09.32 We’ve slowly woken up here in Sibu. I guess today will be a lazy day. I’ve just tasted my sponge cake, not a thrilling taste.

10.28 It is time to go out and see more of our hometown. It is with doubt we leave the room. Days with this date have brought us some unpleasant surprises during the years (2001, 2002, 2005). No, let´s forget about that and get outside.

Lots of motorbikes outside the market in Sibu.

12.11 We left our room and went out in the sun with a smile on our faces. Pretty soon we went down to the river and into the river we looked. After that we aimed at the centre and the town huge market. Here we saw fresh fruit, vegetables and hen. Yes hen. Living hen and roosters, packaged with strings and paper. Just their heads and legs unwrapped. The next step was to find a café with pastries. All we found was just places only serving coffee. Instead we took aim for fluids and we found postcards in the store Ha ha (Was that supposed to be funny?) We bought some postcards and found sodas in the store Daesim mart s/b. They put a sticker on the stuff you had bought, a sticker saying ”Paid”. Now we have a bench rest and I write this. The "Ha ha-store" was run by three girls in the ages of 10-14. Here the young ones are responsible. One of them greeted us so polite with "Welcome to Sarawak!".

13.09 We went to the post office. After some searching we found the machine for queue notes. As my number came up I went to cashier 5. The man there showed me to another cashier and I bought stamps. This made us go back to the room and here we are now. Well the heat also played an important part in our decision to return home.

River Park Hotel, Sibu

14.34 In the struggle between rest or eat, eat has taken control. We just went outside to find a place to have lunch.

15.07 Today we will have lunch at Sugarbun. Not the same as yesterday. This one neighbours last evenings dinner place. Chicken curry for Christer and fried pieces of chicken for me. I don’t know about Christer but I am going to order coffee.

16.09 We are once again viewing the river. We have since the last time been effective. Christer has bought two shirts of the brand "Silver Snail", we have been and mailed our postcards, asked at the tourist information about the bus departure times and I have bought a cooking book. This one is about Malay cooking.

17.04 Before we got back to the room we bought some food for tomorrow. Now we just take it cool and wonder about dinner. Where will we eat it and what will we eat?

Another Sibu swan.

19.57 I guess that this is vacation. We are watching TV. They show some comedies from Singapore. ”Tiramisu” and ”Three rooms”. They are amusing here and now, but would I have watched them back home?

20.18 Today's place for dinner is interesting. By a table in one corner there are some gentlemen armed with a hammer. Another table has a revolving disk that the company spins around and get food from. We have ordered sweet and sour pork. The waiter wrote down the order with Chinese signs. We are at ”Hai Bing Seafood”. The hammer gentlemen are eating crab, hence the hammer.

21.29 The food was delicious, although not a big portion. The cost for two portions sweet and sour pork, two portions rice, one Cola and one Tiger (the beer that is) was 14.90 ringgit. That is around $4 for both. Christer got away a little cheaper. The food cost about the same as the cover charge in Italy two years ago. After that we went to a store to buy a little to munch on. We heard some strange sounds on our way to the store. Outside the door into the store sat a cockatoo and screamed.

Friday 14th of July

08.44 Bedside sitting I am writing this when I eat my breakfast. Today is another travel day. Within the next two hours we will finish up here, check out and get us to the bus station.

10.24 It seems like some days everything runs smooth. We checked out, walked the couple of hundred metres to the taxis, went to the bus station and immediately were able to board the bus to Bintulu. The bus company’s name is Freesia Express SDN BHD, the bus number is 6611 and the seats are 15 and 16. We are sitting next to the emergency exit and have plenty of leg space.

11.29 We are bumping through a hilly, tree covered landscape. Some of the hills consist of sand, how did it get there?

11.49 The bumping has ended and we are standing still by Restoran Impian Selangau in Selangau. Here I stretched my legs and am about to eat some lunch I brought with me, bread and soft drinks.

13.20 On the right side a huge pillar of white brown smoke is rising from the forest.

13.39 Highway, a meeting taxi, more houses and light posts something is coming up. Maybe Bintulu?

14.03 It was Bintulu. Now we are riding a taxi to our next home. Will they have room for us at the first hotel?

View from our room in Bintulu.

Something big is being transported on the river.

14.21 We were welcome at the first place. Our new home is room 301 at hotel Riverfront Inn. We got a double bed each and a view over the Kemena River through a gigantic window.

