No, I have No Idea What Time it Is or Where It Might Be the Time I Think it is.

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 Bahasa.  Yes, I really am.

Some of these things ain't like the others.
TYO, DXB, ICN are all major international hubs; we'll give Bali the benefit of the doubt.
Langkawi?  Really?  It's dying.

Tashkent, believe it or not, is the birth place of a former LA Kings

The window, ...that breeze blowing the curtain beguiled my eye.

OK, what's happened since that damn parade?

Lots of tooth grinding.  A pair of valiums (valiumses?  valiumae?).  Some really good roti cenai.  (It's become a safe food even with its heterogeneity of content and form.)  Some excellent kolo Mee.

I got major medical insurance so the visa can be endorsed.  RM1250.   <$400/year.  I view it as a fee and red tape.  It won't ever pay much.  

The Visa ceremony is scheduled for 7April25.

Yesterday I caught the 1st flight out of Kuching.  I got here, got some food (no recollection whatsoever...) and decided to take a nap.  I woke up this morning....

I needed that.  Massively.

Got here and my body was telling me I was stressed (that fucking parade!!! it lingered).  A Valium started to settle me down.  1400ish.  at about 2000 I added an abien because I did not want to wake up yet.  At 0800 I felt human.

I know of a laundramat cum mamak.  So, I had roti cenai and did laundry.  it was hot, muggy, sweaty, delicious and wonderful.  Tasty food, friendly people, and clean clothes.  

Did not want a nap soI explored.  The 2 large air-conditioned malls.  What you still think I'm stupid enough to walk in the midday sun.  I'm an idiot, but not that dumb!

Let's see a few other random pictures.  I don't remember anything much from Kuching -- that parade did me bad. 

The window just makes the mural better.  More local, authentic, Bornean.  Somehow.

South Kuching City Hall's leitmotif.
I love the paw wave.

Winter melon?  No clue.  Too smooth to be bitter melon.

A 'Munch', a doctor, secrets, at least 7!, that's an interesting collection.

I could tell some funny stories if anyone actually fits the IYKYK rule.

Updated at 1600 after a bowl of bun cha geo.  I needed something just a little bit different.  Saigon Republic on Jalan* Merbau nailed it.  Crispy cukes, wonderful fish sauce (is it Nam Pla Vietnam or is that Thailand?), ... perfect.  Perfect for a hot muggy moment.

By the way, if there are any US Intelligence Officials here by accident - you are, yet again, reading the wrong stuff.



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*Jalan is the noun or name for a street.  It is also the verb to walk.    Jalan, Jalan! is either "Streets!" or, more likely,  an invocation "Let's walk!"  Makan is to eat...."Jom Makan" (Hour+Eat... "let's eat!")  or "Makan, Makan!" calls this fatty to the dinner table.  Plurals are just double nouns: Kucing (cat) and Kucing-Kucing (cats.) 

It's the verbal rhythms, tones, and pace that will be hard for me.

Visitors to Singapore 15 years ago had access to the best food travel guide anywhere: Makansutra.  It was a play on Makan plus "Kama Sutra"  Great food guides, killed by the internet.  You could find anything you wanted to eat.  Anything.