Sarawak / Miri
Photo: Landscape view of Miri
An established
gateway, particularly to Mulu National Park which is an exciting
and unique centre for visiting amazing caves, virgin rainforest,
rivers and wildlife, Miri is a budding resort area and
flourishing oil town on Sarawak's northwestern coast. Miri was
just a sleepy little trading village at the mouth of the Miri
River until 1910 when the giant Shell Oil company sank its first
oil well on Canada Hill.
It wasn't
long until offshore oil rigs turned the village into a booming
headquarters for North Sarawak's big drilling and oil refining
operations. Texas accents mixed with Iban dialects on increasingly
busy streets, all with money and time to spend.
The contrast
between the old town with its traditional shophouses and markets
and the modern town's hotels, restaurants, shopping centres and
legendary nightlife (a legacy of oil and timber workers from around
the world) is striking.
It isn't
a big city and is the base for tours to the Mulu and Niah Caves
and now has international hotels. It offers a bit of everything
in the culinary stakes, as its very international community indicates.
There's a
wealth of fruits and vegetables, seafood, game and meats at the
Tamu Muhibbah markets, a must for visitors. Kuching laksa is very
popular, along with Malay rice and spicy meats and vegetables,
curries, grilled and steamed seafood. Diners can even choose between
good chicken rice or Southern fried chicken.
Because of
Miri's commercial interests and its location just south of Brunei
and roughly half way between Kuching and Kota Kinabalu the city
could take the role of the principal northern gateway for Sarawak's
new "Culture-Adventure- Nature" tourism theme,
the state and city have big plans for Miri, incorporated in a
10 year program called "Miri Resort City", scheduled
for completion in 2005 and already underway.
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