Limbang/Miri JBR – Part 2

As mentioned in my previous post, Limbang town is located right smack by the river so I spent the good part of my evening walking along the esplanade.

My starting point was the Limbang Chinese Charitable Trust Board’s hall/temple (foreground). The hotel I stayed in,  Purnama, is in the background. Purnama is Limbang’s only hotel in a dedicated building of its own. Other hotels are of the shophouse variety.

Also, Purnama and the attached Limbang Plaza happen to be the tallest building in town. Just so you know, there is a Ngiu Kee supermarket/departmental store (FYI, closes at 8.00 pm) and a Sugarbun outlet located inside. Other than that, it’s full of your regular friendly dvd stores, knick-knack shops and tailors (FYI, these start closing from 6.00 pm) . Very much  like Kuching’s kenyalang park shopping arcade.

A few metres down from the Chinese hall and you’ll come to the Tamu and jetty.

What’s interesting about Limbang town is that a whole village is situated directly opposite it on the other side of the river. Hence, the Tamu’s jetty was populated with these little speedboats ferrying passengers home from work.

The setting sun signals an end to my exploration for the day and I beat a retreat back to the hotel for a simple dinner. Day 2 to follow.

Limbang/Miri JBR – Part 1

[Argh stupid WordPress just caused my entire post to disappear!!!!!!!!!!!!!]

Day 1

Boarded MAS’ 12.35 pm flight bound for Miri. Flight departed on time (what a welcome change that was from the usual delays I experience on my personal travels) and we arrived in Miri as scheduled at 1335 hours. Thanks to the on-going A(H1N1) scare, was subjected to a rudimentary health screen upon arrival.

At 1535 hours I boarded MASWings’ MH 3478 bound for Limbang. As their Fokker 50 fleet is due to be replaced by the ATRs, I was given strict instructions by the mad-about-aeroplanes brother of mine to photograph everything and anything.

Hence, the photograph of my leg room. As you can see, I had plenty. This was because I was seated in 2D which was right in front.

20 minutes later and Limbang town was sighted.

Thanks to some friendly chit chat with the flight crew, I managed to land a photo ops with one of them in the galley area plus….

the Captain and First Officer in the cockpit! 😀 The Captain was extremely friendly and even offered to take a photograph of me in his seat. Maybe next time. 😛

A 15-minutes’  taxi ride later and I was in town. There are essentially 2 main roads that meet in a V shape. 1 of them  (depicted above) parallels the river and is where my hotel was situated. If you head in this direction, you’ll hit the Tamu (pink/yellow building LHS) and shops (dead ahead). The hill in the background is Bukit Mas. Police station and SESCO office are also at the end of this half of the road.

If you head in the opposite direction, you’ll end up at the airport, hospital…..and Lawas. Note for legal eagles: the court is situated about 100 metres from the point where this photograph was taken. About a 5 minute walk at  leisurely pace with 1 thick file in hand.

Sunday Market (4) – Poultry

Sunday Market (3) – Fish

Notes from China (3) – learning about my Ah Tai

Meet my great-grandmother. I called her “Ah Tai” though her real name is Lee Sin Moi. She died in 1990 if I remember correctly, so I have very little memories of her. What I do remember vividly was that every time we went back to KL to celebrate CNY, we all had to line up and greet this old lady who was all wrinkly and bent, and who spoke some incomprehensible (to our young ears anyway) language. Used to scare the hell outta me and I’d just utter the usual greeting and run out of her room as fast as I can. I have more memories of her funeral as I was older then. I remember how her open casket was placed in the living room for a few days. How my Ah Suk made us kids line the body with those yellow prayer papers. And I was too scared to actually lay the paper on her so I just released mine from a height just above her body and let it float down. I was only about 10 years old at the time, what do you expect? 😛