24-May-2025
Sibu is situated where the Igan River flows out of the Rajang River (making the Igan a distributary, as opposed to a tributary). We've spent a fair amount of time during this trip walking alongside the rivers, and surveying them from our hotel bedroom.
Yesterday, though, we did the little sunset cruise that runs a short way up the Rajang and back, and then down the Igan and back:
Waiting for the boat to come
Aboard now, and here's a different angle on the famous swan
You get great views of the buildings and various kinds of shipping
A moment's silence for the trees...
I hadn't realized the importance of Sibu's ship-building and -repair industry, which serves Indonesia, Singapore, and the UAE, among others
On the way back it's the Malay village that's the star attraction
And the sunset itself, of course
Anyway, that was all highly recommendable. If you're in Sibu on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, definitely do the cruise.
Sibu's also good at food.
I have no photos, but we had breakfast twice at the Rafie Cafe, whose friendly staff make very nice rotis.
We've also been several times to The Coffee Code, always a favourite when we come to Sibu:
On the way
Pleasant environment
Fried avocado. Works surprisingly well...
And we really enjoyed (twice) revisiting Payung, a longstanding establishment that we first patronized back in 2018:
I love everything about this place, including the aesthetic
Pomelo salad
Mushroom roll
Herb salad
Red guava juice
Tomato salad
Belimbing chicken. Not your standard starfruit but a wild variety, whose slight sourness combines beautifully with the turmeric and lemongrass of the sauce. Delicious...
New to us was the Meetup Coffee Shop, which does really nice kompia, all crispy and golden:
And finally, a little warning if you're not Malaysian, and book hotels in Malaysia with Agoda.
Foreigners here have to pay a tourist tax of MYR 10 per night per room. It always annoys us that we have to stump up for this (given that we live here), but hey, there's nothing to be done about that.
If you book a room with Agoda, you're asked to confirm whether or not you're Malaysian. If you say you're not, the tourist tax is added to the amount you pay them. The trouble is that the hotel doesn't know this, and it's not specifically itemized on your receipt, so you can't actually prove that you've paid it...
So, having paid your tourist tax to Agoda, you're then asked by the hotel to pay it again...
Nigel spent a lot of Tuesday night arguing the toss with Agoda about this. At first they insisted that they couldn't possibly have deducted this tax, because they're not authorized to do so. But eventually they credited us with an amount of "Agoda money" equivalent to the tourist tax they had in fact deducted. We then paid the tax to the hotel, so they were happy. But Agoda have apparently done nothing to change the system.
So, the best thing to do is NOT to admit that you're not Malaysian on the booking form. That way they won't bill you for the tax, and you can pay it directly to the hotel. Don't worry -- the hotel won't let you forget...
Sigh...
Nice little Sibu-themed mural to get us all back in a good mood