Tasik Mas, Limbang

Tasik Mas, Limbang is a popular spot for joggers, etc. I was there last year and attempted to climb the slope to the top of the hill. I climbed that hill, which is just behind Limbang Town, a couple of times in the early 70's.

The Tasik Mas is above sea level. It is well maintained and the lake is surrounded by greens....

... and flowering plants. The lake itself is full of lilies.
To see all the photos, click here.

Our Limbang Trip

We went to Limbang to visit our aging grandma and also my second sister. My 2nd brother-in-law just pass away two weeks earlier. We left Miri at 4:20PM and arrived in Limbang at about 7:00PM. The queue at the immigration was short by any standard! We went for "dinner" at the lake garden on Bukit Mas. The road up the hill was dark and when we arrive, they have no customer!

After we ordered food, there was a blackout! So, the boss switched on his car headlight so that they can cook. Then, they gave us a candle. Ah Jon and Janice.

Joshua was fast... the moment he arrived at the place, he found what he liked to eat... fried chicken chop costing RM12!!

Timothy loves his usual... lemon chicken rice.

For the rest of us, we have 炒煮麵. Total cost... RM45!! I know my friend STP in Sibu will faint when he hear this!

We met my 4th brother...

... and my 3rd sister's eldest daughter.

My 2nd sister is so thin. She looks older than her age.

Grandma is getting old. She is 92 this year and every time we met, she repeat the same thing... and predicted her own dxxxx!

This time, she has toothache. A wisdom tooth is giving her problem.

Her collapsed or compression fracture of the vertebrae or spine is very serious. She is forever suffering pain. An x-ray of the bone can be seen in one of my blogs. So, we must take care of ourselves and have enough calcium. Her back is seriously bent.

Departure after less than 24 hours is not very nice. The older generation always loves the younger one. She insisted on giving away her limited fund to our children for good luck. What can we do? We just accepted it or we will be seen as "disobedient"! 

My Trip Back from Limbang

We went back to Limbang on Friday and return to Miri on Saturday as I had function to attend on Saturday night. The trip back was fast at the Limbang side...

However, when we reached Sg Tujuh side, we found a long queue some 1KM plus away from the checkpoint . We thought there was an accident... never mind, we wait in queue. An hour later, we finally reached the check point and realised that it was actually a very long queue. The checkpoint officers must had been working extremely hard!

After passing Brunei side, we had to queue again on the Sarawak side... finally, we could see the checkpoint!

On the Sarawak side, a new immigration checkpoint is being built! It is a huge complex and I hope it will ease up border crossing.
I was told that it will be holiday in Brunei for the next few days. So, many cars crossed over to Miri. Some people actually waited from 8AM and didn't arrive until 1PM. So, we have been very lucky.
It seems that every time we went back to Limbang, something would go wrong with my car. Last time, it couldn't charge. This time, the aircon compressor jammed and therefore burnt out the moment we started our journey from Limbang. So, we have no aircon from Limbang to Miri and have to be baked under the hot sun for four hours!

Today in Limbang (Day 4)

Got up early, cooked some minced meat porridge and then go to church at 7:30AM. I just can't get used to go to church so early. After church service, we went to town to eat noodles with my 4th brother.
I was thinking what was foochow fried noodle. So I ordered one and oh... it was the way the noodle was being fried, ie, water was added in the frying.
At the end, my cousin's son (far right) pay for all of us. Thanks to them. When I came back at 10:30AM, I noticed that my MIL didn't eat the porridge... perhaps my skill was not up to par. True, I can't cook in other people's home. Rice, water, cooking pot, etc...all different. So I couldn't estimate. Jos again pestered me to climb mountain! I gave in and off we went to Bukit Mas again. There was something going on there... Limbang RC Power Boat race! I like anything which is remote controlled.
Getting ready for the race...
Those boats were fast!
If I am not mistaken, the engine range from 15-50cc. The engines were home brewed with the main block from chainsaw or grass cutter machine. The rest were all mix and match. The enthusiast did try to explain to me but I could not catch them. In between race, we went to climb the mountain, explore the surrounding and looking around.
There were lots of butterflies there...
This was the pretties one!
The other side of the wing was even nicer.
I took lots of photo for the RC Power Boat race and will post them on my facebook later. I can only upload in Miri.

Today in Limbang (day 3)

The two boys were bored. They pestered me to bring them to Bukit Mass to "climb mountain". Actually there is a park there for people to run. So, after much pestering, I drove them there just before it started to rain.
See...they were interested in the playground. Instead of sitting on it, Tim was "pushing" it!