15.41 We turned off the TV and went out. We’ve walked along the river and turned to see the city. A taxi driver was eager to give us a ride today and tomorrow, we politely said no. We also took some pictures of the Chinese temple. Now we are sitting in one fountain and watch another. One of them is switched off. Guess which one? Hey it is hot today as well! When the sky is blue on Borneo, it is no child play.

The chinese temple in Bintulu.

In one fountain looking on another.

Jalan Masjid, the main street in Bintulu.

16.26 We searched for a place to have lunch and found it. They were closed (for lunch). Our journey took us a store where we bought sodas. Tired and tarred down of the heat we went back home. Just as we were about to enter the lift it closed the doors with Christer in between. He got out and the lift left. Soon it came back. As we had entered it together with some local guys the lift sounded the alarm for overweight. The limit was, according to the sign, 9 persons or 600 kilo. Was it all our sweat that took us over the limit?

The clock tower in Bintulu reminds us of the first legislative council in the state of Sarawak.

18.19 We decided to go outside again. After a while we reached the Ban Kee Café and one of the waitresses invited us there. Now we are sitting in their outdoor area with coffee in glasses. We also ordered fried noodles (mee).

18.56 Noodles with pork and a tasty sauce and a large glass of coffee, all this at the price of $1. After that we bought crackers and soda for tomorrows bus ride. This was bought at Lik Kong Drug Store. During our search for food we saw no less then three Chinese gentlemen in the same street that wore similar shirts. The Mafia or big sale on shirts?

Christer eating noodles (mee) with coffee.

20.20 We are laying down looking through the menu of the hotel restaurant. What will we choose tonight, beef, pork or chicken? Well I guess we know about that soon. We found the menu in a drawer. Next to it was a copy of the Quran. In the other drawer we found a Bible.

21.39 Christer choose Kari ayam, Malay curry chicken. I ordered Indonesian fried rice, rice, chicken shish kebab with peanut sauce and a fried egg. Around us by the other tables were all kinds of people, families, couples, gangs of guys, two smoking guys who sat under the no smoking sign and a lonely man who had two cell phones. For short a colourful bunch. Our waiter had a masculine voice with feminine ways to move and look. I wonder what will happen during the breakfast tomorrow?

23.32 We are watching CNN:s rapport of the crisis in the Middle East. Now Christer has found a phone book and just realised that four pages are reserved for people called Ng. Here the first name is used to bring order in the phone book. But doesn’t the Chinese put the last name first, or how was it? Time to sleep.

Saturday 15th of July

08.16 I´ve got air from the air conditioner in my back and I see the river outside the window. Within the next hours there will be breakfast in the hotel restaurant and after that the final packing and a taxi ride back to the buses. One of them will take us to Miri.

09.25 We are covering the news from the Middle East on CNN and BBC. Enough of news. It is time for breakfast.

Houses by the river in Bintulu.

10.24 After a large breakfast each, the time has come to prepare for another journey. Next we will find our way out and to a taxi. The morning’s waiter had masculine looks and a feminine voice. It feels like the staff have been picked among homosexuals.

Parking lots with numbers, a common sight in Malaysia.

11.06 There were no problems checking out, go by taxi or buy a ticket. Now we are sitting on bus number 644 and seats 13 and 14. It is nice and cool in the bus.

11.50 It is a bumpy ride today as well. But not as much as yesterday. It is approximately 171 km left to Miri. The family behind us are eating durian fruit and they share the smell. The landscape around us is almost untouched. No sign of human influence.

12.06 The final destination is getting closer. Here and there are houses, built on stilts. The house builders are using the technique that was used to the classic long houses. They want to get the houses up from the ground in case of huge amounts of rain. During time of no rain the area under the house is used as a garage.

A break in Batu Niah.

12.54 The destination isn’t coming closer any more. Our bus from the company Borneo Bus has stopped for a break. We are in Batu Niah. The man in front of me is pealing an ear of maize. Outside the bus some birds are eating some kind of fruit ( maybe dabai) that is loaded on a lorry. The family I mentioned earlier has bought more durian. They look happy. We are not as pleased. Now we have to pit up with the smell for lots of kilometres.

14.10 We got 30 km left tot travel. The bus slowly moves up a hill. Is it due to heavy load? Now it seem to go better, that’s good! Another thing that’s good is the fact that the durian family is about to get out. As soon as we stopped that is.

