A group of my colleagues organized the trip actually, and I joined in. We had hired a van which would bring us from Kuching to this little faraway weekend market near Bau. At the last minute, however, J and I decided to drive there on our own. We would meet up with our colleagues there.
"Wear a big hat," everyone advised me. I did not but I made sure I brought an umbrella. It's really important to have some sort of protective gear from the scorching heat of the sun; it was seriously hot even at 7.45 a.m., and I could barely concentrate on my shopping.
Basically, the market consists of a long street, with stalls lining both sides. A lot of things are sold, like salted fish, dried prawns, dried cuttlefish, clothing, fabric, bags, pillows and other household items, souvenirs, fruits and snacks, and many more!
We basically walked down the the street while browsing the wares, and walked back ... and that already took us two hours and a half.
The things sold are not that cheap anymore, but still affordable. Since it was my first time to Serikin, I came without a shopping list. I had just wanted to see what the place was like, and see what everyone else was buying. My colleagues went for the clothes - denims, shirts, skirts. There wasn't any fitting rooms at all, so they had to try the over the clothes they were wearing. No mirrors either, so just ask your friend whether something looks good on you. Be sure to bargain also. J bought 10 pieces of printed songket fabric. Being enterprising, she would be selling them online later on. I bought a cotton batik maxi skirt. It was a bright orange with dark green panels, and looked a bit gyspy-ish. I liked it as soon as I saw it, and cost me RM20.00.
This weekend, the only fruits available were dragonfruit, snakeskin fruit or buah salak, and green local oranges. They range from RM5.00 - RM7.00 a kg, depending on the quality and size. I bought 2 kg of snakeskin fruit because I loved them and it had been a while since I had gotten my hands on a single fruit! But back home, no one else wanted to eat them. Lol! So I gave them away to my friend, S.
We found the dried cuttlefish to be very fresh - so we all bought a packet each. A packet of 6 medium-sized ones cost me RM11.00; Mom would use them to cook radish soup.
We all loved snacks - cooked or uncooked; melinjo or belinjo crackers were a favorite. I bought a packet of pre-fried ones for S; it was RM20.00 per kg and came packed in a box. But we preferred to buy the loosely packed ones which were costlier - RM9.00 per 400g because we wanted our crackers to be in perfect rounds. Those in the box are often crumbled and broken. Some of my colleagues bought small packets of pre-fried Trengganu keropok, only RM3.00 per packet.
I preferred to buy the ready-to-eat snacks ... There were different types such as banana, tapioca, yam. I bought the ones which were less commonly found in town - tempe and breadfruit crackers; Tempe crackers - RM40.00 per kg - were crispy, salty, textural and tasted faintly of fermented soy. Breadfruit crackers - RM26.00 per kg - were also salty and yum.
I do think that it's been an interesting trip; and I wouldn't mind coming once in a while; next time, I would want to come earlier so that it's not so hot and traffic wouldn't be so heavy. It's been fun!
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