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.

After lunch, YL sent me to the hotel she helped to book. I felt so paiseh because despite YL tight schedule on arranging her own wedding, she still accompanied me for quite some time. She even arranged her friends from Kuching who came to Sibu for her wedding to ferry me around. So grateful. The hotel is called Hotel Li Hua and it's next to the Sibu Bus Terminal. Well, the room is very spacious. Overall, the Hotel Li Hua is ok and clean, but I really don't understand why the cleaner had to make the whole bathroom so watery when he or she clean the bathroom. That's my only negative comment about this hotel. The location is quite good, it's near the bus terminal, taxi terminal and a supermarket, quite convenient. I even went out at night to buy yogurt and some snacks. Hahaha!

view of a room in Hotel Li Hua

From my room, I could see rows of terrace house. The houses are so big, most even have land behind their house, so nice, the house owners can plant so many plants in their own backyard. 

view from the hotel room, big houses

In the bus terminal, what I found interesting was the words on the signboard. On the signboard for individual lane,  it uses the term "bas berhenti-henti", I feel it's quite awkward. But the signboard is old, maybe it's the old Malay grammar rules. 

Sibu Bus Terminal

I watched HBO in the hotel during the afternoon. For the dinner, I had it with my new found friends. They are all YL friends, a family of four and a couple. We went to a restaurant. Well, the menu was kind of different compared to the KL area restaurant. Almost all restaurants here offered sea cucumber soup! Sea cucumber is so expensive! However, of course it is not the whole sea cucumber, it's sliced into very small bits, but still "sea cucumber soup"! Another thing was the Philippines pork feet. All of my dinner companions loved it, one of them even booked one for takeway to Kuching. Apparently, it is a very famous dish in Sibu. Well, for me, it's like normal but delicious stewed pork. After dinner, they brought me to tour Rajang River in car. They told me that in the heydays, before the toll road, the Rajang Port is very lively with many cargo movements all day long. But after the road was built, the business slowed down a lot. We passed by a large goose statue, and I forgot what is the meaning of goose to Sibu.

The next morning, before we went to church for YL's wedding. We had a light breakfast in hotel, then we went to Sibu Central Market. At first, they brought me to a small eatery to eat a traditional Fuchow food, the direct translation is wok edge paste, which is 鼎边糊 in Chinese. I like it. 

鼎边糊

For this Wok Edge Paste, initially the grains were ground using a traditional grinder. After it became a paste, the cook will use the paste to form slices of thin whitish sheet on the surface of the wok, the theory is kind of like roti canai or chapati. After that, it was thrown into the broth to make the wek edge paste, there are fish balls and meat inside, so delicious. Almost all the workers in the eatery were not young, I guessed this traditional food will eventually die out.

the grinder is the one in-front of the refrigerator where the white liquid flow down to the pail

Then, we started to walk around Sibu Central Market. Well, the day before, they told me they would bring me to see wrapped chicken (纸包鸡), I thought it's something like beggar chicken, but finally when I saw it, I actually laughed out loud. It's literally wrapped chicken, not a cooked food. Actually, it's not only the chicken that's being wrapped like that, the duck and geese were also wrapped like that in the market. It must be a special practice in Sibu or Sarawak.

wrapped chicken 纸包鸡

After that, we went to YL's wedding in church. That was my first time attending a church wedding and truth to be told, it shock me a little because it's so different from the TV's or movie's wedding. In the movie, the pastor would ask the couple whether they wanted to marry each other, and after they said yes, considered done. But in actual, it's much more elaborate and long. Hahaha.

After the wedding ceremony, me and others parted way for the afternoon. I went to the port to jalan-jalan, while they went to visit their friends.

road sign in chinese (Jln. Channel is 海唇街)

outside the Tua Pek Kong Temple

I feel that the sight of the colourful ships along the port is quite pleasing to the eyes. 

cargo ships at the port

Chinese New Year decoration at the Tua Pek Kong Temple

the view of colourful cargo ships at the port from inside of the temple

I prayed in the Tua Pek Kong Temple too. The incense is available for sales in the temple.

Tua Pek Kong Temple

Inside the temple, there are many geese statues as decoration. Ah, why I can't remember what is the relation ship between goose and Sibu.

goose decoration in the temple

Jln Temple 庙街 in Sibu, instead of Hong Kong

For the road name, some were translated as "街", some were translated as "路", not standardized, but it provides some variety to the road names. 

