The pinnacles of Mulu disappear into the mists and we bid a sad farewell; moving on to Sabah, the Eastern side of Borneo. Surreally, as we had to ‘transit’ in Miri, the 20 or so of us had to run off the plane, up into the terminal, queue for immigration, and run down again, within 10 minutes, leaving everything on board, the engines still running…now that was a weird requirement. Especially as Miri is still in Sarawak, so not even in this new state!!

Arriving late at night in a noisy city after the total silence of Mulu felt intrusive; hard to adjust to the hotel sounds/traffic noise, but also good to have wi-fi and be back in touch with the outside world…our room has a fantastic view of the city (we‘re ‘up’ market’ at last, hehe) and there is a fair amount of wildlife even here (butterfly sitting on the path). We walked up the hill to the observation tower watched by troupes of monkeys; I shall miss their constant Asia presence in England.

view over the rooftops to the South China Sea from our hotel room

Local Butterfly

The evening promenade along the waterfront to sit admiring the spectacular sunset over the South China Sea, refreshed by the sea breeze, is great fun . There are enormous markets here with everything/anything, from the steaming food courts (accompanied by the enormous rats!) fruit, fish-the fresh fish from the sea fills the air with a distinctive aroma, dried goods, Chinese spices, you name it you can buy it here. There are cavernous halls of souvenir stalls, handicrafts, and a massive night markets. Before my final flight back to England, when at last my baggage allowance will be generous, I shall shop here in earnest!!! But for now I am content to spend time ‘window’ shopping.

Sunset over the South China Sea