Vagabond Jim

  LAKSA! Wide shot Medium Shot (There's always a motorcycle on the sidewalk...) Narrow shot The whole point of that trio is to show that there is a reason for the funky streets, sidewalks/"pavements", and storefront structure throughout South East Asia.  The sidewalk has a part of the floor above it as an overhang.  Protection from sun and rain both. This was some serious rain.  Florida summer squall level stuff.  And, I could not complete the 7 Streets of Kuching equivalent of the Koenigsburg Bridge problem (not a pair of vertices with an odd number of connections; discontinuities and twists in the streets.)  I got soaked...here's before it really started.  (I put the phone away to stay dry-ish,  I promise you visibility dropped to about 10 meters) Got to the hotel.  The sweaty towel on my neck got wrung out and used to "squeegee' water from my surface.  The damp towel in my little pack kept the phone safe and then dried the rest of me ...

 Is eating English food in a former colony the 'same' as eating as dining at McDonalds here as an American?  What if it was not originally English in notion? Chicken Tikka Masala. It ain't Indian.  But I got it at a pan-Indian joint.  (Yeah, that sounds awkward, but...)  Tandoori Palace.  The naan was good.  The 'curry' wonderful.  And, not overly English.  That swirl of yogurt was it. For the first time, I think I know why Mexican/LatAm chile flavors are different than SEA.  India is the chilished.  There and in the Americas the flavors of tomato, onion, and the green herbs like cilantro brings out different notes.  While coriander is present here it seems to be different varieties - for instance, Laksa is an herb known as Vietnamese Coriander.  It does NOT resemble cilantro.  The acids of the tomato and onions mingle differently too.  I certainly thought of a burrito on a lot of bites.  Eating here is alwa...

 This morning I woke up early.  Circa 0800.  Usually I finally open my eyes around 1000. I grabbed breakfast at a hawker stall next door.  The best Kolo Mee I have enjoyed yet.  No pic, it looked like Kolo Mee.  But the ground pork was just a bit greasier.  And when that fat gets some pasta starch and vinegar mixed with it...Oh, my! Today's peppers were notably hotter than recent ones.  And that last bite of pepper, pork fat, and othe bits...is pure unctuous love: sweet, lemak , heat. Then I realized I had not carried my towel, hat, Kindle or water with me.  Back 50m to the hotel.  Grab my stuff. I need cash for Monday - the final S-MM2H Visa process steps to get the stamp.  (I foresee a hassle over something money related coming....I'll be angry and frustrated but it will work out.)  Cash machine only had 10s and 50s. So did number two, so I took out RM1500.  Same at cash machine three, where I went to the counter and exc...

Kuching, again.  Of course. Monday is Visa Endorsement day - when the rubber stamp meets the paper.  Hopefully with enough ink on it. And, now having looked, I know that today is Thursday the 3rd.  Not that such things really matter, to me. All of you (ain't nobody reading me without knowing me - I know that!) should recall that I am an economist.  That was my job title for all of 3 months at Illinois Bell in 1991 ("Regulatory Economist").  It is also how I have described myself since 1986.  BA ('86), MA ('89), MS ('91) all in Econ.  Why?  Because Econ is the best 'paradaigm' and framework to label how I understand the world.  No, not Finance, Economics. Econ is the study of how scarce resources are allocated and why.   It is not how money gets made.  It is understanding how value is created.  How utility is maximized under constraints.  It can be math.  It can be words.  It is always thoughts.  It is a...

 After posting  before I went for a long walk down to City Hall. They do love their seahorses, don't they? I tried to get some seascapes - they all sucked. This one the least Then came the best Mee Goreng Ayam on Borneo so far, I've been looking for you...! Oh, sooooooo good. RM 8 - yes, less than $2 (total) with an added egg! A long, grey, damp and humid day that ends with a big ass win.  Take the W.

