05-May-2024
Day 7.
I know I complain about walking in Kuching (slippery pavements, horrible road junctions, and DOGS), but actually I think our city is the most pedestrian-friendly in Sarawak.
We've had trouble walking in Bintulu before, and I think it has got worse. This morning, for example, progress was checked by a massive series of barriers, effectively stopping us continuing our route.
To be fair, the impediments are mostly due to the bridge construction, which takes up a truly massive area, so once this famous bridge is completed, things should get better. (Still, you'd have thought, given how many years it has taken, that it wouldn't be beyond the wit of man to figure out some way for pedestrians to circumvent this big obstruction.)
Anyway, having skidded to a halt on our first route because of said barriers, we completed our walking regime with a series of mini-routes.
First up, another lap of the old airfield, which is now a park:
Next, out to Tanjung Batu beach. We hadn't been here since the 2020 trip. It's always fresh and breezy, and there's generally plenty to watch out at sea:
But there was a good bit of "new" out there too:
There was a lovely atmosphere out there today. A family was busy barbecuing under the bridge; a group of Islamic students were individually doing their Quran recitations, creating a soft little buzz; and further along a team of traditionally dressed dancers and musicians were practising for something, their sape and gamelan music wafting round the area very beautifully.
The foot-slogging was punctuated by a final (final, oh no...) visit to The Coffee Code, where we met this gorgeous little guy, who slept the entire time we were there:
Our last bit of walking took us back to the mall, to buy food for tea...
So, it's the last evening. And tomorrow will be an early start, as we begin the homeward journey. We'll be heading for Sri Aman for an interim stop, and are scheduled to arrive home on Tuesday.
As always when you're on a road trip, you wonder why you're not going further... Why didn't we push on up to Miri...? But that's not what we decided when we did the planning, so tomorrow we'll be heading back west.
Bintulu is always a relaxing pit stop, partly because we unfailingly stay at the Jinhold Apartment Hotel, and it's really comfortable. We cook for ourselves, which saves carbs (adventures at The Coffee Code notwithstanding); there's plenty of space to catch up on things that have fallen behind because of the previous travel days; and there's that super-useful washing machine... It's also really handy having the mall and the supermarket very close by. And, as an added bonus, the caller at the nearby mosque is just wonderful, and his lovely, resonant voice punctuates the day perfectly.
I hope we'll be back. Heavens, we have to do Similajau sometime... Maybe it will be third time lucky...