Last Monday (Aug 13), I went to Miri for work and while there, I fully utilised the very short time to explore the oil town or nowadays referred to as the resort city. It was not my first trip to Miri but this time around I played host cum “tourist guide” to my colleague who set foot to Miri and Sarawak for the very first time.

View of Miri from atop of Canada Hill. If you notice, there’s only 3 tall buildings in Miri.

As soon as we touched down, we checked-in at Marriot Resort & Spa. For RM185++ per night, the room is very spacious and overlooks the garden view. The resort met my expectation on the overall. The facilities are well maintained. Hotel staff are friendly and polite. However, the service at the restaurant is very slow.

Unlike KL, it’s hard to catch a taxi so we decided to rent a car for RM150/day. The first place I took my colleague to visit was the Grand Old Lady, or Oil Well #1 located at Canada Hill. Oil Well #1 was spudded on 10 August 1910. Two months later oil was struck at a depth of 137.8m (452ft). She was brought into production on 22 December 1910. Upon further drilling she reached a depth of 1,096ft production. The drilling method employed was the “Cable Tool” method used by the Chinese as early as 221 A.D. to produce salt from underground.

The wooden derrick of Oil Well #1 was erected 261ft above sea level. When the Miri Land Field was closed on October 1972, she alone was not removed. A year later on 1 October 1973, she was handed over to the Sarawak State Government at a simple ceremony where she stands atop Canada Hill by Shell Managing Director J. Van Dam to YB Dr. Hj. Sulaiman Daud, the Minister of Land and Mineral Resources.

We couldn’t visit the Petroleum Museum as it was already closed when we came to Canada Hill at almost 6pm.

After spending about half hour learning the history of oil, we descended to the nearby pasar (market), Pujut Corner for some light evening snacks of babi panggang (barbequed pork) and tiga sepuluh (3-10). To those alien to the term 3-10, it’s 3 cans of beer for RM10 and it’s something you can’t find in West Malaysia.

Later at night, my colleague asked if I could take him to some local Miri delicacies treat. I brought him to a nearby seafood. And here was our conversation …

Puvan: I want to try local Miri food.

Me: Are you sure you want to do that?

Puvan: Yes. Why?

Me: Well, I’m not sure if you’re ready though.

Puvan: What do you mean?

Me: Local Sarawak food means, you got to taste either frog, crocodile, wild cat, flying fox, deer meat or any other wild animals. Exotic foods brudder …

Puvan: I’ll settle for fish then. Deer meat is ok …

And fish it was in the end … loser!

On the next day, it was strictly about work and I’m very satisfied that our mission was successfully accomplished. Money well spent for the company.

It’s very sad that Miri night life is very quiet. After around eight in the evening, the city center is practically clear with only a few cars roaming the street. We went to check out clubbing scenes for the three nights we were there, going back to our hotel rooms not earlier than 4am and I’m sorry to say that the clubs are practically “dead” during weekdays. We went to Cheerie Berries (CB) on Tuesday (second) night, and we were the only patrons watching the live band performing. We decided to go on bar hopping to check out the various pubs and karaoke joints around the city. Indonesian, Iban, Chinese, mixed clubs …. oh so poor. They were all dead. Alas, on Wednesday night we saw decent crowds at Thai Bar because it was lady’s night.

Cheerie Berries or CB as the locals called it

Miri indeed is a good place to settle down and to save money. It’s quiet, more relaxed than bustling KL and people are friendly.

Tech Tags: Miri resort+city Marriot+Miri Grand+Old+Lady Canada+Hill Petroleum+Museum oil+town babi+panggang tiga+sepuluh cheerie+berries thai+bar+miri