Miri community

Good morning! *yawn*, oh no i slept on the sofa again, darn must be that tempting movie again. Ok, its time to wake up for a new day and discover our neighbourhood. Why don’t you walk around with me and get to know about my town and miri community folks. Yes, lets me introduce to you my home town folks, the Miri community.
Its 5.30am, my usual wake time. Have nice cozy bath, hot tea with toasted bread marinated in salty milk butter, dawn in clean dress and shorts and a peek on the internet checking my email, website and the http://www.miricommunity.net/ forum (me nicked "allokitty" in mcnet) while waiting till the sun pop up at 6am. Mirian especially old folks would wake up at the time like this, you can see them hiking up on every hills in Miri for morning jog, others going for Tai Chi workout at Taman Bulatan Park and other prefer morning fishing at the beach. Youngster and middle age men like us would probably still in bed at the time like this. Well that’s Mirian for you. If you wanted to drive to town or sight seeing in the morning now is the time because by 7am it will be clogged by slow moving traffic especially during working days. Well today lets go out with me and go sight seeing, I have whole day ahead to spend time touring around town and watch miri community in action just to kill my boredom at home. Check this out, this is Miri as view from local housing area on top of the hill..(We’re not at town yet). Can see hotels, houses and distance from the right are the main town center up to the edge of river mouth. Small town eh? Due to its location Miri are well known for once as fishing village, then upgraded to commercial center when oil founded at the peak of Canada Hill by foreigner (Shell), thus started oil & gas business era for the local in the early 1900’s both on land and off-shore. Until now oil industry still bloom in Miri, which remain a driving factor contribute to Miri’s growth of social, economy, urban development and lifestyle. That’s why we have some foreigner working in Miri in oil industries plus other external contractors. Ok, lets skip the history book and head down to ground zero for a tour along the road.

Check out this map (*map attached). This is Miri region now concentrating at Miri town center. Miri is a resort city where most of its local population, city, houses and commercial center located along the coastal and riverbank. The land terrains are very hilly which makes the city look very exotics, luxury houses and recreation spot are located along the hills. Always have both balanced sunny and raining seasons. Right now we are at Taman Selera Beach at Tanjong Lobang area, say hello to our beach tenants Mr. Cat Meow . Surprisingly there's a lots of cat guarding the place right here, makes it looks cute and welcome. If you’re interested having picnic, fishing, catching small crabs, mini sports with family or flying kites then this is the best place to join the fun. There are two jetty extends towards the sea where you can hang around, enjoy the breeze isolated scene and see Mirian fisherman catch fishes on their fishing boat. At the end point of the jetty is a best place where most people flock around to get a good catch of fishes through their fishing lines. …and sometimes people date too much under the sun and get tanned right here too. There 3 main beaches where Mirian mostly like to flock around under the sun. In the 80's this place use to be crowded with people swimming around in the open, i used to live in Tanjong Lobang, me my pet doggy, my father and my neighbor used to swimming in this beautiful seaside. Salty but fun.

-Taman Selera Beach (where I’m now)

-The Esplanade (Huge crowd turn up on Saturday and Sunday starting at 3.30pm)

-Bakam area beach (if I’m not mistaken the spelling) known as the mini Miri haiwaiian like beach. Very beautiful in the evening!

All located to the west side of the city outskirt. You might want to get back here again tonight because seafoods, fresh coconuts drinks and best of all Satay meat on skewered sticks sure will delight your hungry stomach later dinner tonight at the beach food stalls. Oh i forgot, there used to be a 'roller' skate park around here at beside the hills in mid 80's but the council destroyed it and turned into big car park, doh! but anyways to an advantage for me it turns out the car park ended up to be my favorite natural r/c track..haha.

As we walk towards the town from here there are Hotels such as MARRIOT Hotel and RIGHA Hotel visible from the main road, you can’t missed it cause the buildings are huge located along the beach line and behind the buildings is the MARINA BAY area.

