Oil City - Miri , Sarawak

Miri being so close to sea suffer from 'accelerated rusting' process due to the salt laden atmosphere. Note the heavily rusted screws in this door handle in Sea Horse Balinese Restaurant.

In my effort of crossing the field to have a close look of the parasitic ' orange-yellow' threads like creeper.. my track shoes picked up the prickly grass seeds
I knew about this parasitic in Miri since my secondary school days in the 70s. Saw them at the narrowest width of the Peninsula - the Golf course side. Now you can find them on the waste reclaimed land in and around marina - Sea Horse area. 30 years later i found them in Admiralty Park Singapore!!

Taman Selera or Tg Lubang Beach. The 'hole' in the cliff gives rise to the original name.

Trace fossils ( burrows made by ancient marine worms?)

I was standing on the sandstone cliff -3 or 4 man height and saw the incoming tides cutoff my path to reach the 'Lubang' further away

Life after people... plants regaining the world?

I saw numerous cars - at least 30-40 parked parked close to Canada Hill Petroleum Museum. It was closed for renovation but all these folks had gone there for trekking exercises. WS and me followed suit on Saturday. One hour after finishing three trails were enough to deplete all my energy. Some sections were really steep and required nylon ropes with well placed knots to navigate - a good warm up for my Sunday Lambir National park trekking. We also saw K9 teams gathering that Saturday - even the dogs can handle these demanding tracks! Amazing! I met another classmate there as well.

Figs fruits grow very close to the ground.

Trying to do vertical climb without the help of rope?

I took a walk up the '7 oil well road' from Mega Hotel trying to reenact my primary school cycling track up the hill. The route take me past the Handicraft Centre, my Primary North School crossed the high way and up the hill. It was hot and i am the only one seen walking up the slope.

I found the familiar 'Lover- in- the mist's' flower near the road side..

and a little distance I came across the road with a 'U' depression.
saw spiky red fruits of screw pine.
And i noticed branches of Flame Lilies a short distance later. .

Flame lilies found on the way to Petroleum Museum, Canada Hill.
Note the whole petals turned 100% red when matured.

The seed capsule of F. Lily

Handicraft Centre Miri ( was Dewan Masyrakat, back in the 60s
Primary North School use this for school events and i went on stage to deliver a story telling speech 1969). Interesting souvenirs include bead works, blow pipe of various length, wooden masks etc. One proprietor i spoken was my secondary schoolmate - a year junior then me but we never met.

The Grand Old lady - Oil well #1 ( rebuild)

Note on the right hand side of the above image, three the 'see-through' globe shaped bulb where most of the unwanted and wasted illumination will be directed sky-ward. * The whole place is brightly lit at night - visible from downtown Miri.

Taman Awam Miri @night
Sea Horse Light House - on reclaimed land. The Miri river was 'chopped' and diverted
Legumes flowers
Taman Selera

the pakul fern shoots so common in the native market here... edible mushrooms, the common long bean, 'mali' vegetable at the back. Do you remember this foto resembled the one you took? PQ?

Mawang ( Mangifera pajang) again - I managed to find big ziplock baggs in Miri so i can safetly check-in these strong smell mango and brought it home. $4-5 Ringit per fruit.
(Taste of Mawang updated Oct 31: The taste is sweet like mango but with a very heavy smell. I brought back two. The first one i peeled like the photo above but ended up with so many thick fibres. The second one i did the normal way. Sliced longitudinal close to the seed then cut the flesh into meshes. Perhaps i need to wipe the knife after cutting through the thick outer skin - the invisible sticky latex lingered around my lips and on my fingers.) BE CAREFUL of the sticky latex from thick skin - it can caused lesion around the lips

The nenek told me the bark is scrapped off, pound and use as shampoo.
It was called ' langiew?'

Love the way they carved out the skin to show-case the interior.

bilin, milin or midin - ferns shoots - a popular vegetable dish found only in this part of the world.
Was told you cant keep the hand plucked bilin from the wild for long - it will turned black.

" apa nama itu?" i asked. Dabai (Canarium odontophyllum) came the answer - I fished out a pen and scribbled the name of this fruit Dabai on my palm. To eat this olive-like berries, soak them in hot water ( not boiling water) for half an hour. Add salt to taste. If you have further comments or update appreciate your inputs!!

Terap in front and chempetak at the back

Taste of Terap: I bought a not too ripe terap and managed to get this check in. It survived the trip. Two days later - it had ripened. To open just use hands to tear the bristle-like outer skin. Pluck a handful of the white sweat seeds, spit out the seeds and shallow the 'cooling' flesh. There are two types - tiny seed vs a large seed. ( wonder is there a way to tell the difference?) i was told the one i bought is big seeded and it ended up as the small one. You cant keep the terap after open - it will be oxidized and turned brownish black. October seems to be the season i see plenty of them in Tamu, near the fish market temple and even in vegetable market.

Canon balls - the mawang mangoesThis is a big mawang mango (Mangifera pajang) and sweet too! This one costs $2 Ringgit cheaper than those i asked in Tamu Muhihab - the native market opposite Tourists' Information Centre.

Se tompok $10 Ringgit - One bundle or one heap ...