Just over a week until Jon has more of a suspicious spot excised from his scalp after which we can think of leaving Miri.
A few jobs to keep us busy as usual. Jon has been hauled up the mast to remove the mainsail halyard sheave - the little roller that the halyard passes over and into the mast. Somehow a screw had come loose and was stuck between the plates, scratching the faces and making it difficult to haul up the mainsail. This was soon cleaned up and put back together ready for another trip up the mast - the view is good!
Our little Karcher had a workout as well when Jon used it to power clean our boom tent to clean off all the green that has grown on it over the last 12 months - has it been that long!
The canvas has lost its waterproofing and the drips on the underneath gather moss so it was time to remove it. Jon also took the opportunity to clean bits of green off other parts of the boat as well.
Shopping in Miri is a little different from the experience in Australia. Although you can buy fresh and frozen meats in the supermarket, the freshest pork comes directly from the pork men, located near the Central Markets. Here you can buy almost any part of the pig you want - head (left), toes (middle), ribs (right), loins (centre right), bellies (foreground) and all sorts of offal (not pictured). You can even choose a nice lean piece of loin and have it minced rather than buy the pre-minced stuff which is 30% fat. Now that's service and it is also very cheap.
Saturday night we took a trip out to the Saberkas night market which runs from Thursday through to Sunday. It is a fairly typical night market with a big selection of local fruits and vegetables, hawker food and general things like clothing and other bits and pieces.
We got brave and tried some durian between us and we bought a small jackfruit and other fruit.
Then it was into the hawker food section where we tried pulut panggang (grilled sticky rice in banana leaf) and rempah udang (grilled sticky rice with prawn in banana leaf) - very tasty.
We didn't eat everything we saw but here are a few pics of what was on offer:
We seemed to have formed a habit of having Sunday breakfast at a
Chinese yum cha restaurant. We have found several with two of them a
bit more of a bike ride away. One is about 7.5 km away, is
airconditioned, crowded and has carts bringing a huge selection of
steamed and fried goodies to eat. Another, 2020 Cafe, is about 5.5 km
away which spills onto the pavement area and is always crowded. The
choice is probably not so huge and here you choose the baskets you want
and a nice person brings them to your table for you. They are both
incredibly cheap and require an early morning start to arrive before it
gets too hot.
Here, Pam gets ready to tuck in while Jon has chosen bubur ikan (rice porridge with fish) to start the day.
A few jobs to keep us busy as usual. Jon has been hauled up the mast to remove the mainsail halyard sheave - the little roller that the halyard passes over and into the mast. Somehow a screw had come loose and was stuck between the plates, scratching the faces and making it difficult to haul up the mainsail. This was soon cleaned up and put back together ready for another trip up the mast - the view is good!
Our little Karcher had a workout as well when Jon used it to power clean our boom tent to clean off all the green that has grown on it over the last 12 months - has it been that long!The canvas has lost its waterproofing and the drips on the underneath gather moss so it was time to remove it. Jon also took the opportunity to clean bits of green off other parts of the boat as well.
Shopping in Miri is a little different from the experience in Australia. Although you can buy fresh and frozen meats in the supermarket, the freshest pork comes directly from the pork men, located near the Central Markets. Here you can buy almost any part of the pig you want - head (left), toes (middle), ribs (right), loins (centre right), bellies (foreground) and all sorts of offal (not pictured). You can even choose a nice lean piece of loin and have it minced rather than buy the pre-minced stuff which is 30% fat. Now that's service and it is also very cheap.
Saturday night we took a trip out to the Saberkas night market which runs from Thursday through to Sunday. It is a fairly typical night market with a big selection of local fruits and vegetables, hawker food and general things like clothing and other bits and pieces.We got brave and tried some durian between us and we bought a small jackfruit and other fruit.
Then it was into the hawker food section where we tried pulut panggang (grilled sticky rice in banana leaf) and rempah udang (grilled sticky rice with prawn in banana leaf) - very tasty.
We didn't eat everything we saw but here are a few pics of what was on offer:
Fish and ray wings grilled on banana leaf
Smokey grilled fish
Thousands of satay sticks to choose from
And, something for the sweet tooth - Kek lapis Sarawak (Sarawakian layer cake). As you can imagine you can't whip these up in a few hours! Many layers and patterns AND (in these modern times) very bright food colouring. The heavy smoke from the charcoal grills finally drove us out of the place but it was an interesting place to visit.
We seemed to have formed a habit of having Sunday breakfast at a
Chinese yum cha restaurant. We have found several with two of them a
bit more of a bike ride away. One is about 7.5 km away, is
airconditioned, crowded and has carts bringing a huge selection of
steamed and fried goodies to eat. Another, 2020 Cafe, is about 5.5 km
away which spills onto the pavement area and is always crowded. The
choice is probably not so huge and here you choose the baskets you want
and a nice person brings them to your table for you. They are both
incredibly cheap and require an early morning start to arrive before it
gets too hot. Here, Pam gets ready to tuck in while Jon has chosen bubur ikan (rice porridge with fish) to start the day.
A Sunday morning fish market on the Miri River - straight from the fishing boats
Looks like low tide at the stilt village.
