Calvin's Place: An altered Road Trip

Monday, 6th July 2009. Me and dad went on a road trip en-route to Miri and the expected time of return is Saturday, 11th July 2009.

We stopped by many small town such as Sri Aman, Betong, Saratok and Sarikei before reaching Sibu. 2 nights were spent at Sarikei and Sibu respectively. Its a business trip where my dad's friend were to collect back debts from his business all the way from Kuching to Miri, and that's why we stopped by so many places.

While at Sibu on the 3rd day, we had a walk at the waterfront, the famous boats assembly area where boats plying internal districts route are busy loading either daily stuffs into their ships or people en-route to internal districts such as Kapit and Song. We then visited our clients' store and also staff at Sibu. That night, we also had a dinner with one of our clients and also dad's Sibu close friend. We used to stay at his house whenever we visit Sibu if we are alone.

Life is packed with the unexpected. That night at the dinner, we were talking about dad's close friend, uncle 张明通。 Suddenly, we got a phone call from mum saying that uncle 张明通 is at the hospital and is vomiting blood profusely. Everyone was shocked to hear that and we even thought that he was only admitted to the Timberland that night after vomiting blood at home. uncle 张明通's son, Siew Boon is one of our staff and we got a call from him informing us that he is rushing back to Kuching using the last bus plying Sibu-Kuching.

After dinner, approx 45mins later, we reached back at the hotel. While looking for parking at around the compound of the hotel, dad got another phone call. What I heard was 'HA?? COnfirm bo??' I knew that something wasnt that right already at that very moment. After dad finished his conversation on the phone, he told us in a sad tone that uncle 张明通 had just passed away. We all dropped our jaws, shocked to accept this shocking fact.

Hence, the trip to Miri for me and dad is altered. We changed our plan to return back to Kuching the next day using express boat to attend uncle 张明通 funeral.

I was asked by uncle 张明通's son, Siew Boon to photograph the very last day of the funeral ceremony where all the rites and ceremonies are carried out. Pictures will be posted in the next post.

Here are some of the pictures taken during the road trip:

1. Sibu Yu Chiong