Miri

SV Nalukai
Jeremy, Iona, Phoebe, Hatty & Willow Levinson
Thu 18 Apr 2013 12:21

Wednesday 10th April

After a hiring a car with Gary and Bev yesterday, we didn't realise how such a small country as Brunei could be so difficult to drive around. Freeways packed with smart cars (very attainable with very cheap fuel) signed in Bahasa were remarkably difficult to navigate. We found our way to Bandar Seri Begawan, the main city and had another look around, finding the Royal Mausoleum interesting. Hatty counted 116 tomb markers, flat on top for women and pointed for men all with their heads turned towards Mecca (not that we could see them!). Hatty liked the patterns on the big graves which the more important Royal people went into when they died. The girls found their first playground for months in a big park overlooking town and Phoebe loved swinging up and down the monkey bars and flying high up in the air on the swings. Hatty enjoyed noodle soup for lunch at the food stalls in another park area.  Willow said ‘When we got back to the yacht club from our giant excursion we had a nice cool swim in the pool and played baby seal with its trainer. We went out for dinner at the Yacht Club and a huge squall with lots of wind and rain came and went for half an hour.’

Today has been a catch up on school work while sailing down a very busy coast to Kota Belat, Brunei. Willow said ‘We saw an Oil Rig that takes oil out of the sea and a ship comes and takes the oil off to land.’ Hatty learnt that Oil Rigs drill the oil out of the sea bed and there was a big living area where people ate and slept. Rigs littered the horizon with a network of pipes, indicated on our charts, linked them to the processing area on shore. Helipads gave them access to the outside world and huge hoses hung from the sides to load the ships when necessary. Phoebe commented ‘At Kota Belat there was big rusty Oil Rig taken out of the water with its platform, which sits on the sea floor, sticking up in the air facing the river mouth. Barges piled high with crushed rock, with tug boats to pull them, anchored in the dark brown river’.

 Wednesday 17th April

Miri’s marina (04:23.081N 113:58.426E) left a little to be desired after the smart Sutera Harbour in KK, with its unfinished surrounds and lack of nearby buildings, but the girls loved the open space to ride their bikes for the first time since leaving Australia and we loved meeting so many friendly yachties.  A bike path into town was a great way to get around and Willow soon got her riding confidence again. We enjoyed delicious Aussie beef hamburgers for lunch, and a stroll around the market introduced us to many new fruit and vegetables and the large bamboo tubes they sold to steam food in. We enjoyed looking in the Chinese temple with its round red lanterns, brightly painted dragons and gold lions with the aroma of joss sticks in the air. The shop next door fascinated the girls, selling everything to offer to the gods in the temple, including small china bowls, clothing, Chinese inscriptions in red on gold paper and a large variety of joss sticks.

On Sunday we hired a car to explore the Lambir National Park, outside Miri. It was very steep and beautiful with enormous, straight trees reaching for the light, vines winding their way around thick trunks, basket ferns catching the falling leaves and umbrella ferns upright ready to funnel any available moisture to their roots. We enjoyed watching the biggest Bull Ants we've ever seen and Water Spiders skidding over the surface of the creek as we trekked up the steep slopes held together by the mess of roots. A freezing cold pool under a waterfall that cascaded over the vertical rocks was a refreshing place to cool off in the humidity. We drooled over some of the feast being prepared by the Chinese picnickers; pork, flowers and herbs being stuffed into bamboo tubes to steam over the fire.

Not being quite so prepared on the food front we headed to a nearby resort with a water park. Lunch being over, we enjoyed whipping down the slides and the girls loved playing on the many fountains and equipment while waiting for afternoon tea. What an interesting ‘spread’ greeted us; pumpkin dumplings, green cake, sago and coconut steamed in banana leaves and a milky sort of drink with little bits of floating jelly. All loaded with sugar to remind us we are in Malaysia!

I write this as we motor sail 290 nautical miles down the coast to Kuching on an oily calm sea. The stars are twinkling in the starry sky and I am still in my bikinis in the warm balmy air. Not the same sea we had 48 hours ago when we were hit by a ferocious squall with up to 40 plus knot winds and driving freezing rain. Thank god we had no sails up as they would have been ripped to shreds as the waves pounded us on the side of the boat, spraying waves right over the top. Unable to make any headway we decided to pull away, deviate our course and reach to Bintalu, 40 miles away, where we dried out and caught up on sleep for the day.