15 minutes Miri

I first went to Miri probably more than 10 years ago. It was not a bandaraya yet. Errr.. I learned from ADUN kita kat Miri tu that for a place to be called a bandaraya, the population has to be more than 500,000. Serius? Gilak ramai orang kat Miri sekarang ni dah! Hahahahaha.. Back then it was not. It was still a small town where the economy of the town revolves around oil and gas. While the economy is still revolving around oil and gas, the town now has more to offer than before. There are a lot more shopping malls, there are a few kedai kopi mahal now when there was none before, there are a lot more hotels and there’s even a Marriott there now. That’s how much Miri has evolved over the years.

Bordering Brunei at Kuala Belait, the Bruneians including the large number of expatriates working in Brunei would flood Miri on weekends. When there are a lot of things are considered illegal in Brunei like consuming alcohol in restaurants or bars, these activities are legal here hence attracted them all to come. And because of them, you don’t expect things to turn out cheap in Miri. It’s probably like JB where there’s demand from rich neighbours that they can afford to price things at slightly higher scale compare to other places.

Besides being a small bandaraya, I always thought that there’s not much attraction in Miri. Everytime I went there which was not often, it’s purely work. No pleasure. There’s really nothing else for me to do. The only attraction that I knew then was the first oil well in Malaysia which is located on top of Canada Hill. It amazed me that the first oil in Malaysia was not discovered offshore but on top of a hill. And it was back in 1910. I love history (not when I have to memorise every single details of it for exams though) and that place is indeed one of the historical places in Malaysia.

This time around when I had to go to Miri for work, as usual, I was dreading to go to there. But something changed when I remembered the ADUN there. I contacted her and syukur she was available to spend her precious time with me in Miri. And together with her, I learned to see Miri differently. She was more than happy to take me around her town that she claimed has progressed a lot since she returned. Berlagak gila! Hahahaha.. They even have Giant hypermarket, occay! She showed me places that I would otherwise not explore on my own. There are a lot of rich people in Miri and their houses or probably mansions are huge! She even took me to the beach – probably something that I have never seen before in Miri. Yeah I know that Miri is by the sea but I have never been to any of the beaches before. They have nice beach... at least the one that the ADUN took me to lah. Yang lain I don’t know. The beach is so landai, and it’s something like Bagan Lalang’s beach. Even the colour of the sea is also the same – berlumpur! Ekekekeke.. But oh it’s so tranquil.

One of the things that I noticed is that when you approach a local to ask for the length of time it takes to get from one point to another, the answer would most probably be 15 minutes. Be it from town to airport, from a hotel to a customer’s place, from airport to hotel.. anywhere.. it’s always 15 minutes. I told the ADUN about it and to her it’s something that she is not really aware of until I pointed it out. Yes she gave the '15 minutes' answer but is not aware that that applies to almost all situations. It’s funny that we once timed my journey from a point where I was at and headed back to my office in Miri. The ADUN said that there’s no way it’s going to take 15 minutes. It had to be more because wherever she was then, which was half of the distance to my office, would already take 15 minutes to my office. So by right it should be 30 minutes. Funny enough, I made it in 15 minutes. And the driver was not even speeding because of the traffic. And, she took 15 minutes as well to get to my office! Hahahahaha.. lawak!

And, that 15 minutes thingy somehow applies to more than just ‘distance’. We had our kopi mahal in Marriott and she wanted to order a clubhouse sandwich. The waitress told her that it’s going to take a while for the preparation. Which was 15 minutes. I tell you, it was hilarious!

So there you go! Miri the 15-minutes-bandaraya ;)

Angah

Post note - 'ADUN' is NOT the official ADUN ye! Ekekekeke.. Jangan saman gue!