Helicopter Crashed @ Sibu Town Square!

A helicopter was crashed at Sibu town square this afternoon around 1.50pm. This helicopter believed to be carrying Deputy Prime Minister's entourage from Bintangor to Sibu for election campaign events. 

Deputy Prime Minister himself was not on this chopper. Heard that he just disembarked from an earlier chopper and on his way to RH Hotel for a meeting with school teachers. There were 3 helicopters landed at that time carrying DPM and his entourage.

The crashed helicopter was the last to take off heading back to Sibu Airport for parking and somehow it crashed back to the ground. There were nobody in the helicopter at that time except the pilot. Heard the pilot was quite severely injured and was brought to Sibu General Hospital with ambulance. 

I took these photos around 6pm after I went back from work. At that time, the damaged helicopter body was still lying on the center of Sibu Town Square. It attracted quite a number of Sibu people to purposely go to the crash scene to shoot some photos for remembrance. After all this kind of accident is rarely seen especially in the center of town!

Policemen were there the seal the place and public are not allowed to go too near to the crashed scene.

Around 6.15pm, some authorities were seen started to cover the crashed chopper.

100Plus Go Kart Race Carnival @ Sibu Gateway

This is a carnival event organized by 100 Plus at Sibu Gateway from 18 - 19 March 2011. However, I believe the organizer had extended the program for one more day as the event was still on the move this morning when I passed by the place.

The carnival is called "Thirst For Adrenaline Only at 100Plus Go Kart Race". The main program is the mini go cart race where the participants will try to come out with the best lap time. The 3 fastest participants will win some special prizes. The important thing is - the participation is totally FREE! So, anyone can try their luck!

Besides the main go karting program, there were also other activities and games for general public to participate on. One of them is cart racing simulator which was flooded with people most of the time especially by kiddies.

The Velcro Gym is naughty kids' favorite where they can "stick-on-the-wall" with a special costume or jump as they like on the air filled platform.

Water Tag is another fun game where players will shoot the water-fill gun to the special made target for some purposes which I am unclear of.

The participants of the Go Kart will get a chance to pose in front of a Go Kart car with 2 show girls accompanied.

2 giant 100Plus mock can drinks could be seen from far to attract more attention and crowds to the event.

Too bad for some reason I didn't take part in any of these events. Just went there to do some observation and shot some photos to be shared in the blog where I had left for months without doing any updates.

Satay Mee @ Sri Aman

Years ago I introduced to you about Cha Kway, one of the very few local delicacy you can find in the town of Sri Aman. Recently I found another one which I believe worth to mention about. The food itself is quite common actually, but what make this food in a way special and unique is the gravy serving with it. The local Chinese called it "Satay Mee", i.e. noodles in satay sauce.

So, basically it is fried yellow noodles in Foochow style (stir fried noodles topping with gravy), but they made some modification to the gravy by adding peanuts into the cooking. This method gave the food with very nice peanuts aroma just like the taste of satay sauce (if you know how satay sauce taste like). That's where the name of the food came from.

You can opted the yellow noodles with Kway Teow, depends on individual preference, but for me they tasted equally nice! Sorry I didn't really note down the exact shops to eat these, but the noodles in the photo was taken at one of the stall at top floor of market building and the Kway Teow was at another coffee shop opposite the riverside. I shall be more detail next time!

Anyway, it is definitely a food that worth a try when you are in the small town of Sri Aman. So far I only found such cooking variation in this town, but feel free to argue if you have try it at another part of the state. One plate of the food is about RM3.50 - RM4.00, not that cheap actually if the living standard is taken into consideration.

Taman Panorama Benak @ Sri Aman, Sarawak

Sri Aman - a small town and also the 2nd administrative division of Sarawak which I left part of my childhood there. I have a very special love towards the town, but I would leave that for another day's story. Although it is called the 2nd administrative division after Kuching, but this small town is pretty under-developed for some political reason perhaps. No! I know what you are thinking! But the fact is that all these while Sri Aman was lead under a BN-based party! Then why it was left behind in term of infrastructure development? I believe this is something we should seriously ponder about!