14.38 Just as we entered Miri we stopped for fuel (diesel). The price for 1-litre diesel is 40 cents.

14.54 We just left the city again. Around us in the fields some people are burning the land. They are burning grass, bushes and stuff that grow there to able to plant things. In the middle of this is a golf course. Is this a road around the city?

15.19 We reached the bus station and changed vehicle to a taxi. Now we are at The Highlands hostel in Miri. Now it is time to shower before we do something else.

The author of this journal at work in Miri.

16.29 Something else is done. We went out on the streets and squares of Miri. Right now we are not sitting on a bench. It is rather some kind of small supporting wall. There are few open restaurants. Even the 24-hour store seems closed. I am hungry.

16.37 We’ve just sat down at table 22 at Ming Café. We have ordered chicken schnitzel and lamb chops. Not very Asian but most of all food. In the loud speakers we can hear an instrumental version of ”Wind of change”. Scorpions for the second time in a short while.

Miri

18.14 Fruit juice for 3 ringgit each. 14 ringgit for my two grilled lamb chops and 11 ringgit for Christer’s huge schnitzel. Both meals with fries and vegetables. A large mug of coffee for 1 ringgit. You be judge about the price. After this we strolled in and out of a mall and ended our strolling at Sin Liang Supermarket. Here we bought sodas and a fruit each. I bought a dragon fruit and Christer bought a terong masam. I haven’t got the slightest idea how to eat them. But I hope we will figure it out.

19.43 We are trying the hostel´s instant coffee. Strong, hot and not bad at all. On the sill stands Christer's travel radio trying to remain in one station. Through the window we can see a small river.

20.18 The time has come to get out on the town again. We’ve been listening to a radio program where people call and sing along to the music that is being played. It is all but good and the music is a nagging melody with a drum. I might add that it seemed to be toothless people above 70 that called in and sang. As a little practical joke we phoned our friend Roberth back home in Sweden and played the radio show on his cell phone.

22.22 Back in the room after a short stop at an Internet café for updating about news from home and abroad. We hear music from the pub down on the corner. Soon we will eat some fruits.

Fruitparty at Highlands Hostel.

23.04 The fruits have been tasted. The dragon fruit looked cool but had a plain taste. Terong masam was uneatable. It had a rock hard centre. The pieces we broke loose tasted like kart. The reason why we call it uneatable is easy it was barely impossible to eat it. Besides this it might taste great. We guess that it wasn’t ripe enough to be eaten.

Sunday 16th of July

09.07 On the river, well creek outside the window a narrow boat with an inboard motor just passed. In the distance I can see something that seem to be a beach. I just came from the shower, a small room with all you can ask for in a shower. Soon breakfast, perhaps.

A boat travelling by our window.

09.33 As I was having my first cup of coffee Christer took a picture of a boat that passed outside. We are about to go out and see more of Miri, a very modern and fresh city, built up on oil money.

11.27 With smiles on our faces we went to the bus station and the tourist information. On the way there we saw a Chinese temple. The tourist information didn't bring us much. It didn't even bring us inside, it was closed. We turned back and started to sweat dramatically. Now we fled into a small restaurant. As we got inside we were shown to an air-conditioned room. A guy just turned up the airflow. I have ordered fried noodles and Christer went for Kway Teow, big rice noodles. We are sitting by table 19 at the restaurant De Vogue.

The fish market and the chinese temple in Miri.

Traffic in the tropics, Miri.

11.45 No more hunger, just happiness. While we had our lunch we made up plans for the future. How shall we get to Brunei tomorrow? We can fly there. Perhaps it is possible to buy a ticket over the net? We have to see about that. Yesterday evenings Internet café ”My cyber café” might have the answer.

12.01 We are back at My cyber café. We are checking flight schedules, seats and also about the fruits we were eating yesterday. What are they called in Sweden? Did we eat them the right way; were they ripe enough or what? This is exciting.

13.04 No luck with any of the projects. We didn't find any fruit explanations neither any flights that suited us. Now we reached other parts of the city. Photos have been taken of the At-Taqwa mosque and now we are in the islamic part of the park Miri City fan.

Peter in the islamic part of the park Miri City Fan.

Miri City Fan.

Amphitheatre, Miri City Fan.

13.15 A few steps later and I am sitting by a small pond in a Chinese park. Here there are a portal, bridges and two sea horses. Everything is made out of stone. Lots of big fish in the water here.

13.49 We’ve retired back into the room. With us we have brought something to drink. Now we will power up before we check about a nearby beach. We have a crave for swimming.

