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Previously known as sweetsurrender.99.com.my

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Category: Going Places

My travelogue.

Sarawak+Brunei Road Trip (18-25/11/2013) – Part 7

Posted on January 4, 2014January 13, 2014 By sweet surrender No Comments on Sarawak+Brunei Road Trip (18-25/11/2013) – Part 7

I’m sure you had enough of my big face that greeted you for the first few days of 2014 hahahaha… Let’s get back to business.

After Bintulu, we drove to Miri. It was about 2-3 hours drive. Not so bad but my nose and my head weren’t in very good shape already.

When we saw this, we were excited! Miri!! Finally! You no longer being greeted by teh-c-peng but blue sea, blue sky. The beach here is far better than the beach in Kuching. However, do bear in mind that Miri is very hot. You’ll easily get tanned or sunburned. Be sure to protect yourself from the notorious sun. I got so tanned few years back after going to Miri for 3 days 2 night. Well… It was also because I didn’t wear hat or use an umbrella and walked a lot.


You see these? You’re in Miri. The seahorse is Miri mascot. You can call it the seahorse city. As for the structure erected on a roundabout near Miri City Fan that looked like a type of hat from the native, I’m not sure what it’s called.


We stayed at Grand Palace Hotel. Was so “lucky”, being assigned to a smoking floor with smoking room! Wanted to request for room change but thought that it shouldn’t be a problem, don’t want to trouble anyone as everyone was very tired already. Guess what?!?! Suffered the whole night from stuffed nose and cough. Really cannot stay in smoking room. Two continuous nights in smoking room was enough to bring me down.


The hotel was good for a comfortable stay. It’s surrounded by many nightspots, eateries, and a hypermarket. However, I would prefer staying in the middle of the city such at Mega or Imperial rather than here, it’s a bit too far away from the city centre. Back then I stayed at Imperial Hotel, the location was quite good, I could walk to many places. What’s more, the awesome view of sunset and the sea. At Grand Palace, all we saw was buildings. A bit disappointing.


After check-in, we headed to Miri Resident Office for the flag off. Folks, don’t forget that it’s Visit Sarawak Year and Visit Malaysia Year this year.

Taken somewhere in the city. If you can locate an eatery called Yi Hah Hai Seafood (1st Floor, No. 892, Jalan Permaisuri, 98000, Miri, Sarawak), that’s where we took the photo.

Sunset mode.


Normal mode.


Love the sunset in Miri. We were in time to catch the sunset. Isn’t the colour amazing? If only we could go to the beach for it.


After taking photos of the sunset, we went to Tanjong Lobang for seafood. It’s the seafood place located on the beach. I think it’s called Taman Selera. The sea is just out there. You’ll get to enjoy the food and the sea breeze. It’s a good thing, it wasn’t raining. However, it sure got me very sticky at the end of the day. Will try my best to recall what were the food, didn’t take note and no idea of the price and which stall we ordered it from too. Was kind of sick to bother too actually. Stuffy and itchy nose coupled with headache and a bit of cough weren’t helping.


Left: Mutton satay, nice! Love it!! Despite being sick and not having good appetite, this sure woke my taste buds.

Right: Seriously, I have no idea what soup is this ;p


Left: Buttered prawn, not bad but didn’t eat much. Sigh… Being sick, resulted in the lack of appetite really couldn’t enjoy any food.

Right: Steamed fish.


Left: Calamari with sambal if not mistaken.

Right: Midin with belacan. Not impressed with it. Only tasted salty, maybe it was me being sick.


Left: Ok… Another unknown dish, I think it’s Nestum chicken. *shrug* Just simply guess, it was sweet though.

Right: Clam in soy sauce, didn’t eat much too.

Actually the food was overall all pretty good but due to me being a sick cat that time, I couldn’t enjoy it properly 🙁

After dinner, we called it a night and continued our journey to Brunei the next day.

