From Sri Aman, you can do a very pleasant day trip east.

We had lunch at Lubok Antu. The name of the town means "ghost whirlpool" in Iban (take your pick from the explanations of the name's origin). It is very close to the border with Indonesia, and saw quite a bit of action in days gone by.

For us, it was primarily a lunch spot. Satay mee is a bit of a thing in this area (yellow noodles with a peanut-inflected gravy).




Up the road from Lubok Antu, you can spend a pleasant hour or so at the Batang Ai Lake Recreation Park (follow the signs for the Batang Ai Dam). The lake created by the hydroelectric dam is used for fish-farming, swimming, and (presumably at weekends) boat trips. In one corner there's a little area with paths and observation areas.








There is a massive amount to come back for around here. Iban longhouses, the Batang Ai National Park, where wild orangutans roam, and all sorts of watery journeys... I hope we'll be able to return.

The best way to get home to Sri Aman from here is to retrace your steps to Lubok Antu, and then take the back road to Engkilili. It's quiet and really scenic.


Today we headed back to Kuching.

We stopped off at Sungai Tenggang, and had lunch at Mui Fah, one of the row of little eateries that makes up Sungai Tenggang in its entirety. They do a really nice kolo mee here. But the real reason for stopping is to take home a pak loh duck. I can get no sense out of the internet on what exactly constitutes a pak loh duck, or even any definitive verdict on which Chinese group it hails from. What I can tell you for certain, though, is that it's very, very tasty...




We turned off the PBH not long after that to take a longer but much more pleasant route back to Kuching.



You eventually hit the Batang Sadong, another of Sarawak's epic rivers:


You cross the bridge (which -- in a common pattern -- has replaced the old ferry):




And then there's just a little bit more new route before you're back in Asajaya, which we now know quite well.

We have time for a brief little coda tomorrow morning. But the main act is over. It's been a very pleasant little break. Sarawak has some amazing places. And it was nice to be "going away" again. In Sri Aman we stayed at the Seri Simanggang Hotel. This was our first experience of being "normal" hotel guests since the night in London in early March that rounded off our Lisbon Loop (back in the days before the world completely fell apart). Covid precautions were very much in evidence at the Seri Simanggang (before entering, you sign in electronically, as you do everywhere here, and have your temperature checked, and at breakfast the self-service buffet has gone, and wait staff put the food you want onto your plate). And we did do a wipe-round of surfaces as soon as we moved into our room... But staying in a hotel makes life feel a little more normal.

And -- as we never know how long this comparative freedom will last, and can never be sure we won't be locked down again at some point in the future -- it's good to make the most of these opportunities while we can.