Category: Land of the Hornbills – Sarawak

The Haunted Hotel – From My Perspective

Posted on By sweet surrender 13 Comments on The Haunted Hotel – From My Perspective

It’s been a busy week. I’ll just use text for this post, no photos to share anyway. No luxury of time to “beautify” this post with photos too.

Remember my Sarawak road trip last year? We encountered a haunted hotel in Bintulu. I did not exactly feel “it”, only blurted something I normally won’t say and sort of being “rescued” by a friend who chatted with me via Facebook but most of my travel mates experienced “it” first hand. I’m not going to tell you which hotel, let’s just say it has many branches, one in Kuching, and another in Sibu. I guess most people might be able to guess.

I will split the story into several perspectives. Will share it from my side first.

It was an extremely cold night when we reached outside of the hotel. Very windy. I guess it’s due to the geographical aspect of this town. The journey was tiring, from Sibu with short stop in Mukah and then went straight up to Bintulu. The organizer did not book the hotel in advance and was told that all the hotels in Bintulu with star rating were running high and were not able to fit all 10 of us in one hotel. So we ended up in this haunted one because this is the only star rating hotel that could put all 10 of us up and even stayed on the same floor.

Finally! We had a place to stay and was supposed to stay for 2 nights but because of the scary encounters, we changed hotel the next day. The organizer check-in for us then gave us our keys, 409 and 411, I was very “lucky” to pick 411. So excited, finally we have a place to rest!! Next, we went into the lift to our room. None of us bringing our luggage and all of us were quite skinny. Suddenly 3 of our guys came into the lift to join us but the lift buzzed due to it being overweight, so we “kicked” our 3 travel mates who came in later out. Then the lift got no problem anymore. No one sensed anything amiss.

Reached our room, once I opened the door, my nose immediately felt itchy because it’s so dusty, smelt dusty too. Obviously the room was not occupied for a long time. We didn’t bother, didn’t want to trouble the organizer to change room for us, as long that there’s a place to wash up and sleep for the night was good enough. Even my roommate also complained the room was dusty. I saw small cockroaches roaming around the room and again, thinking of changing room but scrapped the idea once more. Upon seeing those cockroaches, I instinctively smelt the pillows because I was expected it to smell dusty or with cockroach smell instead the pillows smelt like someone who just came out from shower. Felt a bit strange but didn’t bother. The lighting was rather dim too. After that, we visited the room next to us, the atmosphere was very different, it felt cozy unlike ours.

I then just took out my laptop and went online. My roommate was sitting next to me. I was sitting on the dressing table which was situated next to the window. I started to go on Facebook and updated where I was on my phone. While doing so, I told her, “I don’t think I will dare to stay in this room alone”, she too agreed. Suddenly, a friend messaged me and we chatted. He said that he found out I had check-in to the hotel. Next, he asked me which floor I was staying. I said 4th floor. Then he told me that better don’t tell him it’s room 411. I was shocked for a bit. I didn’t even tell him which room and he just blurted out the exact room number I was in. I told him that he got it right. He quickly asked me whether I have a bible with me and whether I’m alone. Yes, bible app on my phone; and no, I have a roommate. He breath a sigh of relief. I didn’t bother to ask him what happened, not interested to know, was too busy with things to do. I did tell my roommate about it and she was quite shocked too but didn’t probe further. The subject of changing room came again from us after that.

Then, it’s time for dinner. We told the organizer that we wanted to change room. The organizer asked us why and I told him what I encountered. He then said he would help us with the changing of room. He went up to the counter asking to have our room changed with the reason that the WiFi wasn’t working but they didn’t want to change. He got a bit angry and told them what I encountered. He said their face did change a bit as if knowing that there’s something not right with the room. They then agreed to change for us. However, the organizer was kind enough too as he is going to pay for that hotel room even though we won’t be staying in there and pay for the new room we were going to move as well.

