Well, let me bring you to this quiet little Bintangor town of Borneo Sarawak (30 minutes drive from Sibu town) to witness part of the largest crop fields in the state.

Plowed land ready for planting.

This will be used for corn plantations.

Farm Boy: “Hello, do you have any work for me? I can help plow your land.”

Corn crops testing area.

Farm tractor.

Farm machineries.

This is use for land plowing.

More farm tractors.

Elephant brand water sprayer.

The Rain Maker.

Irrigation system, ensuring sufficient water flows through all the plantations.

Farm supervisor and his dogs. Hunting for something there.

Catch of the day: Iguana.

Got it by its tail, almost bit his *toot* though…

The pineapple trail.

Baby pineapple.

Sweet potato plantations.

Water bamboo shoots

Barley seeds. The Borneo indigenous variety of barley is much more tasty than those Western barleys, and it has a scent of herbal fragrance as well.

Baby barley plantations.

Barley crops.

Corn seeds originating from Thailand.

This is not at the farm anymore, but on the way back from Bintangor to Sibu, you can find many of these stalls selling local fruits usually grown at their own backyard.

Dragon fruits.

Chinese Mandarin.

Pomelo.

Corns.

Banana.

Durian.

Alright now, go back to Facebook and steal some more fruits.

The world certainly needed that extra ‘Rawrrrrr’ after all the economy crises and countless disasters in 2009!

That aside, let me bring you the view of this year’s Chinese New Year fireworks from my balcony.

P/s: I was hit on the back by quite a huge chunk of the pyrotechnics’ remnants, as you can see the camera swaying heavily towards the end of the video. Well, Good luck does fall from the sky!

No, I’m not asking you to worship the Gods, but right beside the temple, there’s a block of revamped building that houses Sibu’s finest lounge and cafe. The lounge is located at Jalan Chew Geok Lin. The once antique building looks great now after major refurbishment works.

The building is owned by Wah Tat Holdings. The lounge is closed in the morning, nothing’s happening there during daytime…but when the sun goes down…

Welcome to the Queen Lounge and Cafe!

Cafe Cafe, a fusion restaurant right beside the Lounge. Next to Cafe cafe, there’s Mari Mari interior decor and furniture shop. All of these businesses share the same owners – Peter and Ah Tung.

If you want a cozy, air-conditioned environment, you can take a seat in the Lounge.

This is the open air area, so if you opt to smoke, or you just want to smell the river breeze (or haze as of now – Aug, 2009) you can sit on the outside instead.

The stage where singers perform. The lounge have a group of very talented singers and I reckon they’re qualified for an album contract! So, talent scouts, this is your spot if you want local talents!

I like the mixture of modern cum antique decorations in the lounge. There’s a medieval sense surrounding the place.

They even have a long table with chairs and glasses from the Imperialism age, and the corner lamp that light up the floral wallpapers. First impression, this is where a Mafia gang holds their meeting.

The menu for the Queen.

The reception area with two chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Vintage!

Candle in the glass.

Dim light.

More decors.

Beers on displays in the cabinet chiller.

Beers anyone?

Nothing beats a beer at the Queen after a hectic day of work. Cheers everyone!

What’s great about this place is its very vintage and originally Sibu’s design and decor. You can find lots of old photos of Sibu town as the wallpaper and wall photos.

When you look at the mascot. What comes into your mind?

Set lunch of the day: Salad Pork Rib rice + ABC Soup + Ice Lemon Tea/Kiwi Juice.

Uncle Dom Cafe’s outdoor dining area.

“The Place to be…” I wonder if the boss were working in KFC 10 years ago? Not only the mascot/logo looked like a complete clone of the KFC Colonel’s head, but the slogan sounded like them too! Remember the line, “That’s where I want to be?”.

Upon entering the premise, this is how it looks.

Ample space for diners. What I like about this cafe is it’s spacious dining area, and the really detailed decor they have. This is 100% not Sibu-style! In Sibu, typical kopitiam won’t even have any aircond to boot!

Look at the large landscape photo in the middle of the photo. The perspective of the photo gives a false illusion that there’s more space into the shop. Really good play with photographs as the wallpaper there!

Ipoh-style kopitiam breakfast. A couple of half-boiled eggs with a cup of Ipoh white coffee.

Another depth and space creator. A HUGE mirror!

The reception counter.

The entrance.

Vintage photos. Most of them are taken during the British colonization era. I still could recognize some of the location, some were taken at the Cathay cinema, some at the old airport.

Bottles of Pickled fruits and veges, with descriptions of the benefits of every bottle.

A vintage cash register.

They tasted somewhat special, and not some ordinary Ice lemon tea.

We ordered the daily set lunch.

Salad Pork Rib rice.

ABC soup, comes in a traditional ceramic soup container. I like the vintage feeling of this shop!

The soup contains white carrot, and red carrot, boiled with pork bones. I just loved this kinda soup! Easy and tasty!

Chicken chop with mushroom sauce

And the bill comes to…RM22.70. Of which, RM1.08 were accounted as 5% service charges.

Don’t you just love the old and vintage photos wallpaper? All of them are taken in Sibu decades ago. Truly Sibu.

I declare that Uncle Dom Cafe, is the place to be…I would certainly come again.

Although I would say they still have rooms to improve on the service aspect. They really need to thoroughly train their waitresses and waiters to be more knowledgeable in the cafe’s menu, apart from their passiveness in taking orders.

Business Location:
Lorong Chew Siik Hiong 1A, Fortune Commercial Centre.
(The block behind Mitsu Tea House and opposite of Sushi Tie)

Business Hours:
Opens from 8:30am – 10:30pm weekdays.
7:30am – 10:30pm on weekends and public holidays.

