From one day to the next...

I did mention chilly, Northern Europe in my post yesterday. Well The Netherlands didn't let me down, this is the view from the house this morning.

Food & Drink, Wildlife and Christmas

When Kay was here we took the opportunity to try out a number of new restaurants, great fun and some interesting experiences.. For instance I am not quite sure what I ordered when this spider crab type dish arrived. It was quite nice but boy, for Miri, it was expensive.

Alongside all the rich food you have to try to balance your diet, ordering a fruit juice to accompany the meal is generally a good way to accomplish this goal. In a local Thai restaurant this plan didn't quite work out as you can see the fruit juice is generously layered with thick, whipped cream ;-)

I have to get hold of a book on local wildlife, there are some super birds in the area plus some absolutely magnificent insects.

And finally Christmas is here. Even though it is 30+C outside all the trappings of Christmas are here. There are endless carols on the PA in the shopping malls; Christmas trees in profusion, like this one at Bintang Plaza mall complete with the Disneyesque animatronic Santa Claus.

And finally Pantomime, what would Christmas be without Panto. We went to Brunei last weekend to see the pantomime, the director was Carol Farmer ( who directed Sleeping Beauty in Assen when I played the king ). Great fun was had by all, both at the show and then at the after show party.....

Now back to cold, dark Northern Europe for Christmas, Brrrrrr

On the River

Howard took me up the river on the barge from the club on Saturday morning. We only went for a couple of hours but it was great fun. Went much faster than we could with our boat in Voorschoten! There are 2 x 60 HP engines on the boat, but only one of them has got any real power - in fact it is new. So we turned the old one off and had great fun speeding along (on the plane, James!) with the new one.

This is the boat launch area - the boat is taken from the club on a trailor for us:

The first half of the trip is around the edge of the city, so there are kampungs along side the river. Lots of various styles of fishing boats:

Once out of the city it is mostly tree lined river with interesting vegetation and wild life to spot as you go.

And Howard thought that this was an interesting juxtaposition - the offshore lifeboat escape training centre which is representative of the oil industry heart of Miri with the Mosque representing the spiritual side of the city.

And finally, for fun, here is a video of us speeding along..

In the house....Taman Bayshore

It’s Friday and I am sitting here listening to 5 Live on the internet. Its late night radio in the UK but it’s my morning entertainment! Thank goodness we have internet. It took a couple of days to sort out but having it has helped with feeling "connected". The satellite TV man has just arrived and is in the process of adding a satellite dish to the house, so we are well on the way to getting back to "normal"!

I’ve taken some photos of the (quite empty) house, with only the loan pack of furniture. There are 2 single beds upstairs for Howard and I, and downstairs a rattan suite and a table and chairs. The TV and DVD player works fine and we are awaiting a washing machine and table lamp. The lamp would be good as the only light so far is the 3 sets of neon lights set in the very high ceiling!

Anyway I’ve taken some photos inside and out so have a look …..

It’s all looking very empty of course. I’ve been looking at tables and chairs to buy and we might order them this week. There is only a limited selection on offer. Teak, imported from Indonesia, has a very rough and ready look and I am not be sure it comes from a renewable source either…. I think we are going for the ubiquitous rubber wood, much to the disgust of the shop assistant!

I must also go and look at rattan furniture today. It is locally made in a tin–roofed factory run by a Chinese lady called Jennifer who seems to rule with a firm hand! Anyway, you choose what ever you like. Turn up with a photo or something from the Argos catalogue and it will be made! (Consequently the furniture stores here say “No Photos” presumably to stop folks getting copies made!)

Rain

I was driving yesterday when it decided to rain heavily – the first time since I have been here. All I can say is I am happy Howard has bought the Prado – it is scary when that amount of water comes out of the sky all at once!

First Impressions!

Arrived on Friday after a relatively easy journey from Schiphol. Thoroughly enjoyed the warmth and sunshine after departing a grey and cold Netherlands. It has been a steady 30 since I arrived with lows of 25 overnight!

Howard has been really eager to show me the sights so on Saturday we explored Miri City - shops, supermarkets and cafes. All very different but familiar too – all this exciting Chinese goods but familiar food as well of course – even Marmite, Claire! The street filled with Chinese pots is only a small indication of what is available.

I think I might find driving a challenge though. Although our Prado is easy to drive there are some interesting manoeuvres by other drivers you have to look out for!

The hunt was on for bedding for our house as we are due to move in today (Sunday). The furniture is minimal but we should manage until our own stuff arrives – hopefully in February.

This is being hastily created on our last morning in the Marriot as we leave for our new house today. Internet won’t be available for a day or two (finger crossed). Howard has been here a month but we mustn’t feel too sorry for him…..

