First Time Mo?

I've been oddly quiet for more than a week. I was in Malaysia, specifically the quiet town of Miri. (Not that this is reason enough for me not to blog... the more probable reason is the lazy bug just hit me). Among the Southeast Asian nations I've been to, I think Malaysia is closest to home.

Miri, as described by Wikipedia, is the second largest city in Sarawak and located close to Brunei. It is the birthplace of Malaysia's petroleum industry. 

I have heard a number of stories about Miri from friends who have stayed there and I am happy to report that it exceeded my expectations. So here's my little Miri story.

First stop last Sunday was at Kuala Lumpur International Airport where I was greeted by the haze: you canNOT see the terminal tubes from the runway and portions of the airport smelled of burnt wood! It's that bad! Good thing when we flew out earlier the haze was gone and the beautiful palm plantations showed themselves flying out and into KLIA.

I was reminded that this is the land of white coffee and bought a bag from the grocery.

I stayed at the Miri Marriot which isn't bad. 

Gorgeous lobby, the spectacular view of the South China Sea West Philippine Sea and my short stretch of jogging path where I was able to burn calories  for 4 nights.

I think the pool is lovely. Good thing a friend and I had a chance to go for a dip yesterday. The hotel gets a lot of patron on weekends, mostly to enjoy the pool.

Throw in the pine trees on the beach. This coastal town has more pine trees than coconut trees.

Though the only problem is the gigantic mosquitoes. So gigantic that one of my bites had a red central dot and 1 cm-diameter bruise around it!?!?!?

Deym those mosquitoes!

I think Sarawak has one of the best tasting food in the region: spicy enough to make you sweat but not totally paralyze your taste buds. Roti canai with dahl, 

all forms of curry, beef/chicken/seafood with Sarawak black pepper....

I am loving it. 

Now it's making sense! The best black pepper crab I've ever had was from Balikpapan, Indonesia (forget Singapore's) and geographically, these 2 places are on the same island (albeit different countries). It must be the Borneo peppers.

Here's the ever famous teh tarik.

Calories galore.

So that's it, pansit. 

I am back to reality, running on 4 hours of sleep. Allow me to end this post by saying "It was nice meeting you Sarawak, until next time."