Monday, June 10, 2013

My World Tuesday: Rivers in Sarawak





Last month,on the 28th of May, an overcrowded boat similar to the above aeroplane looking boat sank, and 20 perished. The boat is still under the Rejang River. People who are not from the Rejang area are weary of going in these boats.

Having been married to a water engineer for more than 30 years, it is inevitable that part of his water knowledge is passed on to me.

The river traffic  has increased, and the banks get eroded. Once, near my maternal grand father's village house, two of those boats had a head on collision. Many drowned.

In the early 1970s, there was a terrible accident involving like the ones below. A teacher took some students in long boats to the rapids. Many students died. My cousin was swept down river and it was a miracle she survived.





These two photos were taken when I went up the mountains at Mulu. This was part of the popular tourist itinerary. The river flow was swift. There were parts where the water was so shallow, they had to use poles to move the boat. We respected the power of the river by wearing life jackets and not over crowding the boats.

4 comments:

My name is Riet said...

Yes I heard New Zealand is beautiful too.

Gattina said...

How terrible ! all these poor people !

Unknown said...

what a terrible thing.

EG CameraGirl said...

I'm so glad your cousin survived, Ann. Very scary! How sad there are ,boating accidents