142541
06-Nov-2021

What you need after a covid test is a nice bowl of noodles. And as we'd not been to Siniawan for over a year, that became our noodle-supplying objective yesterday.

mainstreet
Since we last visited, they've pedestrianized the main street. They're also working on a big waterfront project, but there's still a long way to go on that, it seems

prawns
Yong Tai's "special noodles". Yummy

house
Ultra-covetable house

gable
Gable and papaya

And on the way home, we found a Thai temple...

This is Wat Somdet Sangkharat Sukkhaithuen, Jalan Stephen Yong, Batu Kawa. You can't go in at the moment, but the exterior is very photogenic.

roof

buddha1

elephant

buddha2

Today, as is our habit when we hire a car, we drove to the seaside for breakfast. But this time it was a very different bit of seaside.

Selabat Mudflats Nature Reserve has a beach, but a dense stand of mangroves separates it from the sea. The tide was high when we set out walking, and it was fascinating to see the scene changing as the light strengthened and the sea retreated.

There were -- unsurprisingly -- mudskippers aplenty, mostly juveniles. The soundscape merged the soft plash of the waves, the crackle of the mangroves, and the song of the birds (there always seem to be so many birds at the back of Sarawak's beaches).

firstlight

wave

beach1

greenwater

stump

dereliction

beach2

plantation

wall

beachjewels

sunrise
The sun gets up

retreat
The tide retreats

calligraphy
Writing on the sand

torture
Would be at home in a gallery anywhere...

After this, we headed home to start packing, assembling travel documents, and generally organizing for departure tomorrow. Let's hope a little of the serenity of Selabat stays with us against all odds.