The Wrights at Christmas

Just some of the ways we mucked about at Christmas time:-
Dina amongst the wrapping paper....................................Christmas Dinner

Walk on the beach to make some space after the Christmas Dinner. It was rainy and Claire was trying out her camera's colour techniques

One of the trees blown down on the beach

And later in the holiday madly mucking about in the inflatable Santa suits around the sights of Miri.

Christmas in Malaysia

Getting the Christmas tree was the first worry - it was going to have to be a plastic one, almost certainly made in China. Each sprig came encased in a plastic sleeve which had to be pulled or cut off - there were hundreds of them - it took me about an hour and a half to unwrap it all. However once it was all fluffed up and got it decorated it seems to have turned out OK - Toby likes it anyway!

Then there is the shopping malls. For a little place like Miri we don't do too badly with our decorations.....

...but a weekend in Kuala Lumpur showed us something else....

The Petronas Towers are fantastic at night. They light the city and have a strange ethereal look.

The Minara tower and the fountains at the Petronas Towers are also pretty spectacular..

..and then there is the KL shopping malls...this Christmas tree in KLCC (underneath the towers) is huge, spanning 5 floors...

but the one at the Pavillion is even bigger apparently!

And outside the weather is still 30 deg and very nice. This is the Petronas Towers during the day, with our hotel (the Traders - the building on the right) only a five minute walk across the park.

This the view from the bar at the top of our hotel.

Christmas Golf

We had a fun day out last week when 20 ladies turned out for 9 holes of a great Texas Scramble. Bags were bedecked, Christmas gear was put on and even the trolleys were tinkling!

Our team (from left) - me, Marry (captain), Kate and Debs

Maggie's Visit and Mulu

Maggie came for a 2 week visit in early October and we managed to do a fair bit of exploring together. We did all the usual Miri haunts (all detailed here in previous blogs), but the highlight of her visit was our trip to Mulu.(Howard was away in the Netherlands)

First our flight - 30 minutes from Miri into the interior.....

You can see the oil palm plantations and their destruction of the jungle. Every inch of ground has been squared off

Here's the hotel we were staying at seen from the air as we landed. Our baggage arrival...

And what did we find? A lovely resort in the jungle, with a pool..

amd very nice rooms.


This is our breakfast spot....and the bridge over the river to get to the hotel.

Lovely staff and entertainment

The canopy walk - 60 metres up.....

The caves....complete with Ab Lincoln..

...and a few million bats. We had 2 attempts to see the bats. They won't come out when it is raining, which was the case the first night we were there. So second night, second attempt. Long walk in but well worth it.

You need to be fit to visit all the caves...this is to Clearwater cave, from Wind cave. The 200 steps up was a bit of a hike.

Lots of opportuity to get on the water. The river the hotel was on was a very nice quet flowing river, but the main river was a different story. Can you see the meeting point between the smooth and the muddy, rough water here? - this is the intersection of the 2 rivers. From the boat you could smell the mud in the water. Touch hairy actually...

Our destination was a longhouse, where they were busy making rattan strips for weaving


The baby is asleep.....

No school age children around, sadly, as they all have to weekly board at another village.

Another boat journey took us to a longhouse with a little craft market and this lady selling nose flutes..I bought one but my nose is not flat enough...!

.....this is a video of said lady...note the pieced ears.

And finally some of the creatures we came across..