I am now winding down my visit here in East Malaysia and although I am literally counting the days till our flight back home, I will be sorry to leave. Coming here, I didn’t know what to expect. My father’s memories of this place back when he was still working here wasn’t very encouraging (or maybe he just didn’t want me to go because he knows he’s going to miss me). He said the place was primitive, primitive equating to no malls and bookstores. Looking down from the window seat of the plane as we were about to land, I was greeted by a myriad of lights. Right there and then, I knew I will have fun.

The Miri Airport is small but new, clean and not very busy. Only a handful of people was there waiting to meet relatives and friends not like at our airports in the Philippines. The weather too was nice. We went to eat at a place which locals call “the waterfront” because it is in front of a body of water. The food there is delicious and fresh. Malaysians especially the Malaysian Chinese are so fond of eating out so that everywhere you go, restaurants/eateries can be found dotting the roads some even setting out tables on the side of the road. No danger of getting hit by cars though because roads and sidewalks are wide. Traffic too is almost non-existent in Miri. Drivers are very disciplined (although I have seen a couple of young drivers who beat the red light and do unauthorized U turns). I have yet to hear a car horn blowing along the road. I had a chance to drive last week and it was a novelty for me to see drivers give way to others.

I am not an adventurous eater, I only eat what looks familiar to me and eat only when I am reassured that the food is not spicy. Malaysia is also home to lots of Indians so spice is part of their diet, hence it couldn’t be avoided that I eat some too. I am glad I did. Their mee (pancit) is soooo yummy even though spicy! Our favorite snack is called roti canai (looks like lumpia wrapper) dipped in curry. I drew the line on curry though so I ate roti telur (roti canai with egg); but only for a few times, roti canai even without curry is very tasteful. I got introduced to three drinks too – lian teh (it’s a local concoction of boiled leaves but tastes sweet), sincau (black gulaman for us but ours tastes sweeter) and barley (plain barley, not the “made into beer” barley). All three tastes good; even now, I am missing lian teh already. My all time favorite dish is panggang (grilled fish with alamang), too spicy for me but its worth all the spice. The only vegetable I ate is the sautéed baby kaylan (not too sure of the spelling). There is also one exotic (at least it is for me) food that I ate here – fern flower (don't know the local name, sorry). You know the fern used for bouquets and flower arrangements? It is grown in some parts of Miri and the flowers (yes, there is a flower) of the fern are sold for food. We ate the sautéed dish and it tastes like cauliflower. An interesting dessert I ate is called kojak which is a mix of fruits, vegetables and squid in a peanut based sauce. It looked yucky from a far but wait till you taste it, it’s the sauce that made the trick I think. I was also able to eat the famous satay and some of their local kakanins. I would never trade our bibingka though for any of their colorful kakanins.


***to be continued

This post was written last July 28,2006