Miri town is a small town but the commercial area are much scattered throughout the district distanced from one end to another linked by main road. If you’re in town center and like to shop around under the same roof then here are your best bet to go and watch everyday life of Mirian walking pass by with huge shopping bags and glittering people from various ages, races and status:

-Bintang Plaza. (Housed well known labels such as Parkson, Starbuck. Pizza Hut, Coffee Bean, MC Donalds and other fashion icon).

-Imperial Mall (Housed a hotel and also mall tenants including hypermarket, music shops, books, computers, games, cyber cafes, food court, clothings, phones and etc)

-Wisma Pelita (consider the most ‘old skool’ shopping complex erected since 1980’s. Old tenants selling common items. Teenagers like to hangout a lot around here for online services and cool off inside the in-house café).

-Mega Mall (inside Mega Hotel building with common shop tenants).

Other interesting shopping destination places outside the city where Mirian tends to go are:

-Pelita Commercial Center (a kilometer away from the city center, best place to go social at night in café and bars)

-Boulevard Shopping Complex (located at pujut area surrounded by Boulevard Commercial Center, the shopping complex house similar tenants as Imperial Mall but at bigger scale, sometimes have lots of social activity and function like the annual JOM HEBOH festival outside the building compound.)

-Saberkas Center (Best place to be on every Friday and Saturday evening, known for its “PASAR MALAM” activity or known as Night Market.)

-E-Mart (Huge place all under 1 roof located at Brunei-Miri bypass, accessible via Senadin road from town.)

-Ng Siang Hup Supermarket (Used to be old vase/pot factory, now housed everyday goods including imported food stuff. You may also find gardening items, photo shop, video stores, electronics and hardwares.)

-Mors Jaya Commercial Center (Located towards airport road just down the last hill after passing “TAMAN AWAM”)

Miri town center is very much smaller than its counter part city in Sarawak such as Kuching. Like when i was young in the 80's we only have Wisma Pelita as an iconic city sky scrapper. Because my school St Joseph located close to the city especially the Wisma Pelita where it housed my parents work place, we used to play hide and seek in there after school hours ended most wanted figure in the public being nuisance active kid. Hide and seek in the supermarket, Kiki toys, Sugarbun, running around up and down the lift and other things you might think little kids aged 10 would do. Sometimes the town is so small we would play scattered around the town running in and out of Seng Ek supermarket, Sing Liang, Sing Ming book stores and any place which is consider fun, adventurous and being curious like a cat. Used to be shabby old town with Canvas like Cineplex to keep us entertained and lots of toys during this era. Toys! Toys! Back then everyone's car including my dad have a big car bumper where kids can run after it and sit on it as the car moves, lol (old Corollas). All i can say Miri is like cute city and suitable for younger generation with soul of an adventurer, just like memorable kiddies story books titled Tom Sawyer and Huckkle Berry Fin.

Today the city grows like mushrooms. Lots of shopping complexes and crowds getting bigger and bigger each day. I don’t like to go out to these place much because I’ll always ended up in a long queue of traffic looking for car park and all those rich food from big label restaurants sure land me extra pound on my side which I’m now concern very much about my health. Speaking about restaurant and café, in this town you can see some distinct pattern between the population of young and old who dine in this place. Mirian youngster like to hangout places with big names like KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Coffee Beans, Mc Donalds expecially where there’s WIFI and Bistro like scenery. They wouldn’t mind spending bulks of cash for a cup of expensive coffee which is triple from normal cup of coffee and hooked up to their Apple book to WIFI. I did ask what’s up spending big while you can have cheaper cups else where, they says “Style man! Its all about style!…see got few cool buddies hang out in there” wah! But in the opposite side, the elderly in 50’s and over like to hang out “lepaking” at ‘old skool’ coffee shop talking to their buddies with their legs being all 360 degree in various relaxing position like being at home, they will talk from day till night especially when they talk about the good old days. We’ll that sums up where will Mirian be when it comes to gathering. ..talk + food. Uh me? No, no, I’m not the typical guys who like to hangout at wee hours at food outlet, i prefer being active outdoor. I’ll tell you later where I like to hangout the most.