 Some thought on Miri. First we should establish a few facts. Miri (Wiki) A former fishing village where some Canucks working for some Cloggers (Royal Dutch Petroleom) found oil in 1910.  Thus naming the little escarpment above town: Canada Hill.  Shell is still the big boy in Town. Town is not big, the streets on this map are basically the only 4 lane roads in town. The N/S route is the Pan Borneo Highway as it approaches the border with Brunei.  It's part of the Asian Highway Network , who knew there was one. After time here, it appears there are three key types of visitors to Miri. 1) Bruneians.  The Brunei Dollar is strong.  And, a lot of stuff just ain't available in Brunei - it's a much more serious theocracy.  I think they tend to stay in the large mall cum hotel complexes here (at least 2.)  They're shoppers. 2) Oil Workers.  They are not shoppers.  There here for the time between boats mostly.  Dutch, Aussie, and Lithuanian...

I suspect that will be the gist of this one... I last wrote on Thursday, today is Tuesday.  What has happened since?  Honestly, not much. Let's just do the lazy thing where I pull up a few pics I took to refresh my failing memory.  Surely you're on to the that lil' ruse by now and it does not seem to offend. Some translations lack the nuance in the 2nd language. I think Bahasa will be fun for this reason.  E.g., the high point on the Kuching Waterfront is Bukit Mata. "Eye Hill"  Literally. But, c'mon, it's surely more akin to 'Lookout Hill.'* If you think, and take lots of pics, sometimes you get the one you want. Sometimes you don't have to think. Adding some humans changes the feeling too. No, that's not my buddy the post over on the left.  My guy is an upright dude, like me. Something here that I have continually failed to capture.  I'll keep trying. Grilled pork belly.  Good.  But anglo oriented bars that serve food just ain't w...

 Was gonna, then I found shade and a breeze. Gonna just be. Seems expensive given the accomodations Kuching is for Kucing-Kucing...in style. Roti Cenai.  So simple.  So good. The owner is mad that he's paid RM10,000 over 40 years of maintenance! Nice park up there.  Where I spent yesterday reading.

 Woke up feeling good.  And needing laksa.  So I went to my favorite Auntie's mamak.  I had intended to go to my preferred laksa joint (Cafe 63).  I made sure to get the "no prawns" straight.  Alas I did not consider fish or fish balls.  Some white vaguely protein/gelatinous (yeah, best I could do.) white slices of a neurotically preferred texture. But the soup.  Oh, it hit.  I could taste the Assam (sour from the tamarind), the Lemak (the creamy, amazing unctuousness of the coconut milk) and the bones of the fish stock (that's just flavor, not texture.) Add the local lime (which has a tangerine fragrance in it's arsenal), the laksa leaves (aka Vietnamese Corriendar).  So good I didn't mind paying a 50% premium for the fish I didn't eat (but did order.)  RM12.  Half the price of the Bun Cha yesterday.  And I will happily pay those prices!  And eat the foods joyously!!! The Borneo Post cost RM1.40 in Kuching!  Big...

I am on record as saying taking a sexy picture of the sun at the horizon is not particularly skillful.  But I realized today, it's not so easy for everyone. My Pixel is slowly transferring them to where I can add them. The guys who want the sun's lower or upper limbs touching the horizon get a lousy, over exposed shot.  I got there early and got some cool stuff - looking away from the sun... The guys that wanted the disc in the pic?  I said wait 5 minutes and look at the sky. I watched them take a good camera and go eat dinner with the sun doing this behind them. Post sunset.  I LOVE this.  2 families breaking their fasts in this view. Even an atheist can recognize what it means to the faithful to be faithful. That is the good that belief can bring. Pre-sunset has great light.... This has lousy composition   I missed the greens by seconds. (Why, yes, I am red-green color blind.  So what?) Another lousy comp -- the oil boon. Look where the light is poin...

My computer overloads are telling me that it is 13:26 on 26 March 2025.And,apparently it's a Wednesday.  I can accept all that. (What I cannot accept is hearing "kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown" in a British smooth jazz rendition in an elevator.  NOOOOOOOOOOO!  That's just wrong.) So where am I?  The Mercure Hotel in Miri City Center.  Ok, where is that compared to the previous stay on the Miri Waterfront?  About 4 small blocks.   300 meters.  Enough to fry one's nape.  Ears have been toasted a bit in the last few days due to poor haberdashery choices. Let's kecap with some photos The view from the roof.  Breezy is good.   The Pullman of last stay in MYY is the distant tall building on the left side. A different view of the waterfront. The SCG just up river. The best roti cenai I have ever had.  Sweated onions - yummy. But the dal.  OMG.  Packed with flavor. I'm really going to learn Bah...