While waiting, one of our travel mates was extremely hyper than usual and kept punching the his friends muay thai style. He also kept insisting to drive all of us for dinner. We didn’t feel anything not right with him as he’s quite hyper usually, just not this hyper. So he drove all of us (one left earlier with a local friend) to dinner. After sitting down in the restaurant, he no longer hyper, he didn’t know where he was and he said he couldn’t remember anything after going into the room yet he’s now in a restaurant.

WHAT?!!? He’s possessed! Goodness! Luckily he didn’t kill us. My goodness! Are you scare now?

That’s it. My encounters with this supernatural thing. Next post, once I’m in the mood again, I’ll post about my roommate’s encounters.

Bintulu, Going Places, Land of the Hornbills - Sarawak

Sarawak+Brunei Road Trip (18-25/11/2013) – Part 9

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

We reached Limbang at night from Brunei. Was quite late already.

Limbang is located on the banks of the Limbang River (Sungai Limbang in Malay), between the two halves of Brunei.

Owing to its geographical location, Limbang is completely cut off from the rest of Sarawak’s road network. It however has good road links to both parts of Brunei located to the east and west of the district. There is also a good local network of roads in the district.

Source: Wikipedia

Apart by using road to go to Limbang (going through Brunei, means you will need passport for going in and out of Limbang even for Malaysians) Limbang has an airport.




We stayed at Purnama Hotel which is located in the highest building of Limbang, Plaza Limbang. There’s a shopping centre which reminded me of Hopoh(a shopping centre in Kuching). Government offices are located in this building too. The room we stayed was very spacious! It has all the basics you need. I guess this is the best hotel you can get there. Don’t expect too much from it. It’s good enough to stay.

Was already pretty sick, we slept the night away and woke up pretty late in the morning. At first thought of just sleeping more while waiting for the rest of the team to check-out but we decided to head out to the Pasar Tamu, just opposite the hotel for a look. It’s a must! Already there, can’t just spent it in the hotel room even though was feeling quite sick. God knows when will I come back here again, this might be my first and last time here.



It was so hot and being sick didn’t really helped. We quickly browsed through the market, bought some local produce.



Took some photos too of the river. The river is very important for the people here just like any other places in Sarawak. The day was so hot with clear blue sky. After taking the shoots we wanted, we headed back to the hotel to escape the heat and to rest as much as we could as it would be a long drive back to Miri.


It’s time to go at around 2pm. While the others were still packing, we, the media team decided to ask our driver to drive around to take more shoots or drop by some places nearby to have a quick look. We stopped by Limbang Regional Museum, located in a fort built by Rajah Charles Brooke in 1897. Very small museum with the background of the local leaders and the history of the place. Not much artifacts though. Mostly photos and texts.


The buffalo and crocodile, both are common animals that you can find in Limbang. Beware of the crocodile in the river! Serious! Not joking, there’s even a sign there at the jetty warning people about it.

We were all pretty tired, this is our last destination before heading back to Miri to stay for a night before driving all the way straight back to Kuching. Oh dear… Dreading it so much that I was contemplating to catch a flight from Miri or Limbang to fly back to Kuching but at the end I didn’t hehehe…

Finally! Done with the road trip post! After staying a night in Miri, we drove all the way down to Sibu. Had a short rest there, had our dinner before went straight back to Kuching. We started our journey from Miri at around 10am. Was in Sibu at about 5pm or 6pm. The journey from Sibu to Kuching was really scary, the road was so dark. Couldn’t see anything at all. We arrived Kuching at 11pm. One hour earlier than our estimated time as we didn’t waste any time after dinner in Sibu.

That’s the end of my one week journey with the Cats Rangers. I’m thankful for the opportunity given to me which was made possible by CatsFM, Ministry of Tourism Sarawak, and Sarawak Bloggers. If you want me to do this again, I think I’ll fly the next time around hahaha… At least I’ve done this once, it’s enough for me, a once in a lifetime experience, won’t complain too much except it was exhausting! ;p

This year is Visit Malaysia Year and also Visit Sarawak Year. Why don’t we take this opportunity to discover our own state and own country. There’s a lot of hidden gems lying behind our own backyard. Hope you enjoyed this series of posts even though I didn’t really share much.

Going Places, Limbang

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

Posted on 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 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 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