Sibu Superbowl Part II

I was planning to update sooner, but I was caught up in a game of scramble
(a word game) in #kuching. Pretty fun and addictive stuff. Anyway, I went
out with Yi Ching, Daniel and Johnny today for some bowling action. Me and
Daniel had a game of pool while waiting for Yi Ching to arrive and I can
safely say that my pool skillz have not atrophied. It feels good to be
able sink shots using a dodgy cue. =D

My bowling skillz have improved somewhat too. I managed to get a strike in
this game.

Overall, I did better than last time. I used a heavy bowling ball and
rolled it down the lane with brute force, which seems to work much better
than that spinning nonsense I was trying last time. Heh. Managed to down
plenty of pins for a change. I think the velocity of the ball when it hits
the pins is very important, so I used a heavy ball and just hurled it down
the lane for maximum pin trippage.

After a couple of games, we headed down to the UCA (United Chinese
Association) food court in Bukit Lima. Had a bowl of those “longevity
noodles” that people eat during Chinese New Year and birthdays. It’s that
thin, clumpy rice vermicelli that is eaten with chicken soup. I don’t know
what possessed me to order that, since I don’t like that stuff at all.

Bintangor Day Trip

I headed down to Bintangor today with Daniel for some rojak. Daniel says
that the Bintangor rojak is really good, and sure enough, there were six
other groups of non-Bintangor residents eating rojak there. Anyway, we
took the 2:30 pm express boat out of Sibu wharf. The boat ride took 30
minutes and arrived at Paradom, where we had to catch a bus to Bintangor,
which took 30 minutes as well. There is a large fruit replica right in
Bintangor town, and Daniel says it’s a pau (a kind of large citrus fruit,
don’t know what it’s called in English) while I thought it looked like an
orange. The rojak store had a drink called Bintangor orange juice, which
somewhat supports my theory. I hear Bintangor is famous for it’s oranges
too. Anyway, I found the rojak so good that I bought two bottles of the
rojak sauce to bring back. We had an hour to spare coz the last express
boat leaves at 6 pm from the Paradom wharf, and we’ll be taking the 5:15
pm bus out of Bintangor to catch that boat. Bintangor is not a really big town, and we
managed to cover the whole town on foot in that one hour. Took heaps of
photos too.

The express boat to Paradom.

Paradom Jetty.

96500 Bintangor.

The Bintangor Orange replica.

The old part of Bintangor town.

The new part of Bintangor town.

The non working clock tower in the new part of town.

Old skool barber in front of the football field in Bintangor. Floyd the
barber is cutting the hair of the old man while two people wait for his
services.

I see people like to hang clothes out to dry from their window over here.

The famous rojak stall in Bintangor.

The rojak. Mmm…

Bintangor orange juice.

Got a couple of bottles of rojak sauce to go before we went back.

Sibu Band Competition

There was a band competition going on at Town Square today, so I headed
down at 6:15 pm, just before it was due to start. There were six bands
competing – The Boys Brigade, Girls Brigade, 3rd Division Girls and Boys
Brigade, Tiong Hin Band, Tung Hua Band, and Sacred Heart Bagpipe Band.
Tiong Hin’s performance was there best, and the loudest too, because they
had heaps of bass drums instead of the one or two that the other bands
have. Not surprisingly, Tiong Hin won the best drum solo and the first
place. Sacred Heart Bagpipe Band took the second place, to the
consternation of the crowd, because their performance wasn’t as good as
the other bands. Boys Brigade took the 3rd place. Now that I think of it,
I’m not so sure about the placings, so if it’s wrong, please
mail me to
enlighten me. It seems that the Tiong Hin band always gets first place in
Sibu competitions, but they are the best so there is nothing wrong with
that. My aggressive photography techniques managed to get me into the heat
of the action. I was walking very close to their lineup during their
encore and for some reason, I got stuck inside their formation. Heh.
Interesting that. Here are some pictures from the competition.

