Sibu sunset

The owners of the place I’m staying invited me to join them for breakfast. They picked me up and we drove into the city centre and went to one of the many food stalls in the central market. The stalls all sold Chinese or Malay dishes so that meant rice or noodles. No toast or eggs for breakfast today! I had noodles. After breakfast I walked around the city centre. It didn’t take long as the city is small and there’s not much to see! I went to a Chinese temple and to the museum which had some interesting information on the history of Borneo which I hadn’t seen anywhere else.


I spent the afternoon back at the homestay trying to decide where to go next. It was tricky and in the end I went for the easy option. Perhaps I’m not as intrepid a traveller as I was in my twenties! I was torn between taking a trip up the river from Sibu for two days (and potentially finding a guide to take me to an indigenous ‘longhouse’) followed by a jeep ride on a logging road, or taking the bus along the coast road which would take one day instead of a minimum of three. A big difference between travelling now and travelling in my twenties is the amount of information that’s available now. Before, I had the few practical notes in a guidebook and possibly some additional details from a tourist information centre or other travellers I met and it was mostly a case of go and see what happens. Now there are online reviews and blogs about everywhere. And by the time I’d read everything I was left with more doubts about going. There were warnings about just about every guide that had been named, people said the visits to the indigenous ‘longhouses’ were uncomfortable because the community didn’t seem to want them there (that’s always my worry about those kinds of visits having worked with indigenous communities in different countries, that it’s like a human zoo and the community doesn’t benefit from the tourist money only the tour company, guide or perhaps the chief of the community), and on the speed boats you either sat inside which was like a fridge and had no view, or up on the roof which was dangerous because of the speed and rapids on the river. The combination of these factors, and especially the second one, made me decide not to go. Instead I’ll get the bus to Miri and visit the nearby national parks.

I went to the waterfront for sunset.