Say GoodBye to RV Orient Pandaw

I guess most of the local may already know that RV Orient Pandaw, the only river cruise in the country sailing up the mighty Rejang River had already ceased their operation starting April this year.

The cruise started its operation since 1st July 2009 disembark its passengers near the dock at Jalan Khoo Peng Loong, Sibu and was once been believed could bring positive growth to the tourism industry in this region. Just Sharing had briefly reviewed about it before the cruise started its maiden voyage.

However, after about two and a half year's operation, the company announced the cessation of its operation in Borneo through one of its official newsletter titled "Last Chance to Join a River Expedition in Borneo!". There are no clear reason been explained, but as written in the newsletter dated 24th November 2011, "The logistical and operational difficulties of working in so tough an environment have make the project commercially unsuccessful."

But as cited from a report by The Star dated March 21, 2012:

"Sources familiar with the cruise earlier said costs to operate RV Orient Pandaw were 60-70% higher than those in Myanmar, Vietnam or Cambodia. 

The same sources also claimed that a longhouse here would charge up to RM3,000 for a three-hour programme, which included cultural performances, sampling of traditional food and rice wine as well as photo-taking session. 

In comparison, tourists are free to visit villages along the cruise’s routes in Indo-China."

(Source: After its final Rajang tour, RV Orient Pandaw will be deported to Myanmar, The Star)

"It is also understood that the busy Rajang River also poses a number of challenges for the cruise boat as it is particularly risky to sail at night or in early morning when visibility is poor due to heavy mist, and also when the river is strewn with floating wood debris.", reported by Philip Hii from The Star in the same article.

I am not sure how deep is the impact resulted from the cessation to the tourism industry in central region of Sarawak, but I believe more or less the industry will be affected and Sibu as well as the small towns at upstream such as Kapit and Kanowit will be at the losing end.

The steamship is now still berthing at the dock near Jalan Khoo Peng Loong and waiting to be sent back to Myanmar. The body had been covered up with canvas to prevent direct sunlight damage to the wooden surface.

Related articles:
1. After its final Rajang tour, RV Orient Pandaw will be deported to Myanmar
2. Cruising into the sunset
3. Last Chance to Join a River Exepdition in Borneo!

Kampua @ Sing Hin Corner

"Kampua" and "Sibu" are 2 terms that are so synonymous. You can get this local specialty at almost every kopitiam you sit in. From breakfast to supper, Sibu people just can't live without it.

There are plenty of low profile coffee shops a.k.a. kopitiam in Sibu who serve very nice Kampua, yet not many people actually talking about and only those patronage aware of them. Among one of this kind of kopitiam is this one named "Sing Hin Corner" located same row as Li Hua Hotel Sibu at Lorong 2, Jalan Lanang.

This Kampua stall is operated by the young man who had started the business for approaching/more than one and a half decade. His style wearing toque at all time when doing his job and preparing foods makes him look like a chef. Besides look pro, it is also for hygiene purpose.

A lot of customers visiting the stall are patrons who had fall in love with his Kampua thus visiting it repeatedly. The shop is always crowded during weekend, so if you wish to visit it on weekend for breakfast, you may need to wait for a longer time before the favorable Kampua will be served on your table. Anyway, the "chef" is very skillful, so the waiting time is relatively short even during peak hours.

I believe one of the reason why his Kampua get its own group of fans is because the noodles is just nicely cooked and not gluey. The ingredients used to produce a plate of Kampua, such as the lard, soya sauce and oil are in the perfect or if not perfect they're in just right ratio. When you slurp the Kampua into your mouth, you can taste the very nice "oink oink" aroma which may make you want to go back to the same place craving for it!

... and this is a more traditional look of a plate of Kampua if compare to the one I reviewed in my previous post served in Rasa Sayang Cafe which is more Kuching Kolok Mee alike. 

There are few version of Kampua you can order from. The most original "white" version, Kampua with black soya sauce (with or without chilli sauce) or you can request for flat version of the noodles. Any of the variation will cost RM2.30 per plate. 

Besides Kampua which is the main attraction dish for the kopitiam, you can also tried the mixed soup at the same stall as it is equally delicious! The soup consists of ingredient such as pork liver, beef tripe, meat balls, fish balls, some deep fried bean curd and green vege and it is very tasty with some Chinese traditional red wine added to it! It is RM2.50 for a regular bowl and RM 4.00 for a big bowl.

