Day 7: Sunday 10 July (Part 2)

So, today we reached our goal: Miri! (For previous sectors of the trip, see here, here, and here.)

The road from Bintulu featured lots -- really, lots... -- of oil palm. It was picturesque, though. There's a bit of movement to the landscape up here. At least until Samalaju, we had more dual-carriageway than we'd ever come across in Sarawak before. But after that, when the traffic thickens up nearer Miri, and you really need some overtaking provision, we were back to single-carriageway.

The journey took us five hours, but we did make two quite substantial stops. The first was at Pantai Kuala Nyalau, which offered a rather different style of beach:







Having wiggled our way down an amazingly wibbly-wobbly road to get to the beach, we were somewhat surprised to be able to take this one (which Google Maps knew nothing about) on the way back:


We also popped in at Tim's Seaside Hideout Cafe and Lodge, which we visited on our last trip to Miri, in 2019. We were hoping for a coffee and a snack, but the power was out... Had been since last night, and not expected back until midnight.

We'd had a bit of a whooshy period yesterday evening in Bintulu, but it had all died down again pretty quickly. Not so in Miri, it seems, where there was quite a bit of damage. The friendly proprietors sold us some canned soya milk (still reasonably cool, actually), but as we were chatting, the wind fired up again, and the rain began to spatter. So we cut short our break, and headed for Miri before things got worse. All the way along the road we could see the evidence of last night's mayhem.

We drove up to the Pullman, our home for four nights, in the pouring rain. Nigel nobly raced across to check us in (discovering that, once again, the online check-in he'd done previously counted for absolutely nothing), and then we were able to get the car and ourselves under cover.


We spent the evening in, with room service (always have the club sandwich).

Day 8: Monday 11 July

Our first full day in...


Highlights:

-- Lapping up our time at the Pullman (although it's a little sad that the house where a friend of ours was born used to stand right here, before the diversion of the river swept away the beach...)



-- Discovering they'd built a whole new City Hall since we were last here...


-- Wave-watching (the seas are still high, and you never feel a storm is far away) and reconnoitring other storm damage




-- Checking out another branch of The Coffee Code





-- Spending a pleasant evening at Ming Cafe, another exemplary spot to hang out after dark (nice atmosphere, open-air setting, good food, cold beer)



Day 9: Tuesday 12 July

The decadence continues:

-- Wrapping ourselves around another of those great Pullman breakfasts (they do a really good buffet here)

-- Taking another look at the big sea


-- Enjoying the most delectably crispy yoo tiao with kaya at the Sin Yakin Food Centre


-- Strolling in Bulatan Park, and bumping into Soo Ping Ting, whom we first met back in 2019, on our first trip to Miri, and whose amazing wildlife photographs have captivated us ever since







-- Venturing to the end of Sarawak, aka the Baram River











There was just one little bust to the day. We stopped off at the Ah Seng foodcourt on the way back, hoping to eat the famous version of kuaytiaw that originated in Marudi. I'd hoped, on this trip, to be able to make it to Marudi (situated a goodly way up the Baram River), but we can't find enough information about the state of the road to risk our hire car on it. So we've postponed that little excursion to a more fortuitous date. At least I can try the famous kuaytiaw, I thought... But not today, it seems. Ah Seng also does excellent black pork and mee goreng, so all was not lost. Food-wise in Malaysia, all is never lost...