Anyhow, this small town is blessed and been awarded with tidal bore phenomenon on its Batang Lupar river which is known as "Benak" locally. This natural phenomenon is hardly found in other part of the country hence it became an important tourism asset to the town. A festive called "Pesta Benak" (Tidal bore festival) has became a major annual event which had attracted plenty of tourists visiting the town during the festive season.

Following the overwhelmed response from the public, recently a special platform to view the natural phenomenon had been built on the river bank of Batang Lupar which is called "Taman Panorama Benak". This is one of the very rare infrastructure development you can see in Sri Aman town in the recent decade.

Anyway, this artistic looking park is a nice add-on in beautifying the town and it has further strengthen Sri Aman's position as "The town of Benak" in Sarawak.

 

[Kubu Alice or Alice Fort is on top of the hill]

Taman Panorama Benak is located opposite Sri Aman Resident Office or beside/under Alice Fort near the town center. Its strategic location at a higher ground has make it an ideal platform to view the Benak phenomenon with more lengthy distance.

If you happen to visit the "peaceful town" of Sri Aman, don't forget to stop by at this Taman Panorama Benak and if you are at the correct timing, you may witness what the Benak is all about!

Christmas Tree Decoration Contest 2010 @ Sibu Town Square

Christmas is just around the corner. As usual this is the time Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) organized its annual event - the Christmas Tree Decoration Contest 2010 in conjunction with this festival.

This is the 4th consecutive year the same kind of competition been held in front of Sibu Town Square Phase 1. Total of 12 participants taking part in the event, but this year saw a bit diffrence where the participants were from Non-government organizations (NGOs) instead of government bodies and local corporates in the previous years.

These NGOs include Lion Clubs from different division which form the majority, Junior Chamber International (JCIs), and Mdm. Loi's English Classroom, which is one of the local English tuition center.

Among the entries, the one caught my attention most is the artwork produced by JCI Mandarin Sibu which titled "The Eucharist - Sibu Kampua Mee". Yes! The design of the Christmas tree was to resemble one of the most iconic local delicacy for Sibu that is the Kampua noodles. I don't know how the person came out with this idea relates "the noodles" with "the Christmas tree", but I guess this is where creativity plays its part.

Another Christmas tree which I found more appealing was the one by Mdm. Loi's English Classroom. The puzzle-like Xmas tree was form by a series of alphabetic characters where some meaningful wordings/phrases were hidden inside them. These wordings/phrases were then been highlighted with various color, just like a huge "find-the-word" puzzle game. The Xmas tree was further decorated with few reindeer and 2 big hairy camels. I believe this is the most favorite Xmas tree especially to the kids!

For the "most recycled Christmas Tree", it is a co-winning. The Christmas tree by JCI Seduan was entirely built using mineral water's bottles, whereas Lions Club of Seduan built theirs using Henieken beer's cans. The former looks nicer at night under the LED lighting while the latter more presentable during day light.

The most artistic and elegance Christmas tree in my opinion would go to JCI Sibu. Made using dry sticks with brownish tones, their Christmas tree was decorated with "flowers" made by plastic bottles sprayed in striking blue color tones. These "flowers" were outstanding and eye-catchy from far. The heart-shape pinky wish cards hung on the Christmas tree gave additional color to it and I personally like and feel comfortable on the combination of color used.

Other products were just average. Anyway congratulation and well done on their hard works! They deserved some applause for this!

[Lions Club of Sungai Merah]

[Lions Club of Sibu Central]

[Lions Club of Sibu Pahlawan]

[Lions Club of Sibu Jaya]

[Lions Club of Sibu Berjaya]

[Lions Club of Sibu Mandarin]

[Lions Club of Sibu City]

For more photo, please visit Just Sharing photo album @ Facebook.

Here are how the Xmas trees are judged:

Creativity: 30%
Aesthetics: 40% (20% for day and night view respectively)
'Wow' factor (first impression): 10% 
Durability and sustainability: 20%