Houses at Li Hua Island

I will show some photos taken when I went to Li Hua Island which I mentioned is the Beverly Hill of Sibu. This house belongs to the chairman of the Sanyan Building, who also happened to be Sarawak’s chief minister brother. It is by far the largest house in Li Hua Island with huge land. The house has its own generator and transformers. Hence, there should be no worries should there is a power failure at the grid. Note there is 2 15^th century armour suit at the main entrance to the house. Wonder where he get those armour suit. Britain perhaps?

This house is so full of plants and tree that I can hardly see the house, let alone the main entrance. It is more like a beach resort or some sort with this thick “forest”. Maybe it is trying to avoid people from spying or seeing what they are doing inside it. This house should remain cool in very hot day due to the shades of the plants surrounding the house.

This is an interesting structure. The architecture of this house resembles “kampung” of traditional Malay village.

This is another spectacular house taken at the island.

Going Green

In order to go “Green” and protect the environment, most of the photos taken from now on will be taken on my bicycle, LeRun Solaris. Hence, my blog will be somehow environmentally friendly. This will also comply with the European Directives to comply with RoHS (the restriction of the use of hazardous substances). Ha….ha….. Just kidding. Unfortunately, there is no bicycle lane here although I had e-mail to the local council here the request before the general election. Our government is really lacking behind when it comes to environmental protection. Even the recycling campaign failed miserably.

On mother’s day, I cycle for nearly 2 hours to the edge of the Sibu town to get some interesting photos to share. There is this Li Hua island, a man made island residential area about 4km from the town centre. This residential area in my opinion is our own version of Beverley Hills as there are a lot of big and magnificent houses around here. I believe even Donald Trump will be impressed. More on that in my next post.

This island is linked to the “mainland” by a bridge. Here is a rough idea on the island layout, although not accurate. There are a lot of criminal cases happened here in the past such as burglary. So, the entrance to the island is fitted with CCTV. The bigger houses tend to have security post and CCTVs to prevent armed robbery.

On the day I saw a para-glider in the air. I not sure whether this is an army personnel or just a civilian.

North Korea Registered Cargo Ship

I have seen many ships registered under some odd countries calling at Sibu port such as Belize, Vanuatu, Panama, Liberia, Mongolia and etc but never from a communist country such as North Korea. Recently a North Korea registered ship call at Sibu port carrying rice and was unloading the cargo at the port. Obviously there is a shortage of rice here until we had to resort to get rice from this ship. The ship is probably chartered by someone else to carry rice here.

From the ship design, it was made from Japan. Physically, it is not well maintained and manned by the North Korean. It is classed with a odd classification society I never come across. The load line is carved with KC which I will assume as Korean Class, probably a local classification society.


This is another view taken from the port area. One can see the Pagoda (a.k.a Tua Pek Kong locally) and the Trade and Exhibition Centre (the one that looks like a storage place). The Trade and Exhibition Centre used to be one of the cargo storage building for the port until few years ago the local government used as the exhibition centre. I think this is a bad move. The structure is nothing impressive and the internal is not well refurbished (again I would like to question on how the government spent the money). There is not enough car park when there is a major event there.

View of Butterworth, Penang

Bagan Luar and Penang Island at the horizon

Butterworth is part of Penang and is located at the mainland of Peninsular Malaysia. The place is less developed compare to its island counterpart. There are not many attractions there. However, there will be some development especially at the Bagan Luar areas (hopefully this will continue to be under the opposition ruled state). All the following photos are taken from a new apartment from Bagan Luar

Badminton: Thomas Cup

Which team will be triumphant in the 2008 edition Thomas Cup? Thomas cup is the World Men’s Badminton Team Championship. Well, historically, only Malaysia (5), Indonesia (13) and China (6) had won the Cup.

On paper, it looks like China will be champion again this year but this can’t be say with great assurance. The single players are said to be the key of success with an impressive line up of Lin Dan, Bao Chunlai, Chen Jin and Chen Yu. They are easily top 5 players at the moment. However, their performances are not as consistent as some of them lose to a lower seed player this year. The double players are quite solid. Actually, there are hardly any differences between the double players nowadays as most of them are equally strong. High expectation on them and for the Olympic Beijing might cause the players crumble under pressure.

I fear Malaysia might not even make it to the semi final this year. All the 3 singles are not consistent this year and most of Malaysian players tend to crack under pressure. Malaysian players have the skill and speed but lack of discipline and mental toughness. My prediction is a quarter final appearances only.

Indonesia on the other hand is a bit tricky. They are playing in their home ground and should not be taken lightly. Should able to make it to the semi final, at least. Solid single line up, although not impressive. The double should be solid. The Indonesian seems to be able to adapt to the change in partner in the double department. Chandra Wijaya-Nova Widianto might play an important role as the second double.

South Korea is underrated team but do keep a lookout of them. They have a very steady and solid 3 single players and formidable double players. It is my opinion that they have the most balance team in the competition this year. I would not be surprised if they win this championship this year. At least a semi final appearances.

The only European country in this tournament this year is Denmark. I believe the players will struggle with the tropical weather and the humidity in Jakarta and probably reach the quarter-final only. Peter Gade Christensen had been absent for a long time and he will be playing second single this time. It is very hard to predict whether he can deliver this time or not. The double department is solid with all 3 pairs in their disposal can match with other top pairs. The Danish players are mentally strong and should be a tough nut to crack.