Those handful of users might had gone to the temple, or a fortune teller, or had a wet dream the other night.

Lottery betting is one of the biggest and most profitable business in Malaysia, as it is the ONLY form of legal betting apart from going up the hills to Genting Casino. Any other forms of betting activities will get you prosecuted.

Have you ever been to Kuala Lumpur? The Berjaya Times Square? Ya, the place where you shop for fashion clothes, and go for a IMAX 3D movie? The place where people countdown during the new year’s eve? Yeah, that place lorrr…

Well, you have to thank yourself for being one of the contributors to the funds of the building, because of your daily deposits to the Berjaya Group’s Sports Toto. They’re one of the largest and most profitable companies in Malaysia dealing with resorts, real estate, retailing, 7-Elevens, Cosway, education, and basically whatever you can think of…

They are the peoples waiting for fortune to happen, while the “bank” thanks them for all the fortune.

They’re also the ONLY bank in town that tells everyone how much money the users had deposited into the bank. Thanks to their jackpot system.

Now that you’ve read this post, go and bank in RM1.10 tomorrow for ‘9555′. I wish you good luck!

In 2001, Wah Tat Bank merged with Hong Leong Bank to form the Hong Leong Bank Berhad that you see today.

The now defunct Sibu Wah Tat Bank building. Shot taken from the Sibu Tua Pek Kong temple’s pagoda. Click for larger view.

Let’s start off with some of our virgin works of HDR photos.

Sibu Old Town. The building with a green oval-shaped roof is the Sibu’s Hawker Centre, the biggest of its kind in Sarawak (or Malaysia?). Most of the shops here were built around the 1950s, surviving the World war II. Taken from the Sibu Tua Pek Kong temple’s pagoda.

Sanyan Tower and RH Hotel. High temperature HDR.

Another one in Low temperature.

Our favorite shot. The Sibu Tua Pek Kong Temple.

Can someone give me the name of this God?

Some shots from Bintulu

We were on our way back to Sibu from Miri. Stopped by Bintulu to take some photos. This is Bintulu’s Tanjung Batu Beach.

Bintulu’s Seaview Apartment. A property by Shin Yang Group.

Some Infrared Photos

Sanyan Tower in Infrared photography.

Sibu Town Square memorial monument with two isolated trees.

This is our first attempt at HDR photography. We’ve seen much better pictures elsewhere and hoping we could improve by experiments. Until next time, I hope you’ve enjoyed the photos!

Common public impressions suggest that, Sibu is that dull and boring town, sitting by the unattractive milk-tea-colored muddy Rejang River, waiting for time to pass. The town might seemed so, but go further away, in the suburban forested areas, you’ll realize that this is not quite the case. There, you’ll see sawmills, timber yards, plywood factories of ISO standards, bustling and producing hundreds and thousands of cubic meters of timber products every month to feed the world’s hunger for wood.

Sibu houses a handful of global timber conglomerates, namely the Rimbunan Hijau Group, Ta Ann Group, Sanyan Group, WTK, The Sarawak Company, just to name a few, among other big private owners of sawmills and timber concessions. They’re the timber export powerhouse and the primary driving force of Sibu’s economy.

One of the ISO standard plywood factories. At ground level, it doesn’t really tell the whole story of how big this facility is.

Take a look at the aerial view of the whole infrastructure. This satellite image was taken like more or less 10 years ago, when the Pulau Li Hua houses were still under construction. It had since expanded to maybe, double its size? Click to view larger size.

The living quarters for the factories’ laborers.

One of the plywood factories. They have more or less 50 of them likes this in this massive facility. Each of them responsible for the different stages of plywood manufacturing.

Inside the plywood factory. This is only part of the full factory. The complete size is about 10 times the size you’ll see in this photo.

Here’s a little bit about how plywoods are made.

Plywood are called plywood because they’re made up of several plies of very thin layers of wood we call “veneer sheets“. Veneer sheets are peeled off a timber log using a long knife running horizontally across the timber log. The timber log is initially softened with hot steam, and then mounted on an equipment to be peeled into continuous thin layers of veneer sheets. Think of it as a toilet roll. You’ll get the idea.

The veneers. Readily cut into 4′ x 8′ for stacking.

The veneer sheets are very strong materials going in one single direction along its grains. Think of it as the squid fish straps you’ll eat during the Chinese New Year. You can easily pull it apart in one direction, and less easier on the other.

Layers of veneers. Strips of special glue are spread across the veneers straps to prevent them from stretched apart.

The veneers sheets are then stacked together, usually in 5, 7, 9, 11 or more layers (odd numbers), in alternating grain directions. Glue are applied in between the layers before going off to the compressor.

This is what they would use to heat and compress the layers of veneers stack to form a rigid panel.

Factory workers filling the compressor slots with one veneer stacks each.

Stacks of completed plywood. Done and ready to be packed and exported.

This is a close-up of a 12mm plywood. 2 layers of soft veneers are stacked in between 3 layers of high quality hardwood veneers to form a solid and rigid plywood.

Plywood Grades
There are several grades of plywood available in the market. Grades being UT Better, BB/CC, UT1, UT2, and Reject.

Plywood checking to confirm its quality. Showing off the UT Better grades plywoods with super smooth surface.

This is still a UT Better grade plywood, as long as the surface is finely repaired and smooth.

Still, another UT Better grade plywood.

UT1 with defects on the sides.

UT2 with surface defects.

Another example of UT2 grades with surface defects.

Alright, there you have it. A day in the plywood factory and I hope you’ve learn something new today!

If you need plywood or timber, please contact me, Alex @ +6013 8380 333, or e-mail me at ezylink@sibucity.net.

Thank you for reading.