How To Travel To Borneo Without Plane?

This seems to be an interesting topics recently when some travelers actually interested to go to Malaysia Borneo - Sarawak & Sabah without any plane when they are at West Malaysia. So I did an online search to find out if there is a way.

It is possible to travel to Borneo but it is not that straight forward. You need to have more times as I think one week is not enough for such a long travel. There is no way you can drive or take bus directly from West Malaysia to East Malaysia so do not ask me about what bus you can take.

I dun think there are any ferry or boat that can bring you direct from West Malaysia to East Malaysia unless you have the money to charter your own boat or may be tag along with cargo ship(totally no idea how this can be done).

If you want to travel Borneo from West Malaysia, you may try below method. I never try before, do leave me a message if you have do that as I am really interested to know the process. I am not too sure how long is the journey but I think you can travel along the way.

1. From West Malaysia, travel to Singapore by bus or car.
2. From Singapore, take fast sea ferry to Batam/Bintan(Indonesia Island)
3. From Batam/Bintan, catch Pelni Ferry to Java, then Indonesian Borneo, Kalimantan. Find the map for Indonesia, you will know where is Java & Kalimantan. I am not too sure if there are other Ferry Service other than Pelni.
4. From Kalimantan, find your way to cross over to Sarawak. I know if you drive, should be no issue. Not too sure about the public transport etc.

Hope this helps!

Sarawak Steamed Layer Cake

Sarawak is famous for its steamed layer cake. During the Chinese New Year, if you visit most of the houses, you will sure find it served as part of goodies. When we talk about cake, we normal will think of baked. but Sarawak we use steam which means we just need the steamer. 

I am not too sure where is this originate but since I know it already the cake that we used to eat during Chinese New Year and there are so many variety. Even my mum will make 10++ different flavour cakes.

You can buy those cake in some cake and bakery shop in Sibu or even the morning market. All the races in Sibu, we know how to make it. Malay people normally have more colourful version, Chinese tend not to put in too many colour as they feel too much colouring is not good for health. So you can choose what you want and try it!

Homemade steam cakes except the top left fruit cake.

Top: Fruit cake, Coffee cake

Bottom: Sesame cake, Seaweed cake

Close up for the coffee cake

Shopping Mall

There are lots of big and small shopping mall you may find in Sibu. Here are some of the list.

1. Wisma Sanyan
2. Delta Shopping mall
3. Medan Mall 
4. Sing Kwong Shopping mall
5. The Premier
6. Star Mega Mall
7. Farley
8. Everrise
9. Bus Terminal Shopping Centre
10. Ngiu Kee Hypermarket - Proposed 
11. Kin Orient Plaza Extension, Sibu - Proposed
12. Daesim Square, Sibu - Proposed

Star Mega Mall

Star Mega Mall Sibu had started operating its business on 29 July 2011. It is part of the business from Daesim Group and located at 4th Mile Oya Road.

DAESCO Hypermarket and Departmental Store, Sibu’s first hypermarket can be found in the new mall. There are lot of brands that you can only find in KL previosuly, now brought into Mega Mall, like Vincci etc

I had been to there once and it is not fully opened. I think I can have more pictures on this new mall after my visit.

By Bus

Sibu City buses shuttle people to the long-haul bus terminal just outside of town from 33 cents. Regular buses run to Kuching (eight hours), Miri (eight hours), and Bintulu (four hours). Overnight buses to Kuching are available.

From Kuching

1. Miri Transport Company (MTC)
2. EVA Express
3. Baram Express

Bus websites:-

http://www.journeymalaysia.com/coachsarawak.htm

By Boat

From Kuching


If you are not the fan of eight-hour bus rides, the best option for moving east to Sibu is by boat. It will be different experience as not many places provide you boat ride. One boat a day leaves the Express Boat Terminal in Kuching at 8:30 a.m. The Express Boat Terminal is not on the waterfront; you must take a 20-minute taxi. The scenic boat journey to Sibu takes less than five hours(shorter than the bus) and costs $40 almost the same as bus. (Do check on the bus rate on the day itself, as due to the inflation, the bus cost has been increased from year to year)

To Kapit

Kapit is the first stop on the journey up the Batang Rejang, departing between 5.45am and 4.45pm. Just go down to the terminal and ask which boat is next to leave. People are very helpful and the boats usually have a ‘clock’ showing the next departure time.

All boats to Kapit pass Kanowit and Song, and may stop at smaller settlements and logging camps en route; if you want to be dropped at any of these places, ask when you board. There are also a few scheduled services to Song.

You may refer to Sibu, Song & Kapit Express Boat Schedule if you want know the schedule off hand.

Read more: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/malaysia/malaysian-borneo-sarawak/sibu/transport/getting-there-away#ixzz205pHcjp6

By Plane

Direct Flight From KL

1. AirAsia
2. Malaysia Airlines
3. Firefly

Direct Flight From Johor Bahru

1. AirAsia

Direct Flight From Other State in Sarawak

1. AirAsia
2. MasWings

Direct Flight From Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

1. MasWings

From Other State in Malaysia

There isn't much direct flight to Sibu, mainly you need to transit if you are travelling from the place other than the 3 stated above. KL & Kuching are the 2 most popular transit point to reach Sibu.

