07-May-2024
Road trips are never quite as good when you're on the way home...
Still, we had two good last days, completing nine days of safe and fun travel. So I can't complain really.
Day 8. Monday.
The goal was Sri Aman. We left early, and stopped often:
1.
Selangau. Cup of tea. We learnt that plain iced tea here is not "teh O kosong peng", as it is pretty much everywhere else, but "teh O kosong ais". There are little souvenir snack items on sale, however, so we bought some kerupuk from Bintulu. Sure to be different from kerupuk from Kuching...
2.
Jakar again. We'd breakfasted early, so it was pretty much lunchtime for us by now. We'd intended to try the prawns for which this little town is famous. But we decided MYR 35 (for noodles with small prawns -- you can pay MYR 70+ for noodles with big prawns) was a bit much for a quick meal to be eaten on the run. So we opted for the Sarawak-style "fast food" instead. That's always good. Especially if you round it off with a tiny steamed bun stuffed with coconut from the place next door.
3.
Mid Layar. Officially, the Mid Layar Rest and Relaxation Commercial Centre. Most of it was closed last time. But it's gloriously back in action now, and it's a fun place to stop. There's music playing; it's light and airy; and teh O kosong peng is a concept. Also there are the toilets, which are famous for their decorations (and memorable, too, for the quantity of signs warning you not to put anything -- ANYTHING -- down the toilet except what you have personally produced). On sale here was serunding halia, a delicious condiment made with ginger, onions, and ikan bilis.
Classic road trip shot, with Mid Layar in the background
*_*_*
We reached Sri Aman (or Simanggang, as we should call it) in plenty of time for the "benak". This is the tidal bore that rips up the Batang Lupar every single day of the year.
Yes, every single day of the year. That's what you read everywhere; that's what we've told everyone.
Except today it didn't happen...
It's not that we missed it. We were there well before the direction of the river reversed, and the water started heading back upstream. And we can say for certain sure there was no benak...
Here's the work-in-progress that is the bridge
Here's a toad, getting out of the way of the changing tide
And this is the water. Unruffled. A bit of a bore, in fact...
Fortunately, the other thing you look forward to in Sri Aman WAS performing normally. That's Water Front Ice Cream, where you can buy delicious gula apong ice cream, topped with peanuts.
Classic ice cream parlour decor
Hot today... We definitely needed ice cream, after all that waiting around for the benak that wasn't.
We went home to regroup, and wandered out again later, when the sun had gone to bed:
The Theatre Inn, which looks as though it might have been a movie theatre once
*_*_*
Day 9. Tuesday. Aka Last Day; Going Home Day; Looking Foward to Doing it Again Day...
It was a beautiful morning in Sri Aman:
A couple of plops of rain, but nothing to worry about
Our objective today was the historic Rumah Sri Aman, where a peace agreement was signed, in 1974, between the Sarawak government and the North Kalimantan Communist Party (NKCP). It's a very fine building:
The previous two times we've been in Sri Aman, it wasn't possible to visit this place. But the restoration was completed last year, and it's now a very well-presented little museum:
There's information on local history during the period of the "White Rajahs" (I liked the focus on the rebellions, as exhibitions on the rule of these guys can sometimes be a bit anodyne):
But the bulk of the display concerns the conflict with the communist forces. Several operations were mounted by the government in the 1960s and 1970s. Decisive, however, was Operation Sri Aman in 1973. By this time the communists were isolated and exhausted, and 482 decided it was time to surrend. Negotiations for a peace agreement followed.
Minister Tun Muhammad Ghazali bin Shafie, and NKCP leader Bong Kee Chok
Anti-communist combatants
Intention to surrender
Signing the peace agreement. Bong Kee Chok and the Chief Minister of Sarawak, Abdul Rahman Yaakub
And after that it really was the road home...
We stopped for lunch in Serian (crazy-busy, as it always seems to be these days); we stopped for coffee at The Coffee Factory on the edge of town; and we stopped to shop at Green Heights.
Back at the condo, we shouldered our rucksacks, and as many of the shopping bags and odd receptacles as we could manage -- and then discovered that both lifts were temporarily out of action... Six flights up... We took it slowly (and fared much better than the lift-repairers, one of whom really struggled with the stairs). And luckily, the shopping trip had included a peanut bun from Breadsman (to compensate for the buns we missed out on in Kapit), so that was our reward for making it to the sixth floor under our own steam.
So... Another road trip over. Looking forward to the next bit of travel now.
The road home