Michelle's birthday in Miri

Michelle dancing a birthday dance
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Our plans sure change a lot.  We came to Miri planning to visit some caves and then fly north to climb the highest mountain in SE Asia...we left Miri on a 3 day guided tour through the National Park and a hike up the THIRD highest mountain...then 2 days in a Berawan longhouse which added up to one of the most amazing, extraordinary weeks in our entire lives.

After landing in Miri we competently boarded the city bus and managed to communicate where it was that we wanted to go.  We actually pulled out the compass twice to check our heading but got to the hostel, called "the Highlands" without incident. After signing in the proprietor invited us downstairs for drinks, so we were pretty sure that the sparkling hostel was a good spot.  Besides being brand new, the bar downstairs was all about Western food and Tiger beer...definitely a great find in the backpacking world.

We were ushered down to the bar in the evening to find balloons and firecrackers and cake!

Ballooons!
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Sometime between signing in and sitting down we were introduced to Willie, a trail guide, and convinced that the thing to do for the next three days was join up with Darren (the librarian :) ) and head to Mulu National Park.  Willie also invited us to spend the Gawai harvest festival with him visiting his family longhouse.  We were pretty easy to sell on the idea, particularly after several pitchers of Tiger.

Willie encouraged us, with a somewhat wicked grin, to spend the next day relaxing before our trek.  Michelle's birthday was mostly spent cross-stitching in the common area and talking to other backpackers.  The two year old son of the proprietor was also a lot of fun, checking everyone's watch for light-up powers.

Michelle making a point. A drunken one.
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Having determined that it was Michelle's birthday, Joanne (from KL) and Willie organized an awesome birthday party downstairs.  We were ushered down to the bar in the evening to find balloons and firecrackers and cake!  Willie presented Michelle with a coconut-carved orang-utan...definitely the perfect souvenir for this 23rd birthday.  There was also more Tiger.  So much for relaxing before the trip!

It was a fantastic birthday celebration, and our trekking crew used the time to bond, and pick up Mari from Oxford, rounding out our number to 5.