Journey from Miri to Kuala Belait in the 1940s
By Chow Kit Ying
Many of us who are over the age of 70 will be able to recollect the fantastic journeys from Miri to Kuala Belait. In those days a whole day was required to travel from Miri to Kuala Belait using a converted truck that had two rows of bench seats facing each other and a canopy over the top to shelter the passengers from the sweltering heat, humidity and rain. There were no paved roads, so the only option was to use the sandy beach all the way from Lutong to Kuala Belait crossing the Baram and Belait river by ferries.
One journey that I still remembered vividly was when we reached Sungai Lima after crossing three small rivers the truck was unable to cross the Sungai due to high tide. Otherwise the truck would have stuck in the middle of the Sungai and sunk deep in the soft sand. We ended up waiting for many hours for the tide to recede for crossing and by the time we got to Kuala Belait it was really late into the night.
Note: Years later a sand road and a check point at Sungai Tujut were constructed, then the Miri / Belait Transport Co. was form by a group of friends, among them were Bishop Lee’s father and my cousin. They were the original shareholders and founding members of the first ever Miri/Belait Transport Company
Memories of The Way We Were 