Slow Computer in Borneo

Friday, June 5, 2009--Miri

I threw away one pair of my travel pants today--the pair that I had carried with me and worn some last year. The seat was getting thin and tore in a couple of spots. I had expected it, though. I have two other pair with me--one new pair and another pair that has not been worn much.

I explored the markets and a temple here. Then I spent time online. There just isn't much to see or do here in Miri.

I ate curried lamb with garlic naan for lunch. It was delicious, but the lamb pieces all had bones that had to be dealt with.

Since I had nothing to see or do, I stayed in my hotel and read through the hottest part of the afternoon. Then I walked to a park that had a public swimming pool. Unfortunately, I was ejected! They do not allow boxer short swimsuits in the pool. Only knit swimsuits are allowed. My guess is that it is because people would want to start wearing regular shorts rather than swimsuits. My protests that my suimsuit was a Speedo and truly a swimsuit fell on deaf ears!

From the pool, I walked to a nearby shopping mall that is the biggest and nicest in town. In fact, there was a whole new section that was just opening. I had fun watching the locals gape at the look of the new section and explore which stores were available there.

Saturday, June 6, 2009--Miri to Sibu

I was up at 7:00 and lucky to catch a bus at 7:50 just as I entered the bus station. Because it is a weekend and is during school holidays, I was a bit worried about whether I would find a bus that had a seat available.

It was a much longer trip to Sibu than I expected. It took us 7 hours to cover the 400 km with rest stops every 100 km. We passed by large plantations growing palm trees for palm oil. One of our stops was the Niah Caves rest stop. Many tourists go there, but I decided to skip it. It is the largest limestone caves in the world, I think, and it is where the skull of the earliest homo sapien, I think, was found--at least the earliest in this part of the world.

Unfortunately, there was a new bus station far out in the country when we arrived. I walked maybe 5 km into town. Then I had trouble finding a hotel. Due to the school holidays, the bigger cities are swamped on weekends with families from the villages. And Sibu is on a river that has many remote villages upriver from it. I also realized quickly that the hotels were not as nice as described in my guidebook. For some reason, they seem to have deteriorated more than the hotels in the other cities I have visited. Anyway, one of the hotels I had picked out had only one small single room available. It had a single bed, a TV, a/c, and a private bath, but it felt as if it had been built out of an old broom closet. I took it since I was tired and it was late.

The tourist office had already closed, so I relied on my guidebook map and information. I wandered the waterfront, went by a Chinese pagoda, and went up and down the major streets. I stopped to eat Campur Special--fried noodles in a spicy sauce with caramelized onions, chicken, pork, and a fried egg on top. It was good.

I walked to a nearby mall to try to be on the Internet, but there connection was broken. I just returned to the room and relaxed.

Sunday, June 7, 2009--Sibu

I was up early this morning and read in bed for a while. Then I cleaned up and went looking for a better hotel room. After checking several places, I saw a rather new looking hotel and checked with them. They had a nice room with a double bed, a/c, cable TV, private bath, etc. It looked like heaven compared to the room I had overnight. So I took it and returned to check out of my other hotel and to get my luggage.

I went to the ferry terminal and bought a ticket to go to Cushing tomorrow by boat. It is the same distance from Sibu as Miri is. Rather than a 7-8 hour bus trip, I will take a 5-hour boat trip to get there. Neither sounds appealing, but 5 hours sounds better than the other.

I had trouble getting on the Internet again today. The place at the mall where I was last night had a slow connection. At least they were nice enough to tell me. I came to another place, and they put me on a computer without saying anything. I have found it to be a slow connection, too. I hope that this will post after all the time I have spent typing it. There are no links, because the connection is too slow for me to search for them. But any of you readers who want to know about anything I've written knows how to use Google. Right?