Talk about shopping, if you’re a bargain hunter then just head out from those building and shop around in the open around miri town center during the day light. Walk though the local shop corridor and you might find something different from modern shopping complex: Chinese medicine, local fresh fruits and veggies, handicraft shop, vases, pots, traditional clothings and old hardware shops. You can start your hunting from the main public Bus Terminal just beside WISMA PELITA building. Ask the local around if you got lost, but I don’t think you would get lost since Miri is a small town. TAMU MUHIBBAH is located South West of the bus terminal a hundred foot step away across the street. Housed local fresh wet market items mostly from country side and outskirt of the city, try drop it for a visit you might find durians…and get good bargain from the seller. When durian seasons comes Mirian would get their hand on durian in bulks, they do enjoy eating it not only at homes but also outside in town. Not far away from Tamu Muhibbah there’s around towards the city just below the overhead bridges is a ‘round about junction’ landmark where the city council built a statue of Seahorse used to symbolized Miri as a resort city. Miri city and community are like periwinkle; beautiful and delicate which various hidden beauties and things to discover around the city and its community

By 10.00am the town should be hustle and bustle with traffic and crowded people by now. Its about time you should head east side of the town by foot through shop corridor. Try walk your way to BEAUTIFUL JADE CENTER, from there you pretty much know where you going because you can see prominent landmarks like MEGA HOTEL, MING CAFÉ and IMPERIAL HOTEL which local prefer as key point for town mapping. From there you can find Hotels, Inns, pet stores, western style restaurant, traditional restaurant, handicraft shop, open air food stalls, gadgets, air ticket services and everything you need for your shopping necessity. You should be thirsty right now, since you’re nearby BEAUTIFUL JADE CENTER why not drop by between SING LIANG supermarket and RHB bank building just South West direction where you’re standing. There’ are some small concrete numbered stall shaded behind these building where people flock for ice cool drinks and fresh cut snacks. Order an ice lemon tea and local made Rojak, Cendol, Special and ABC. A must if you stop by here. You might notice numbers of old retires enjoy hanging out with kids, play chess with their buddies or sight seeing on the bench for hours. You can say you’re already in Miri mini China Town.

Its 12pm. Stomach full already? Then follow the main trunk road straight east ward beside the BEAUTIFUL JADE CENTER. You’ll pretty much stumble Miri main galore shopping destination where it should lead you to the IMPERIAL MALL along the way, you won’t missed it. If you got bored of shopping why not head straight down the road and enjoy sights of architectural beauty such as mosque, civic center and CITY FAN park., make sure you bring you cameras. The CITY FAN park is a recreation park which contain open air stage, children playground. water fountain, water pond, benches, botanical plants, cultural structures from Chinese, Malays and other local made designs. What do local mirian do around here? You can see some activity around 4.30pm like jogging, family gathering, picnic, dating and sometimes doing sports activity because public swimming pool and sport center like stadium just located near by. Behind the open air stage is PUSTAKA local library where you can drop by to read some references and books, this place is well facilitated with both reading material and online access to information digital highway. Also if you’re tourist then you ought to get handful of Miri information right in there. Oh! by the way you’re pretty much in the outskirt of the now by now, you can “U” turn back to town to visit places like BINTANG PLAZA located South West or follow the main road to town. Else you can walk East West from the library to reach PELITA COMMERCIAL center which is approximately 1KM away but recommended you wait till evening where the sun set dawn because PELITA center are well known for its night life. Yes! bar, wines, teenagers, adults, karaoke, luxury cuisines, elite people and social activity. Well leave that later cuz its still 3pm right now.

If you’re on the mood for recreation activity like jogging or a walk to keep you fit why not head up to Petronas Museum compound located on top of Canada Hill (the highest hill top nearby town center) where the first oil well discovered in Sarawak. At every 4.30pm till 6.30pm you can see lots of adults running full loop around the hills from the top, then through the bushy trails, obstacles and up again to the finishing point. These people are Hashers, much like cross country walk into the wild plus some physical work. I can say these sports seem to have a place in every Mirian heart, you can see their passion from the Hashers custom printed T-shirt they wear, “H” logos on their car and sometimes would throw a big party with beers all night. In other parts of Miri some would prefer to do normal jogging up the hill, down, up again , down again and so they keep repeating till they bush out, for Mirian where there’s hills it will be an exercise paradise spot. Not to forget there’s a public park known as “TAMAN AWAM” for the local nearby the hill, where children can enjoy recreation facilites such as mini kids park, swimming pool, for teenagers got skate parks and other include observation tower, long suspension bridges, walking path and food stalls.

