So a quick summary on Miri before I get to the photos:
- rice/noodles for breakfast, lunch and tea (I was craving really badly for some Western food after the first few days but have become accustomed to it now and just yesterday we had a Western breakfast at a hotel and by lunchtime I was feeling like some nasi ayam (chicken and rice)!
- driving here is treacherous - no-one uses their indicator when changing lanes and especially on roundabouts everyone just weaves in out of the lanes (which aren't really defined on the road anyway...). I'm feeling glad it's John that has the international licence and not me so I have a good excuse not to drive!
- you can bribe the police not to give you a ticket (and we almost had reason to do this as one night we were pulled over and told off for a) not having our passports with us; b) a wee corner of Poh-Poh's licence plate being broken off and c) john not wearing a shirt while driving (well it was really hot!). Luckily none off these seemed to be ticketable offences!
- it's a green city - surrounded by jungle and palm trees everywhere you look through town.
- it's also stiflingly hot - we judge how good a cafe is not by the quality of the food but how many fans they have going. We have also found Miri's best-kept secret for hot and bothered Kiwis: the town swimming pool is big and open-air and only costs 1 ringgit (that's about 40cents!). We dream about jumping into cold NZ lakes and rivers.
- They love Mr Bean.
Here we are in Lambir Falls National Park. I had fun that day - we walked through the jungle to see 4 waterfalls (that's the 4th waterfall behind us but you can't see it that well) the jungle is so thick it keeps you relatively cool!
Again in Lambir Falls National Park - jungle plants are funky.
This is the Latak waterfall (the biggest we saw) which flows into a deep waterhole you can swim in - a quick dip was very refreshing after the jungle-walking.
Below is John at the same waterfall. There was a school group of whiteys (as we've started to call any white people we see - it's a pretty rare sight!) at this waterfall too. Not sure where they were from though.
We flew to Labuan (a small island off the coast of Miri) for a night as John's uncle Alex works there. John found a group of trainee divers who dropped us off at this tiny island about 5 minutes boat ride from Labuan. We snorkelled, swam and relaxed on this deserted paradise for the afternoon. Gorgeous!
Hee hee. Apparently this island is not the best for snorkelling but we didn't have time to try any further-out islands. We still had heaps of fun here though - saw lots of coral and tropical fish (included clownfish like Nemo!)
That's a view of the island from the jetty. And below John about to go for a snorkel.
After returning from the island we had dinner at a Chinese seafood restaurant with Uncle Alex. Yummy fresh fish.
This is us at the bar at the Sheraton hotel we stayed at (I think John's uncles are having a competition over who can put us up at the flashest hotel!). This bar was really dodgy - John commented that he thought I was the only non-prostitute in the bar... Lots of dirty old Western men with little Asian girls. Also the band was called High 5 (no, not the cute kiddy band from Aussie! - 3 girls from the Phillipines who although were wearing tiny miniskirts and see-thru tops were actually great singers. And they played some Radiohead and 2 requests from me too).
Another national park called Niah caves, famous for its, um, caves. You had to catch a boat across the river to get to the track.
Here's one for the Morahans - John was stoked to find this piece of grafitti etched into the Great Cave the last time they were here 6 or 7 years ago (it says "Morahans Balclutha NZ").
That's a view from inside the start of the caves towards the jungle. Unfortunately none of the photos we took do the grandeur and beauty of these caves justice. We walked from here through the Great Cave and then along a path that winds through the caves (in complete darkness sometimes) towards the Painted Cave where you can see drawings on the walls done by ancient cavemen. The oldest human remains from Asia were found in this cave.
The caves are also famous for the edible birds nests on the ceiling that workers collect by climbing up 200m long ropes to the top (it looks sooo dangerous and freaky) and also for the bat guano (millions of bats live in the caves) that they collect off the floor and use for fertiliser.
Me at the start of a jungle walk.
Here I am at a fish market on the side of a Miri coastal road - there are heaps of them dotted down the road with fish caught that day.
We tend to eat out a lot of the time a) because Poh-Poh and John's uncles insist on taking us out and paying for every meal and b) the food is so cheap anyway. My favourite nasi ayam generally costs 3 ringgits ($1.20). The above is me with the cold milo I like - milo is very popular here!
We went to the Miri crocodile farm. SO MANY CROCODILES! Seriously they must have thousands. They don't do much though - just laze in the sun or in the water.
The crocodile farm also has various monkeys, flying foxes, other reptiles and birds. The monkeys are my favourite though.
Us at another cafe with a Roti Canai (like Naan bread but yummier with curry sauce). This snack cost us about 40 cents.
John's uncle Jerome owns a fruit farm surrounded by the jungle. These are dragonfruit which are bright pink inside and a bit like kiwifruit.
My chopstick skills are improving... Below is us at a dinner with the family: Jerome, Bernadine, Poh-Poh, Amelia, me, John, Jenny and Andrew.
Here I am drying dragonfruit with the locals. We went with Uncle Jerome to sell the harvest at one of the many markets in Miri.
We went to the London Dungeon with Jake and Ally. Was lots of fun and have got an awesome photo of us all on the ride at the end. The facials are hilarious (especially John and Jake's). Above is John being "tortured" by a medieval um, torturer.
Me, Ally and Hannah and our blue cocktails. Out for dinner in London at a Mexican restaurant.
John and the view of London Bridge from the Tower of London.
We enjoyed the Tower of London and it was also surprisingly a beautiful day to be wandering round seeing the sights. Later in the day we went to the Borough Markets (yummy yummy food).
Welcome to Athens! I didn't have many expectations for Athens as most of what I'd read told me it was a bit of a dump but it turned out to be quite charming. We were staying on the street pictured above in Plaka (the oldest area of Athens). Cobbled pathways and heaps of outdoor dining at the tavernas lining the street. Also lots of cool jewellery shops (which John was dutifully dragged around).
This is us on the Acropolis. We are sitting in front of the Parthenon but for some reason the lady taking the picture zoomed in so it's just us in front of a pile of old marble...
There's the Parthenon (on top of the Acropolis).
John being a poser below the Acropolis.
MC in front of a well-preserved temple in the Ancient Agora (market-place) in Athens.
And the Theatre of Dionysis, just below the Acropolis.
The Temple of Zeus. It used to be really big but only a few columns remain.
The view of Athens from the Acropolis. Below is us out for dinner in Plaka. Have eaten lots of greek salads, souvlakis and moussaka.
Onto Naxos now. We hired a scooter (affectionately known as Stalky, cos the model was a "Stalker"). We had great fun riding round the island on him.
One of the beaches in Naxos.
John and Stalky.
Naxos was very pretty. You can easily get lost amongst the winding, narrow cobbled footpaths. All the buildings are white-washed with blue doors and shutters and they all have pink and red flowers growing in window boxes and terracotta pots.
The sunset on Naxos.
We met three cute, very affectionate puppies on one of the bays in Naxos.
A huge carving of a Greek god. Below is me sunbathing on the smooth rocks in the settlement of Apollon in Naxos.
And the view of Santorini from our ferry.
On our last day in Miri Poh-Poh took us out for coconut juice. Unfortunately we didn't really like it that much and they were huge! But rude not to try some.
So obviously we are now in London after a smooth (but not much sleep) 17 hour flight from Brunei. We are spending a few days here before flying out to Athens on Sunday to begin the backpacking Europe stage of our trip!
