During the Hari Raya holidays end of last month, hubby and I plus another lady from our church conducted a short seminar in one of our branch churches in Miri, Sarawak. Brought my kids, Miss SweetTeen and Mr. CoolGuy along, since they've never been to East Malaysia. They were a bit apprehensive at first, not knowing what to expect, but I reassured them that we were going to a city and not to the inlands.
We took the AirAsia flight from KLIA2, the newer part of our Kuala Lumpur International Airport. No wonder we were told to check in 3 hours earlier, as the queues were long because of the holiday season and there's quite a lot of walking to do from the check-in point right up to the boarding gate.
When we landed, the Pastor's children were waiting at the airport to fetch us to the apartment where we would be staying. We spent Sunday morning in church and then spent a few hours at their largest mall, Bintang Megamall, at the request of my city kids. We didn't plan to explore nature on this trip because of time constrains...perhaps we'll do that the next time we come.
The next day, we taught at the day-long seminar in a church which comprises of mainly Iban folks. It was quite a challenge for us to teach in Bahasa Malaysia as it's not a language that we use daily. We really appreciated the fact that each of the ladies in the church had painstakingly prepared a traditional dish for us for lunch.
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| Umai - preserved sliced fish |
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| Shoots of the palm oil plant cooked in coconut milk gravy |
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| Pork cooked in bamboo |
In the evening, my children spent some time with the youths in the church while we adults tried to explore a bit of Miri on our own...until we realised that getting a taxi in Miri is a costly affair. It was RM30 for a one way trip to anywhere in town.
We looked up the internet and thought that we would have a look at Merdeka Mall. The taxi driver was a friendly guy and gave us a short history lesson on Miri. We found this supermarket in the mall that stocked quite a lot of imported biscuits and seasoning at a low price.
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| These are usually twice the price in KL |
The next day, the Pastor's daughter took us to try the famous Sarawak kolok mee and Sarawak laksa.
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| kolok mee |
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| laksa |
Visited the market, Tamu Muhibbah, in the middle of town.
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| Various kinds of Sarawak rice |
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| Local mango the size of a small coconut |
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| Pisang tanduk at RM10 a piece |
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Durian isu - with flesh the colour of egg yolk
and tastes milky sweet. |
Went up to the highest point in Miri called Canada Hill, where the first oil well called the 'Grand Old Lady' is located.
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| Grand Old Lady oil well |
View of the city on a hazy day...
Then it was off to the airport to catch a flight home.
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Glad to reach home safely. Remembering those
who have boarded a plane and never arrived at
their destination. |