There are other choices of foods you may try here such as the Lo Mee, Foochow string noodles with chicken soup, Laksa and so on.

The kopitiam operates as early as 6am every morning, but will be closed in the afternoon hours around 2-6pm then will be opened again from 6pm until around 11pm. 

Looking for authentic Kampua in Sibu? Highly recommend this kopitiam!

Kampua @ Rasa Sayang Cafe

Kampua Mee or Foochow called it "Kam-muang" is one of the most famous local delicacy of Sibu until certain extend that Sibu people cannot live without it, seriously! Almost every kopitiam in Sibu will have a stall serving this noodles because that likely will attract more customers visiting the shop and thus boost the business.

If you ask me what is so special about this so called "Kampua"? I would say nothing special really. It is just boiled noodles mixed with sufficient amount of soya sauce, fried onion oil, Ajinomoto and the most important - the porky lard which provide the unique and irresistible aroma to the dish. The noodles then will be topped with pork and fried or/and green onion.

Different people will have their choice of "the best" Kampua served in Sibu. I don't really have a solid opinion on which is the best, but I'm more to recommendation. One of the kopitiam that serves a bowl of nice Kampua that I'll recommend is this shop with a very unique name "Rasa Sayang Cafe" located at Jalan Pahlawan, somewhere near the current Sibu bus terminal.

The place is always crowded with patrons especially during weekend morning craving for their Kampua. I guess one of the reason this kopitiam is so famous is because the kampua here has a very nice porky aroma which just meet the taste buds of Sibu people. Furthermore, the noodles are nicely cooked, not over boiled and remain certain degree of chewiness. All these are the keys to make a plate of good Kampua.

The price is very reasonable too. With the air-cond environment inside the shop, a bowl of Kampua costs RM2.50, just about 20 cents more expensive than the typical non air-cond kopitiam.

I had been there for couple of times, no doubt the Kampua is very tasty! You'll feel of returning after tasted once. However, I personally feel sometimes the Kampua is a bit too oily. This is the thing that may need some improvement.

The Kampua served here is topped with minced pork which look closer to Kolok Mee in Kuching. The typical Kampua normally will just have sliced pork and some fried/green onion topping the noodles. I'll to post  the more typical look of Kampua in my future post hopefully.

Besides Kampua, they also sell Sarawak Laksa and beef noodles. I haven't taste the laksa yet, but tried the beef noodles once. Not too bad, the broth is tasty but lil spicy. It was served with some green vege, red carrot, boiled egg and also quite a few chunk of braised beef. I like the braised beef as they're soft and easy to chew. RM4.00 a bowl. Worth the money!

1st Visit to Zoo Bee Cafe & 1Malaysia Cultural Village

Zoo Bee Cafe / Restaurant is one of the latest established eatery in Sibu located at Bukit Aup, just opposite Taman Jubli Bukit Aup, Sibu. The place is operated by Zoo Bee Enterprise Sdn Bhd, a local corporation.

Being to the place recently with Rojak Toh, Sparkish and Coolface just to feel the new place and taste the foods besides having some "guys talk". The eatery is basically an open air food court style where variety of cuisines, either eastern or western are available for orders. I heard there is a section which is fully air-cond, yet we didn't notice it on our first visit.

Foods' price in the cafe are pretty reasonable and at typical Sibu standard. However, I personally feel the waiting time for the food to be served ought to be cut down.

I had ordered a cup of ABC for RM 2.50. The price sounds very reasonable, but tasted not acceptable. What I got is just the over-sweet solutions with evaporated milk taste almost equal to zero! It was a big disappointment for me as well as my other friends!

We tried out some foods, just some simple foods. I had ordered Fried Mee Sua (Chinese string noodles) as this cuisine more hardly found on the market. RM 3.50 per plate is a very reasonable price and it tastes good too!

Sparkish ordered "Moonlight Char Kway Tiaw", Coolface tried out fried noodles topping with special minced meat source while Rojak Toh opted for fried vermicelli in Singapore style. All these foods are ranged at RM 3.50 - RM 4.00. Not much complain on the taste, they are as well very big portion, the only thing is some of these foods are just too oily! See the photo below and judge yourself!

We also tried the mix vege surrounded by deep fried mashed yam in medium size (RM 8) and also potato wedges (RM 5).

I personally like the wedges as they are not oily, just nicely fried with crunchy on the outer layer and soft inside. The mix vege tastes normal and didn't have much surprise.

