Earlier this year, we did a really nice walk along the north bank of the river.

Having heard about (and occasionally seen) the new electric bus, which purportedly serves the route from Satok (near Kubah Ria market) to iCom Square, and having collected a route map from the tourist information centre, we thought that a great new little twist to our walk would be to catch the bus at the Satok end of its traverse (at the point where we would be coming back across the river), take it all the way back through town, and then walk home.

Here's how it all played out:

Off down our lane. And we finally got a picture of the little birds I mentioned last time. It turns out they're scaly-breasted munias. (And honestly, who thinks of these names...? Would YOU want to be called a scaly-breasted anything?? Apparently they used to be called "nutmeg mannikins", which suits these adorable little creatures much better.)


Kim Joo for breakfast. We'd not been here since we got back to Sarawak, but the pork noodles are as good as ever (and still scoring good write-ups).

Then down to the river to catch one of the cute little ferries to the first jetty upriver from the Astana.

The euphemistically termed "haze" (actually horrible smoke pollution from forest fires) has been mildly in evidence for a couple of days, but is now here with a vengeance. It markedly worsened yesterday evening, when the whole place started to smell like a bonfire.

Visibility is consequently very poor.


The north-shore kampung houses are still beautiful, though, even in the murk:




Otherwise, the route is all very green:


And colourful in other ways, too:


One day, we'll be able to walk across the river on the new Satok foot bridge. But not just yet... For the time being, pedestrians have to share the road bridge.



Once back on the south bank, we nosed around for the bus, using the map and the link above. Nothing very obvious...

Seeing us padding around, one of the guys from the council, who happened to be working out there, offered to help. "We're trying to find the bus stop for the 101," we explain. "Oh," he says, "I'm afraid the bus doesn't come down this far yet."

Ah.

Not really what the site and map imply...

OK, we thought, we'll walk back into town, pick up the bus in the centre, and ride it to the other end of the route.

We picked a strategic (albeit unmarked) bus stop (one with seats, just down the road from the market where the bus is alleged to start).

And we waited. From 10.20 to 11.20. Doing bits of diary, checking a few emails, putting a Facebook post up about the smog...

No bus arrived.

So that's a bit disappointing. For sure, in order to get things moving in the world of public transport, you need if not frequency then at least reliability.

But we've kind of got the bit between our teeth now. There will be further reports on the 101 should we ever manage to catch it.