May 10, 2007

Miri (BORNEO)

Settling Down in Miri

At 7am I left the longhouse on a four hour 4x4 drive to coastal Borneo. It was yet another night where sleep was hard to come by, but I was heading for an oil city where proper accommodation was awaiting my arrival.

After being dropped off on a main road, I waited about an hour before catching a ride onward to the oil city of Miri in eastern Sarawak. I checked into a hostel late in the afternoon, and found a small Chinese noodle shop where I was able to practice my Chinese. One of the greatest parts of traveling in Asia is speaking Mandarin on a regular basis, and it always earns me an extra dish of free food.

Since today was mostly full of travel and the process of resettling there weren't too many interesting things going on. However, I did meet a fantastic girl in a coffee shop who is half Cantonese and half Kayan (local tribe in Borneo), and we hit it off quite well. Unfortunately, traveling from city to city and country to country is not conducive to the process of building relationships.

Some day, maybe, but not now.

And not any time soon, either.