By D’Drift Team
BINTULU, July 7: Dear DayakDaily readers, could any of you shed light on what these trees are? Are they golden rain trees?
Rows of them were found along the roadside in Tatau opposite the Tatau Foochow Association, and the scenery offered a great aesthetic appeal to the eyes, especially in a town that lacks landscaping.
From afar, the yellow dangling flowers looked like bunches of grapes hanging from the trees, and occasionally the flowers would sway with the breeze, glimmering gold in the sunlight.
Dying to know what trees they are, the D’Drift Team approached to ask the shop owners nearby but to no avail. They only knew that the trees have been there for quite some time now.
In fact, during last year’s D’Drift trip, the same row of trees had already grabbed our attention and piqued our curiosity, but we never highlighted the encounter in our writings.
One year later, they were still there, so we had to find out. A mobile app that could identify and name plants based on photos revealed that they were known as golden chain trees, or golden rain trees.
The downward-hanging flowers (or golden chains) were obviously responsible for the name. The app also said these trees could grow up to 10 to 20 metres tall and the flowers could grow as long as 40 centimetres.
Despite that, the question remains: Are these exotic-looking trees in Tatau really the tropical golden chain trees?
Sibu-Bintulu stretch of the Pan Borneo Highway
Complaints about the Pan Borneo Highway were unavoidable. Driving for about three hours from Sibu to Bintulu, the experience was awful because of the bad road conditions.
Not to mention the many diversions from left to right, from right to left, plus the fact that there were also not enough signages erected to warn motorists of the turns that were mostly sudden.
Of course, there were the annoying bumps and potholes that would rock vehicles so forcefully and suddenly that it made the journey almost intolerable.
Comparatively, the road from Kuching to Sibu traveled by the D’Drift Team the first few days was smooth.
Meanwhile, 20 out of 25 sections in phase one of the Pan Borneo Highway are expected to be completed by the end of the year.
The remaining five sections namely Bukit Begunan, Spaoh, Lambir, Tatau and Sarikei are, however, expected to be ready in April next year.
For the record, the construction of the Sarawak Pan Borneo Highway began in September 2015 and is now at 85 per cent completion.
Sarawakians, there are 10 more months to go until full completion. Once the mega project is done, it will be a game-changer for Sarawak road development – fingers crossed. — Dayakdaily
Related articles:
Travelogue, Day 1 – Anaconda hunt in Engkilili
Travelogue, Day 2 – Engkilili’s century-old red temple — ‘1/15 Fraction Company’
Travelogue, Day 3 – Let Sibu Street Art be world-renowned like Penang’s
Travelogue, Day 5 – Checking up on wild boar Robin, and testing Jendela’s WiFi Hotspot in rural areas
Travelogue Day 6 – Four-hour intense ‘bull ride’ to Lusong Laku
Travelogue, Day 7 – Traditional Sarawak-Japanese cuisine fusion: Wiggling sago worms on sushi
Travelogue, Day 8 – Japan, South Korea use manganese slag by-product to build roads, but Malaysia calls it waste
Travelogue, Day 9 – ‘Karau’ the sweet boy from Batang Ai National Park HQ
Travelogue, Day 10 – ‘Kopi o’, ‘kopi o peng’ in Tatau, Samalaju cost RM2.50, most expensive so far this trip