This is a team event and team work is therefore essential. Among the countries, I am really impressed with the European players. They stand united and support each other in the team event. Even the Uber cup players support the men and vice versa. Sometimes players from European region will join in to support such as England, Sweden and Netherlands. You will never see this type of team support from the Asian team.

My prediction for the winner this year: South Korea

Sibu Town Square

This is the iconic building in Sibu, the Sanyan Building which also the tallest building in Sarawak. It is situated at the town centre, next to the town square, which also the largest in Malaysia. The building houses the some government departments, Sibu municipal council and a few corporate organizations. The lower 5 floors is the shopping complex, probably the best place to shop in Sibu. The anchor tenant is Parkson Ria. I personally can finish shop inside it within 30 minutes. There are few fashion boutiques which are crowded during festive season. There are handful computer shops inside the complex also but nothing to shout about. The good point is it is well maintained and clean.

The leaders here had picked Swan as the symbol to symbolize the town. Hence, there are about 3 statues around the town to get the message across the visitors. There is 1 statue as shown in the town square. I have no idea why swan is picked. Sibu don't have any history with swan, let alone any swan can be sighted here. The leaders here said that it is to symbolize the gracefulness of the people here. Frankly, the people here still behave like a barbarians if the way they drive and park their cars are taken into consideration.


In the town square, you will notice this horses statue (with the swan statue at the background). There is a marble ball which claimed by the leaders here is strategically placed to enhanced the town "Feng Sui". The swan statue also claimed by them been placed strategically for "Feng Shui" purpose. I hate to say this but I have yet to see any major good fortune for the town except more floods in the recent years. Probably the "Feng Shui" mentioned earlier is to ehanced the good fortune for the corrupted leaders here. There used to be water coming out from the marble ball and create a fountain or some sort. The ball will be spinning/revolve around its axis. However, the water is long gone as the maintance is high and the "barbarians" keep throwing coins into the fountain and probably damage the water pump in the process.


This is another interesting structure which can be found in the town square. One might think there is a Disneyland castle right in the middle of the town square. It was erected during the last X'mas and had been standing there ever since. I believe it is a good structure and it make the town square more attractive. However, it is placed in parking lots, taking about 14 car parks with it.

This is "Chuan Corridor" just recently built by some chinese association here. The concept is good but the end product is a letdown. The pedestrian path is make of cement and it is still rough with no smooth surface as it should be (considering the amount of money put into building it. Where the money goes?).

Well, I only show the phase 1 of the town square and it is indeed a beautiful and clean place. It will host the annual Borneo Culture Festival around end of June to early July (2 weeks). There will be stages, cultural performances and stalls selling traditional foods every night. It is one of the main event in this town to attract tourists locally and internationally.

I shall show the Sibu town square phase 2 in due time.

Oily Water Separator

Typical Japanese made Oily Water Separator

Every ship needed to fit oily water separator to conform to the MARPOL (Marine Pollution) Convention set by the IMO. Its main function is to process the oily or dirty water inside the engine room (usually bilge) and discharge the process water to the sea in order to protect the environment. The discharge water must be less than 15ppm (parts per million) according to the regulation. There are many manufacturers available with the Japanese and the European manufacturers have the better quality. Korean also manufactured a handful model with decent quality. China also manufacture actively lately but of poor quality.

A typical Japanese built oily water separator is as shown (TAIKO TYPE, UST Type Series). This type of oily water separator is divided into 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd chamber. Coalescer is installed in both the 2^nd and 3^rd chambers. For this equipment, a gravity separation method has been adopted, by which oil is separated from water by the difference of the specific gravity between the two.

Oil/water mixed liquid, accumulated in the bilge tanks is led into the inlet of the oil separator by a bilge supply pump. Then, it is roughly separated in the 1^st separation chamber. At this time, sludge can be also separated and is then accumulated at the lower inlet. It is necessary to open the sludge valve sometimes in order to transfer the sludge into the sludge tank.

As fine grained oil is still contained in the oil/water liquid which is roughly separated in the 1^st separation chamber, the oil/water liquid is coarse grained nearly to 100% by the coalescer in the 2^nd separation chamber. Here, almost all of oil is floated and separated. To ensure reliability, this separator is provided with the 3^rd separation chamber which is also consist of the same type of coalescer. The treated water of which oily density is super thin (less than 15ppm) is drained out of the ship.

The oil and oily matters floated and separated in the 1^st and 2^nd separation chambers are accumulated in the oil reservoirs in those chambers. The level of accumulated oil is detected by an electrostatic capacity type probe. Then, a solenoid valve is opened by the command of this detector. Accordingly, the oil is automatically drained in due course.

Schematic Drawing of the Operation of Oily Water Separator

The European manufacturers (and the bigger tonnage ship) will usually incorporate a 15ppm alarm where should the discharge is more than 15ppm, the 3 ways valve will shut down to prevent the discharge. The alarm will also be audible to alert the engineers onboard.

According to the regulation again the discharge via oily water separator is also prohibited within 12 nautical miles from the land. In reality, very few ships actually use oily water separator to discharge the bilge water. Most of them just directly discharge the bilge water overboard and damage the environment in the process. The reason is simple, the discharge by oily water separator is slow. The rate of discharge is probably 0.5m³ per hour.

This is how a coalescer looks like

For maintenance, the coalescer should be clean and if damaged, it should be replace with new one. The inside of the separator must be cleaned to wipe off the stains or oily matters.

Stains and oily matters inside the oily water separator

The effectiveness and the operation of the oily water separator is surveyed annually by the Classification Society in order to maintain the ship’s International Oil Pollution Prevention (IOPP) Certificate.