Food Porn, Going Places, Land of the Hornbills - Sarawak, Miri

Sarawak+Brunei Road Trip (18-25/11/2013) – Part 6

Posted on December 31, 2013January 13, 2014 By sweet surrender 4 Comments on Sarawak+Brunei Road Trip (18-25/11/2013) – Part 6

Last day of of 2013. I figured I should update something. Better continue with the road trip post. The longer it is, the more details I forget.


It’s already evening when we arrived Bintulu. It is 650 kilometers from Kuching and the fourth largest town in Sarawak. You can fly or drive here.

Since no hotel was booked in advance, we later found out that all the hotels with star rating were fully booked! We ended up at a very old 3-star hotel, the only hotel with still many rooms available. I won’t tell you where, it was a rather scary experience to some of us even before we check-in into the room. I had deleted all the photos related to this hotel and I didn’t even dare to view the actual size of the photos. My roommate and I had to request for change of room some more. We’re the lucky one to get the “jackpot” room. The story will come some other day. One very unforgettable experience indeed.


After check-in, we went to had dinner. I have no idea of the shop’s name, totally don’t remember. However, it’s located in one of the commercial area where Tune Hotel is located. First time I heard of kambing penyet (left). Our friend recommended it, so I ordered it. Not bad really but too bad didn’t have a very good appetite. While another travel mate of mine ordered ayam penyet (right). Was really tired that night, didn’t really bother much, all we wanted was to get our rest as soon as we could. Love the sambal belacan (the condiment that came with the dish)! It’s good and very spicy! Well… Bintulu is known for its belacan, it should be good!

The next morning, we packed our stuff to prepare to move to a new hotel. No choice, had to check-out by hook or by crook due to various things happened that night to some of our travel mates. While waiting for the rest to tell us where to move, we went to the town center for a walk.

You definitely will not miss this Tua Pek Kong Temple in the middle of the town.



The market at Bintulu Esplanade. You can find many local handicrafts there.


The fish and vegetable market (Pasar Utama Bintulu) is just around the corner.


We went up to the food court for brunch. While looking out to the river, we saw eagle! First time! I’ve never seen one in Malaysia.


TADA! The umai from Mukah. Brought it all the way to Bintulu. Was too tired to eat last night. My second time eating this. Now… Looking at it just makes me salivate. It’s raw fish meat and it’s “cooked” using lots of salt and lime juice. Means, you’re not eating raw fish. This whole thing cost RM12 if I’m not mistaken.

After that, we decided to go to Tanjong Batu.

Left: This is another landmark of Bintulu called the Council Negeri Monument. Bintulu is where the first Sarawak Legislative Council took place on 8th September 1867.

Right: New World Suites where you can stay when you are here but it was fully booked when we were there. Else we would be staying here rather than the haunted one hahaha… The shopping centre is there too. If only we stayed here…


This is the view we all looked forward to.


We went to Pantai Temasya Bintulu.


Bintulu is a major industrial centre. Faraway out in the distant, that’s one of the LNG plants.

After that, it was time for us to check-in our new hotel. We stayed at Parkcity Everly Hotel. Way better than the hotel we stayed on the first night!


I love the shower gel. So sweet, the smell of raspberry. Love the packaging of the toiletries too. Too bad, because of fully booked hotels in Bintulu and this hotel was packed too, we ended up in smoking room. This is when my nightmare began, not because of the supernatural thing but because of thirdhand smoke.


After check-in, we headed to Bintulu Resident Office for the flag off of Cats Rangers and to create awareness of Visit Sarawak Year 2014.


Done with the event, we went back to our hotel and strolled the Bintulu Waterfront Promenade (the convergence of Kemena River and the South China Sea) just behind the Parkcity Everly Hotel waiting for sunset. This hotel isn’t bad just too bad no place to easily get food or do some shopping.


Since Bintulu is an industrial centre, there’s a lot of vessels going through the area. You’ll meet many expats there too. Lots of Koreans and I was surprised to hear Bahasa Malaysia spoken by Koreans to their Malaysian friends. I’m impressed!


A very relaxing place to be but we didn’t bother to wait for the sunset anymore. Too tired, started to feel weak also.

For your information, SuperStar Aquarius is now stopping in Bintulu. Bintulu is one of the three stops for Star Cruises’ first ever 4D/3N cruise off the western coastline of Borneo.

