Selling Petrol in Plastic Bottle

When you travel between major cities in Cambodia, you will hardly find proper petrol station along the road. Usually, petrol or diesels are sold in a bottle like containers as shown above. The sight of a stall selling petrol in plastic bottles is a normal appearance in Cambodia. They might have reasons for selling petrol in such manner because to build proper petrol station might be too expensive to them.

If you wanted to travel long distances in Cambodia, make sure you fill up your tank or bring extra container of petrol in your car because you will never know whether you will be able to find any bottles filled with petrol along the way in case you really needed it.
However, if your travel from Kota Semarahan to Sadong Jaya, you will notice the similarity as shown in the picture below where petrol are sold in bottle like containers due to similar reason i.e. you will hardly find proper petrol station along the way. One of the reasons for not having the petrol station along the way is because the road linking the two areas is only recently completed and it will take some time for anybody who wanted to venture into the business to set up the proper petrol station along the way.

Airplane wreck

Is it an airplane wreck or an airplane disaster? However, there seem to be two planes on the ground. The location is somewhere in Kampung Sindang, Kota Semarahan where a hype of activities were going on unloading big pieces of airplane. Don't know exactly what the use of those planes actually.

Broadband Service

It seems that the long waited broadband service is back in this area. That what they have been promising when we kept on complaining about the service before that within a month they should correct the problem associated with the service.

Refer to my previous post here about the connection problem in this area.

Now here is what the service look like.

The 3G bar dwindles between 2 or 3 bars. Sometimes the bar goes down to only one bar. The HSDPA high speed broadband is available as shown by the letter "H".

Well we are glad that the service is being resumed even though the connection strength is only two or three bars. Hopefully, they will keep improving the service from time to time. With that kind of service will improve on the digital divide within the area. Also, hopefully that they will improve on their customer support aspects which problem has been highlighted in my previous post.

Ferry Service

There are two alternatives route to go to coastal areas such as Asajaya, Sadong Jaya, Sebuyau, Etc. One alternative is using the route from Kota Semarahan to Asajaya using ferry services. Most travellers prefer to use this route since it is much shorter route. The ferry services are carried out using two ferries running concurrently between the two sides of the Samarahan River.

One of the two ferry carrying vehicles from one side to the other side of the river.


View of the Samarahan River.

Another ferry carrying passenger and vehicles going to the other side tof the river.

View of the ferry deck where the captain take control of the ferry.

View from onboard of the ferry.

One of the ferry approaching the side of the river.

The use of the ferry services comes with a fee. For passenger car, you have to pay RM1.00 per usage and I think is is very cheap as compared to burning fuels by using the alternative route. Besides, the fee, during peak period, one has to wait in the queue sometimes can be more than 20 minutes if the traffic is very heavy. However, due to the size of the ferry which can carry more than 30 passenger cars, the waiting time is reduced significantly.

Labor Day Celebration

Power boat competition being held in conjunction with labor Day Celebration in Desa Ilmu. There are several stalls nearby where small enterpreneurs have the opportunities to sell their products. The type of products suitable to be sold at such occasions are drinks, fastfoods, snacks, etc. However, the amount of money that they made depends on the number of visitors attending the function.

Annual event to celebrate the labor day being held at Desa Ilmu, Kota Semarahan by Naim Chendera. Among the events are Power Boat Racing, tarik tali, etc.

Looking for a spot to relieve yourself. Thanks god that there is a portable toilet bin nearby but need to queue up for your turn.

Poco-poco aerobic being held at the occasion.

Kota Semarahan

Kota Semarahan is surrounded by several tributaries such as Batang (a river in Malay Language) Semarahan, Sg. Tuang, Sg. Meranek. Kg Meranek is one of the earlier settlement within the Kota Semarahan Area. Desa Ilmu is the latest modern settlement located within the area.

Location map of Kota Semarahan which is located about 45 km from Kuching (Sarawak Capital City). Kota Semarahan is developed at a very fast rate with several new townships cropping up along the major road leading to Kuching.

Wireless Broadband Connection

Currently using wireless internet connection via Celcom broadband. There are several ways of utilizing the Celcom Broadband i.e. using handphone as modem, using pmcia card, or using usb modem. By using handphone as a modem, the speed is limited to the speed of the handphone usually capable of up to 418 kbps where you have to wait endlessly for video uploading. The second common way is using PCMIA card but the problem with this approach is that your card is limited to the notebook that you are using and it will be very cumbersome to remove the card and plug it on other computers. The best alternative is using USB modem as shown in the picture. The brand of the modem is NUTON MOBIDATA which cost around RM850. The modem is capable of reaching broadband speed up to 3.6 Mbps or the modem can utilize the latest communication protocol i.e. HSDPA. The celcom broadband can be subscribed for unlimited data usage for RM98 per month. Using the modem, downloading video streaming is very convenient and very fast. The area surrounding UNIMAS, UiTM and Desa Ilmu kota Semarahan has a good coverage of 3G celcom broadband and in the future HSDPA will be available which mean a very high internet connection speed.

street light

streetlight
Originally uploaded by wanhashim

Finally the local authority has turned on street lighting for the housing development phasing that we are staying after several months of surrounding darkness. The community would be much safer and it will be much easier for others to visit especially at night with the street being lighted up.

Jogging Track

Jogging Track
Originally uploaded by wanhashim

This is a jogging track located in Desa Ilmu, Kota Semarahan. The track is paved with bitumin. The track is circulating the man made lake. The lake is a "Borrow Pit" lake used for building roads in the vicinity area about 30 years ago.

The track is about 1-km long. You can circulate the jogging track three times and you will cover the length of about 3-km. The surrounding of the jogging track is very pleasant with a beautiful surrounding.