Month: June 2008

Sebangkoi Country Resort is located about 30 odd kilometers from Sarikei. The place has been a national park for quite a while but the addition of the resort is relatively new.

Sebangkoi Country Resort is located right in Sebangkoi Park and has accommodations ranging from the budget traveler to suites.

Sebangkoi Country Resort has a guardhouse that is landscaped to look like a chunk of rock. The place is meant as a country retreat and the gates are closed and locked at 9 pm unless you make arrangements with the staff. Sebangkoi Country Resort does not lack in creature comforts (except WiFi) and there’s plenty to do at the park.

Our contingent arrived at the Sebangkoi Country Resort at about 2 pm and checked into the suite. I had booked the RM 280 suite for the night. Mr. Tang kindly offered me the entire suite for the special price of RM 60 coz in return for a writeup about the resort on my blog (which I was going to do anyway ;)). Cheers!

There are two types of rooms in Sebangkoi Country Resort. The dormitory accommodations (pictured above) sleep 20 people in double decker beds and costs RM 18 per person. The suites has three (3) bedrooms and a living room and can sleep up to 7 people. It’s also fully air conditioned.

Sebangkoi Country Resort also has BBQ facilities, as well as a conference room that can accommodate up to 200 people. There is also a sound stage that can be used for free if you’re organizing events and such. Okay, enough with the obligatory promotional spiel. Back to the post. 🙂

We took the Bunga Raya (Hibiscus) Suite, which is our national flower. It’s the VIP suite and it’s one of the two suites in Sebangkoi Country Resort.

The exterior walls of the suite is plastered with images of Sebangkoi Nature Park. The main feature at Sebangkoi is a waterfall, which is interestingly called “pooh pooh” in Chinese.

The suites has glass sliding doors which reflects the nature surrounding Sebangkoi Country Resort. The foliage around the place is impressive…

…as is the wildlife. I’m only taking this coz the spider is dead. I have severe arachnophobia.

The two RM 280 VIP suites are furnished with a dining table and TV (with Astro) and leads right into the three (3) bedrooms.

There is also a living room with couches and a mini-fridge which you can use to store contraband…

…like the RM 41.40 bottle of Don Camillo Lambrusco sparkling red wine you bought prior to coming to Sebangkoi. The official policy at Sebangkoi Country Resort is that outside food and drinks are not allowed.

Two of the three rooms are fitted with a queen sized bed and a single bed while the other room is only fitted with a single bed. There is also a wardrobe in each of the rooms.

The rooms all opens up to a great view of the greenery around the Sebangkoi Country Resort, with a thoughtful mosquito netting screen to avoid the pesky insects from indulging in your hemoglobins during the night.

We headed straight to the only canteen at the resort straight after unpacking our stuff for lunch. I hadn’t eaten anything since the morning and was starving for some solid food. The canteen is located at the reception area and is open to the public as well as resort guests.

There are coconuts, ice cream, and snacks on offer as well as a la carte orders.

The canteen Sebangkoi Country Resort also serves alcohol (only beer) and we ordered Oranjeboom Premium Lager at RM 10 for 3 tins. It certainly went down well in the warm weather at the place.

I ordered the Nasi Goreng Pattaya (RM 4.30) which the proprietor highly recommended. It tasted great, but I was craving for carbohydrates at that time so I’m unsure if my judgment was affected by this situation.

It’s fried rice with bits of meat and frozen vegetables (defrosted and fried before serving, naturally) wrapped in an egg omelet.

My traveling companion went for the Maggi Mee Telur (RM 2.80) which is a bit of an interesting choice. She said she hasn’t eaten the stuff for ages and wanted to eat instant noodles. It came with the packet of flavoring on the side and has an egg and some vegetables inside.

Thus properly nourished, we went for a walk around the resort area.

Sebangkoi Country Resort is not a big place – there are two suites, four dormitory style accommodations and a central dining area.

Sebangkoi Country Resort is located on top of a hill so the air is relatively fresh and cool. This also necessitates the construction of concrete stilts to accommodate the hilly gradient of the terrain. There is a long flight of stairs if you go up to the suite using the back entrance but the front access is on flat ground.

The entire resort is located in a forest, so there’s lots of foliage and greenery to sooth your eyes. It’s been ingrained into us as school children that proper rest for the optical senses should be done every hour by looking at a distant tree, so I think we used up our quota for the month so we can stare back at the LCD screen at work without breaks. 😉

I also saw some decidedly feminine panties being hung out to dry. I assume it’s from the local girls working as staff at the resort. Washing dirty linen in public.

ZOMG! Sichuan Earthquake 7.8 Richter aftershock hits Sebangkoi! More than a month later!
(Which makes it OK to joke about it) 

It should be noted that wasps have made their nests under the resort’s structure, which can make it unsafe for people who’re allergic to stings.

The most popular attraction at Sebangkoi is the Sebangkoi waterfall. It’s about a 10 minute walk (up and down hilly terrain) from the resort through a guests-only gate behind the main reception area.

There is the occasional stream running through the planked path as well as forest trees all around.

The famous bright red Sebangkoi park rest huts are located at intervals down the path. There is also a 2.6 km jungle trekking trail for those who’re into this sort of thing.

Sebangkoi Falls is not very difficult to locate since there is just one path leading to it. We soon heard the sound of falling water and arrived at the falls.

