Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Mama Daisy and Inul's 25th trip to Bintulu

"Ok, airconditioning is fine" exclaimed Mama Daisy at the start of the journey.


It has been slightly more than a month since we stayed in Kuching.
On Sunday (27th Feb) we made our 25th trip to Bintulu.
We left our home around 8.45 am.
The sky was blue and clear when we left Kuching.
On this trip fospa decided to make few pit stops viz Serian, Betong and Sibu only.
Throughout the whole journey we experienced very little rain. Almost negligible. On this trip most of the driving was done by fospa. Fosma generally would attend to Inul and Mama . See, who says travelling is not fun.


Paddy farmers doing it the conventional way. Harvesting paddy in Sarawak is typically by hard labour, mostly women folks (:

The most memorable thing to see during this journey was the vast expanse of golden paddy fields that dotted the Sarawak country side from Sri Aman to Bintulu.
Sarawak is a net importer of rice despite its small population and vast land mass. "Apparently for many a thousand reasons Sarawak is unable to feed its own people with rice" quipped Mama. " Ministers after Ministers have been unable to improve on the rice production of Sarawak.

" AHH, we have Ministers but they keep on changing portfolios and priorities. Thus overtime nothing important gets done by them or should I say THEM" sighed Mama.
(Inset, CU of a ripe paddy stalk)

Oh what a picture. Is this for real?
Inter-cropping of hill paddy with oil palm was a pleasant surprise to see.
Being a panicky girl as I am, Mama would always come to my rescue. " Inul, we are on a big journey here. Don't be nervous or cry. No, no you're a big girl now!" Soon after about an hour or so Inul settled down and Mama continued with her beauty sleep as she always does on long journey like this.
Above: Inul (back facing camera) rests comfortably on Mama's new blanket.
Often times along the journey, Mama showered her kindness to Inul by letting Inul share her special blanket. Inul too gets her chance to rest on Mama's blanket of a thousand dreams. Many times in fact. Ya , Mama you're a darling. MUUAAAAAHHHH!!!MEEoooooowwww.

"Fospa get ready the change", reminded Mama.
When we were about to leave the Sibu Main Market multi-storey car park, Mama became curious and decided to have a front view of the transaction. For an hour of parking we were charged RM1.05. At 4.30 pm we drove on to Bintulu. The journey from Sibu was a direct one. No pit stop. We arrived at our farm in Bintulu at 7.30 pm in darkness.
HOORay we are back in BinTulu or was it " BEEN TO THE LOOO"!?@#!!

Note: The total cumulative distance achieved on this 25th trip to Bintulu = 28,800 km.