This is the hotel...

And this is where we played tennis last night...

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Plus du change

A couple images struck me today which indicate how quickly things change around here, one of the changes being natural and the other being manmade. The manmade change is the incredible rate of progress being made on the new flyover. The images alongside and below are from 12th and 24th November respectively. During the intervening 12 days the construction workers have completed the concrete work, welded the steel barriers and removed much of the scaffolding. The target operational date of Chinese New Year looks easily attainable.

The second change affected the beach at the boat club, 11 days ago it was covered in a thick layer of wood chippings. The picture below of the beach today shows how the chippings can be scoured off the beach, the waves are actually breaking up to the 3rd step on the stairs from the beach to the club terrace.

This high tide is the local result of storms which have hit the South China Sea area this week. The effect could also be seen this morning at the sea wall which protects the front of the Marriott hotel.

The storms around us did not spoil the weather, we enjoyed another sunny day of around 30C, but it did turn the triathlon at 6:30 this morning into a biathlon since the sea was too rough for the swim. It is the aankomst of Sinterklaas tomorrow morning, I assume that his traditional arrival by boat will be adjusted to take account of the conditions.

Christmas is coming, the pizza eaters are getting fat .....

Belle’s bookshop, apart from being the best stocked bookseller in town, is also getting into the Christmas spirit. A selection of faux trees greets you on the stairs and then you are able to browse the stock to the strains of seasonal melodies. All of which feels relatively natural in the air conditioned shop but distinctly strange on exiting into the humid 30C exterior.

Meanwhile something for Les Girls. All sorts of culinary delights on offer in Miri, and while we cannot boast a Fratelli’s ( nearest location is Voorschoten ) we do have Fratini’s if one fancies some Italian cuisine, in fact there are two branches of this fine eatery in the city.

Shopping, Cars and People

Once again Paul, one of my colleagues, had invited me to join him for breakfast on Saturday. This time, before going to the café, we went to the jungle market. This is the local equivalent of a farmers market where lots of small stalls sell fruit and vegetables, chicken and fish produced or caught in the area. Prices for local produce were very reasonable, e.g. 3Kg of local oranges for the equivalent of one pound. There were also a number of imported vegetables which would be more recognisable to European shoppers ( carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, beetroot, sugar snap peas etc ) but these were selling at higher prices. After a fascinating wander round the market, and lots of purchases, we ate at the 2020 café which is a very popular Miri stop for breakfast.

Later I took the opportunity to explore some of the shopping malls in Miri. First observation is that a lot of the locals seem to want to park in the immediate vicinity of the mall. At Bintang Plaza I parked without any problems about 500 metres from the mall and by the time I had walked back there the queue of cars searching for close-by parking spots hadn’t moved much. It wasn’t even as though the day was unbearably hot, it was about midday when I parked and the temperature was 30C with the sun shining, I wore a big hat to protect the balding pate and I was absolutely fine.
Bintang Plaza is a multi floor mall; a big department store called Parkson is the major draw but there are other attractions, for example a Hush puppy shop offering good shoes, but unfortunately not in sizes larger than 44 ;-(
It also has the regional equivalent of Starbucks and a Bodyshop, what more could you want ???

The other major activity yesterday was to finally decide which 4wheel drive I was going to buy. Pajero’s have a reputation as troublesome and expensive to maintain and there is a very limited supply of Landcruiser VX so in the end I have selected a Landcruiser Prado TX, the car is 9 years old but in good condition yet still costs a pretty penny due to the substantial import duties on foreign cars. There are locally built Prado’s but our car is a Japanese built import, all local advice is that these imports are of higher quality, we shall see …….




The car has been purchased from Jomoto, this is the local dealer that almost every expat seems to use for car purchase and service. While waiting to sign the paperwork yesterday I looked through the photo archive of previous purchasers. I recognised lots of people currently here but also some blasts from the past, one of these being Steve and Jean Laux and another, in a yellowing photograph from 1998, was the whole Douglas clan. Nine years ago they left NL soon after we arrived and now we are leaving The Netherlands as they go back there ( although they have been in a few exotic places in the interim ). Oh well, that's the expat life for you.

Nature in all its wonders

Although we are in the midst of the rainy season it has actually been remarkably dry this week. There have been a few occasions when it looked as though we were about to get a downpour but the reality has seldom made it to the coastal regions. The threatening skies are quite impressive though. I took this picture driving from the office to the club one lunchtime, the sea ( with clear blue sky ) is to the right. The storm clouds, complete with lightning, are inland but once again the rain did not reach us.

