A Short Trip to Tanjung Manis

10th April 2011, a sunny morning. It was still in the campaign period of Sarawak 10th State Election. Sparkish had suggested to take a drive to Tanjung Manis on that day. 4 participants - Sparkish as driver, CoolFace King as co-driver, Rojak Toh and me as followers.

Tanjung Manis is a new integrated port which will become the primary import and export gateway for central region of Sarawak. Before this the newly developed township can only reachable via water transport through the mighty Rajang River. One can take boat express from Sarikei to Tanjung Manis which would spend you about an hour's time. However recently the road connecting Sibu - Tanjung Manis is almost complete. The 87km route which includes passing through as many as 8 bridges will only need around one hour if travel by car.

We took our breakfast at Fong Hing Seafood House across Igan River before officially started our journey to Tanjung Manis. This is what I ordered, the claypot noodles which was very big in portion and it is RM4.50.

After the breakfast, we began our journey. As I mentioned earlier, this journey needed us to pass through 8 bridges, big and small! After about 20 minutes of drive, we reached the first bridge, which is also the most major bridge among them called the Lebaan Bridge.

Just in case you don't know, the 1.24km Lebaan Bridge is country's longest bridge across a river! "Unbelievable? Believe it!" This bridge actually had caused some controversy upon its completion as it disallowed ships 20 meters and above to pass through. Want to know more about this issue? Click here for my older post about it.

We stopped a while at the highest spot of the Lebaan Bridge to see the scenery around it. As at that time it was still in the campaigning period of Sarawak State election, we discovered that BN was doing some activities at a long house nearby.

We then continue our journey. We passed through bridges after bridges, I can only name few, Sg. Lengan, Loba Satubah, Sg. Loba Pulau and Batang Belawai. When we reached each bridge, we stopped the car at the roadside and took some photos.

Some of the bridges were still under construction, so road users are advised to use the facilities on their own risks.

After rounds and rounds of stop and drive, we finally reached Tanjung Manis new township. We stopped our car just beside Tanjung Manis wharf. The wharf itself is nice! As it was near to the sea, you can see the water is light green in color.

The wharf was roofed so for those who are waiting for boat, they have a good shelter from expose under the hot sun.

Of course it was also a good choice for fishing enthusiasts where they no need to worry about the burning heat directly hit their skin as they can get protection from the roof.

There were nothing much to explore here except enjoying the breeze from the sea. The day was burning hot, the lunch time was here and we were all hungry. Thus, time to eat!!

Not much choice of foods around really. Only one stall was on business near the wharf area. We took a sit and it took ages for the eatery worker to entertain us. About the foods, we all went for mixed rice. It was all self-service including taking the rice! Yes! Take the rice yourself! Then, scoop the dishes you like and pay the money!

The standard price for the mixed rice was RM5.50! Expensive? YES!!! Especially when it was not delicious!! The curry chicken taste ok, but the livers were as hard as rubber and the mixed vege was like never cooked!!

There was a souvenir shop beside the eatery, but for me, nothing worth to buy.

 
There were actually few shoplots near the new township, but because of Sunday, most of the shop were closed so we didn't explore it further.

There was it! The 1/2 day Tanjung Manis trip! After the lunch and fooling around, we then headed back to Sibu. Nothing much on the visiting itself, just went to look at the place that we never being there before but overall, I enjoy the trip a lot as I spent quality time updating with friends and sharing some life experience together! Thanks Sparkish for the free ride again!!