A Museum for Sibu

A museum for Sibu?

Not that there is no Museum in Sibu but I feel that the current one housed at the Civic Centre (Dewan Suarah) is a bit too far away and out of the way for most visitors to the town even though the exhibits are excellent.

I always believe a museum should always be strategically located and better still when it is near the town centre, especially for a small town. Besides, the building should also be imposing with nice compound. The former SMC building is located in the heart of Sibu town and has a park next to it. In my opinion, it therefore fits in the bill.



The former SMC building is now being renovated with the Upper Floor meant for the museum with exhibits and artifacts from the Dewan Suarah Museum while from what I gathered, the ground floor will be used as eateries. In my opinion, the current exhibits at the Dewan Suarah is among the best in Sarawak and with a new 'house', it will make an excellent museum! However, I do hope that the Museum will be professionally run and managed. There should be permanent exhibits as will as space for exhibition that changes with themes.





I look forward to visiting the museum when it is ready and open for visitors.

Old Street of Sibu

The following photo shows a row of one the oldest shophouses in Sibu. The buildings were put up after the great fire of 1928 that almost completely destroyed Sibu town. Before the fire, there was a row of wooden belian shophouses in its place. The wooden shophouses were mostly owned by Hokkiens.



In front of the shophouses is the oldest street in Sibu. Before the great fire of 1928, the street was known as Guan Thiean Street and was a popular street. It was named after a Mr. Teo Guan Thiean who owned a sundry goods shop there. Later, after the fire, concrete shophouses were put up. And the street in front was named "Old Street". Some of Guan Thiean children moved to Singapore while a few are still in Sibu. Today the street is named "Chew Geok Lin Street" after the founder of Wah Tat Bank. Wah Tat Bank was the oldest bank in Sibu which was started during the Rajah Brooke's reign but has since merged with Hong leong Bank.



Today, you can find Hong Leong Bank (formerly Wah Tat Bank), Transit Book Store, one or two plush restaurants or eateries there. Dr. Wong Soon Kai's Clinic used to be there.

New Sibu Central Police Station

Panoramic View of Sibu 2009

THE MIGHTY REJANG

Day time







Night Time

Rambutan and how Sibu got its name

I always like to compare having a rambutan tree in our Sarawakians’ house compound to that of an apple tree in an English backyard garden. Most owners of landed property in Sarawak would most likely choose a rambutan tree in very much the same way as the English would choose an apple tree for his garden when they intend to grow a fruit tree.

Just like the apple tree, the rambutan tree is such a sight to behold when it is laden with ripen fruits.




The domesticated rambutan is scientifically known as Nephelium lappaceum and belongs to the family Sapindaceae (to which lychee and longan also belong). There are many wild relatives of rambutan in Sarawak and Borneo.

Sibu is named after the wild rambutan called Sibau (Iban) which is scientifically known as Nephelium reticulatum. The Malays refer to it as Sibo. Very old colonial map has Sibu spelt as "Siboe". How it later appeared as Sibu on the map is anybody's guess but it could be a mispronounciation or more likely Sibu is the English spelling which is meant to be pronounced as 'Sibo'. (Many words in Iban that end with "au" end with an "o" in Sarawak Malay dialect eg bakau is bako, pulau is pulo and so forth). It is interesting to note that older generation of Hokkiens and Malays still refer to Sibu as Sibo while those eldery ibans still refers to Sibu as "Sibau".

It is possible that Sibau was once abundant in and around Sibu town, particularly on the often inundated bank of the Rejang River and the peat swamp areas.

Sarawak is not alone in having a town name after the wild rambutan. There is also a place in West Kalimantan, Indonesia called Putus Sibau



Rambutan or "the hairy fruit"

Ever wonder why the fleshy part of the rambutan fruit is difficult to detached from the seed unlike longan even though both belong to the same family? The reason is because the fleshy part of rambutan is developed from or is part of the seed coat (testa) unlike the fleshy part of longan which is not part of the seed coat. So, the fleshy part of rambutan is also known as “sarcotesta”. Even in the best rambutan variety whereby the flesh detached off from the fruit much more easily, the seed coat is still attached to the fleshy part.

