with everyone else and headed to our hotel which wasn’t hard to miss, it was exactly where the map said – near the swan statue. Yes a giant statue of a Swan.
We arrived and they realised that my Bahasa is crap and their English isn’t too flash and rearranged us from a triple room to a double room on the top floor with views of the river and city which ended up costing us rg10 less than they quoted, so we totally lucked in. Li Hua Hotel is clean(ish) and the staff helpful.
As we had no brekkie, we dropped our bags and then wandered across the road to the Victorious Cafe for a plate of Mee Goreng before having a cup of Kopi Susu. We then set off to see the town, which we did in a manner of minutes, it isn’t very big. We headed toward to Tua Pek Kong Temple which we saw from the riverside. It is an interesting Chinese Temple with a seven-storey pagoda attached.
This had the worlds biggest incense sticks burning, no joke they were as big as me. It is also very very very hot here, and being next to the river isn’t helping cool things down at all. We wandered through the market area but not much happening, although it is fairly interesting with a strong chinese history to the town. Then again every town we have been through so far has been very chinese with little look of anything indigenous left.