The sign shows us where Peter is walking.

14.41 Soon we will head out to find an area in the vicinity of the ocean. We have an intention to have ourselves a bath. Can we ask our hostess? She is by all means kind and sweet but she has a word speed that makes a cattle auctioneer from Texas seem slow. A bit hard to keep up with her and understand. We do get her catchy end "OK", but that’s it.

15.19 We gave up the attempts to find the nearby beach I saw this morning. It is way to far to go just to find out if we can swim there. Now we are at the bus station to find a bus that can take us to another beach.

15.33 This is it. We are on bus 13 bound for Bakam, we are going to Hawaii.

16.05 The kind driver stopped and pointed out that we reached our destination. The time has come to swim at Hawaii Beach.

Hawaii Beach in Bakam, close to Miri.

17.00 We went into the water and saw different animals, among them crabs, larger ones this time, some crayfish in shells, snails and small fish. Now we just have to find a bus that can take us back to Miri. This beach was also wonderful and here as on the others we visited hardly any people at all. We just saw a couple of them.

Christer on Hawaii Beach.

Quick crabs on the beach.

17.31 Before any bus stopped to pick us up a kind gentleman did it and now we are riding/hitchhiking with him. He claims there will not be any bus for hours. Each day a new challenge. We just have to see where this ends up, hopefully in Miri.

18.21 He took us to the bus station. We asked him about the price and he said 20 ringgit. We gave him 10 and we all seemed pleased. We did the right thing to hitchhike. The next bus had passed around 18.30. Now I had a shower and just sit down to dry.

19.37 We´ve just been and exchanged 21 Brunei dollars. They might come in handy tomorrow. Now we are back at restaurant De Vogue. This time by table 18. Christer has decided to try Singapore-style noodles and I choose the curry version.

20.57 It sure was a tasty curry. Hotter than July in so many ways. After we had paid 10.50 ringgit each we went on to buy evening and travel snack. Christer went up to the room but I decided to remain in the pub Wheels down on the corner. There I met Brian with his female company. They had travelled around in the world for thirteen months, what do you think of that? The trip had taken them to mention some through Russia, China and Thailand. Brian had plans to carry on to Africa, from Cape Town to Cairo. His idea didn't please his lady. As we parted he sent with me some samosa. They are pastries filled with vegetables. These and some newly bought fruits will be tried later. The fruits are bought at Sin Liang Supermarket.

22.09 Both my pumpkin and Christer's star fruit was far from tasty. The pumpkin was rock hard. The star fruit was partly juicy partly dry. Most likely not ripe enough. After that we tried Christer’s cupcakes and my Maltesers. All ripe and tasty. We also had some coffee and Brian’s samosas. They were delicious.

Monday 17th of July

07.10 Merry signals have been heard from the cell phone. We have woken up and stay awake. Today it is time to get to the next country, Brunei by bus, ferry and maybe something else. But first we will have breakfast.

07.55 We once again tried what the place has to offer as it comes to breakfast. Toast, marmalade, juice and coffee. A simple start but nothing to stand on during a whole day of travel. It is time to stroll to the bus station to get a ticket to Brunei and after that some noodles to eat. The trip to Brunei includes several changes of buses and at least one ferry.

08.36 There will be no noodles, there will be no bus and not any ferry. There will be taxi straight to Bandar Seri Begawan. We got a great offer on a direct trip. The driver will come around the Highlands at 09.00. He smiled as we mentioned our place. Ok the cheap place he said. While we were at the bus station we made a short stop at the open tourist information.

The hostel "Highlands" in Miri (http://www.borneojungles.com)

09.08 We are outside the hostel. The taxi isn’t. We hope it will be here soon. It is warm today. Better than in our cool room, pool room. Wait a minute our room didn't have a pool. What am I talking about? What has the warm day done to me?

09.34 Our host came out from the hostel and asked us what plans we had. We told him all about it and as he had heard the price we had been offered he said that 60 ringgit per person is too much. The average price is 50. He tried to phone someone. This project wasn’t any success. After that he said something and then "see you". Now we are waiting for him to return. We will ask him to call for a new taxi. It is way too warm to walk to the bus station where the taxis roam.

10.15 I popped back up to the hostel. The hostess there, the speedspeaker, promised to call for a taxi. She thought it would be a good idea to fetch Christer and the backpacks. Back up again she informed us that a taxi would be here around high noon. Now we will cool off and perhaps get ourselves something to drink before we get some food and make a new attempt to travel to Brunei.