The Sebangkoi Waterfall is located on an inclined rock terrain with a bright red bridge behind it. This is the only waterfall in the park and there is already a family frolicking in the water when we arrived.

Sebangkoi Waterfall video

The water isn’t exactly clean but it’s very cold and refreshing. It’s not dirty from garbage or anything like that, but rather topsoil and other dead leaves being washed down from further upstream so it’s perfectly safe for swimming in.

There are random logs and rocks in the pool under the waterfall and I attempted to remove a rather solid looking log, but nearly got a hernia instead.

Hello, I’m Johnny Knoxville and this is Log Throwing.

Dad? Is that you? We have the same beer belly.

It should be noted that there are sharp stones at the bottom of the waterfall pool. I managed to get a gash on the knee without realizing it.

It’s a good thing it didn’t get infected or anything like that, but I did sneeze a couple of times. I attribute that to the hundreds of people cursing my existence though. 😉

Row, row, row your boat.

It’s actually very therapeutic to be under the waterfall. The falling water acts as a massage on your aching muscles and the cold water from the highlands is very invigorating.

Please do not disturb. Kung Fu Practice in session.

Mr. (from another) Universe – front view

Mr. (from another) Universe – back view

Smoking beer and drinking cigarettes while soaking in the pool. What could be better?

I met a nice family from Sibu on vacation there as well. Please focus on my potbelly, not on the poor little girl’s puberty manifestations okay? 😉

This is the very last photo taken before my Sony T-70 fell into the water. It’s divine retribution for my narcissism, I’m very sure of that. 😉

I was so depressed that I just had to open up our bottle of red wine before dinner. This was taken with a cell phone camera so the image quality is lacking.

I still managed to do the narcissism (is necessary) thing to get back at the divine retribution thing though. 😉

The canteen closes at 9 pm and the cigarettes and snacks counter closes at 6 pm so keep that in mind if you’re intending to be eating anything at all at night. We got there at about 8 pm and ordered:

Sweet and sour fish slices

Chicken cooked with soy sauce

Wild leaves cooked with egg

There was only enough rice for two (2) – they didn’t expect us to eat more than the two dishes of rice, apparently, and that’s a bit of an oversight on the management’s part.

We didn’t really get enough to eat so we managed to wake up the staff at around 1 am in the morning and drove down to Sarikei (about 15 minutes away) to get more alcohol (and food).

I still haven’t worked up the courage to try and start up the submerged digital camera the next morning when we woke up so the breakfast photos were also taken with the cell phone cam. I noticed that the canteen has a larger selection of coconuts now so we each ordered one.

I had a yellow ripe coconut while my traveling companion had a green pandan coconut.

I tried their Nasi Goreng Seafood (RM 4.30) while she had the Nasi Goreng Pattaya (RM 4.30) I had the previous day. The seafood fried rice didn’t taste as good as the previous day’s offerings.

The proprietor was kind enough to let us check out at 4 pm so we decided to go to the “other” waterfall in Sebangkoi. He told us that there’s a lesser known “waterfall” about a two minute walk away so we changed and went down the route he showed us.

I got some beer from the canteen and with a little bit of Dutch Courage, inserted the battery into my digicam and started it up, while praying to the very same deity that struck me (or rather, my digicam) down in his righteous fury at my narcissism. It worked! =D
(albeit with an extremely slow startup time) 

I wouldn’t call it a waterfall though…that would be stretching it a little bit too thin. It’s the runoff from a storm drain!

However, the water seem to be clean enough to be swimming in and the place is very private. There are even tiny fishes in the water.

It’s not completely free from habitation though – traces of a very recent campfire/BBQ session was seen from the charcoal beside the “waterfall”.

I was debating whether to enter the dubious looking runoff water…

…and jumped in anyway. Call it a leap of faith. 😉

I did more vertical Lotus Position training at the storm drain runoff. It’s not as dirty as I expected, the water quality is about the same as the Sebangkoi Falls. I wouldn’t recommend drinking it, but swimming should be fine.

You can bring you own beer if you feel thirsty though…and your own tobacco/other products. 😉

I went au naturale in search of a leaf to do a Garden of Eden scene.

Hello, I’m Adam…

…and I have a small one coz I ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Sebangkoi “Waterfall” a.k.a. Sebangkoi Storm Drain

The water was very cold, and soothing on that warm afternoon. I tried my luck at catching some of the little fishes swimming around, before realizing the futility of the exercise.

I tempted The Creator with another narcissistic shot…and this time, judgment day came just a little over 24 hours later. Oh well.

I spent a lazy Sunday afternoon drinking beer and smoking at the pool. Please keep your cigarette butts and empty beer cans in a trash bag and carry it away with you. Seriously, a few bad apples will ruin the rest of our reputations. Leave nothing but footprints and all that.

Sebangkoi Country Resort is a great place for a private and quiet weekend getaway instead of the usual Saturday night excess. You still get to drink, and get some exercise in addition to all that. There’s the nature surrounding you too, so you feel invigorated. It’s the closest natural waterfall from Sibu and the water is cold and refreshing. 🙂

Sebangkoi Country Resort is not a 5-Star resort like Hilton Batang Ai Longhouse Resort, so don’t expect the same level of creature comforts, but it’s cheap if you go in a group and it’s close enough to Sibu for a quick weekend getaway. Cheers!