If you are planning to travel every place in Sarawak, then you may land Kuching and from there, you can take bus service or boat to travel around Sarawak

From Singapore

There is no direct flight from Singapore to Sibu. However, you can fly to Sibu via below common routes.

1. Direct flight from Johor Bahru - Travel from Singapore to Senai Airport. You may refer to the website from Senai Airport - To & From Singapore to check how to travel between the 2 places.
2. Transit in KL
3. Transit in Kuching, Sarawak

Sibu Restaurants

I have a food blog which I update on my food journey and that included some of the restaurant in Sibu. You may refer to Sibu Food Blog here for more information.

Here are the list I extracted from certain sources and I linked with my blog for those I had visited:-

Coffee Shop

1. New Nur Islamic Cafe
2. Aloha Food Center
3. Soon Hock Cafe and Restaurant
4. Chop Hing Huong兴园餐室
5. Aloha Food Center
6. Sieng Heng Cafe
7. Taman Selera Muhibbah亲善美食园
8. Huang Chuang Cafe欢泉茶室
9. Choon Seng Coffee Shop
10. Jin Xuan Corner
11. Kian Hock Coffee Shop
12. Sie Kai Food Stall
13. Ding Wang Gourment Place鼎王美食坊
14. Rong Rong Seafood & Cafe荣荣海鲜茶餐室
15. Bai Sun Cafe百顺茶室
16. Kafe Up2U随億茶室
17. Ipoh Town Kopitiam
18. Xi Chan Lai Cafe喜常来茶室
19. Little Umbrella小雨伞
20. Ah Ching Cafe阿清茶室
21. Master Eatery
22. Roy Corner No.4
23. Daniel Cafe迎宾美味茶室
24. 966 Corner
25. Yummy's Kafe吔美茶室
26. Hock Sing Cafe福星茶餐室
27. Thomson Corner 詩巫東昇閣
28. Toto Cafe多多茶餐室
29. Wan Li Sheng Ruo Mian 万里生肉面
30. Red Vinasse Kampua 红糟干盘面
31. King Sun Canteen 金顺阁
32. Chopsticks
33. Kiaw Hin Cafe 桥兴茶室

Market

1. Tiong Hua Road Market
2. Civic Center Market 民众会堂菜市场
3. Sibu Night Market
4. Sibu Central Market

Cafe

1. Klang Bak Kut Teh
2. Enjoy Cafe and Restaurant
3. Cafe Cafe
4. The Cafe IND
5. Noodle House
6. Peppers Cafe
7. KCaffe
8. Junction Cafe
9. Payung Cafe
10. Anson
11. The Ark Cafe and Restaurant
12. Rasa Sayang Cafe
13. Oriental Bistro
14. Tom's Too
15. Victorious Cafe
16. Italian Coffee
17. Masjid Lama Cafe
18. The Uptown Cafe
19. 328 Katong Laksa 328加東叻沙
20. Golden Bakery House & Cafe
21. Espressense
22. Nica Gelateria

Restaurant

1. Singapore Chicken Rice
2. Good Happiness Restaurant旺喜楼
3. Zen Japanese Fusion Dining
4. Hong Fu Seafood 洪福海鲜酒楼
5. 168 Terminal Cafe
6. Chui Shiang Court翠香阁
7. New Capitol Restaurant新首都冷气大酒家
8. 喜来登餐厅
9. 金喜楼
10. Akatsuki Animate Restaurant木ノ葉焼物語
11. Joystar Garden花悅枋
12. Hai Bing Seafood & Coffee Shop
13. Mum's Place老地方食店
14. Happy Hour Corner欢乐阁
15. Kong Mama江妈妈
16. Yu Xuan Thai BBQ Steamboat玉轩泰式（火炭）烧烤火锅
17. Singma Herbal Roasted Duck King Food Shop鸭皇大食店
18. Mitsu Shabu Shabu Restaurant 快可利涮涮锅

Dim Sum

1. Fish Culture Cafe 鱼玩食家
2. Hong Fu Seafood 洪福海鲜酒楼

Fast Food

1. SugarBun
2. KFC
3. McDonald
4. Pelicana Chicken
5. Marrybrown
6. PizzaHut

Dessert and Snack Place

1. BlackBall
2. ZenQ仙Q甜品专卖店
3. Sibu Dumplings
4. teAmo磨磨茶
5. WikiTea
6. Nest Station Egg Puff 巢阁鸡蛋仔 
7. Seng Kee昇记
8. Big Apple Donuts and Coffee
9. Easy Drink Easy Go

Bakery

1. Chung's Bakery
2. Xiu Long Confectionery 小龙饼家

Others

1. Ramadan Bazaar Sibu
2. Sibu Foochow Festival