MY JOURNEY TO SMK BELAWAI

At Belawai beach.

Accepting my 'cenderahati'.

Form 3 & Form 5 students of SMK Belawai.

Welcome to SMK Belawai, Mukah.

Me giving my talk to the students at SMK Belawai.

SMK Belawai, Mukah.

Me & Siti with our funny gestures.

My travelling companion, Siti Nurazlilah.

Welcome to Tanjung Manis.

April 14th, 2009 - I woke up at 6.30am. I had arrived at the little town of Sarikei yesterday. Today I have to travel to Belawai. I have never been to Belawai before. I had asked around and my guess is that it would take me 3 hours to reach SMK Belawai in Mukah division. My talk starts at 10:30am. So, if I take the 7:30am express boat, it would be just nice.

7:30am - I reached the Sarikei Terminal and boarded the express boat heading towards Tanjung Manis. From there I have to catch a ride to Belawai. I was surprised that it took us 1 hour to reach Tanjung Manis. From there we were lucky enough to board a van that charged us only RM8 for our trip from Tanjung Manis to SMK Belawai. I was even surprised that it only took us not more than 20 minutes to reach the school.

9:20am - We have arrived at SMK Belawai, Mukah. We were welcome by its PK1 and was ushered in to meet the principal. Later the counselor, Cikgu Tarmizie brought us to the school canteen for breakfast. The table was overflooded with food! I think I ate a plate of mee goreng and several pieces of cakes plus a cup of coffee.

10:30am - We were brought to the school hall. My travelling partner, Siti Nurazlilah started the talk until 12:15pm and I continued until about 1:30pm. It was stuffy because the hall was packed with form 3 & form 5 students. It felt like buckets of sweat were pouring out of my body. After summing up everything, the school was kind enough to give us souvenir as token of appreciation.

1:30pm - They fed us with food again. This time it was a spread of hot and spicy seafood. I really ate a lot in this school. The food really is fabulous.

2:10pm - Cikgu Tarmizie offered to send us to the Tanjung Manis Terminal but before that we were brought around to see Belawai & Rajang township (which is very small). He even brought us to the beach so that we could take some pictures.

3pm - We arrived at Tanjung Manis Terminal just in time to catch the second last express boat to Sarikei. We slept the whole way feeling tired but glad that the trip was worthwhile.

Goodbye SMK Belawai and thank you. We sure will come and visit you again! :)