In the supermarket, that was what these two boys were doing! They were so restless... then Jos saw something and pestered us from one supermarket to another....

.. that's right! A water gun. Instead of buying two, we bought only one for the two to share and cost RM2! So they took turn to shoot target and of course at each other! They were quiet for the rest of the afternoon!

While mummy was busy with her "sightseeing" or window shopping, I looked at pictures or things that she was not interested in. This photo of oranges caught my attention. See where the leaves came out from! It is so fake.

Mummy was trying out this for fun and remarked that she got one of these when she was young. Nice to look at ...

... but totally of no use to us!

Then this attracted my attention. I was shocked for a second. How could anyone try to sell "fail VCD" at a price. Must be some sort of nut! Then, I realised that they are selling "VCD file" and in BM, file is called fail!

While visiting my 4th brother (he is selling telecom stuff), I noticed 2 boxes of "seed". I was flipping through the packages ... cabbages, cauliflowers, etc. Mummy was interested and bought four of these. Now I have to plant them at home. Will blog if I have any success. Otherwise, I will keep quiet.

We decided to "drive around". We passed by our ex school, Limbang Gov't School, where we studied in the early 70's.

... the abandoned Limbang airport which is just next to the school. The runway is running parallel to Bukit Mas.

We decided to drive up to Pandaruan Check Point, the crossing over point to Temburong. This was the place in the 60's, 70's where we would buy cheap Brunei petrol! The humble quite place is now replaced with an immigration checkpoint opening 6:00AM to 6:00PM daily. This is also the place you must cross for those wishing to go to Sabah by road. I didn't manage to see the river!

On the way back, we drove up Bukit Mas opposite the old airstrip. Half way up, there is this Buddhist Center. Further up the steep hill, is the telecom tower. I was disappointed that I couldn't see anything beyond due to tall trees.

This evening, I went to visit my niece who opened the Strawberry cake shop in town. She made very good cakes and baked very good bread. I can safely say that the prices are generally cheaper than Miri and tasted better. This is a family business. Shown here are two of her daughters.

Today in Limbang

I last came back to Limbang in September when Esther was just about to leave for UK. This time, we came back to see grandma as she complaint of backache, etc. Today is Christmas and we went to the Methodist church at 7:30AM for the Christmas celebration. I took some shots at the church....
Worship team.

Crowded church...

A solo presentation ...

Pastor Wong 王子成牧师...

A presentation by the women group ...

We met our ex classmate, Mdm Ling 林菊珠. They have 4 children and 8 grandchildren! Amazing!

There was a distribution of gift for everyone consisting of cookie and drink. In the afternoon, I tried to amuse myself with my camera. I just got my lens back after servicing! Wah, I missed my lens!

I walked around the "garden" and tried to shoot something...got this! Any idea what is this flower? The flower is about 5mm wide only!

No need to guess, this is water guava (jambu air) 水桃

This is a young pinapple. Do you know that a flower comes out of every eye? Notice the purple flower at the tip. Also, a pinapple tree can bear only one fruit.

Ok, the tiny flower above is from the star fruit. Every flower will produce one fruit.

The battle of the Lizard

We went to Limbang in September and visited my brother's farm. While standing around the potted plant, Joshua suddenly noticed a tail of something and with lightning speed, he grabbed the tail and pull the creature up. He just got hold of a green tree lizard.
The tail is very long...
This fella stayed in this position long enough for me to snap a few pictures before it battled with Joshua for freedom. As the tail is thin and strong, it slipped out of Joshua's fingers before it was imprison as pet!
In the good old days, we had plenty of these lizards in our pepper garden. My brother called this "seven steps lizard", ie, if you are bitten by one of these, you will die before walking seven steps! But we knew that this is probably untrue.
Joshua is really brave! When I was young like him, I remember pulling the tail of a little snake with head and most of the body still in a hole. Somehow, I couldn't pull the snake out of the hole. Thanks God for that.

Limbang - such a quiet town!

I was in Limbang last Friday and Saturday. Normally, during weekend, the town will be full of people. But this time, there was hardly anyone.
The market is the most noticable place. I think customer has dropped by some 70%.

There was almost no one on the street! During a normal Saturday at 9:00AM, the street will be busy. But last Saturday, there was hardly any car even.

The immigration post had no queue! So, it is a perfect time to visit Limbang. I was told that all this problem is caused by H1N1 virus. Everyone is just being careful.