On Miri

 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  (in order) seem to be the most prevalent.  Beefy boys.  Texans call their ilk "roughnecks" and rightly so.  But these guys aren't Texans (i.e., they're generally polyglots, informed, and decent people.)  2 years of living in Texas informs my opinion, thank you.  

I saw these folks at the Pullman on the waterfront.  Roughnecks seem to eat, sleep, and work.  They are not party boys.  Pay them their money and send them home, they're happy.

3) Cross country motorcycle riders.  Riding the Pan Borneo Highway and many of its unpaved branches.  BMWs, Husqvarnas, KTMs, etc.  They tend to be the type that stay here at the Mercure as this is near all the bars,  Thus this stretch 4 small blocks from the Pullman is much nosier.  This is not "Sturgis" this is more Alton Brown and his buddies



I love the Mercure style and bed.  But the noise means it's not my jam (oder wie man sagt auf Deutsch: Nichts mein Bier).  I'll trade some stuff for the waterside and quiet.

This is a small town.  It has some taller buildings.  But if the heat ever lets down I could walk its urban perimeter easily in a day.  I could not do so in Kuching, it is much larger.  It's friendlier here too, because it is smaller.  

The food here is fine. It is better in Kuching.  But not so much as to make the choice to live in there clear cut.  I'll be happy eating in either place.

The sun shines brighter here - making it hot as hell.  But when you're gonna broil either way, that's not an issue.  The wind is more dependable here.  So that rooftop pool deck is great.

The quiet area along the water is just this little place nobody seems to visit except to take sunset pictures.  That's not a raucous crowd.

There seems to be a bit less integration between ethnic communities here.  No real tension, just more clustering.  (Think of the traditional white ethnic integration in Chicagoland: Poles with Poles, Danes with Danes, Italians with Italians, etc.   It's more due to a linguistic, cultural, religious divide than racial one.)  The town is "new" in that it is not 125 years old yet.  It will evolve just fine.  It is friendly and outgoing.

Tired of scribblin'....more later.  Maybe.