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Home > Departments : HR Department > Guide to Miri & Surroundings: Places of Interest
Places of Interest
All attractions are within easy walking distance of the city centre unless otherwise indicated.
Miri Old Town is a narrow warren of streets crammed with tiny shops selling a huge variety of goods from Chinese funeral supplies to hi-tech electronics. As sell as some of the most traditional and original coffee shops in town. The Old Town is gradually being renovated, street-by-street, but the architectural style and layout is being carefully preserved.
Tamu Muhibbah, opposite the central bus station, is a colourful native market where you’ll find a range of exotic fruits and vegetables, handicrafts and produce from upriver areas, including fragrant Bario rice. Good photo opportunities.
Tamu Selera, on Brighton Beach, is a popular food centre, noted especially for its fresh seafood, and an ideal spot for wathing the sunset. The beach here is popular with joggers and Tai Chi exponents. Two small piers are popular with anglers, and offer excellent views of Miri Marina’s unique seahorse lighthouse (the seahorse is the city emblem of Miri). Near to Everly and Marriot Hotels, taxi or bus from city centre.
The Fish Market, on Jln Bendahara next to the Cinese temple, is where the local catch is landed early every morning. An enormous variety of fresh fish and seafood is sold here, and some of the fishmongers’ displays are minor works of art.
Next to the fish market is the Tua Pek Kong temple, dedicated to the deity most beloved by overseas Chinese. According to local legend, work started in the temple in 1913, in order to give thanks to the deity for helping to end a mysterious epidemic.
Miri City Fan (Jln Merpati/Jln Kipas) is an award-winning urban park complex comprising a variety of theme gardens, including a Botanical Garden and an Islamic Garden. It is also home to Miri City Library, a Public Swimming Pool, and a large Amphitheatre where concerts are frequently held. The City Fan is popular with locals for strolling, jogging or just chilling out.
Canada Hill, the Petroleum & Oil Well No. 1. Canada Hill is a limestone ridge overlooking the town and offering excellent views of Miri and the surrounding area. Oil Well No. 1, known as the “grand old lady” is situated on top of Canada Hill. The well has an important place in Miri’s History, as it was here that oil was first struck by Sarawak Shell in 1910. Nowadays the site also houses a very well designed and interesting Petroleum Museum (open daily, 9am – 5pm, admission free), which traces the history and technological development of the oil and gas industries in Malaysia.
by the individual producers, and craftspeople can often be viewed at work here. Items on sale include Penan mats and basketry, Orang Ulu beadwork and woodcarvings, and a variety of textiles from around the state. Cultural performances are occasionally held at weekends. Open 9am – 6pm daily.
The Saberkas Weekend Market (Saberkas Commercial Centre, Pujut – Lutong road) has a huge variety of goods on sale, from everyday household items to local handicrafts and jungle produce, as well as dozens of tempting food stalls. Runs from Friday evening until Sunday midday.
The San Ching Tian Temple (Jln Krokop 9) is the largest Taoist temple in Southeast Asia. The superb red roof, elegant lotus design motif and the delightful wind chimes make this a very impressive and atmospheric place to visit.
The Sikh Temple on Jln Kubu (10mins walk from city centre) is one of only two in Sarawak. It is attractively located in the shade of a 100-year-old angsana tree.
Taman Awam Miri is a huge family park with children’s playground, botanical garden, soft adventure activities and jogging trails. The park is dotted with stone carvings and sculpture, overlooked by a towering wooden walkway leading to an observation platform. Open daily, entrance is free. It is located about 3km from City Centre.
Taman Bulatan is a large urban park sandwiched between two major roads. It is a popular jogging spot and also features a children’s boating lake.
Attractions – Out of Town Hawaii Beach is located at Kampong Bakam, a 15 minute drive from Miri. The entrance is in the village next to the bus stop, and a wooden footbridge leads to the palm-fringed beach. Picnic and barbecue facilities can be provided for a small charge.
Amateur geologist will be fascinated by the Airport Road Outcrop, a raised outcrop of layered laterite and other soft rocks that clearly illustrate how the surrounding land was formed and how MIri rose from the sea over the last 10-15 million years. Just get your taxi driver to make a brief stop on the way to or from the airport.