Unlike any normal town you see around Sarawak Mirian love to do some extreme and high adrenalin outdoor sports such as Para gliding, radio control sports, road biking, cycling, go-kart, motocross and drag racing….yes only in Miri. Some enthusiast would gather around inside the internet through popular forum at http://www.miricommunity.net and share their passion about their outdoor sports activity. Yes I’m also one of them in Mountain Biking and Radio Control sports. As for mountain biking we always head outskirt of the city towards either Lambir nearby forest, Rain Forest resort, Bakam, Marudi by pass or where green lush of forest exist, lots of fun and lots of thrills plus extra dirt.
Other than that I also enjoy my spare time with Mirian community playing Radio Control models both indoors and outdoors sometimes during the day and other times at night. There are tracks made for R/C activity which can be found at SENADIN area and another is at GO-KART race circuit accessible through Permy Jaya road. Old guys and Mirian would let go our daily metal stress and join us in our speed fest activity. Here a Youtube video of me and couples of mirian community enjoying mountain biking activity in miri forests:

In Miri if you have similar hobbies or activities with the people around you just in a second you can easily be friends in a just a single flick. They love buddies who are in the same boat. They also like to throw house party and invited friend and members of the common interest, that’s why Mirian are very much night party people and a happy people. Sometimes after we finish our out door activity just before the sun set down we would prepare doing cooking, BBQ and chill some drinks for next minutes party. We would then feast on delicious foods such as BBQ lamb chops, grilled beef, satays, rices, mixed veges, fresh fish from the rivers, fruits, iced beers and red wine in the open places like car park, outside the house compound, beside swimming pools, beside beaches or places where we would sit down and take a break after long trip in and out of the jungle exploration on mountain bikes or hashing activities.

When Mirian going for outdoor activities, they surely going big with it like organizing International Triathlon, Annual drag racing competition, Motocross races, Cycling competition, Radio control competition and other extreme outdoor competition. Its nothing new when you see big oil company would sponsor and organized the competition, participant would come from nearby neighbors like Brunei, Bintulu, Kuching, Sibu, Peninsular and sometimes overseas, Yes, people here like to do the big way which is why it attracted lots of outside to join in the parade. That what I like about Miri community: “competitive and doing it big”. Hahaha! Yes I do benefit from it, got me few trophy, prices and cash through Mountain Biking races and other related sport.. …however I have no luck wining any local Radio Control race yet. Here Youtube video of us and miri community of r/c enthusiast enjoying our activity at Senadin r/c race track:

Lets’ not forget about the in house version of Mirian who like being indoor with computers online the whole days. Infact one of the most prominent feature about Miri community is that almost 70% especially young generation are IT savvy, high tech and always ahead with latest technology. When it comes to blogging, forum, chatting, online games and etc they are the majority heavy users in the state. The most popular active local forum with heavy hits in the google search engine is http://www.miricommunity.net
Yes the entire Mirian are in there, they will talk from “A “ to “Z.” Forget about newspapers, their forum will update latest news and happening in just a minutes! These community love high tech *blings on their gadgets like Ipod, PSP, Nintendo DS, Nokia, Sony, Motorolla, Apple or anything that have ‘wow’ factor to impress any tech geek. For those who are in this category, if there’s new cool gadget in the market its surely “a must have” situation. Other sub community in this group includes Anime fans, GUNDAM heads, Audio heads, hand phone fans, movie goers, car modding die hard computer modders and etc. Oh! I forgot another group also include the “Makan Makan maniac” born from Miri online community with purpose to hunt down local restaurant, eat and make public review about the food. Sometime online Mirian can be very helpful in doing charity and provide counseling and help to others who are in trouble ranging help and advice in relationship problem, health, financial, business, education, charity works and hospitality. Now that’s a positive move being online in Miri forum.


