the one about my trip to sibu...

here I go again...

With so many travels and hotel stays, I've decided that it would be futile to keep up with my caloric intakes... not that it is impossible, just that.... well excuses shmexcuses, I just don't feel like doing it for now...

i can still do this with one hand tied, blindfolded and turned round and round 10 times...

My last travelling itenerary brought me over to the rear end of the Borneon Dog-shaped map, Sarawak. Spent a week in Sibu attending a course on Scientific Writing for Publication.

not very different I'd say...

I had to sit through a 5 hours transit for a connecting flight from Kuching before getting on board again for Sibu. Kuching, after weighing the enormous hu ha about how it is much cleaner than my very own KK, and how much livelier, more beautiful and all sort of unseen glories, I concluded that I still like KK better.

rajang river - the longest in Malaysia

waterfront walk in Kuching - Sunday morning and almost all the shops are closed...

The whole experience brought me back to a very recent past, during my pre-clinical days when we were force-fed modules on research methods and statistical analysis bla-bla-bla... I thought as I grew older and more mature, I'd be able to tolerate more of these serious stuffs... which proved me wrong right at the first quarter of the hour. Soundly asleep and literally soundly asleep, I had to be shaken awake a few times by the poor guy next to me.

But Sibu as a town isn't bad at all... what I'd imagine to be something like Kudat or maybe Lahad Datu turned out to be as big as KK itself - packed, colourful and interesting.

Taking a stroll at night across the hotel I stayed in (Kingwood Hotel) there was a bigger than life Swan, with an equally bigger than life head. It's cute, and nothing else. Sibu was christened the swan city, believed to be the landing pad for swans migrating across the equator but according to some honest locals, they'd never seen any of those around... Wikipedia gave a more brutally honest account on how the town's connection to this particular avian came about, just check it out.

gaaawwwkkk...!!

Just like Kuching, Sibu (I'm beginning to suspect the whole of Sarawak) does not have any proper shopping malls, with the most happening one being Parkson. I was asking around when I arrived in Kuching, where is the recommended shopping mall to hang out (I need aircond) and I was suggested Parkson. When I reached Sibu, I asked the same question, and was again told Parkson..

"Parkson juga?"

So this is Parkson, the most happening hang out place in Sibu (sure beats Lahads Datu's Milimewa anytime)...

It only took approximately 37minutes to walk around the mall before you finished the whole tour...

and lunch wasn't quite a selection... guess what did i have?

the Sibu Jetty

I particularly appreciate the marketplace - taxi uncle that brought us for a tour claimed that this is the biggest market plaza in Malaysia - I don't know, I have to check in the Malaysia Book of Records to be sure - but I enjoyed most hunting for pics here...

varieties of vegetables...

dried groceries - salted shrimps here are called udang lurus - after the way they straighten the shrimps

fruits...

toys

This could be a local version of McD's Chicken Foldover... this one wins by its super freshness!

no chicken were harmed (yet) during the photography session

there's also McDucks Foldover

Courses are the only time I can rest actually, and during one of the free afternoons, I took chance to watch Harry Porter in Sibu's only cineplex - only RM5 and free seating - reminiscent of my earlier days watching movies at Rex Cinema at Petaling Street.

of all places...