All pictures are clickable to bring up a larger picture.


Girls Brigade

(Click image for a larger picture)


Boys Brigade

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Boys and Girls Brigade 3rd Division

(Click image for a larger picture)


Sacred Heart Bagpipe Band

(Click image for a larger picture)


Tiong Hin Band

(Click image for a larger picture)


Tung Hua Band

(Click image for a larger picture)


Tiong Hin Band got first place

(Click image for a larger picture)


The encore of Tiong Hin Band

(Click image for a larger picture)

Suzanne’s Corner

I had lunch at Suzanne’s Corner with my girlfriend today. The place is
beside Pathlab in Blacksmith Road, I heard of it through my father, who
gave me a brochure.

The place is run by Vietnam born Suzanne who is also a member of Wesley
Church. I had Vietnamese Pork Chop Rice (RM3.50) and my girlfriend had
Vietnamese Chicken Rice (RM3.50). We also shared a plate of Vietnamese
Spring Rolls (RM3.50). It’s probably the only place in Sibu you can get
Vietnamese food and the food is really good. Friendly service too, so if
you’re in the vicinity, do head over there. Don’t forget to try the New
Zealand Cheese Cake (RM4.50). =D

Vietnamese Pork Chop Rice

Suzanne of Suzanne’s Corner

Sibu Superbowl

I went to Sibu Superbowl today for some bowling action. There was a 9 pin
tag competition going on too, so we had to wait for a bit before a lane
was available. I think I’ve only bowled about 3 times before in my life
but it should be fun. My fingers were numb by the end of the session
because bowling uses muscles in my hands that I haven’t used in years. Heh.
We played for a total of two rounds, and I came in last. Johnny played a
couple of times before so he did pretty well. Daniel is a novice too, but
had a bit of practice a couple of weeks ago, and managed to get a score
close to Johnny’s courtesy of three strikes. I didn’t get a strike, but I
did get a spare, so I’m pretty happy with that. Anyway, we were using Lane
22, which has a bit of an anomaly with the pin grasping machine. A 1 point
score is guaranteed each time because the machine only grasps 9 pins
instead of 10 and thus 1 pin will be swept away each time when it resets.
That probably boosted my score a bit too. =D

6SEAL    = Huai Bin (me)

SUCKA  = Johnny

NIEL       = Daniel

Not off to a good start. The 1 mark is due to the glitch, my ball went
into the drain both times.

The anomaly. Look at that one pin that wasn’t felled but is about to get
swept away by the bar because the machine didn’t pick it up.

End of first round: 47, 91, 86

End of second round: 115, 231, 176

Stadium Tun Zaim

I woke up late today and only arrived at the stadium at 11:30 am. It was
pretty hot by then so I wasn’t looking forward to running, but kept at it
just the same. As can be expected at that hour, there wasn’t anyone there
besides me. I did nearly step on a dog though. I was looking into the
horizon when I stopped myself just as I was about to tread on a black dog
sleeping on the walkway. He was pretty traumatized by the encounter too,
the poor dog nearly jumped out of his skin and scampered away. Heh. Sorry
mate.

Stadium Tun Zaim

Kim Tak

Kim Tak seems to expand every time I come back. It’s a grocery store near
my place, and it has the reputation of having the cheapest prices in Sibu.
Thus, there will be heaps of people there every night, and navigating the
roads there requires a great deal of skill because of the amount of cars
parked haphazardly. Anyway, they seem to have a cold storage division now
and even carries fresh vegetables. Interesting. Well, I took a photo of a
coffee booth inside serving free samples.

It’s the Kopiko branded coffee. Kopiko used to be a brand of coffee candy
made with real coffee but now they have diversified into instant coffee
powder. The coffee powder is nothing to write home about but it tastes
more robust than Nescafe. There was a stall giving samples of Campbell
soup outside too. When I asked to take a photo of the booth, the attendant
asked me if I wanted a more beautiful girl to man the booth for my photo.
Funny girl. Anyway, she offered to take a photo of me manning the booth
instead, which I accepted. Heh.