10.38 We’ve left most of our belongings and the hostel behind us. We took aim for old trustworthy De Vogue. On the way there we found and stopped at Tasty Point. Here it is cool and shady. They also offer food and beer. We chose Kway Teow again. Now the food got here, yummy.

11.07 On our way back to the hostel we have made a stop at Jui Sean Bah Kut Teh. Here we will have some coffee. There is something at the bottom of the coffee glass it might be condensed cream. Outside the hostel is a taxi. Around it there are some people walking and standing. One of them is a lady we´ve seen at the hostel. She and the driver are waiting for someone, maybe us?

11.15 We drank our coffee and a babe symposium has entered the taxi. We also saw our host outside the hostel.

11.30 Ok, back on the third floor and The Highlands hostel. A new taxi is expected at 12.00. All we can do is hope.

11.43 There will be no taxi at 12.00. There will be a minibus right now. Now all we have to do is study and copy the other travellers as we reach the border.

12.11 We are travelling on a bumpy road through smoke from burning fields. It is nearly impossible to fill in the immigration card as the minibus keeps bouncing. I can hardly read what I wrote.

12.23 We’ve reached the Malaysian border control. Here I hope all will go great. Yeah we are rolling on. Now a guy in a uniform that stands in a black booth (customs) got a black plastic bag from our driver. The guy in the uniform smiled and said thank you.

12.26 We seem to have reached the border to Brunei. Will they accept our poor handwriting?

BRUNEI

12.32 Nema problema. How serious are they with those cards? Is it just a formality?

12.38 Right now we saw a monkey on the side of the road. Wild animals are fun.

The sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, maybe the most wealthy man on earth?

13.04 More monkeys, long tailed macaques have been spotted. We also saw oil towers. It is about 75 km left. News about the celebrations of the sultans 60th birthday has been heard on the radio and also news about killed Lebanese and one Canadian.

13.55 We made a short stop in the outskirts of the capital Bandar Seri Begawan. One of the ladies among the passengers, Jenny Lim according to a tag on her bag, has left us. The driver is looking at our map to understand where are hotel is situated. Another lady just sat down beside him. Is she there to read the map or keep him company?

Bandar Seri Begawan

14.38 We just checked in at Terrace Hotel in B.S.B. We are staying in room 419. We went in one lift and our backpacks and one of the porters went in the other. We had huge problems to unlock the door with the key card. The porter opened the door in no time. I think we didn't push in the card long enough. We have to practise. Now we will have some of the food that we planed to have on the trip. Good news, the room has a water boiler and instant coffee. The hotel was booked in advance, a necessity. There aren’t many cheap hotels in Brunei.

We´re getting reminded who is having his 60th birthday this year.

17.55 We’ve just sat down on an iron bench. Everywhere in town are flags and pictures of the sultan. He has as mentioned earlier just turned 60. This has been celebrated and there will be more celebrations. Well, we need cash. Next stop, an ATM.

18.15 No problems with withdrawing money. Now we’ve sat down opposite to the Omar Ali Saifuddien mosque. Nearby is a mall with bookstores.

18.47 The sun is setting. The mosque we just saw is bathing in green light. Beside this everything is silent and peaceful. Right now we´re receiving information about the town from a local young man. He recommends us to go on a jungle expedition as we get to Sabah in Malaysia.

Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque in Bandar Seri Begawan.

19.16 We’ve sat down at restaurant Hau Hua. I have ordered grilled pork with noodles and Christer chose Indian fried noodles.

20.55 It was delicious, tasty and not too spicy. Christer’s dish had sausage in it. Is sausage the Indian style? After that we began to stroll back home. Pretty soon we began to look for a store which sold soft drinks. No one was found. We went back, saw all the decorations and light arrangement to honour the sultan. We passed a market place but no drinks in sight. Back on the main road we met four wild dogs which just strolled around. After yet some walking we found a small shop. It was almost neighbouring Hau Hua. Now we’ve walked back home, seen a lonely barber sitting in his chair watching TV. We’ve also passed a store that sold fruit. Might be worth a visit.

23.14 We’ve written postcards, washed clothes and on the TV the sultan is reading something. His reading glasses were brought to him on a silver tray. By his side are two women. If the older one is his wife is the younger one the daughter? If she is the daughter, is she married, engaged or is she open for suggestions?