Ahh the joys of not knowing the local lingo...

Well arrived in Miri from Sibu, instead of waiting it out in Sibu/Kapit to try and get a permit to go to Belaga.

I wasn't too happy that I woke up in Sibu on my final day there with 4 bug bites to the face; let me put it this way, don't stay at the New World Hotel in Sibu, because if that's the new world, I'll take the old!

Anyway this is the "staging" ground for entry into Mulu national park, i.e. its easiest to fly from here to Mulu, which is apparently a must see trip and since its a national park and not a city, its more of my kind of thing.

So I started off by actually booking accomodation rather than just turning up on spec which has been my profile so far, mainly as I wasn't feeling too good, but it can't be a cold as its averaging 29 degrees here (think Centigrade my American friends) so I put it down to the bug bites.

So I take an airport taxi (you pay a fixed fare) and with that, you get a coupon that tells them where to go, and up to this point, my Malay has been very basic, because everyone seems to speak English.

Enter at this point, the only non English speaking taxi driver around.

I hand over my coupon and he rattles a whole string of Malay off, to which I have no idea on anything he said, except that it didn't include hello/good morning/afternoon or good day.

I point at the name of the place on the coupon and say in my best Malay "Hotel" which is actually the same as the English so I know he must understand that... but actually its a hostel, so I add "Kecil Hotel" meaning small hotel.

He then proceeds to try and drop me off at some seedy looking hotel which doesn't match the name, description or look vaguely like a place I want to stay at, nor is it called "Kecil Hotel" so I use my extensive vocabulary to say one of few remaining other words I know - "Tidak" which of course means No and then point to the place I want to go to on the coupon.

He launches into another tirade of Malay, which doesn't make a single bit of sense to me and finally, as I am not getting out, he decides to drive on, eventually arriving at the place I originally booked, only now he wanted more money than the coupon is for, which is not how it works...

Saying "Tidak" and pointing to the place name and money value of the coupon seemed to work, ahh well, I had got to the place I needed to be at, albeit under what I think were some Malay curses, ahh the joys of not understanding the words of an upset taxi (Teksi for the Malay term) driver.

So what can I tell you about Miri itself... well, prepare to be stunned!

I have found the answer to curing a common cold, yes that's right the common cold now has a cure at hand.

All you need is a tropical rainforest, some caves (especially those with bats in for that special Ammonia smell...) air temperature of about 29 degrees and then go and hike there for a few hours... at the end of it, I swear the cold will be gone - well it worked for me! 

Seriously though, I went to the Niah caves resort and hiked there for a few hours, they say, to explore it all you need a torch and its true, because at one point, the caves are pitch black (see the picture for proof :-P).

It's an interesting place and as I took a random picture in one direction with a flash, I don't know who was more suprised, me or the sleeping bat that I managed to capture!

But the one thought I had as I was part way through the cave wandering in total darkness save for the torch I had in my hand, was that I really really hope that the batteries don't decide to fail on me....

As I hiked back, just before I took the steps up, I decided to check the post I was going to put my hand on, as I was in a bat dropping area (it really smells!), I don't know why I chose to check that post, but I did and the picture of the bug was what I found, glad I didn't just grab hold in the dark.

It was from here that I decided to arrange and go on a 5 day trek through the jungle/Rain forest but that is covered under the Mulu section (it was going to be one update but meh, its my journal, so now its 2.

Pictures from Miri can be found here