Sibu, Malaysia — summary of my trip to Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia, and the flight back

A trip summary and a very odd flight

March 2015

I enjoyed being back in Sibu.

The night market was fantastic, and I had forgotten the brilliant day/covered market. It was great to revisit both.

It was good to go back and check out the Chinese temple. It is worth a look.

The river was still bustling, and it was good to see the bullet boats zipping around — they were fast.

The colourful 'goods' transport barges were still around. One new thing I saw were private speed boats blasting around carrying passengers. These small speed boats seem to be very fast, even faster than the bullet boats. Impressive.

The RH Hotel still served a pretty poor breakfast, and the Wi-Fi still didn’t work. The room was OK, clean, and tidy, but it was worrying how grey the white towels were in the bathrooms.

Flight back

Well, it was a bizarre fight.

There was a 'final call' for boarding some 90 minutes before our planned take-off.

There was no message about boarding or gate changes. It was by luck that I picked up on a last-minute gate change and the final boarding. I almost missed my flight.

The plane took off 15 minutes early.

I've never been on a plane that took off early. I have taken off on many flights that have been hours late, but never on one that was early.

One final odd thing — there was no dimming of cabin lights for take-off; they plunged the plane into total darkness. The only light was from the seatbelt sign and the emergency lights on the floor.

The flight landed 30 minutes early.

A weird finish to the trip.