South East Asian Trips

Miri is a popular tourist destination in Malaysia and is the gateway to the north eastern region of the country. The town is booming with oil and timber plantations and is becoming one of Sarawak's most popular tourist areas.

Miri has a number of attractions. It is also within easy reach of national parks, huge rivers, heritage and adventure travel destinations and some of the best scuba diving in Borneo.

The town has grown rapidly over the years. This has led to the opening of several modern shopping malls. There are handicraft shops near the old harbour area. The native market opposite the main bus station sells exotic jungle produce. The town's famous landmark is the Grand Old Lady on top of Canada Hill, the first well to strike oil in 1910. Production these days is offshore and some of the platforms can be seen from Canada Hall.

The Brighton Beach located near the near the mouth of the Miri River is a good place to meet the local people. The open-air seafood centre on the promenade at Taman Selera is also a good place to interact with locals. There are number of travel agents that specialize in adventure holidays. Mulu National Park is just 40 minutes away by light aircraft and Niah Caves are less than two hours drive. The world's largest bio diversity at Lambir Hills is 25 minutes from Miri. Loagan Bunut is a unique expanding and contracting lake which also happens to be a bird watcher's paradise is half day away by long boat or a four wheel drive.

The town is also gaining a reputation for swinging nightlife as it caters to oil workers and weekend visitors from neighboring Brunei. There are plenty of accommodation options ranging from class hotels to budget inns, good beaches and dozens of lively restaurants, pubs and bars.

The international airport in Miri is situated 15 minutes away from the town center. There are frequent flights from the International Airport to Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu in Sabah Sabah and all of Sarawak's major towns. There are also light aircraft flights to several isolated rural communities.