3rd day of CNY

Day 3 of the Chinese New Year. Woke up this morning at about 9:00am, having gone to bed about 2:00am. I was caught up with the Black Magician trilogy which I started in the plane on the way back last Thursday evening. The trilogy was written by Trudi Canavan, entitled “The Magicians’ Guild”, “The Novice”, and finally, “The High Lord”. Was finishing off the last book and was totally hooked to find out about the ending. Hard to put down. So now, what do I have to read given that I have another few days left of the holidays? Well, I came prepared this time, and brought back another trilogy by Philip Pullman - “His Dark Materials trilogy”.

Some other relatives visited us today, as well as other acquaintances. Entertained some of my younger, but not as close in terms of kin, nieces and nephews on the piano (although strangely enough, they wanted to sing Christmas songs even though it is already end January). So what’s a guy got to do, but to entertain the young ones? Also played English chess with one of the older cousins. The chess pieces were of oriental design. Had it for quite a while already, but more as a decorative piece.

Later in the afternoon, my dad suggested driving to Tebedu, which is about 42km from my hometown just to look see look see. Tebedu is a small town and is where the Malaysia / Indonesia border is situated and where the immigration checkpoint is. I have never been there before and thought that it will be good to see the place. Couldn’t cross over into Kalimantan though, as I did not have my passport with me. The next time perhaps.

The road there was supposedly via a “highway”, and admittedly, the road condition was quite good, although not a “highway” as per my expectation. The view was lovely enough, beautiful greenery littered the surrounding areas, and as we were going higher up the mountains, some views were very, very nice. There were lush greenery around, with different kebun-kebun along the main road. There were various palm oil plantations, pepper kebuns, sawah padi, and others. Certain views of mountain peaks caught my attention as well as some endearing cloud formations.

Upon reaching the new Tebudu town, there was a noticeably lack of people around. Could be due to the festive holidays. This new town has a Jabatan Pendaftaran, Balai Polis, etc.. There was even a clock tower in the middle of an open field.

Going further inland, we finally came to the checkpoint. Took a snap or two of the place and was kind of disappointed in that I thought the place would be buzzing with commercial activities, but was kind of quiet. Was told that to buy Indonesian goods, we need to cross the border into Kalimantan. A few years back, the goods were much, much cheaper, but prices have risen after the Indonesians along the border realized the difference in prices and the value of the currency. There were a few Malaysian vehicles crossing, but I think it would involve other types of procedure to get the cars across. I have heard lots of rumours of cars being stolen in Sarawak, and then subsequently driven to Indonesia for sale. Not sure if that is true or not, and via which checkpoint if at all, but you never know. The closest main town in Kalimantan is I think, called “Pontianak”. It is about 8 hours drive south west of Tebedu if I recall my geography lessons correctly.

When we were driving back, we saw a sign pointing to the old Tebedu town, and decided to explore a little bit. My dad recounted that in the old days, there was a row of shops, but we didn’t see any. The old Tebedu town was like a kampung, with houses along the main road. Not as spectacular, but interesting to see how others live in different towns.

The drive back continued to be enjoyable with good greenery around. My dad commented that in the old days, the roads were also hilly, and most cars then did not have the power to go up the hill. They had to alight and push/pull the vehicles to get over certain steep terrain. We also saw some farmers walking distances between the kebuns I guess, and in the hot sun to boot. So I guess, nowadays, we better count our blessings and be grateful for the things we have.