The Imperial Hotel in Miri
We arrived in Miri and caught a Grab from the airport to our hotel, The Imperial. There was a large line up for check-in. When it was finally our turn the representative informed us that they had upgraded us – said something about an issue with the room we were booked in. We didn’t get into what the issue was, maybe we don’t really want to know. After seeing a live bedbug in Kuala Lumpur let’s just say ignorance is bliss. FYI: we scour the room and bed before unpacking everywhere! Anyway, our upgraded room was on the 23rd floor, the top floor of the hotel. It is a large room and we are enjoying the extra space.
We went for a walk around the immediate area around the Imperial Hotel. We picked up some extra drinking water and some beer to bring back to our room. Directly across the street from the hotel there is a boulevard with small containers that open up to small kiosks and they put out tables along the street for patrons to sit at. There is a huge variety of food. We enjoyed our supper along the street. Two plates of Mee Hoon and 2 bottles of water were RM 12 ($3.48 CAD). The Mee Hoon was delicious. On our way back to the hotel we stopped at the Satay kiosk and bought 8 skewers of chicken satay that also came with a cup of hot peanut sauce for dipping. They were great and only RM 1 each – so 8 pieces were all of $2.32 CAD. There is no place in Saskatoon we could get a meal for the 2 of us for under $6!
Sunday morning we headed down for breakfast. It is a huge restaurant and it was pretty much packed. We did find a good table. There was lots of hot food choices, fruit, breads, juices and coffee. We both thought the breakfast in Kuching was slightly better but truthfully we both had all we needed to eat. We caught a Grab from the hotel to Canada Hill, The Grand Old Lady and the Petroleum Museum. It is a ridge overlooking Miri and home to the historical oil well #1, known as the Grand Old Lady.
Oil was first struck here by Sarawak Shell in 1910. It was a Canadian driller, Charles McAlpine, who erected the first rig and drilled here. Apparently he was also responsible for recruitment of locals and foreigners to work on the oilfields. The museum was interesting but we almost froze to death as the AC was cranked.
We walked around the museum to the hill overlooking the city of Miri where there is a huge sign. Same idea as Hollywood except it says Miri.
We caught a Grab back to the hotel and then wandered around the adjoining mall. The mall was packed, obviously most of the local tourists were here to shop in the air conditioned mall. We escaped and grabbed a couple of beer and some ice from the restaurant and headed back to our room for a bit.
We spent some time at the pool which was nice. We managed to drag a couple lounge chairs to a shady spot. We had the whole pool to ourselves. The water was warm but still refreshing. The pool was very clean unlike the pool in Kuching that was cloudy. Every hotel has some little place for improvement. The Imperial Hotel in Miri had the nicest pool! The Astana Riverside had a better breakfast. How do you weight breakfast vs swimming pools?
We ended off our night back at the street vendor that sold us the chicken sticks the previous nights. We order Mee Goreng Ayam, Literally, noodles fried chicken. It was delicious and slightly spicy, not over spicy. When we finished the noodle dish we ordered 6 chicken satay and peanut sauce. They were delicious. You could eat too many satay without trying because they are so good. And the sauce, Mmmm!
Day 3 in Miri
After breakfast we went in search of souvenirs at the local hand craft market. There were some beautiful things to buy. For us luggage space and weight are always a concern so we only got a couple of things. Gary bought a Sarawak tribal art shirt. It features Iban (tribe) art which we were told is the tree of life. We both bought wrist bracelets and another item for a gift.
We spent the afternoon at the pool reading in the shade and floating in the pool which was once again like our own private pool. We watched the guys on the scaffold painting our hotel. Probably not a sought after job dangling 23 floors above ground in the heat, wind and occasional rain shower. The strangest thing we have ever seen, rain falling from a perfectly cloudless blue sky! We had to duck into a covered area by the pool for 15 minutes until the rain shower disappeared.
For supper we met our friend at the Ming Cafe. The name of the cafe is a bit misleading, it’s a bar. We drank way too much beer, sampled deep fried pork hock and ate a pineapple full of rice. To end the night we had to sample some wine! We keep telling ourselves we are old enough to know better! After we were done for the night we walked 200 metres back to our hotel. We may have been slightly wobbly.
Day 4 in Miri
Slightly hungover and tired we managed to eat some breakfast. We got back to our room and resisted the urge to crawl back into bed.
We went for lunch at the little restaurant down the street. We had eaten here the afternoon before and had ice cream and orange juice, if you call that eating. So for lunch we had Mee Goreng Ayam – bigger diameter noodles with a darker sauce, similar to soya sauce but only in looks. There was small deep fried chunks of chicken in it. The waiter really wanted us to pay in Canadian dollars so he could see the money. Too bad we didn’t have any on us.
We ended up at the pool for the afternoon. Supper consisted of street food Mee Hoon Ayam – vermicelli noodles with chicken, pretty good tasting and lemon iced tea. The tea here is similar to what we have had in Thailand, it’s a black tea with some kind of spice added. According to google: about 1 teaspoon loose black tea leaf (to taste),1 star anise clove, 1 sliver of vanilla bean, 1 or 2 cardamom cloves, 1 small cinnamon stick and sugar to taste. This may be wrong but the taste was good.
We headed back to our room to get packed up for our departure the next morning and get to bed in good time.