My part time job – serving free samples of soup to hungry customers.

Anyway, I went out today to frame my girlfriend’s graduation photo. She
hasn’t actually graduated yet, but the college gives out a certificate
every year anyway. I went to the hardware shop opposite the city Standard
Chartered Bank. I didn’t notice the name of the shop, but they have some
nice frames there. I chose a finished wood frame, the color of which
matches the background of the picture. It only costs RM 10, which puzzled
me, considering the quality of the wood. Well, my pants tore today, which
I take as a sign that I need to get more exercise. I’m going to run at the
stadium first thing after waking up tomorrow. I hear that burns stored
fat, and is more efficient than running in the evening, which just uses
the energy consumed throughout the day.

Cookies and The Mirror Project

I saw this really nice chocolate biscuits at a grocery store today.

Dairy Milk Cookies on a local newspaper

Shortbread cookies with chocolate chips and covered with chocolate.
Usually the local cocoa tastes slightly acidic so I’m not really a big fan
of locally made chocolates, but these ones taste pretty good. Anyway, I’ve
submitted another picture to my favorite pet project. You can view it
here
[mirrorproject.com]. This is a photo of a photo. You can’t really see
my reflection clearly because I had to compress the picture down to 30k
in order to submit it. The photo is one from my college days at Inti.
I’m the second seated person from the right. I was the Vice President
of Intima, the college student government body. I remember that I was
out clubbing at the notorious Impiana Disco (now closed) the night
before the photo shoot. I had consumed some recreational substances which I
will not name in this public blog and had gotten home pretty late –
at around 8 am. I tried to take a one hour nap before the 10 am photo
shoot, but it’s almost impossible to go to sleep when the aforementioned
recreational substances has been partaken the night before. I was
in that uncomfortable limbo between sleep and wakefulness when I woke up
with a start and realized it was already 10:15 am! I rushed out with last
night’s clothes still on and pulled on my Intima jersey in the office,
just in time for the photo shoot. Heady days indeed. I wonder where the
rest of the committee are now? I’ve had some wonderful times in Inti
College, Kuching during ’98/’99.

Link:
My
submission to The Mirror Project
[mirrorproject.com]

World Cup Finals @ Town Square

I went to the town square with a couple of my friends last night to catch
the World Cup finals. There is a big screen there, and the ambience would
be better too. I’m glad Brazil won, I like Ronaldinho coz I feel sorry for
him. Heh. For one thing, he’s always overshadowed by his higher profile
teammate Ronaldo and also he never complains during substitutions. When he
was red carded during the England match, he did not argue with the referee
even though that decision was very dubious. He seems like a good natured
person. I hear he can do it 8 times in a night too. =D

Anyway, I finally paid my summons today. Strange thing is, you don’t need
to produce an IC or driver’s license when you pay the summons. You are
supposed to fill in the detachable slip and just pay the fine. Thus,
theoretically, it’s possible to fill in some other person’s particulars
and he gets the demerit points instead of you. Doesn’t seem like a good
system to me.

Mukah trip report

We caught the 12:30 pm bus back to Sibu and arrived all st and hot
and uncomfortable. I took a nice long bath and promptly fell asleep and
awoke again at 6 pm and had to rush out to catch the big screen World
Cup final at the city square. Mukah was pretty fun, we stayed at a
dodgy hotel for RM 35 a night. It’s either called the Mandarin Inn or the Mandyrin
Inn, I can’t figure out which coz one of the signboard says Mandarin
while the other says Mandyrin. Heh. We checked in as soon as we arrived
at Mukah, which was about 5 pm. Sibu -> Mukah takes 2 1/2 hours. The
bus ride was quite terrible, there are heaps of potholes on the road
and we were sitting at the back. I didn’t really get carsick but I was
about to.