The Miri Crocodile Farm at Kuala baram, 24km from Miri, is home to more than 1,000 estuarine crocodiles and false gharials, and also features a snake house and a small zoo. The farm is fully CITES registered. Open daily 9am to 6pm.
The Luak Bay Esplanade, 11km south of town, has an attractive white sand beach, making it a popular spot for picnics and barbecues, and probably the best spot in Miri to enjoy the spectacular tropical sunsets.
Futher down the coast towards Bekenu are a number of attractive casuarina-fringed beaches – Bungai Beach, Sibuti Beach and Peliau Beach – that are ideal for picnicking. There are around an hour’s drive if you have your own transport, or take Miri Bus No. 13.
DIVING Miri is fast becoming a popular dive destination, dut to an abundance of pristine patch reefs that make up the Miri-Sibuti Reef Marine Park, lying at depths from 7 to 30 metres with acerage visibility ranging from 10 to 30 metres. There are also some interesting wreck dives. The best time to dive is from March to August, but diving is available all year round. The diversity and accessibility of corals and other marine life on the reefs is amongst the best in the region. Hard and soft corals cover the entire reefs, with abundant gorgonians, sea-whips, anemones, sponges and crinoids. Angel fish, butterfly fish, fusiliers, groupers, stingrays, trigger fish, parrot fish, wrasses are among the numerous reef species that can be seen and over 40 species of nudibranch have been recorded.
Miri Dive Sites
Eve’s Garden (15 min): A shallow reef of just 7-12 meters carpeted with soft corals such as leather corals, elephant’s ear and dead man’s fingers. Giant anemones and clown fishes inhabit the reef, along with schooling yellowtail fusiliers and angel fishes.
Anemone Garden (30 min): One of the most interesting reefs with a depth range of 10 to 16 meters, with hard and soft corals, anemones and their symbiotic clown fishes, bubble corals, anchor corals, colourful dendronyepthya soft corals, feather stars, giant clams, nudibranches and shooling yellowtails.
Sea Fan Garden (30 min): This unigue 16 meter deep reef procides an excellent environment for an amazing variety of gorgonian sea fans, sea whips and schooling batfish.
Tukau Drop-Off (50 min): An exciting drop-off reef (20-40 meters) with a vertical wall. Schooling jacks, barracudas, napoleon Wrasses, yellowtail fusiliers and large groupers are always present, and sharks and trumpet fish are occasionally seen.
Grouper Patch (1hr): Giant groupers inhabit this reef of 15-18 meters depth. Spinny lobsters are also present together with yellowtail fusiliers and other schooling fishes.
Santak Point (45min): The average visibility here is 30 meters or more. Large gorgonian fans of 2 meters in size are all over the top of the reef at 21 meters. The reef edge drops to 35 meters.
Atago Maru Wreck (15min): A WWII Japanese wreck just off Lutong. The 100 meter ship sits upright with the top deck just 10 meters below the surface. Most of the hull is covered with cave corals. A large moray eel has made its home here and travelly, jacks and barracudas are frequently seen.
Batu Belais Reef (35 min): A picturesque reef covered with gorgonian trees and seafans. Batfishes are common among the long swaying sea whips – a photographer’s heaven.
Sunday Reef (35 min): Large had corals make up this richly inhabited 11-16 meter deep reef, populated with anemones, clown fishes and nudibranches.
Sri Gadong Wreck (1 hr 10 min): A small 30 meter cargo ship sits on an 18 meter sand bottom. The whole wreck is teeming with life; jacks, yellow grunts, batfish and barracudas circle the wreck while giant groupers swim in and out of the cargo holds.
Contact Tropical Dives, a division of Seridan Mulu Tour and Travel Services, for futher details and packages. Lot 273, Brighton Centre, Jln Temenggong Datuk Oyong Lawai, 98000 Miri. Tel: 415582 Fax: 412469 E-mail: info@tropical-dives.com Website: www.seridanmulu.com
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