The seeds of rambutan is said to be rich in solid fat which can be used to make soap and candle but is not popular as it is not commercially viable. Rambutan can also be made into jam but has not been popular.

It is interesting to note that Obama missed rambutan and will try it with fried rice when he intends to visit Indonesia where he spent part of his childhood.

Another lesser known wild rambutan species which is more spiky than hairy but is gaining popularity is the Pulasan or Nephelium rambutan-ake.





pulasan or Nephelium rambutan-ake

There is another species of rambutan which is hardly hairy at all: Nephelium maingayi. Its Iban name is mujau and the melanau called it serait.

Reminiscence of bygone days - The Sarawak House

When I was a young boy, the tallest building in Sarawak was the Sarawak House.

It was an outstanding landmark - a complex that consists of a hotel, a shopping arcade, a multistorey car park, a cinema and a restaurant, all in one. As a young child, I was, of course, impressed.

The hotel was called Premier Hotel and the restaurant, the Blue Splendour. I liked the names given to buildings in Sibu in those days (eg there used to be a discotheque was called "Confetti" and a restaurant called "Villa by the Grand" at the Grand Merdin Building - these are by-the-way thinggy, anyway).

I recall in the 1970s and early 1980s, "Blue Splendour" restaurant (together with other similar restaurants) was the place where wedding banquets were held, replacing old time favourite restaurants like Hock Chiu Lau. I thought it was a posh restaurant then.

Malcolm MacDonald (1901-1981) , the once powerful British Commissioner-General for Southeast Asia based in Singapore during the days of British Empire, stayed at the Premier Hotel when he came back to visit his good friend, the late Tun Jugah, in the 1970s. Malcolm's father was a former Prime Minister of United Kingdom. Malcolm MacDonald played a central role in the decolonization of the British Empire and wrote a beautiful book, "Borneo People"- a book that I like very much. He was instrumental in shaping the destinies of former British colonies at that time: Burma, Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei, Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong at the tail end of the British Empire. Someone mentioned that he listened too much to Tun Jugah which was the reason Sarawak ended up being part of Malaysia as Malcolm has the ear of the colonial office in London. But that story is for another posting on another day!

As a young boy, we would climbed up to the upper floor of the multi-storey car park and have a vantage view of Sibu town (rivalled only by the Bukit Aup watch point) or loitered in the hotel lobby for the air-conditioned, a luxury at that time.

I remember the escalator very well. It was the first escalator in Sibu and also Sarawak (I was told). The escalator was just one way: going up from the ground floor to first floor. As a child, my brothers and I would used the escalator to go up and then walked down using the stair nearby and then up again and again.... until the supervisor, an elderly man, reprimanded us. The supervisor had a key and whenever someone accidentally pressed on the emergency button, he would used the key to restart the escalator. The escalator only operated at night and was initially like a "tourist attraction".

There was a popular night hangout called "the Bamboo House" at the ground floor of the Premier Hotel and one could hear Taiwanese singers crooning out their numbers (they were replaced by Filipino singers in the 1980s). In those days when Taiwan was still a poor developing country, Taiwanese were all over Southeast Asia, especially in Sarawak to earn a living, very much like the mainland Chinese today.

I also remember the cinema very well. It was aptly called, the King's Theatre. It was the place where my father took me to watch the movie "The Sound of Music" and other popular movies of the times. Later when I was in school, I continued to watch many movies there including those by Jackie Chan.

One morning, years later, on my way to school, I heard that the cinema was on fire. Later in school, students and teachers would peeped out of the windows to have a look at Sarawak House as my school was nearby and within eyeshot.

The cinema was, however, restored but fire broke out again at least twice a few years later. Legend has it that a lady commited suicide and her ghost continued to haunt the cinema. I have even heard of story that there is a seat in the cinema reserved for the ghost in order to appease her!

The building continued to be the tallest in this land of the hornbill until the 24-storey Wisma Bapa Malaysia in Kuching took over. Today, the Sarawak House still stands majestically in the heart of Sibu even though it is no longer the tallest in either Sibu or Sarawak. That honour has since been taken over by Wisma Bapa Malaysia in Kuching and now Wisma Sanyan, Sibu.

A Museum for Sibu