Blogging In Miri - Airport

Sitting here at Miri Airport is my last day since arriving here on 12th July. Waiting for my Airasia flight back to KL at 8.45 p.m. Drafting and posting this blog from Starbuck at Miri Airport that provide Free WiFi. Before coming to this location, I tried to surf from another location, Mr Bean Restaurant on the first floor. There is signal from Starbucks but connection is poor. I tried using my Maxis Broadband too, there is network but problem logging on to the internet. So had abandoned the first location.

Concluding, this visit is not a fruitful one, in terms of blogging, since my intention to blog something new about Miri seems futile. I just do not know where to go and stayed most of the time in my room whenever I am free. Places of attraction seems do not motivate me to write about them anymore. Besides that, I have transportation problem.

The Grand Old Lady: I've seen her in both condition; her maiden contidion and her present condition. When I visited her in the 90s, it was in her original form and "unadulterated". A friend of mine took a handful of the oily soil to show to his students back home how soil at oil producing area look like. What a thougthful teacher he was.

Well, I visited the place again in 2007 and everything changed. The area surrounding the Granny were already landscaped and there is no more originality in a place that has historical value. No doubt the intention is good but from my opinion at least just keep the Granny and the soil around her in the original condition instead of covering it with pebbles and stones.

Deep in my heart I felt sad because future generation had lost the natural view of history.

Stayed at Mega Hotel and it is the most convenient place to be for visitors. I conclude this from my observation and experience. It is centrally located with easy access to banks. Just within 5 minutes walking distance there CIMB, Maybank, Overseas Union Bank, RHB Bank and just across the road is EON Bank. There is also a shopping complex within the building but not much choice for visitors except maybe for the convenience store opened 24 hours or you want to have Singapore Chicken Rice.

The hotel provide Free WiFi in all rooms besides lined connection. Since the signal is weak and signal drops so frequently, I requested for the lined connection which is also Free except that you have to pay a refundable deposit of RM 25 for the connection cable cable.

The ground floor house a coffe house, The Chatterbox but breakfast has not much variety. The main dish is rice ; either nasi lemak or fried rice and fried noodle or koayteow. What can be complimented to the chef is that the taste is suitable for diabetics and those who are concerned with healthy eating habits: less salt and less sugar. Food at the coffee house (breakfast) I can give 8/10.

Talking about health, there is also the Sakura Health Centre and room service can be ordered until 12 midnight. Hey, what are you thinking about?

Mega Hotel has a swimming pool too on the fourth floor.

Malaysia Airline and Maswing office just behind the hotel. I could see Airasia agents office too. Er......erm.......for you who want to relief your tired feet (and body) there are a few Reflexology Centres nearby and you can let the lovely "China Doll" (?) massage your feet and also based information from local friends a good full body rub too (wink).

Just across the road there are some Malay restaurants and will be very convenient for Muslim visitors which is open till late midnight. However one experience I learn is that the price at one of the restaurant is quite exorbitant for such an outlet. A glass of Iced Lemon Tea (medium size) costs RM 1.90. OMG!. One evening, I took plain roti canai and Iced Lemon Tea and was surprised the price was RM 4.00. If the Iced Lemon Tea is RM 1.90 then the price of apiece of plain Roti Canai is RM 2.10. Oh......writing this I am getting angry. The name of the Restaurant is Serai Wangi, next to EON Bank. In the picture (below), it is somewhere there I sat for a RM 2.10 plain roti canai the evening before. Comparing to another mamak restaurant at the back of the hotel, I ordered Iced Lemon Tea and Roti Telor for just RM 3.80. Can you compare the price. Well!!........thats another Xperienceoflife.

I had an experience and lesson learnt from the convenient store next to the hotel. Maybe it is the same at other places. I bought a RM 10 reload and the charge is RM 11.00. It might be normal for consumers here, but why do they have to charge extra Ringgit when they are already getting commisions from selling the prepaid reload. So I turn to be wiser on the second reload where I decided to go to Maybank ATM and reload from there. However, I couldn't reload from Maybank ATM because that particular service was not available at the time. So I went to CIMB instead and learn some new lessons.

Lesson 1: When I insert my ATM Card, a message " DEVICE FAILURE" appeared. After trying on another machine, the same message appears and I decided to inquire at the counter. I found out that the chip on my card is not readable that constitute to the failure. So the lady at the counter asked me to change to a new card and I have to pay RM 12.00 for it. I have no choice because I will have to use the ATM card for future transactions.

Lesson 2: From there I learn that mobile reload can be done at CIMB ATMs. I knew before, that it can be done using online banking. So a lesson learnt is that reload is easier with CIMB because reloading is automatic compared to Maybank where you will receive a transaction slip and have to reload manually. That is what I call The Xperience of Life. It is always an ongoing learning process.

I will update later if time permits. Going to check in first.

Mean while watch this.