My better half has never been to Bintangor before. It’s a small and sleepy town which is one of the major transit points to further destinations accessible only by river. We thought about dropping by the last time she was here but went directly to Sarikei instead.
Her parents were in town and I thought they’ll enjoy the small town vibe so I drove all of them down from our hotel in Sibu (after snapping a few quick photos at the swan statue).
It takes approximately an hour to reach Bintangor by car. The main feature in town is a passenger jetty with express boats departing to obscure villages and micro-towns like Dalat, Song and other similar places which can only be reached by the large Rejang River which runs along the entire length of Sarawak.
The express boats are the only way to go to these places upriver and that’s why you’ll see them packed to the brim (with people jammed in every nook and cranny and even occupying the roof). Boats like these are supposed to carry 103 pax but regularly exceed that and it makes accidents a very real possibility – a capsized boat killed quite a lot of people last year.
There are no roads to the towns further down, you can only get there by boat or helicopter.
I like how the major export of Bintangor is featured as a statue in the middle of town. There’s a local orange that features predominantly in the esplanade and the last time I was here, it was in a very sorry state – paint all peeling and unkempt. It’s been maintained better and the colors look more or less like what a real orange would look like. Trust me, it looked a lot worse in the past.
We also dropped by the Bintangor Market to check out their produce. They have a lot of interesting local vegetables, knick knacks and other assorted daily essentials.
I made it a point to bring them to the famous Bintangor rojak at Wong Hung Ping. This place is very popular even among Sibu folks, people would make the 1 hour drive to eat rojak during weekends and drive back down again. I ordered a large portion for us to share and my dear’s dad enjoyed it tremendously.
There are steamed sweet potatoes, cucumbers, pineapples (from the neighboring town of Sarikei), fried crullers and other miscellaneous ingredients tossed in a sweet homemade sauce and sprinkled with toasted peanuts. I think what makes it so good is that everything is sourced locally and very fresh. The sweet potatoes are even cooked to order!
I also highly recommended the local Bintangor orange juice (RM 3) which is the squeezed product of the fruits grown just on the outskirts of town. You can’t get it fresher than this!
Her dad enjoyed the rojak so much that he bought a bottle of their homemade rojak sauce to bring back to KL!
It’s a really fun day trip to do with my dear and the family. I haven’t been here in a few years and it seems like time hasn’t marred this small town like it has other places. Bintangor is still a serene little place you can escape to if you want a change of pace, to experience a quieter way of life.
A nice trip to Bintangor.
Yeah, it was a lot of fun! 🙂
We also went to Sarikei, haven’t written about it, was busy with work. I’ll start on the backlogs!
haha..finally..my home. Glad you and group enjoyed the small town. All within walking distance and bicycle is suffice here. Agreed that the market is worth a trip for city folks. Things are still cheap and you get good real deal (especially the foochow cooked meals). Could had venture to the 1st floor of the market for real kampua or cha-qu-mien :p
Yeah, the market is really interesting! 🙂
Lots of local jungle produce and seafood which is foreign to West Malaysians. I like the pace of Bintangor, we saw a lot of new houses being developed, quite nice ones too. I wouldn’t mind settling down in a place like this when I’m old, the pace is very chill.
We were going to Glory Cafe in Sarikei so we didn’t have space, only managed to eat the rojak and we ate again not 30 minutes later. Haha.
Omg it is my hometown!
Cool!
Famous Bintangor orange juice? Ooohh, I MUST try that if I have the chance, haha.. Do they add sugar inside? (I guess yes).. Rojak sauce, my favourite also.. I like my rojak with ONLY pineapples and keropok !
Yeah, Bintangor produces a lot of oranges! 🙂
It’s the local orange (the green type) but it’s pretty good. The rojak this place does is really famous, even in Sibu.
I have a good friend who is a prominent architect today in Kuching. He grew up in Bintangor and Sarikei as he often shared his fond stories. I had no idea how those places looked like until you shared this post. Thank you HB!
I think we both know the same guy! 🙂
His office is in 3rd Mile in Kuching right? It’s above World Sport and I used to work at the office on top of his office, the architect’s office was unusual for Kuching in that it’s open 24 hours, that’s more KL style but since we worked odd hours as well (programmers, upstart companies) we’ll see a lot of each other.
I didn’t know Sarawak has their own oranges…The rojak looks delicious.
Yup, Bintangor and Sarikei produces a lot of the fruits that we eat in Sarawak. 🙂
Durians etc and also pineapples, oranges. There are a lot of orchards around there. Some say the soil is better, my friend’s uncle has one too.
a friend whose hometown is in Bintangor brought back a bottle of this rojak kuah for us. Very nice
Yeah, my dear’s dad loved it too! 🙂
He brought back a bottle to KL coz he liked it so much. I think the rojak here is good coz of the freshness of the fruits (all grown locally). The way they do the sweet potatoes makes it taste better too, and it helps that the produce are all local too.
This is my first time knowing they have their own orange there. Would love to have a taste of that.
We get a lot of their oranges too! 🙂
We as in Sibu people, I mean. A lot of durians come from that region too, they have a different season than Kapit. I’ve heard Sarikei and Bintangor being referred to as the “food basket of Sarawak”. Haha.