Sarawak Statewide Blackout

Geez, I was going out shopping at DPS for supplies after dinner with buddies. Then at One Stop upon buying a new RM1 drinking water from Sibu called Swan, I noticed the lights were slightly fading in and out, and I thought it was because of One Stop's incessant power usage for its techno music 24/7. Then after 2-3 fades, lights out at approximitely 7.23pm.

After a political remark, we went back to h3666 thinking this could be another one of those silly blackout like the one that happened on the 3rd August, except this time the whole Senadin is affected. I had already set my mind to play games today after a rough week, but with no electricity, that means we have to LAN party like how our forefathers did 20 years ago without laptops and such. So we killed the time playing with poker cards in the dark, and it was bloody hard to see the faces while playing blackjack and bluff (of course no gambling).

Imagine this face bumps into you in the night...

A few rounds of blackjack and bluff in the dark...

And presto I got 21, so was the Fool. For this round, and the next round, and the next round... dammit

After a while I called my mom if everything is okay, and she said Kampua Town was in the dark as well. So was Kuching and the whole Sarawak basically. The first thing that came into mind was that Sarawak was attacked by some terrorists (not the bearded Al-Qaeda-ish ones, the average political fanatics-ish ones) or just a neighboring country trying to invade and take over Sarawak for the timber and natural gases. I won't be surprise if there's a news saying Sarawak do need the billion dollar dams to be built in Sarawak after this incident. But alas I just couldn't careless about these, since this is Sarawak, the richest state in Malaysia and I'm just a 2nd year student.

Some people manage to put on some smiles despite the disaster. Here is our table at the refugee camp near the Senadin food stalls, along with other dozens of refugess who decided to wait the blackout out

So what after a few rounds of laughing, accusing and sh*t we went to the Senadin food stall side (this side got powered back after hours of darkness, we're waiting for our turn). There at 9.50pm, we continued playing our games and talk sh*t till the power for Senadin Phase 2 area (where h3666 is) was back online at 10.24pm. Then life continued, and we carried on with our planned LAN party till 2.20am. Then lights out.

This was a student's survival story during the blackout. I wonder what others have to tell, such as hospital medical staffs, IT shop owners, the 737 pilots etc.

Here are some newspaper article links for your reading pleasure on the Sarawak Blackout, all with the same 'cause is still unconfirmed' gimmick:

Borneo Post
Sarawak powerless for about 3 hours last night
The Star Online
Two million Sarawakians affected by blackout