Sibu Sarawak Malaysia

I have been getting a little behind with my postings so thought that I’d try to get up to date with a couple of quick posts, including this one of my time in Sibu Malaysia (Borneo).

I travelled from Kuching to Sibu by boat. To do this you first need to get a taxi to the express boat harbour, this is about 7km away and costs 22 MYR. The boat to Sibu costs 45 Myr and takes about 4 hours, travelling both sea and 130 km of river. The boat pretty much trams it and leans over dramatically when going around the bends of the Rejang river.

View of the Rejang river on the way to Sibu

Sibu itself is a pleasant enough place. It has a large Foochow Chinese Methodist population, who escaped persecution in China and settled down in Borneo. There is also a fairly large Iban population. Most of the cafes seem to be populated by Indonesian and Philippino workers.

View from Pagoda of the Sibu Waterfront

Sibu has a nice Buddhist temple (Tua Pek Temple) complete with a 7 story Pagoda (Goddess of Mercy).

Goddess of Mercy Pagoda Sibu

The place does not seem to have any normal bars, for a drink in Sibu you have a choice of sitting in a Chinese cafe watching the world go by, or to go in one of the numerous Karaoke bars; now if you have heard Chinese Malaysians singing then odds are that you’ll be spending your time at the cafe watching the world go by!

Lots of nice food to be had in Sibu, mainly Chinese influenced, but making use of the produce on the Rejang river such as river shrimp, turtles and ducks.