This is a transferred blog from my Multiply site. Date: Oct 22, '05 12:35 PM


Just came back from Miri...very tired after a week of rushing for report completion and then followed by a field trip and another two impending reports to write when I get back to work. Next update will take some time before I am able to do it. But I still have a bunch of photos I would like to post up.

This was my first real visit to Miri. I had only been into Miri airport in year 2001, during our SLUSE field trip to Batu Niah. This time, I got a tour into Miri town , Curtin University as well as the famous Canada Hill where the first oil well in Sarawak was supposed to have been dug. The year was 1910 and the exploration and well was run by the Anglo Saxon Dutch Shell company. A total of 660,000 barrels of oil was produced from that well before it ran dry in 1976. Now the well is know only as the "Grand Old Lady" - and grand it is as it stands tall in the middle of the hill top overlooking all the visitors and demanding the respect it deserves. A Petroleum museum is in the final touches of being readied for opening. The building has a very nice and pleasant Australian architecture, similar to Curtin University. According to a surveyor who had been to the hill in the early 70s, the place has come a long way since it's oil rich hay days. In those days, the hill was still a jungle and litterrally a dump place - it was filthy with lots of rubbish. Today, there is a nice new road leading up the hill and some nice tiled pathways along the hill side overlooking Miri city. Needless to say, the view is breathtaking from the hill - you can get a clear view of the Marina Bay...which was man-made by filling up part of the Miri river and creating an alternative outlet for the river. Not sure how bad the impact is environmentally on such a change.

For a city, Miri seems to be very quiet. At around 8.30pm at night, the town seems to have gone to sleep. I was a little dissapointed to see that it was not such a big city and nothing really as impressive in the city as what I have heard. There were shopping malls that looked bigger than those in Kuching but they are few...Kuching still seems a better looking city than Miri. Of course I will have to give Miri's malls the benefit of the doubt as I did not step foot into one...but as I am a West Malaysian originally and have been to many many malls in KL, they don't interest me as much as the natural and historical sites.

A large part of Miri is made up of large flat peat lands. We could see many burnt over peat areas along the roads. They are said to have self ignited naturally during very dry seasons - now we know why there is so much haze. Timber sems to be still a viable economic gain as there are many many many log ponds along the Batang Baram river banks. The Batang Baram is a very big river, measuring more than 500m in width. The busy dockyards are filled with ships, some carrying containers docked at the dockyards. The timber industry is conquered by the two timber giants Shin Yang and Sam Ling in Miri. I have yet to see those really great big beautiful houses of the rich in Miri. I have heard so much about it. I hope I will be able to see those and more in my next trip. But overall, despite the short trip, I got to see most of what Miri is like and got a great dinner with really super cheap crabs at the New Fun Ling restaurant. They came at RM12/kg inclusive of the cooking - super cheap! So for those of you who will be visiting Miri...there's the spot to look for crabs. I will post some more photos up as soon as I can. There's still the photos going up Gading with friends to process. Till then...life is all about work. God, please grant me the patience to persevere.