On every Friday till Saturday around 4pm till 10pm at Saberkas Commercial center front parking lot you can see lots of Mirian fill the open air market buying and selling fruits, gadgets, reading media, plants, toys, cosmetic items and best of all fresh cooked food, we local call it “PASAR MALAM” or known as night market. Various hawkers from local and neighboring country from Brunei come to trade in this area and you can get good bargain for the stuff you want. As for me I like to hang around at the cooked food section where you can smell the aroma of BBQ satays, chicken, meats, noodles and fried stuff around me. With only Rm10 you can bought plenty of aromatic food enough to skip your next dinner. The place can be so crowded with people until there’s little space to move around so take care of your wallet safety. Also be sure to come as early as you can because it will be heavily congested with traffic and you will have hard time to search for car park regardless what size you’re driving in. Miri just love to hangout for food around here.

There’s lots of food you can enjoy in around miri, these are:

Laksa, kolo mee, fried kolo me, fried bee hoon, siu mai, dim sum, char siew pau, tasted bread, milo peng, liang teh, bubur kacang, pisang goreng and etc in the morning.

For lunch you can get Salad chicken rice, specialized Tom yam, nasi lemak, nasi berayani, roti canai, nestum chicken rice, pizza, nasi pattaya, bah kut teh, or if you want something fast then fast food is commonly available around the restaurant and food stalls.

At night you can find special dishes offered in several night restaurant and food stalls such as Lamb chop BBQ, burger, fries, mixed vegetable soup, four season dishes, chicken teriyaki rice, friend rice, kueh chap, seafoods such as butter prawns or maybe you opt for western cuisine.

The best thing being in Miri is watching the sunset. Compare to other district in Sarawak state Miri have best sunset view along the coastal area. Always before 5.30pm, I would drive or cycle down to the beach, walk over the jetty and witness the sunset going down behind the horizon sea. Sometime the view can be exhilarating and if you’re on lucky day you can witness the fantasy orange, pink/violet sky color emerge as the rays of sunset flashing behind the clouds spreading its beautiful sunset color spectrum on the sky, Its is not surprise to see soon to be wedded couples comes to this scene to take picture with their photographers moments before the sunset ends.

As sun falls and the nights sparks some starlight behind the dark skies its time for Mirian to step out and enjoy the night life of the cities. At the beach especially at Taman Selera beach and nearby restaurant people would flock to the seaside restaurant in the open air to enjoy delicious sea foods, coconut drinks and Satays. People enjoy having dinner in the open air because you could feel the breezy wind from the sea which makes you feel relaxing and the sound of pounding sea bring calms to everyone heart.

Back in town, restaurant and café will be full of locals and foreigner, well off people would enjoy dining in luxury restaurant and bars which is highly concentrated at Medan Pelita Commercial Center. They serve cocktails, wines, steaks and western style cuisines. If you have cash to dine for luxuries then this place is your best bet,. Youngsters’ flocks into night bars for social while those on high tech lifestyle can bring their potable notebook pc to access internet as almost 80% café and bar have WIFI connection for their customer as they enjoy a cup of Cappuccino and cakes.

When the clock strike almost midnight at 11pm, there’s not much activity at night especially during working days unless its Saturday. However if you wanted to grab some munchies there are few 24 hour convenient stores, fuel station and fast food outlet like Kentucky Friend Chicken will still remain open till next morning. If you’re new to this place and still wondering in the city in the middle of the night be sure to hang around places crowded with people and not to be alone at all time because crimes may happens anywhere.

If you want to find place to stay for the night then you should head back to the town center where most hotels and inn are located. You can walk in to hotels like Park Hotel, Mega Hotel, Imperial Hotel, and Dynasty Hotel which is common and well known around the city. If you’re looking for cheap INN there are plenty to mention about here. Just a few walk around the block you might find it without hassle.
Well that’s about it for today, its time for me to go to sleep. ZZZZZ…..zzzz…..zzzzzzzzzzzzzz….zzz