Monday 11 July 2011

Bintulu to Miri with the Yii's

After leaving the mouth of the Lassa at the very civilized time of 11am we traveled through the night to our next stop at Bintulu. After hearing about yachts before us having stuff stolen off them while anchored in the river we opted for the secure port 10 miles further north. From here it was a pain in the ass to get to town involving a long trip in the dingy through the Port before, in the words of the port official, hijacking out on the main road. The 24hour security made up for the inconvenience.


The weather being unsettled we stayed 3 days. When in town on day 1 we got sausage-making ingredients and filled in the other days making sausages. Hippy Amanda went all out even attempting to make Feta cheese as well as other things.



Another overnighter saw us through to Miri, arriving early in the morning with a blood splattered hull after catching 2 fish and running into a 35 foot long log in the middle of the night. After walking into town we found that Miri does not have anywhere to hires a motorbike. Everywhere we went I asked the locals if I could hire their bike for 4 days until we found a spare one. With wheels we found a great electrical shop that should have Avalanche danger signs posted and of course the friendly local Butcher.



Yii, the Butcher was a little surprised when we turned up wanting Pig intestines but after explaining what they were for he ordered them for an early pick up the next morning. He must have mentioned the crazy tourists making western sausages to his wife as we then got a message inquiring if we could do a sausage making class for her and her friend. Sounds like fun.



After a batch of Old English Pork Yii and his family took us under their wing and couldn’t do enough for us. We mentioned taking our bike the 100kms down to Niah Caves, but they would not hear of it insisting on driving us down.



After only 1 wrong turn we found our way through the cave system to the paintings on the other side.



Being a weekday not many people were about therefore the bats, cave Wetas etc were relatively undisturbed.



Once back at the marina we thought since the Miri Marina was full of boats, a taste test evening would help present our superior product to the marketplace. It ended up being such a success we did the same the following evening managing to sell out (24 half kilo packets) as well as back orders. This caused a delayed departure to make more sausages and Amanda was keen to go out with Yii’s wife and family while I got the boat prepared. Their plan of sneaking over the bridge to Brunei had its problems I believe.



A week later with sausages in the freezer again we headed off for Brunei. Thanks Yii and family for the great time we had while in Miri.

3 comments:

The Other Mother said...

Are those sausages turning you into giants or is Yii just short?
Don't you need a goat for feta cheese? You guys wont have time for sightseeing now you are superior sausage makers.

Anonymous said...

Keep up the good work with your blogs. They make good reading in this wet, wild, freezing country across the sea.

Anonymous said...

Now we beleive all your tales of high jinx as we are living it!