The rest of the evening, my room mate and I just spent it in the room. No appetite to eat. Wasted our final night in Bintulu just like that…

Check-out the next morning and went for breakfast before going to Miri. Sorry again… I’m such a bad travel blogger hahaha… Was feeling so unwell and didn’t bother where we went for breakfast. I ordered mee jawa(right), it tasted like sweet mee curry -.-” Don’t remember the price anymore. Brain was too weak to remember anything. One of my travel mates ordered nasi goreng pattaya (left).

Goodbye to Bintulu… Off to Miri…

Happy 2014!

Bintulu, Food Porn, Going Places, Land of the Hornbills - Sarawak

Sarawak+Brunei Road Trip (18-25/11/2013) – Part 5

Posted on December 16, 2013December 18, 2013 By sweet surrender 4 Comments on Sarawak+Brunei Road Trip (18-25/11/2013) – Part 5

Gonna do a quick post. Feeling a bit lazy these days ;p

The road to Mukah was extremely bumpy. Very torturing -.-”

You get to see some pink, purple, and white flowers growing wild along the way. It’s called the bamboo orchid.





Not only that, you can see many different types of modern longhouses too.


Welcome to Mukah! You’ll definitely see Kingwood Hotel Mukah once you enter Mukah. Located next to the sea. Don’t expect blue sea, you don’t get it here due to Sarawak’s geographical conditions. We called it teh-c-peng *LOL*

Mukah is different from other towns/cities in Sarawak, as the population is predominantly the Melanaus, hence the nickname The Melanau Heartland. Melanau language is the medium of communication here. However, Malay, Sarawak Malay, Iban, Mandarin Chinese, Hokkien, and English are spoken too. Mukah is the main sago producing area of Sarawak.

Source: Wikipdedia


Developments along the way.


The Setia Raja Mosque in Mukah.


Left: An old chimney from a sago factory.

Right: We headed to the market.


The Cats Rangers were there to conduct giveaway activities with the locals. You can find sago worm at the market aside from the local produce. They’re so fat! In fact I was supposed to eat them alive which Jian bought at Sibu but at the end I didn’t and he left it by accident in Bintulu *LOL* Even if he didn’t leave it in Bintulu, I won’t be able to eat it also because I was feeling a little bit sick already in Bintulu. He bought umai (a spicy salad of raw marinated fish with shallots, lime juice and chillies) in Mukah. Will show how it looks like in the next post.


After the activity, we went to lunch. This is another landmark, the clock tower in Mukah.


Had our lunch at Nawab Cafe, can’t get the address online. Well… Mukah town isn’t that big anyway, it’s located at the row of shops opposite Hotel Sarina (67 Jalan Orang Kaya Setia Raja).

Left: Mee Goreng (RM3.80), yum! I’m not really a fan of mee goreng actually but this one is delicious. I love it! If they provided lime, it would taste even nicer.

Right: Fried beehoon ordered by one of my travel mates, no idea of the price. Looked not bad but I don’t know how it tasted.


Continuing our journey… No idea what’s this.


Can you see the rainbow? It rained when we were in Mukah so we didn’t get to explore the place much. It’s just a pit stop.


Bintulu… Almost there…

Food Porn, Going Places, Land of the Hornbills - Sarawak, Mukah

Sarawak+Brunei Road Trip (18-25/11/2013) – Part 4

Posted on December 12, 2013 By sweet surrender No Comments on Sarawak+Brunei Road Trip (18-25/11/2013) – Part 4

Last part of Sibu trip.


This is definitely what you can’t see daily if you don’t live here. These large boats are known as floating supermarkets which serve the rural communities along the river. Very interesting right? Again, my first time seeing such thing!

The 114-year old Sibu Eng Ann Teng Tua Peh Kong temple in Sibu is located beside the river. Too bad the pagoda is closed to public.


Left: Part of the skyline of Sibu from the river.

