A Short Trip To Sibu

A very good friend, YL got married recently during the 7th day of the Chinese New Year. I knew her back from when we were still studying in university, so young then. Anyway, she chose the date because it was the only time when most of their family members were home for holiday. Even my friend and her new husband were working in Kuching, not in their hometown, Sibu. I bought my flight tickets two months before, initially I wanted to wait for the best price, but after that, I got worried that it might sold out, so I just bought the tickets. 

inside Sibu Airport

Luckily I didn't wait, both flights were full. On my flight from KLIA to Sibu, I noticed that many of the passengers had large packets of Gardenia breads in their hands. When I related this to YL, she told me that it is due to the fact that Sarawak don't have a big bakery like Gardenia, only small bakery chains. So, Sarawakians tend to buy the Gardenia bread when they come to Penisular Malaysia. Well, that's interesting! When  reached the Sibu Airport, it was not very lively, maybe it's a small airport. I walked around the airport to survey what kinds of stuffs that I could buy when I wanted to go back to KL. There are of course, the colourful Sarawak Kek Lapis, some traditional wooden and rattan stuffs, pepper in powder form and original dried granule form, etc. One of the interesting find was Husband Biscuit (老公饼), I knew there are Wife Biscuit (老婆饼), but that's the first time I saw Husband Biscuit.

husband biscuits and wife biscuits

Not long after that, YL came to the Sibu Airport to fetch me. Then, we went for lunch in a restaurant with YL friends from KL. We had egg soup 蛋羹, three-coloured tea 三色茶, fried manicai (I didn't know the actual name for the left vegetable, but apparently it's the same name in Peninsular and Borneo Island) with egg, etc. For the three-coloured tea, I forgot what's the other two flavours were, but one it was pandan, the taste was ok, but if the sweetness could reduce a bit, it would be much better.

A Short Trip To Taman Negara

12th to 14th October 2013

15th October 2013 was a public holiday. Initially, me and my friends were thinking on a 4-day trip in Taman Negara. However, after much considerations, we decided to just have a 3-day trip. Well, since we were not interested in camping out in the middle of jungle, 3 days in Taman Negara were more than enough. To simplify the trip planning, we just booked everything from NKS. We chose the cheapest package, around RM150.00 per person. It includes 2 nights hostel stay, meals, tour guide and the transportation in Taman Negara. 

First Day

On the 12th October morning (a fine Saturday), I met up with my friends for breakfast before departing. It will be a long ride to Taman Negara from Selangor. Then, we tried to pump fuel when we passed by Telok Panglima Garang. However, before we entered the first gas station, the worker there was waving to us, signalling us to leave, so we thought that the gas station was running out of RON95, so we left and drove to another gas station. The next gas station was quite empty too and a staff walked out to tell us that the area was experiencing power outage, so they couldn't sell us anything. Then, my friend got a call from the factory. The power outage affected the factory we worked too, so not only the production line was affected, even the system was all down, so even though there were many finished goods, none of the stuffs could be shipped out. Then, another friend got a call from his boss, asking him to access the situation. Both my friends answered that we were going for a holiday and out of town, not able to support. Coincidentally, my trip-mates this time were all company colleagues, luckily, all 12 came from different groups. Hahaha! Our bosses could find other members to help. 

Selangor ⇔ Johor with Public Transport

24th August 2013

A friend of mine (MK) came back to Malaysia for her maternity leave holiday, since we haven’t met for a long time, another friend (SY ) and I decided to go to Johor Bahru to visit MK and the baby. Both of us are not used to long distance driving, so we took express bus. Well, SY and me, we stayed in Japan before and public transport was our major of mode of transportation. Travelling in Japan is quite a breeze because the public transport is on time and the schedule is easily available online. (*-*) For train schedule, if you don’t like to refer to the online schedule, you can always buy a train schedule book 時刻表 from the book shop!

Back to our Johor Bahru trip, compared to Japan, finding public transport information in Malaysia is still not so difficult thanks to the helpful netizens. Well, for the express bus, it's quite easy to find the information online. Now, buying express bus ticket is available online, easier compared to few years ago. I had never have to buy express bus ticket because I studied in the same state as my hometown. Before any long holiday, my course mates would go to the bus station to buy ticket in advance. It was a waste of time and money. Luckily, nowadays, one can book a ticket online in the comfort of one's home.