Day 15 and 16 (20-21/01/2011) Miri Sarawak - BSB Brunei

Waking up in cosy beds is the best feeling after the tour yesterday. We got on the way to the Lambir Hills National park. We wanted to take a bus and luckily we got informed before we started the trip that the park is closed because of flooding and that the caves are still closed as well. So our plan was gone before we even started.

Instead we decided that it was great weather and that a visit to the beach would be great. We took a cab and ended up in the middle of nowhere and at a place that was called Hawaii Beach, of course we didn’t expect a great ocean to swim in but at least a nice area would have been great.

We found thousands of little crabs and some larger ones; overall it was a nice trip. We went back to the street and waited for the bus back to Miri. We actually were lucky as the bus came just after a hour waiting. Normally it drives every two to three hours.

Back at the city we were sitting down at one of the restaurants and got ourselves some fat food to treat the little hungover from yesterday. And suddenly a familiar face was standing in front of us. The French guy, let’s call him S., who we met at the Niah Caves was as well in Miri and just came back from a little shopping tour. We actually had planned to head towards the biggest Mosque of Southeast Asia after the lunch, but we ended up having long conversations and a few coffees. We decided to meet up later at the bar we went yesterday.

During the conversations with S. we had a little talk about our travel plans, especially about Jakarta. After getting some inside stories, we realised that the planned 5 days were way too long and needed a plan B. Back at the hotel we were sitting down and started planning an alternative to Jakarta, which didn’t take us over the budget limit. We decided to go for Bali :)

Getting ready and heading towards the bar we nearly were too late as S. was waiting already. Together we enjoyed a few drinks before meeting some locals. Ok, let me rephrase that. Before the bar closed and through us out, S. met the manager of the bar and a friend, who decided to take us to a club nearby. All in all it was an awesome night. Because we didn’t make it to bed before 5am, we missed the bus at 8am to Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei. I really hope S. made it to the pre-booked plane on time…

Instead we took the 3pm bus and where on our way to Brunei. We arrived at around 7pm and realised that the city was way different than all the other cities we’ve been to in Malaysia. It was quite, alcohol is banned and there are no clubs or bars. We just had a quick dinner and ice coffee. On our way back to the hotel we came across a street that went uphill and decided to walk it quickly... without breath we arrived at the top and realised that there was just a little non halal market, but the view was amazing.

Nothing happened in particular today, so hopefully tomorrow again some more adventures.