Kapit

We made it to the express wharf in Sibu at a perfectly reasonable 9:45am and enquired as to when the next boat could take us up the Betang Rejang river to our first stop at Kapit. A cheerfully toothless Chinese chap let us know that the next one left in 45 minutes, but that unfortunately only first class seats were left. We were slightly suspicious as to whether this was actually the case, but the difference in cash was negligible, so we agreed.

The boat did fill up pretty darn quickly once we approached the allotted departure time though, and we found ourselves in very slightly larger seats. The downside of this was that sensible family types took the opportunity of using said space to ram as many small children in as possible. Then, before we had even got going the suitably horrific zombie horror flick 28 Weeks Later was whacked on at full volume for their viewing pleasure. Clairy was happy to have our MP3 players charged so that Rush Hour could drown out the piercing screams of people being dismembered and eaten, while she looked out the again rather too high windows at the passing vistas. I couldn't help myself from watching it, and grim as it was, I'm slightly ashamed to say I enjoyed it.

Soon enough we arrived at the utterly chaotic Sibu bound wharf in Kapit. Clairy took our small bags and carefully made her way round the incredibly treacherous side of the boat to the relative safety of the wharf while I squeezed my way past an army of small people with enormous loads to try and rescue our huge packs from the rear of the boat. Clairy snapped some great pics.

You can just make out my light blue t-shirt towards the back.


Piles of smaller motor canoes jostled around the boat to get their various loads on board.


It was totally boiling, and even more humid than Sibu now we were further inland.




The express boats are really quite strange machines. They are obviously made for speed on relatively flat waters, and they really do power along, in our case even against the flow of the river. I imagined the design came from the rivers of China, but I did notice their vast engines were made by Mercedes-Benz.


After 10 minutes of wandering around we realised we were nowhere near where we thought we were due to the drop off wharf having been moved from the position in the lonely planet map due to some massive construction on the riverside. I was soon absolutely drenched from head to toe in perspiration and getting a tiny bit narky as the 3 or 4 people who we asked for information as to the whereabouts of our hotel pointed in totally vague yet different directions.


But eventually we were on the right track, and we made our way to our chosen spot, the New Rejang Inn. Here the totally unenthusiastic teenager on reception showed us to a room that stank of fags in a way we have not quite encountered before. It was absolutely rancid. We were pretty pooped from stomping around town in the heat with all our stuff and didn't fancy lugging it up a couple more floors, so we assumed the smell would go if we opened the windows and left the room to explore the town for a bit. Bugger me if it wasn't just as bad if not worse when we came back. We swiftly got ourselves moved to the room above and that was much better.

Exploring town took a total of about half an hour. Even the Chinese temple was in a fairly sorry state, though it didn't look too bad from the outside.


This was where the Sibu wharf used to be. God knows quite what is being built here, but it has obviously been going on for some time as various types seem to have made the site their home. There is someone peeking out at Clairy taking this pic on the left hand side.


I thought this was a quality name for a hotel, but maybe that's just my slightly childish sense of humour.


We were served some really nice noodles and broth by a busy lady in this typical Chinese eatery.


Our only other foody place of choice in Kapit ended up being the 'Famous Bakery'. Another great name, even if they do say so themselves. This had some thoroughly bizarre bread based baked snacks. These included red bean paste rolls, a kind of kaya (coconut sweet spread we love on toast) pasty, green pandanus croissants, a blueberry and cheese custard tart (that I thought tasted of gone off cheddar, and totally spoiled for Clairy who was enjoying it) and many more strange things. Lots of them (even the sweet ones) seemed to have beef frankfurters squashed in their too. Very odd indeed, yet we seemed to find a few bits that we liked.

Our reason for disembarking at Kapit and not carrying on up the Betang Rejang was because we had hoped to arrange a trip to visit an Iban longhouse. The Iban are a fascinating tribe from this part of Sarawak in Borneo, and Clairy was hugely taken by their traditional crafts and bead work. We contacted a local Iban guide called Joshua, but he was in Sibu for the holidays and although it sounded like he would have organised a fascinating trip for us, it wouldn't have been with him and it was just a bit too pricey for our budget.

In the end after contacting Daniel, a Kayan retired teacher who was located at Belaga, our next stop up the river, we decided we were more confident about what we could achieve with him, and packed our bags ready to leave on the express boat at 9am the next morning.

We headed straight to the recommended old style Chinese coffee shop for breakfast before the ferry. It was a really beautiful example.


A slightly squashed Clairy (well we had just got up), and a friend. It had the most incredible looking eyes that flashed different colours, but Clairy thought it might have been blind.


Looooving a bit of attention from the lady. The locals seemed quite intrigued by any of our animal interactions. You can see a bit staring going on in the background.


Kapit was a bit of a funny place really. There was not a whole heap going on, and we were quite glad to be heading to our next destination.