The Dalai Lama was once credited for having said this quote: “Once a year, go some place you’ve never been before.”Subscribing to that idea, we booked a trip to Miri, without our usual (massive) pre booking research.
Miri is the 2nd largest city in northern Sarawak, Malaysia, with a land area of about 4,707.1 km2 . It's quite close to Brunei and is the birthplace of the petroleum industry in Malaysia.
Housing 360,000 inhabitants, you get a good mix of Malay and Chinese folks, and thus, speaking either language can be a plus in getting around. Surprisingly, about 70% of the folks we encountered had a difficulty understanding English, contrary to what we read about shortly before going there.
Miri is also the gateway to Sarawak and all of it's "must see" eco tourism-centered sights. While the beaches in Miri were nothing to rave home about, I heard that it's an excellent place to check out coral reefs.
With history rooted in petroleum, one of the most recommended places to go in the area is Canada Hill. Home to the Petroleum Museum and The Grand Old Lady, or the first ever oil well drilled in Malaysia, in 1910.
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| the first oil well in Malaysia |
If you're not renting a car, getting around by cab is not an issue, but you have to ask ahead of time if there are cabs in the area you plan to go to. As most folks have cars, not all malls have taxi stands. Fare is decided by distance vs a flat rate. There are no metered cabs n Miri.
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| upon finishing your time with immigrations, head out to this area. ATMs and the prepaid taxi counter are just nearby |
Upon arrival, you can get a pre paid taxi coupon at the airport. The fare from there to the town proper is around 21 MYR. ATMs abound in the airport and in town, on top of the usual money exchange establishments.
Miri also has a lot of malls and supermarkets that house both popular brands here and abroad, should you need anything. Some stores even featured duty free priced items (ex. Michael Kors watches, popular make up brands from the US etc).
Imperial Mall houses the Boulevard Department and Supermarket stores ( and a little of everything as far as shops go). There's also a KFC at the ground floor and a food court that serves lunch only at the 4th floor. Bintang houses Parkway as well as most known establishments (Starbucks, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Toys R Us..etc).
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| Vaghe...say what?! |
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| buffet at the Imperial Hotel |
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| as weird as it looks, it's actually pizza. This was served in the breakfast buffet in what seemed to be a wonderful way of shaking things up in an all chicken and beef meal :D |
Eating out? Though a typically Malaysian breakfast buffet features the typical Halal approved meal (ZERO pork and chicken or beef EVERYTHING), a lot of restaurants, including most of the major international fast food chains are available. Eating out to where the locals hang is a great experience, despite language barriers.
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| The Seaworld Seafood Centre is a 5 minute walk from The Imperial Hotel. It serves a whole variety of Chinese dishes (yes, they have pork), even crispy pata (Philippine Crispy Pork Leg in their menu) and a lot of fresh seafood (taken from tanks and cooked soon after) |
Before going to Miri, I had it in my head that we were going to cross the border and head out to visit neighboring Brunei. Day tours cost around 220 - 380 MYR for a family of 3, where discounts are given to bigger groups. We nixed this idea has our roundtrip flights to the Philippines was much cheaper than the 2 hour drive to Brunei. Should you drive, fuel is quite cheaper in the area. Oh, and the whole country of Brunei shuts down by noon on Fridays to give way to prayers.
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| the supermarkets we went to were well stocked. So well stocked that we picked up stuff to bring home (condiments, cooking ingredients etc). |
Speaking of Brunei, Miri is the shopping destination for Bruneians who can't buy certain items not allowed in the Muslim country so expect a bit more people in Miri come the weekends.
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| from fastfood, fashion, health and tech..everything's there at Miri |
All in all, Miri had that lazy small town charm with all the goods and services found in a big city. The weather was slightly cool when we went there and sometimes just a tad warm around noon. We felt safe and quite satisfied with the overall cleanliness of the area. True, it may be a bit boring, what with just shopping, eating out and lounging in the hotel's rooftop pool as our only activity...but we're good with that ;-P
From The Mediocre Wanderer, may all your wanderings be better than ours!