Right: This is a nice place to observe the river activities with very nice sunset view too. Located next to the temple. Surprisingly, the place is very clean and well-maintained even though it’s quite seclude behind the temple. If it’s in Kuching, I cannot imagine how filthy the place is gonna be with human waste, rubbish and so on.


Another view from the riverbank.


Left: Containers were being loaded onto the ship.

Right: I assume this should a fishing boat.


Left: At night, it rained. I went dinner with my friend instead of going with the travel companions. Wanted to eat steamboat but couldn’t find any parking. So we decided to go somewhere else. The famous Hong Fu Seafood (Jalan Wong King Huo, 96000 Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia).

Left: Midin with belacan. The balacan wasn’t that nice.


Left: Mani cai with salted egg yolk. My gosh! It’s so tasty! Never eat mani cai this way. The saltiness of the yolk went well with the vegetable.

Right: Hmmm… I forgot what’s this. I think it’s pork with salted fish. Not bad too. Never know pork can go with salted fish.

I’m not sure how much in total for this dinner as I didn’t pay for it. Was quite a lovely dinner, finally got to catch up with friend who I’ve not seen for more than 10 years!

The next morning, it’s time for us to head to Mukah and Bintulu.

Left: Before that, we went for breakfast at Aho Mee Sapi Nasi Ayam Restoran which is located opposite of Wisma Sanyan. This eatery is halal.

Right: Roti canai special (RM4), so filling! I couldn’t finish it. There’s beef and big onion in there along with other spices, not your blank roti canai. It’s very filling, I couldn’t finish it. I found that the spices was a bit too overwhelming for me. A bit regret ordered this.


Left: Surprisingly, banana and roti canai (RM3) could go well together. Eat it with the curry, it’s a great combination of sweet, salty, and a little spice.

Right: If not mistaken, this is their mee golok daging lembu aka dry beef noodle (RM3.50). Malay style of course.

After breakfast, we started our very bumpy car ride to Mukah. To be continued…

Food Porn, Going Places, Land of the Hornbills - Sarawak, Sibu

Sarawak+Brunei Road Trip (18-25/11/2013) – Part 3

Posted on December 9, 2013December 9, 2013 By sweet surrender No Comments on Sarawak+Brunei Road Trip (18-25/11/2013) – Part 3


After hanging around the express boat terminal, we went to the Sibu Central Market.


This is my first time seeing chicken being sold like this. Interesting…


Durian season!! Cannot miss it. Had my first taste of durian after more than 2 years. This is also the culprit that made me sick ;p Too heaty.


Left: Dabai! It’s been years till I lost count. Didn’t buy or eat it in Sibu though.

Right: Rambutan, it’s the season too. It’s been more than 2 years too not eating it. When I was given with one, I asked my travel companions how to open it! *LOL* Ok… Ok… All these while when I had rambutan, I wasn’t the one who opened it, it’s already opened and readily served. Suddenly I forgot how to open it until one of them demonstrated it to me ;p


Some views of Sibu while on the road. Went for bak kut teh lunch with my Sibu friend but that shop isn’t worth any mention at all.


Then, after I got back, accompany my travel companions for their lunch. Isn’t that cat familiar? Hehehe… They had kampua at the place we had breakfast as it was very late, many shops already closed for lunch. Portion was big and price was quite cheap, less than RM3. Taste… I don’t know… Not my food *LOL*


Went to Wisma Sanyan for the event of the day…


Flagging off Cats Rangers at Sibu Resident Office in conjunction with Visit Sarawak Year 2014.

The following are the views I took from the lift at Wisma Sanyan. We went all the way up to 30+ floor by accident as we were too engrossed in taking photos and missed the floor we’re supposed to go, goodness… Going down was like going on a roller coaster. *Gulp*




The overview of Sibu. More to come…

Food Porn, Going Places, Land of the Hornbills - Sarawak, Sibu

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Blogging since 2002. Anything before 2006 is no longer available. It is no longer on this server. Back then, I built my own blog and updated it using HTML. No database or anything. Only started blogging fully with a CMS in 2006. However, whatever was on the Internet will stay on the Internet. So... It should be still somewhere on the Internet. Then again... Why do you want to dig that far?

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