But the weather causes other strange effects at this time of year. I shared a picture of the beach at the club in an earlier posting; a nice, clean, sandy area as you would expect. I had been told that there were occasions when the beach would be covered in wood chippings driven ashore by the storm tides, these being a by product of the local timber industry. Well I didn’t think too much of that until I saw the reality.












The whole beach looked as though it was a rocky foreshore at low tide and on closer inspection the depth of the wood shipping layer can be seen. One outgoing tide has already started to cut runnels through the thick mat of chippings.

But not to worry apparently, although this looks pretty catastrophic the next storm tide is likely to scour the beach clean again.





Otherwise life marches on, I have a house and expect to be able to move in early December and I think that I have found a car. More soon ….

Now you don't see it and .....

The Prime Minister of Malaysia was in Miri to open a new flyover today, nothing special in that you may think but the building work on the flyover only started about 6 months ago.

A second flyover is being built, currently about 2 months into the job and much of the basic structure is in place, this second flyover is expected to be ready by Chinese New year 2008 ( early February ). Back in Europe we might have just been getting the planning permission for the first flyover in the same period of time that the Miri authorities have built two of them. Although the safety systems are rather different from those employed back home.

Hello again

Well a bit of a catch-up is due. Lots to do at work so I have been a bit busy ( and tired ) to blog.

This weekend has been fun. On Saturday morning one of my colleagues invited me out for breakfast. On the drive into the city centre from the hotel we passed a Chinese temple and elsewhere I passed a large cemetery, clear indications of the size of the local Chinese community.

Apparently breakfasting out is a bit of a local tradition and there are some cafés that are only open in the morning to cater for this trade. We were joined at breakfast by Paul’s 11 year old daughter Joanna, apparently his older daughters used to join him as well but it is no longer cool to be with Dad, some issues are clearly cross cultural…..
Anyway, once at the café we sat down to an excellent meal of Mee. Paul and I had Mee Jaya ( my transliteration so may be spelt wrongly ) which was noodles with chicken curry while Joanna had Mee Goreng ( literally fried noodles ).

Then Andrew (one of my team ) picked me up from the hotel for an orientation tour of Miri but with a specific aim to find a car, well there were surprises in store. Quite a number of expats have arrived recently so it is a sellers market, prices are considerably higher than when Andrew arrived 8 months ago. I was offered a 10 year old Landcruiser Prado for just over EUR16000, a 7 year old RAV4 for EUR23000 or a 5 year old Pajero for EUR35000. Small cars were not much better with a fairly basic Proton ( local build ) at EUR9000 for a 4 year old vehicle. These cars are all available from one or other of the dealers used by most expats and come with a warranty. I will look again at the board at work & club to check whether there is anything coming up for sale from someone on departure.

We then moved on to furniture, since the houses here are provided unfurnished. Andrew pointed out the various furniture stores to me including Cane Decoration which offers hand made rattan furniture, I then saw some examples at Andrew’s house and they are quite impressive, pretty certain we’ll get something similar when we have a house.

Speaking of houses I have opted for a place in Taman Bayshore. Andrew showed me around his house ( which is the mirror image of our house ) and the big rooms certainly look better with furniture in them.










Andrew and Sarah have removed one of the base units in the kitchen so that they have space for their dishwasher and a cold water dispenser, we will probably do the same.

We had lunch on the beach shore in front of the club, very relaxed, and then took a quick stroll round the facilities. There are lots of sailing options.










Plus other ways to enjoy the water such as the river barge, the left hand boat with the bimini top and twin 60Hp engines, not sure that it is visible in this picture but the right hand engine cover is held on with bungees, Apparently this engine has finally given up the ghost and a new engine is on order. The river barge ( as might be expected from the name ) can be used for excursions up river. The speedboat beyond ( with a whacking great 175Hp outboard ) is apparently accompanied by a banana boat and great fun can be had by all.






There are 4 tennis courts at the club, the court surface appears to be in much better condition compared with the courts at the Marriott but they are busy in the evenings so some people ( those who are members at the Marriott ) play there instead.

Sunday has been a really wet day, but with the typical warm rain of the Tropics, when it is really heavy I use an umbrella but otherwise I just walk through the rain. I clearly still have a N European attitude to rain, when I am in the car and preparing to open the door I just expect it be cold and wet, so it is still a really pleasant surprise when it is hot and wet. But the rain was not too much of a problem as I took the opportunity of fairly empty Sunday roads to explore the city streets and start to get my bearings. There are no GPS maps of Miri thus it is back to old fashioned paper maps and dead reckoning.

Finally, although today has been grey and wet this is a picture of the hotel pool and sunken bar which I took yesterday morning, definitely feels a bit decadent to be living somewhere that looks like a holiday brochure.