miss cayce

Road trip with my brother

A solo eight hour long drive for work sucks. It really does.

So I convinced my brother to come along with me, and he brought along his best friend. It was the first trip together as adults so I was a bit apprehensive how we would get along especially since we don't hang out at all.

We haven't left Kuching yet when he asked about five times whether we were there yet.

They were aghast that Lachau was a lot further than they remembered.

They shrieked when they discovered that Sarikei was 266 km away and that Sibu was after Sarikei.

Everytime they spotted a kilometre marker, they sang the following song to the tune of 99 bottles of beer on the wall:

"66 kilometres to go,
66 kilometres to go,
You take one kilometre away, and you still have 65 kilometres to go"

Thankfully they got bored after 64 kilometres down the road.

No seriously, I had fun with them! We watched 'V for Vendetta' in this old school theater -- it's an experience that people should do when they are in Sibu. They sell their snacks on a folding table (sweets, guavas in packets, junk food, etc..) instead of behind a fancy counter. No popcorn. And the theatre - wow. It's really huge, with a stage and great sound system. It doubles for other events too, obviously. It was so much cooler watching a movie in that theater than the *blah* cineplexes we have back in Kuching.

The movie was fascinating; really enjoyed it.

After the movie, we checked out the night market. My sis had a request: barbequed pig head. Lovely. Wished my camera didn't run out of batteries, there were some really great photography moments, like the barbequed pig heads lined in a row. Tiny purple paus (yam) in those old round baskets. ... I think that was it.

You can easily do Sibu in a day. Anything more than that would drive me batty, which is bad because my boatman didn't show up so I'm here for another dratted night. This time, it rather sucks because my bro and friend left and being stuck here alone in Sibu is even worse. I'd watch another movie but there's only one theater with the same movie playing over and over again. Yea, I'm sure there's another theater somewhere in town but I don't really fancy walking alone in Sibu at night. It's ok but I feel less safe here than I do in Kuching. Most probably because I'm not familiar with it.

One good thing (or sad, depending) about Sibu is that they have some pretty good fiction for really cheap! Murakami for RM5! So insane. I already have a copy of the Wind-up Bird Chronicle so I picked one up for a friend. Haven't gotten a copy of Sputnik Sweetheart so was pretty happy to get one for only RM5!

Bought two other books for the same price: House of Sand and Fog and one book by a Latin American author that I can't recall at the moment.

They were also selling Ian McEwan's Atonement [hard-cover!] for only RM20 (or was it RM25?)! I hemmed and hawwedd over that one.. Rohinton Mistry for the same price, hard cover as well..

So that cheered me up.

But I wouldn't want to stay in Sibu for another night, good lord. I can't wait to get out of here, get back to the jungle, do my work and go home.

I know this is different but solo travelling is wearing me down. I enjoyed the company of the guys - actually, in some sense, it can be more enjoyable than travelling with girls. No offense girls but it is tiring to do *everything* together, including going to the loo. At least with the guys, I hang out with them but when they want to do things on their own, I'm pretty happy getting my alone time.

oh, I finally hit on the answer why girls always go to the washroom together -- that way, you make sure that the others don't talk about you behind your back! Ok, I'm only half-kidding.. I think..

posted by Cayce @ 3:37 PM