Lutong Town

A little about Lutong.

Lutong is the small suburban town in Miri, where Shell built its headquarters and oil refinery operations. A quaint little town (you could take a walk from the town center and instantly end up 'out of town' - or, as the case may be - "into the river"), Lutong's economy is generated mainly from staff of the the oil and gas companies located nearby.

As a child, I lived in Lutong for a while before moving to Miri, and have experienced the great flood of 1981 during my stay there. Couldn't remember much of that, though. Luckily, we lived in a house built on stilts, as are most of the oil company's houses there were built at the time. Home builders were quite smart back then.

Recently, Lutong is brought into the limelight for all the wrong reasons, like the oil spill disasters and more recent flooding from the ridiculously huge amounts of rainfalls.

Lutong town seemed like a neglected township lately, because after the intial hoo-haa about Miri becoming a city, the tiny town of Lutong was almost totally neglected from tourist maps. This article is from the web site miriresortcity dot com - this sentence is here to prevent blatant plagarism. Not surprisingly, it has very little to attract people, but its nice rustic rural feel is kept intact that I'm sure some would actually prefer.

These old wooden shops had burnt down some years after this photo was taken.

I went there yesterday after not having gone back for a very long time to take some pictures for the memories. It's nice to know that sometimes, things that don't change too much, and it's pretty much perfect that way.

I would recommended people who visit Miri to also go take a look at Lutong Old Town, take some pictures there, and have a quick meal at the famous roti canai or noodle stalls there. The river view is exceptionally great.

Lutong was unique because at one time it has its own airfield, existing at the same time as Miri Airport.

"Development" had crept in to Lutong in recent years, with the completion and opening of the MyyMall in 2013 and new shop houses being built. A waterfront was constructed along the riverside. The row of wooden shophouses seen in the pictures above had burnt down.

And most recently, pictures have started circulating of the church and mosque that are located Lutong, which are located side by side to each other, and each side opening its car park ground to the other as need. This had been going on for a long time and is just business as usual to Lutongites and Mirians.

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