Sibu Trip 22–23 April 2017

It is actually a last minutes trip that Daddy made up his mind that, we should travel to Sibu and let the family have a look on the Sibu town, which was Daddy’s birth place or home town.

And, we have packed all our clothing the night before. It was an early flight, the first flight with Air Asia from Kuala Lumpur to Sibu.

It was a 2 hours flight. We actually done our check-in through online, thus it is no need for us to arrive at the KLIA2 early.

Our flight was on time and departed at 5:50am. We reached at Sibu Airport around 7:50am. It is considered pretty fast that we check-out, went to the car hire counter and got our rental car for a day at Sibu.

It is quite a distance from Sibu Airport to the Sibu town itself. We checked in the Kingwood Hotel, which is one of the oldest hotel in Sibu, and now, is upgraded to more rooms.

The hotel is strategic located at the river front, and with rooftop swimming pool, and other facilities.

Just we do not have the chance to swim as we only have 1 and a half day at Sibu to visit all the places that Daddy so eagerly to bring us to see, his childhood place.

After we put down our luggage, we just walked out from he hotel and looked for our breakfast.

The first place Daddy bring us is the Sibu Central Market Complex, where he had already fixed the appointment that he will be meeting up with his secondary school best friend – 杨必善.

必善 is Daddy’s best friend during secondary school, they have not seen each other for a long time. They were meeting each other if 必善 came to Kuala Lumpur for work wise.

This time is the first time Daddy introduced us to him. He is a famous reporter in Sibu especialize in the food and travel blog, besides he is an author of 7 books publications and he was 3 newspapers editors.

We have our breakfast and drinks together at the food court which is located upstairs of the Sibu Central Market.

Daddy helped Annabelle to order “Bian Niik” which is in Hock Chew.

It is a meat fillings in super thin Wontan-like skins, actually in KL we would call it Wonton.

Daddy ordered his favourite - “Kampua Mee” (dry noodle), also a Hock Chew delicacy.

“Kampua Mee” is Sibu’s signature dish, thin noodles tossed in pork lard and served with slices of roasted pork or minced pork balls, served either with or without a thin broth and accompanied with chilli sauce and soya sauce.

Every time Daddy go back to Kuching, he would definitely order for this noodles.

I ordered “糟菜粉乾” which is a rice noodle in a soup base using the Hock Chew traditional delicacy 糟菜.

糟菜 can be used in so many ways in traditional Hock Chew daily cooking. They use it almost for every dish.

Issac having the Hock Chew style fried noodle in thick gravy and it is tasty!

必善 introducing the Sibu town to me, as I am a foreigner in this land beside the river.

He is just like a walking dictionary about Sibu. He introduce me about the history of Sibu, the Chinese pioneers and the latest development, as I am not from Sibu. He asked us to pay a visit to the Sibu Heritage Centre later.

After our breakfast, we walked around the food court and looked for another of their schoolmates which is selling the “Kong Pia” or 光饼.

“Kong Pia” is another Sibu delicacy and it is similar like to the bagel. Roasted tandoori style, these fresh bread rolls are served in a variety of ways. We ordered the one serve in a rich pork broth with slices of stewed pork, it is really nice!

Unfortunately I also forgot to take the photos of this delicious “Kong Pia”.

After finish our breakfast, then we left the Sibu Central Market and start our journey to walk around in the town centre, where 必善 also headed back to his office.

Then, only we realised the time flies so fast, it is already past noon. We were actually having our brunch instead of breakfast.

We walked through the old streets of Sibu town, both side are the traditional old shops selling the groceries, traditional Chinese style coffee shops, some Malay restaurants and Indian restaurants as well.

I love the environment and the surrounding atmosphere, even though are different races but they respect each other in earn a living in this small space.

We came to the famous Ding Bian Hu 鼎边糊 shop. It is located at a small alley near Butterfly Park or the old Sibu Bus Station. It is also Hock Chew delicacy too!

What is so special about this dish, and make everyone come to Sibu, would want to try and a must have?

Mix the rice flour with water, cook it around the rim of wok with the broth boiling in the wok.

When the rice flour is cooked, scrap it into the broth. Garnished with fish balls, cuttlefish, black fungus, deep fried shallots and pepper. It should be served with ceramic bowl and spoon.

The shop is small and had limited seats. Therefore, sometimes it is always full of patrons. The cook is an old uncle and had been cooking Ding Bian Hu for many decades according to 必善, since their school days.

How funny is that, this is the first time Daddy tasted 鼎边糊 too, together with us!

At first, we just ordered 1 bowl just to try out as we just had our brunch. Ended up, we got to order another bowl again because it is so tasty!

And, we forgot to take a photo with this yummylicious! And, the how it cook too, also every interesting process to see it!

After which, we came to the Sibu Heritage Centre and the sky was started to rain.

We were just in time to go in and avoid to get ourselves wet.

We were spending about 1 hour here, exploring about the uniqueness of the building and information on Sibu culture and history.

The entrance fee to Sibu Heritage Centre is free of charge.

We headed to the famous Tua Pek Kong Temple which is located beside the Rejang River.

We did not go in to the Temple and climb the Pagoda, because we were too tired to climb.

But it was so lucky of us that we had the chance to see the “Tong Kang”s that parked along the jetty and doing the loading of the various types of groceries and daily household items unto the “Tong Kang”s.

All these “Tong Kang”s will sail through a long the Rejang River, and go to the “Kampong”s along the Rejang River and sell the necessity to the villagers there. This is quite a new experience for us.

The sky was getting darker and we headed to the hotel.

We walked through the Rejang Esplanade which is actually just along the way on our way to Kingwood Hotel.

We saw a passengers express boat just parked at the jetty.

Until we walked near to the big statue of swan, then we know we already arrived. It was almost 3.00pm when we arrived our hotel.

We rested and take a nap as we were woke up early this morning to catch the flight.

Our family went out again after we took our bath around 6.30pm in the evening. We have the dinner together with 必善 and Daddy’s other friends: Lyn together with her 2 sons, and another friend Su Wen.

All the old school boys and girl were so many things to talk about during the dining time.

Daddy drove us back to hotel first to take a rest, then he went out again together with them for the 2nd round for a drink or chit-chatting or catching up after 26 years.

Issac, Annabelle and Mummy were so tired, after we reached the hotel we talked for a while, then both changed into their pyjamas and went to their beds. It is quite a rush trip but we were quite enjoyed in this trip.

As tomorrow we have a flight to catch back to Kuala Lumpur and we have to attend the Kuala Lumpur District Preparing for the Priesthood and Young Women as Issac is going to be turning 12 end of this year.

It is really a short and enjoyable trip for us!