Jalan Market 马克路

After that, I just walked around the area. I reached Hoover Square and snapped some photos and left. Hoover was the first foreign pastor that served in the Methodist Church in Sibu. He helped to build 41 churches and 40 schools in Sibu, that was quite a feat.

Hoover Square

Hoover Square

a church near Sibu Central Market

Then, I passed by a square and I didn't know where I was. Lost my way.

a square in Sibu

dolphin statues

a plate commemorate the migration of people with surname "俞" to Sibu

Then, I just kept walking and I reached another square. Hahaha! I saw the building of Lembaga Pelabuhan Rajang, the shape is quite special.

Lembaga Pelabuhan Rajang

a gate near the Lembaga Pelabuhan Rajang

the statue of geese

I was very tired then and I just couldn't see any taxi to bring me back to the hotel. So, just keep walking and reached a "Fort Brooke" monument, but I didn't see any old looking architecture there.

Fort Brooke Monument

Finally, somehow I managed to get back to the Tua Pek Kong Temple and I entered a shop and asked the shop assistant where I could get a taxi. Initially, when the shop assistant knew that I wanted to go to Hotel Li Hua, she proposed that I walked along the river to reach the hotel. Luckily I felt curios and ask more, there are two Hotel Li Hua, one is Hotel Li Hua next to Sibu bus terminal, another is Hotel Li Hua along the river wharf. If I followed the advise, I would have to walk more! Thankfully there were taxis waiting at the backlane of that shop. I took a taxi and back to the hotel. 

During YL's wedding dinner, they didn't accept ang pao. And one of the good practices here was they really started the wedding dinner on time. Wow, I have never been to a punctual wedding dinner prior to that. I found out later that the few people who walked around the dinner with a file and pen were representative from the newspaper, asking people whether they wanted to join to contribute to place an ad in the paper to congratulate the newly weds. My friends told me that it's a practice when they host didn't accept any gift, the attendees would pool money together to place a congratulatory ad in the paper. So, I purposely read the newspaper in the next morning, it was really a thing to place an ad for weddings, graduation, etc in Sibu. When I told my family about this, my brother told me that his coursemate from Sabah also told him the same thing, not just graduation from university, the relatives will even place an ad for the students receiving results for SPM and STPM. It's apparently a thing in Borneo Island. 

Anyway, time for me to go back. I bought some Kong piah (光饼) in original flavour, kaya and cheese flavour to bring home. It's quite tasty.

kong piah 光饼

For my last breakfast in Sibu, I went to a nearby restaurant to eat, one of the different thing in Sibu was the way they serve the food, the chopsticks and spoon or fork came with hot water for cleanlines.

the chopsticks and spoon came with a cup with hot water for disinfectant effect

My new friends gave me two different kinds of oranges. One was called Bintangor orange and I forgot the name of the other. What I remembered was both tasted like mandarin orange, the type that we bought from supermarket during Chinese New Year, the differences are the colour of the skin, for the Bintangor orange, although it's ripen already, the skin still maintain green in colour.

Bintangor Orange (bigger and with smooth skin) and other orange

Other than that, I bought the instant Kampua (诗巫南方古早味干拌面), Kampua is a type of Foochow noodle. And also Foochow Mee Shua. Although it's not much, when I lugged it around, I felt so heavy!

instant Kampua (诗巫南方古早味干拌面)

Foochow Mee Shua (福州寿面)

Although the day before was her wedding, YL and her new husband insisted on bringing me back to the airport. YL even bring me to her home to eat Red Wine Noodle 红酒面线 because I couldn't find it outside, so touched. After Red Wine Noodle, my friend brought me to eat the wet kong pia, one of the specialties in Sibu also, well, both wet and dry kong piah is delicious in its own way. I really had a lot of food in Sibu for my three days two nights there. So full!

wet kong piah 湿光饼

Anyway, due to I reached the Sibu Airport too late, 15 minutes before boarding time, I had no time to buy Kek Lapis in the airport, it's a good thing too because less weight for me in KLIA2, it's a long walk. Hahaha! It's a memorable trip for me. I am very happy that I managed to join YL's wedding.