A visit to Liu Lian Town

Note: A small typo error in my initial post.....Junoesque with her usual sharp-eyed scanner noticed that I couldn't be arriving Serian within 15 mins unless I fly!!! Anyway, it was supposed to be a 45 mins journey...Thanks Junoesque for pointing it out and yes, I have said thank you...received the virtual kiss???

Guess where was I on Sunday?? Or rather guess which part of the town is labelled as the durian town??

Guess...guess....guess....

Sarikei is represented by an pineapple; Sibu a Swan (God knows what's the significance); Bau with pitcher plant and many many more significances....

Guess some more................

Ok, ok, I'm an impatient person and I couldn't stand all the guesses...

I went to serian for our Feast day celebration (Note this as I shall be doing a little bit of explanation at the end of this post).....It was actually a total alien to me....we started our journey at 8.30am and arriving Serian at 9.15am....Mass was at 9.30am and it was in Bidayuh (Bidayuh population is the largest ethnic group in Serian, and most Serianese can converse in Bidayuh and Hakka) I know nuts about the dialect though I pretended that I understand (since I was put right infront of the bench facing the altar)...

Mass finished at around 11am and we were told to roam around like hungry ghost while waiting for lunch at 12 noon at a lakeside restaurant canteen

Off we went to the market......

To market, to market, to buy a fat pig.
Home again, home again, jiggerty jig.

To market, to market, to buy a fat hog,
Home again, home again, jiggerty jog.

To market, to market, to buy a plum bun,
Home again, home again. Market is done

hehehee...sorry, couldn't find a fat pig or hog though I saw the head of a wild boar!!!! I bought the jambu air (another childhood delicacy). I remembered we used to mix the jambu with soy sauce and sugar...So nice and juicy and refreshing....

Exactly at 12 noon, we headed back to the lakeside canteen where to my dissapointment is a halal eatery (Why we chose a halal eatery beats me cos none of us are muslims....in fact we are all very much non-muslims...of course we are non-muslims, this is a religious activities, remember?? Duh!) I was sulking and whining about porkless lunch but at the end of the whole thing, I ate to my stomach's content....Food was just so-so and we were served just plain water and chinese tea...Not worth taking pictures of the food, thus explaining the photo-less food.

Anyways, I managed to take some breathtaking (cos' it stinks) views of the lakeside.....

What society am I in?? No, I'm not a member of any triad.....in fact, I'm a member of a society that helps the poor and the deprived by robing from the rich...heheheheh....No, no, no, I'm too good a girl to do the robin hood thingy though I've always like the robe of the Franciscan priest (with hoods and all that)....Ok, ok, enuf of the curiosity.....I belong *background music by celine dion and Il Divo I believe(??) starting to play by itself* to the Society of St Vincent de Paul where our main objective is to help the poor and the needy in our community and we relies on donations from both individuals and churches to keep our society going.... We provides food, dole and educational assistance on a montly basis and at times, counselling too. This is an international society and was founded by Frederic Ozanam in the year 1850.

27 September 2006 is our feast day and this explained why we were in Serian on Sunday....we have 5 conferences (Kuching, Serian, bau, Lundu and Padawan) and every year we take turns to host the feast day (and this year obviously is hosted by Serian Conference)