olddog-samesame

DAY 1 – Touched down at Sibu Airport around 1:30PM. After a lunch of pian-pian hu (Sibu speciality rice pasta soup) and quick shower it was off to Bintulu. The road journey of 213km took about 3 hours. The winding trunk road with pot holes at long stretches was a challenging drive even during the day. The eyes have to be glued to the road at all time if you don’t want to wreck the car’s suspension or rupture a tire. Driving at night would truly be a nightmare unless you have perfect night vision. Thankfully we arrived at about 6:30PM which was already dark as the sun sets at around 6:00PM in East Malaysia. The Park City hotel is located at the estuary of the Bintulu River and next to the Water Front Park. Like most river in Sarawak, the river water is a dirty yellowish brown – quite similar to Miri’s popular teh-xi special . With rough sea and muddy river banks there is no idyllic beach to talk about. DAY 2 - Travelling along the new coastal road, the 200 odd km journey from Bintulu t...

Another road trip up North and another encounter with the traffic cops. I drove up and down at least 10 times last year and no problem. Nothing. Zip. 6 months down the line and suddenly I became a cop magnet. It seems like all their laser guns are trained and locked on me with GPS. At every turn and corner I am being flagged down. Is it the car? Are the celestial stars unfavourably aligned that cause my luck to change? Or are the cops getting more crafty and cunning. The road block on the N-S highway last Friday was at the same spot - before the Tapah R&R. I saw on coming cars flashing some 30-40km away and slowed down to the speed limit. Despite that I was flagged down. Cop: “Selamat pagi Tuan, tunjuk lesen.” Me: “Apa kesalahan?” Cop: “Melebehi had laju.” Me: “Mana ada. Berapa laju?” Cop: “125 km/jam.” Me: “Dekat mana?” Cop: “Slim River. Boleh minta gambar di Balai Polis Tapah.” (Cop starts writing summon……….) Me: “Summon kena bayar berapa?” Cop: “Sudah lama RM300.” Me: “Wah…mahal...