There are also several Sarawak ethnics' cuisine which are available to be ordered such as Ayam Pansuh (chicken cooked in bamboo), a very famous Iban cuisine and also Umai (fish eaten raw, either marinated or with special sauce) which is Melanau ethnic's specialty!

After the eating and laughter, we then visited the so called "One Malaysia Cultural Village" just beside the eatery's premise and both are actually operated by the same owner. Our Prime Minister initially promised to attend the opening ceremony of this "cultural village" TWICE, but he somehow cancelled both the appointment at the very last minute for some unclear reasons.

Nothing much on this so called "cultural village" really. What I could see is just few nicely decorated pavilions represent different ethnic's culture and gorgeous landscaping design. Only portion of the place is opened for visiting at the night time. There is also a section specially built as mini botanical garden, but hide in the dark during our visit.

My advice is visit the place during daylight if you intended to see what is this "One Malaysia Cultural Village" is all about! For me, this name is a way too grand since it doesn't have too many cultural elements to be visited besides the pavilions with some cultural decoration touch up. A "Cultural Garden" would be more appropriate name in my opinion.

Anyhow, Sibu people has now a new leisure venue to go!

My Linsanity!

I guess most of you by now should have heard or at least come across the term "Linsanity"! It is a term given to a Havard boy, American born Chinese named Jeremy Lin who had been signed by New York Knicks initially as a bench warmer, but then had been given a chance to play at starting lineup following injuries by team's big name, such as Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudamire.

Lin then showed his talent and skills to the world as the team's point guard by scoring 25 points in his debut versus New Jersey Nets. His high performance doesn't just stop there, but he continued to bring the team to seven straight games victory! As a rookie, his outstanding performance was something unexpected. Since then, the name of Jeremy Lin had been spread widely and some of those never pay attention to NBA sports have now did so because of him! The impact brought by him to the NBA sports as well as the economy is something undeniable!

So, here is my version of Linsanity through the game NBA 2K12, my most favorite game! With latest rosters patch applied, I'm able to use Lin on New York Knicks starting lineup! With the overall skill points of 75 (of 100), Lin is not a super good player to use but with my believe of the power of Linsanity, he had became my primary player to dribble and score points for the team! (sorry to Melo and Stoudamire for been neglected! ;p )

[Lin's layout shot!]

[Lin's alley-oop pass to Carmelo Anthony!]

In my last night match, my Jeremy Lin had lead the team to win over Miami Heat, where Lin scored a buzzer beater to bring the team towards the victory!! My Linsanity!!

[The buzzer beater shot!]

[Lin's slam!!]

[Lin blocked Mario Chalmers's shot!]

[Lin passed the ball to Steve Novak for a 3-point shot!]

 [Lin's performance over the Miami Heat!]

Extension of Sibu Airport - The West Wing

It has been a while since my last post on this blog. I should truly feel shamed of myself especially when sometimes I shouted I'm "a blogger" in front of my friends yet I have abandoned my primary blog for such long!

Being lazy is one thing. Another thing is nothing new in my life to share about. Anyway I am back! I finally found something to share with all my readers! It is not something new, perhaps a lot of you may already saw and used it. What can it be then?

It's actually about the extension of Sibu Airport. Told you it is nothing new. Just that recently I had go and fro Sibu airport for few rounds, so I have the chance to take some photos on part of the completed structure. Just in case you haven't see the place, here we go!

The west wing of the airport is the earliest section to be completed and it is now partially functional. It is used as the departure hall for flights check-in and luggage dropping area.

The new departure hall has plenty of spaces if compare to the old one. Now passengers or the airport users can have a more comfortable and cooler place to complete their check-in procedure. The place should actually fully air-conditioned, yet I believe as the construction is not fully completed, thus these air conds are also not fully functional too.

I couldn't feel the cold when I was inside, the standing air conditioners at the deepest end of the wall from the entrance seem didn't produce cold air but the normal wind. However, there are fans around to make the place less stuffy.

A restaurant and shop are available at the departure hall, yet with poor internal design. Couldn't it be better since the terminal building is such welly constructed?

There are total of 18 check-in counters compare to 8 before the expansion. Predicted this will reduce the jam during peak period provided that there are that many ground staff on duty!

At this moment of writing, the right wing of the terminal building already been opened to be used as the arrival hall with 2 luggage reclaim belts while the renovate and over haul works of the center part (the old terminal building) had just started few days ago.

Let us wait for the completion of the entire upgrading project of Sibu Airport which needs maybe a year to two.