Batu Bungan Village & School

Our adventure began at 8.00 a.m. We were all told to assemble at the Park office foyer, where our guide, John, would meet us. The group headed to a jetty behind the park office and got into longboats.

The narrow boat wobbled as I clambered into it. Lol. I thought I was going to topple the boat over. I sure felt like a real klutz! But that aside, the ride on the boat was fun! I could feel the wind in my face as the boat sped along. Thrilling!

In the longboat ...

After about 5 minutes, we were dropped off at SK Batu Bungan, the only primary school in this area. We walked around on our own as the staff had left for the weekend. The students here are boarders, but they too have gone home.

SK Batu Bungan

Staffroom

A block of classrooms

As usual, I feel so very thankful that I am not posted to a rural school ;p. We teachers who teach in town should feel thankful for the extra facilities that we are able to enjoy such as air-condition in the staff rooms, white board in the classrooms, and computer labs. In the city, we boast of concrete school buildings. But here at Batu Bungan, the wooden floor creaks as you walk along the corridor.

After a brief tour of the school, we got into our longboat and rode upstream towards the Batu Bungan Village. This is a Penan resettlement area. The Penans were nomads but had settled down at this village. They used to live in a longhouse, but it was burnt down in December 2010. All that is left is the frame of the building, a grim reminder of this tragedy.

A fire razed this longhouse ...

The Penans now live in wooden houses.

These are homes to the Penan people at Batu Bungan

A peek into a house

A fishing net

Beautiful Penan children at the verandah of a house

There is a small market here, where handicrafts are sold to tourists.

There were rattan bags and mats and beaded ornaments,
all made by the locals here

Beautiful beaded souvenirs

Most of all, I was fascinated by this elderly lady who demonstrated her skills in playing a nose- flute. I must say that it was my first encounter with the nose-flute. This musical instrument is made of bamboo.

A nose-flute demonstration

My colleague, M*** remembered his own lost nose-flute which was passed down to him by his grandfather, and bought one from this elderly lady. It cost a mere RM10.00.

After Batu Bungan, it's off to the caves ...

Gunung Mulu National Park

People tell me that Mulu is destination not to be missed. Those who have been there, return to sing praises of its spectacular natural landscape, especially its world-famous caves. Hence, Mulu has been a place that I have always wanted to visit, and opportunity arises this weekend when a few of my colleagues and I flew ourselves there.

The flight took only 30 minutes from Miri, on an ATR-72. Before I had even had the chance to make myself comfortable, the little plane had landed. Lol.

Mulu Airport

A signboard facing the airport to inform of the notable places in Mulu

We then headed straight for the Gunung Mulu National Park, the starting point of our caving adventures.

The signage looks like that of Niah National Park

The Park is located by the Melinau River.

Some longboats at the Park Jetty @ Melinau River

There at the Gunung Mulu National Park, we accommodated ourselves for two nights. After registration and payment at the Park HQ, we were shown to our rooms.

Park Headquarters

My colleagues and I put up in a chalet. It had 2 air-conditioned bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms. Each bedroom has 4 beds. There's also spacious living and dining areas and a kitchen.

Chalet

We had all our meals at the park cafeteria, Cafe Mulu, which was adjacent to the Park HQ.

Cafe Mulu

Inside Cafe Mulu

All I can say is that I truly enjoyed my short stay at Mulu. Will tell about the caves soon, do drop by some time to read ;)

Shredded Vegetarian Lean Meat

Many domestic helpers are addressed as "Kakak", meaning "sister" in Malay. So is my friend, W**'s housekeeper, whom we fondly call Kakak.

Kakak is a good cook, and has cooked for us time and again. Today for dinner, Kakak made this vegetarian dish, which I found to be really yum.

Shredded Vegetarian Lean Meat
Don't be deceived by its look!!

The mock shredded meat was chewy, and totally infused with the taste of ginger and soy sauce. Really yum to eat with plain rice.

And so, I cornered Kakak and interviewed her about this unique dish that I had eaten for the very first time.

Frozen vegetarian lean meat can be purchased from the supermarkets. Kakak then thawed the mock meat and shredded them by hand. It was a tedious task, and Kakak said the shredding made her sleepy. Lol. I can only imagine the amount of time it took to shred the mock meat so finely.

When it was time to cook, Kakak first saute finely shredded ginger in heated oil. About half a bowl of ginger was sauted till fragrant, and then added with the mock meat. The mixture is stir-fried over low fire. Kakak did not specify how much time it took to cook, but she said "quite a long time". Lol. After stir-frying for for some time, Kakak would add the final ingredient, and that is the dark soy sauce. Mix well, and dish out.

Well, it sounded easy enough, and I am thinking of replicating Kakak's recipe. It'll be good to cook it for Grandma, especially on the days when she eats vegetarian. Lol. If I ever get a chance to cook this dish, I'll be sure to blog it. So stay tuned!

Homemade Lasagna

The gals made lasagna for the first time ever! The ingredients - garlic, onions, carrots, tomatoes - were chopped finely. The buttons mushrooms were sliced thinly. We used 2 small bottles of Prego Traditional Italian Sauce to flavour the meat sauce.


We used minced beef for our lasagna.

While the meat sauce was cooking, we made the white sauce. It consists of 2 Tbsp of butter, 2 Tbsp of flour, 2 cups of milk, and 125g of grated mozarella cheese. We followed the instructions at the back of the pasta box. Btw, we used the San Remo instant lasagna sheets.

When it's ready, we layered our casserole dish first with the meat sauce, then a layer of white sauce and topped it with an instant lasagna sheet. We were able to make 3 layers!

The casserole was placed in the oven and baked for 40 minutes.

And thus, the gals had lasagna for tea. Lol. We were rather happy with the result, given that it was the first time we have cooked this. The gals decided that they would try making it again in the near future!

Yet Another Pedicure

Public holiday means a day for pampering myself. Lol. Went for a pedicure, and this time, I chose OPI Bastille My Heart from the OPI de France collection. It's a rich, shimmery dark red colour that is chic and elegant. Lurve it, as the French say it. Lol.

Spicy Fried Beehoon

A friend's sister-in-law cooked a spicy fried beehoon for us, and we loved it. It was made known to us that the spice paste was her own concoction. So, since then, we pestered her for the recipe, and the other day she scrawled it on a piece of paper. Here it is.

The blended ingredients are supposed to be stirred over low fire for over an hour. Once ready, it can be bottled and refrigerated, to be used over a long period of time. When you feel like eating some bee hoon, just scoop up some spice and stir-fry the rice noodles with your favourite ingredients, like minced pork, cabbage, carrots, and eggs.

We actually liked the bee hoon because it is slightly tangy, due to the use of lemon grass in the spice paste.

Well, I have not tried to cook this bee hoon yet, but perhaps one of these days, I may just give it a go.

Dad's Rojak Kedondong

Mom cooks all the food at home, but Dad makes his specialty for relatives this Lunar New Year.

Well, Dad's specialty is Rojak Kedondong. It's relatively simple, compared to the complicated dishes that Mom cooks.

First, pluck the kedondong fruit from the tree and then wash. Peel the skin and grate the flesh into a bowl. Then spoon some rojak paste into the bowl and mix well. Optionally, sprinkle some chopped peanuts and serve immediately.

It's very appetising because the fruit itself, sour and crunchy, is complemented with the sweet and spicy rojak paste.

The relatives loved it as it was rather refreshing after a whole day of consuming rich cakes and cookies so common in every household.