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%

Lengendary Penang Char Kway Teow @ Lorong Selamat Penang

When talking about Penang Char Kway Teow (CKT), there are 2 very legendary stalls in Penang serving this. Well, maybe there are many but only these 2 so far make known to me. One is the Sisters Char Kway Teow at Jalan Macalister which I revealed in one of my previous post. Another one is a very controversial "Redhat auntie sometimes with goggle" CKT stall near Lorong Selamat which I'll elaborate in this post.

You can easily Google about the latter on the web. Then you will know why I said she is controversial. This auntie had make a big headline on the web as well as newspaper not only for her food, but also the "boycott campaign" launched on her on cyberspace for some reason!

[Picture taken from As Suanie Sees It]

I won't go deep into the boycotting issue, after all I am just a tourist and I got no reason to boycott a stall at a place of my visit who served one of the most authentic local delicacy, do I? Furthermore at the time of my visit, I don't even aware of this, so basically this is not an issue for me!

Despite facing some time constraint, my friends and I had tried our best to try out the CKT at this stall because we found it so legendary. This CKT stall had existed around half a century ago although it was not at the current location, but just few steps away. At those time there was no seating, no shelter, but Penangites as well as the tourists just didn't mind to queue under the hot sun for her CKT.

Now the stall is still at the roadside of Lorong Selamat, but in front of Kafe Heng Huat. So patrons can order their foods and enjoy slowly inside the coffee shop. However, there is a "symbiosis rule" that the visitors need to obey. You can't just order the CKT only without any beverage from the shop. Otherwise you will be imposed a penalty of RM0.50 per table! It is written big and clear on the wall! You like it or not, you have to follow if you want to try the famous CKT, unless you don't mind to "tapao" or take away or you may feel that is reasonable.

With a big red chef/artist beret on her head while frying kway teow, it creates such an impressive and eye-catching identity to the auntie and yes sometimes she even wear a huge goggle but not at the time of our visit! That's the reason why I called her "Redhat auntie sometimes with goggle" earlier in this post.

I believe that there are always 2 extreme ways to shape an iconic and outstanding personality, either you are damn pretty or choose to be clownish. Obviously this auntie choose the latter and it was not a bad decision after all!

However, you can be plain pretty but not plain clownish to be a center of attention! You have to be skillful in your area of interest then clownish may become the complimentary to boost the reputation. In this Lorong Selamat CKT case, the redhat auntie won't get such a big name in the business if she didn't cook a good food. She won't earn so much of controversial if not because many people are craving for her CKT!

We ordered 3 plates of CKT from the stall and waited for quite some time before the CKT arrived. After tasted, it didn't disappoint me! *Ummmph!!!* If compare to the Sisters CKT at Jalan Macalister, no doubt this one pleased my taste buds more although both were equally oily. It has the smoky wok fragrance that a plate of quality CKT should have. It was tasty! Oh ya, I noticed that these CKT was fried using traditional charcoal stove which may explain why the CKT here has extra kick!

The 3 prawns topping the CKT were really fat, bouncy and juicy! If compare with Sisters' CKT, this was certainly a knockout winner! There was no shredded crab meat topping the dish, but Chinese sausage became the added ingredient which I found tastier. Despite too oily, I really enjoyed eating this plate of CKT! If not because my stomach was too full after eating for whole morning, I think I would go for 2nd plate.

The price is also an absolute WOW!! Each plate of the CKT we ordered cost RM7.00 (default order)! You can also go for RM6.50 or RM9.00 version, but I guess they are just differ in term of ingredient's quantity. Although it was a little expensive, but I think it worth as the food is delicious, the prawns are big and I won't have them frequently anyway. No doubt this is a must try hawker stall when you visit to Penang!

To avoid any penalty for not ordering drink, we ordered Ais Kacang and there is nothing fancy to shout about. Nothing special about it, just a normal Ais Kacang with a scoop of ice-cream on top of it.

For those who wish to try, here are some of the info:

Address: 108, Lorong Selamat, 10400 Pulau Pinang.
Business Hours: 11am - 6pm daily closed on Tuesday

Now Everyone Can Play!

Playing badminton on an international standard's court is no longer a dream for badminton enthusiasts of Sibu. Yes! "Now everyone can play" as long as you willing to pay!

Located at the top spot (Level 6) of Sibu 2nd multi storey carpark just beside/behind Sibu Central Market, there are 13 international standard courts to be rented. Many people even the local still not aware of it including me until I had been told of its existence recently.

This facilities is run by a company called "Thumb's Up Badminton Academy Sdn. Bhd." which I think is a local owned company (enlighten me if I am wrong on this). From the company's name itself, I believe that this is not just simply a company aiming in doing badminton courts renting business, but they will also focus on badminton sports and players development in the region. It is predicted that there will be more badminton clinics as well as major badminton tournaments been held in Sibu in the near future!

These courts are "international standard" because the floor is neither wood nor cement. They are using a technology called TARAFLEX flooring! TARAFLEX is the premier brand for indoor sports flooring solution which is widely recognized by most of the major sports federations in the world.

To explain the TARAFLEX in a less technical way, it is "rubber" kind of flooring. Thus it inherit the characteristic of rubber, which is elastic. Its elasticity is not spread around the entire area but only around the point of impact. Hence, besides giving the optimum performance to the athletes, it can also reduce the possibilities of getting injured, either by knocking, falling or diving or all kind of impact as it has the ability to adsorb energy from these impacts. So for those who love to "throw body", this is the most ideal flooring to do so without getting hurt!

Players also need not worry about slippery problem as faced when playing on conventional wood/cement flooring. TARAFLEX flooring gives tremendous grip to the shoes in dry condition until certain extend that I personally felt not quite used to it probably because all these while I was playing on a slippery wood flooring courts.

Apart from the flooring, the company also provided other necessary facilities for customers/players such as proper changing rooms, shower rooms with heater and wash rooms. Customers can also use the towel provided if want to take a bath after the game and according to a staff, this is free of charge!

 

 

Lockers are also available for those who wish to put their belongings at a safe place so that they feel secure thus can avoid any distraction while enjoying their games! These lockers are free to use!

Besides that, there is also an area selling all kind of badminton equipment such as rackets, shuttlecocks, stockings, shoes and so on. So, don't worry if you out of shuttlecocks or your shoes break apart while playing the games. You can always buy another one on the spot! See how convenient it is?

 

There is also an area reserved for gym! For the time being, this area is still pretty empty but I expect to see more equipment coming in to fill the area in the near future!

The rental price is not cheap, but reasonable and affordable. For weekend walk-in rental, it is RM15 per hour with time range from 9am to 7pm. On peak hours (7pm - 11pm), it is RM20/hour. Monthly rental fee is cheaper, range from RM330 - RM360 per month depends on selected time range. You will get even more discount if you go for yearly rental.

The courts are still pretty new and I believe they just started for business around November this year. So for those who want to try out the courts and facilities available, here are some of the information:

Thumb's Up Badminton Academy Sdn. Bhd.

Level 12, Top Floor,

Multistorey Carpark, Sibu Central Market,

96000 Sibu, Sarawak.

Tel:  019-828 2345 / 016-522 2345