After checking in, our first priority was to find a place with a big
screen to watch the semis. There is a small TV in the room, but we have
to squint to make anything out so we didn’t bother. There was a cafe at
the bottom floor of the hotel, but before that, Daniel’s girlfriend’s
sister picked us up with her husband and took us to the beach.

Fisherman at work at Mukah beach in the late evening.

There are heaps of dead sea life washed up on the beach.

For some reason, I feel a slight discomfort to my posterior while
squatting on this dead log.

I was trying to get a shot of those small crabs on the beach
using my macro mode and unbeknownst to me, Johnny crept up and tried to
pull down my pants. Daniel took this picture.

Contrary to prior reports, the beach is clean and perfectly fine for
swimming. Unfortunately, we didn’t bring a change of clothes so we
couldn’t actually swim. Managed to walk along the length of the beach
and then went to the new town to get something to eat. Apparently Mukah
has an old town and a new town.

The fish at the main road in the old town.

The largest Berhenti (Stop) sign I’ve even seen in my life. I was
flabbergasted by the girth of the sign. I don’t know what Daniel was
doing, but it looks damned naughty.

Me and Daniel calling our girlfriends on the public phones due to the fact that Digi (016) coverage does not include Mukah.

Daniel is trying to give me a bit of a nudge while I attempted to dive into the Mukah waterfront.

Our hotel was at the old town and the new town is a 10 minute walk
from the old town. I managed to try ulat sago, the worms that feed at
the bottom of the sago tree. This one is fried though, I want to eat
some raw ones so we’ve decided to go to the market to get some the next
day. After dinner, we went back to the hotel, lined up for showers and
went out again at around 10:45 pm to get some supper. I helped myself
to a large serving of umai – the raw fish that’s eaten with sago pearls
and dipping sauce.

Umai – raw fish with spicy dipping sauce. Eaten with sago pearls.

Pretty tasty. But not exactly filling so we got some kebabs on the
way back too. Anyway, there are two beds in the hotel room and three of
us, so we decided to play a game of blackjack to decide who’s going to
sleep in the middle. Heh. Very funny stuff, it cracked me up so much I
had a laughing fit for 10 minutes! By the way, it wasn’t me who got the
unpopular middle place. I got 17 and decided to hold, while Daniel and
Johnny drawed and got 22 and 24 respectively. Naturally, I get an
automatic side bed while they had to play another game to see who gets
the middle. Now here’s the funny thing, Johnny got 17 and held while
Daniel (who has 18) decided to hit again to be safe. Unfortunately, the
next card pushed him over 21 and he had to take the middle. hehe.

Mandarin or Mandyrin?

I didn’t dare to use the hotel towels. Very bare amenities provided.

The toilet/sink/shower, all rolled up into a compact space.

When we moved the beds together, this is what we found under the bed.
Several old slippers, used tissues (!) and miscellaneous rubbish.

I’m being flanked by Daniel (left) and Johnny (right). My attempts to
molest them were thwarted by pillows.

I couldn’t sleep that night, I only got about 3 hours of sleep. I ended up reading Robert J. Sawyer’s Flashforward
[sfwriter.com] on my Palm for the rest of the night. We woke up at 7 am
the next day to go to the old market and book our return tickets. I
scoured the whole market place and could only find one vendor selling
live sago worms and he was selling them in RM 10 bags containing about
50 worms. I only wanted to eat a couple, so I decided to try the new
market but there weren’t any there so I came back again and both the RM
10 bags were sold out! Grrr…I was looking forward to eating those
live worms. Anyway, I did get some salad (not the vegetable, the fruit
with scaly dragon like skin), which doesn’t really taste all that good
to me.

Salad…a kind of local fruit.

We walked to the new town and managed to cover the whole town in about 20 minutes. Mukah is not exactly a large place.

The dry market.

The wet market.

Mukah’s most prominent export – fish.

After a quick breakfast at Nelayan Melanau Restaurant, we went back
to the old town and packed up. We got some pastries to eat at the
bakery opposite the hotel and caught the 12:30 pm back.

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