Kapit

Sue does not have to be back at work until early January and so we have a total of four or five weeks together to travel and allow me to acclimatise.  Last weekend we went to Sibu, the nearest large town, some two hours drive from Saratok.  Sibu lies on the Rejang river and from there we took a day trip on the river ferries to Kapit, a small town in the interior which can only be reached by river I believe.

The ferries travel at 20-30 knots and the journey to Kapit takes about two and a half hours.  We travelled "business class", which is one step down from "first class" and entitled us to air conditioning and a flickering film on DVD which could barely be heard above the roar of the engine.  During the trip a man wandered round with a large bin liner full of crisps and other packet snacks for sale.

As we hammered our way up river I scanned the shoreline for crocodiles and, out of the corner of my eye briefly glimpsed a large one basking on a log with its legs dangling over the sides.  I don't think Sue believed me.  The river is an artery into the interior of the island and we saw many big tugs towing barges full of logs,  (Borneo is said to be losing its rainforest at the rate of one percent a year).

Kapit itself was cooler than Sibu and noticeably less humid, perhaps because it is a couple of hundred metres higher.  We had a pleasant stroll around the little town and visited Fort Silvia built by one of the Brookes, "the White Rajahs of Sarawak" in the 1880s.  Inside is a dusty little museum where we signed the Visitor's Book before getting our boat back.