On The Move Again

As soon as we returned to Petaling Jaya from Kerteh we had to prepare for a trip to Bintulu. We had made reservations on Air Asia to be in Bintulu from about mid December to the end of the month. Shaffik had planned to take his family on an overland trip to Kota Kinabalu for the Christmas holidays and there was enough space in his new MPV for us to join them in the trip. Hence all the pre bookings for the cheap air ticket and the preparations for the trip.

We planned and execute our plans but there are certain things we could not plan or predict. Like Shaffik and his whole family having flu and fever, one after the other, starting about ten days before the overland trip; like Ram and I having flu as well when we returned to PJ from Kerteh, which put a strain on the well being of everybody healthwise. The weather too had not been any help as it had been raining and gloomy over most of the days.

Shaffik was determined to go ahead with the trip as although we have been to Kota Kinabalu before, this will be his first time by road and first time for me too. We envisage the trip will take about 10 hours road traveling time. There will be quite a few immigration checks to go through and the queue and waiting time may slow us down. Immigration checkpoints are open during daylight hours only hence we may have to break journey overnight somewhere.

There will be ten immigration checks along the way. The only way to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah from Sarawak is through Brunei. Look at the map of Brunei. The country is split into two portions with part of Sarawak (Limbang) in the middle. Therefore the checks will be on exiting Sarawak, entering Brunei, exiting Brunei and entering Sarawak at Limbang, exiting Sarawak again and entering Brunei and exiting Brunei to reenter Sarawak. Then exiting Sarawak to enter Sabah. Ten immigration checkpoints altogether!!!

We traveled to Bintulu on Thursday 14th Dec. The whole Bintulu family including the maid were down with various stages of fever, flu and cough. Ram and I were no better. I was sneezing away while Ram was sniffling too. It became worse on our second day in Bintulu, especially Ram. But the Almighty be praised, all of us recovered in time for the trip which was scheduled for 19th. to 26th December.

We started our trip in the evening of the 19th. More of the trip later……..

MKI Ramblings Unlimited,
Petaling Jaya