tornado thoughts

Sarawak trip

Came back from my first overseas business trip. Thank God that it was a blessed trip.
FYI, it has been 6 years since I last traveled on a plane. The last time was to Thailand with my army unit. For this 5 day trip, I sat on the plane 6 times, 3 of them are internal transit flights.
Here is the breakdown of my 5days:

12th - I went with my other boss and Gary (my fellow colleague cum the other boss's son) for this trip. We took Silkair's transit flight from Singapore to Kuching and to Sibu through an internal domestic flight by MAS. Please dont' be confuse by Sibu and Sebu island. Sebu island is a tourist beach resort while Sibu is a developing town I should say. Sibu has about 30-50 shipbuilding companies which is the most in the state of Sarawak. Upon touching down, my boss called his usual trustworthy taxi driver and we went straight to visit several shipbuilders. It was really an eye-opener where I get to see our navigation lights, searchlights and cables on the 33-38mtrs ships/boats. What I learnt was that the bosses are very friendly and humble. They had no air nor arrogance in them and they appreciate truthfulness and friendship.

Upon our journey back to the hotel, I saw several big churches in such a small populated area (20k). There was a Christian cemetry beside the Hosanna Bible School. Other churches that I saw was Logos Methodist church, St Joseph Church, etc. Hmmm, think East Malaysia many people are Christians compared to other religions because I didn't see any temple or mosque in sight. Probably there are more Chinese compared to Muslims in this area. We proceed to check in to Premier hotel and it was considered one of the better hotels in Sibu. We were treated to a sumptuous 8 course dinner that night by 1 of the shipbuilder and it cost only RM300+ for 12 persons. If the same type of dishes were served in Singapore, it would cost S$300+ at least.

13th - Checked out of hotel to take a transit flight to Kuching then to Miri. Took a picture of the airasia banner at Sibu airport before checking in. This particular transit flight 's waiting time was very long. Spent 3 hours waiting for our flight to Miri at Kuching airport. Though the area was very new, they lack of a eatery (they only had coffee bean). Other stuff like duty-free items are quite expensive. When we finally touched down in Miri airport, as usual the boss called another trustworthy taxi driver and took us to our hotel. This hotel was newly opened on 26th October 06 and is build by Shin Yang, one of our customers. This shows how big an organisation can be. From shipbuilding to building of roads, bridges and buildings!!



14th - Spent the whole day visiting our customers in Miri area. We got to walk around our hotel area in the evening while the boss left us on a trip to Beijing that night. It was considered R&R from that time onwards to 16th. We only had 1 more task in mind. The wedding dinner on 15th night.

15th - We bought the chinese newspapers and saw there were 10full pages on the congratulations for the wedding couple. This shows how grand the wedding was going to be. Gary and I went out to venture further from our hotel. A 20min walk to the next shopping mall and finally I found an internet kiosk. Spent 30min talking online to my dear dear and it cost me RM3. Hee. Gary was down with flu and thus we went back to hotel for him to get some rest. At 6pm, we went to the hotel and we were shocked that it was a very big ball room with 75 tables!!! How many weddings in Singapore can beat that number? There were a lot big shots but we were like 2 tiny shrimps out there don't know many people there. However, I took up the courage to introduce myself and Gary within our table and gave out our name cards. Got to know a shipbuilder/owner and a few other suppliers in Singapore whom can help each other out mutually. Everything went off fairly well. Mission accomplished!

16th - Home sweet home journey back to Singapore. As usual, taking a transit flight to Kuching back to Singapore. For more pictures of this business trip, please visit my fotopic album.

posted by tornado @ 7:51 AM