Sabah is Heaven

Friday, February 18, 2011

Sabah is the best kept secret

http://www.news.com.au/travel/world/best-kept-secret-in-the-lush-tropics/story-e6frfqb9-1226006826548

Sabah is South East Asia's best kept secret

* Nancy McDonald
* From: escape
* February 16, 2011 11:09AM

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o What are these?

Borneo snorkelling

Snorkelling in Sabah is just one way to pass the time / Supplied Source: Supplied
Sabah

Sabah is the second largest of Malaysia's states / David Kirkland Source: No Source
Borneo sunset

Sunset over beautiful Borneo / Getty Source: Getty Images

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Tanjung Aru Resort in Sabah, Malaysia.

Sunset Beach at Tanjung Aru Resort in Sabah, Malaysia / Supplied

BALI has long been a popular destination for Australian travellers, thanks largely to its proximity and value for money.

Escape to Sabah Malaysia
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But another South-East Asian destination is quickly emerging as an attractive alternative - Sabah in Malaysia.

On the beautiful island of Borneo, Sabah is the second largest of Malaysia's 13 states and its beauty is like nothing I have seen. With a consistent tropical climate of 32C, Sabah really is a year-round holiday destination.

It is not overly populated, the tourist hordes have yet to discover it and the beautiful people are so friendly it almost makes you wish you lived there permanently.

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Explore Asia

In downtown Kota Kinabalu, you can explore the four-level shopping complex Centre Point and still get your quirky mix of traditional Asian markets with fresh fruit, handicrafts and paintings.

If you tire of Asian cuisine, you can still get your fix of Western food, with McDonald's, KFC and Starbucks in the main Kota Kinabalu shopping hub.

And there is a range of resorts competing for tourists.

Luxury resorts
If you're looking for 5-star luxury, the Tanjung Aru Resort and Spa, part of the Shangri-La family, is a good option. Set on 10ha of landscaped gardens, only 10 minutes from the city centre, it's easy to see why this fantastic resort was voted the best in Malaysia.

The resort caters to all ages, with a beachside restaurant designed to resemble the popular Ku De Ta in Seminyak in Bali and a separate children's pool zone with an ice-cream parlour.

To truly get the most out of the resort, it's worth paying a little bit extra to stay in a seaview deluxe suite, which looks out on to the resort's private beach.

The equally beautiful Sutera Harbour Resort, which includes the Magellan Sutera Resort and The Pacific Sutera Hotel, has a 104-berth marina and private access to some of Kota Kinabalu's most beautiful beaches.

Here, you can stroll along the waterfront of the harbour and watch the sun set, enjoy a cocktail by the Magellan's beach or swim in one of its eight pools.

It's also a paradise for golfers, with a 27-hole course designed by Graham Marsh.

More adventurous travellers can stay in Sabah's tropical rainforest in one of its many jungle lodges and explore Sabah's wildlife including orang-utans. A regular canoe service allows you to see Malaysia's native flora and fauna up close.

Then there's the small island of Kapalai, about 20km from Semporna, which might just be one of the most magical places on Earth. With more than 40 private over-water bungalows looking out on to the crystal-clear water of the Celebes Sea and turtles and other sealife right at the doorstep, Kapalai Dive Resort is a hidden island paradise.

Getting wet
Although Sabah is not a good choice for those seeking surf, there are plenty of other water activities on offer, including whitewater rafting, canoeing and deep-sea diving.

One of the world's best dive spots is just 20km from Kapalai and for $RM25 a day ($A8), you can hire snorkelling gear and explore the resort's pristine waters, which feature some of the world's rarest marine life and coral.

It doesn't matter what time you return from your day on the water, the resort's Western and traditional cuisine is available 24 hours a day.

Kapalai Dive Resort is a great couple's getaway and is as beautiful as the bungalows of the Maldives, but at a fraction of the price. The only negative is that it won't remain one of the world's best-kept secrets for long.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/travel/world/best-kept-secret-in-the-lush-tropics/story-e6frfqb9-1226006826548#ixzz1EEWkVkTp

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Video on Sabah

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35h7vqOS16g

A very professional video about the major attractions in Sabah.
Unfortunately they are in 360p only.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

10 square kilometers of Sabah has more flora and fauna than North America and Europe combined

Wildlife studies made by the National Geographic revealed that 10
square kilometers of Sabah has more flora and fauna than North America
and Europe combined. The state also belongs to the Coral Triangle,
comprised mostly of Southeast Asian nations, which is the center to
three-quarters of the world's marine biodiversity.

The above is extracted from:

http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/260181/sabah-world-s-top-ecotourism-spot

Is it really true?

Sabah, Malaysia—The Malaysian state of Sabah has further bolstered its
image as the world's eco-tourism haven with the recent discovery of
new wildlife species and its increased tourist arrivals.

The discovery, made by the Heart of Borneo project of the World
Wildlife Fund for Nature, found 123 new exotic species, 67 plants, 29
invertebrates, 17 fish, five frogs, three snakes, two lizards, and a
brand new species of bird.

Most of these animals are found in Sabah, which occupies the northern
part of Borneo, the world's third biggest island.

Incepted in 2007, the project aims to conserve the rainforests of
Borneo Island, which scientific estimates place at 130 million years
old, the oldest in the world, and is home to ten species of primates,
more than 350 birds, 150 reptiles and amphibians, 10,000 endemic
plants, and 10% of the world's known orchid species.

The Heart of Borneo project hopes to conserve 220,000 square
kilometers of rainforest, described by noted evolution scientist
Charles Darwin as "one great luxuriant hothouse made by nature for
herself."

The undertaking is supported by the governments of Malaysia,
Indonesia, and Brunei which share Borneo.

Sabah boasts of 70,097 hectares of wildlife, bird and marine
sanctuaries, 909,401 hectares of forest reserves, and 265,749 hectares
of parks, including coral reefs, which are well managed by the state
government agencies.

According to Hector Ceballos-Lascurain, ecotourism consultant to the
United Nations, the new findings will further strengthen Sabah's
position as a prime ecotourism destination.

On the tourism front, the Malaysian state was ranked as one of
Southeast Asia's top 10 tourist spots in 2009, with 5.4 million
tourist arrivals, and took second spot in Global Traveler Tested
Awards' list of best travel destinations.

Kota Kinabalu, Sabah's capital city, is host to the 75,370-hectare Mt.
Kinabalu Park, home of Southeast Asia's tallest peak and a Unesco
World Heritage Site, as well as the marine parks of Tunku Adbul Rahman
and Pulau Tiga.

Meanwhile, the eastern city of Sandakan has been dubbed Sabah's nature
city because of its nature-oriented attractions such as the Sepilok
Urang Utan Rehabilitation Center, the Rainforest Discovery Center,
Gomantong Cave, Tabin Wildlife Reserve, and the Maliau Basin and Danum
Conservation Areas.

Also in the city is the Turtle Islands Park, one of the world's most
important nesting areas of sea turtles because of the massive
conservation efforts by the Sabah Wildlife Department. Composed of
three small islands, it is situated near the waters of the southern
Philippine province of Tawi-Tawi, where the Turtle Islands Heritage
Protected Area (TIHPA) was formed in 1997, the world's only trans-
frontier protected area for sea turtles.

Sources at the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) say that the TIHPA has
been inactive for the past seven years, and they are looking forward
to reactivating it with their Philippine counterparts.

Sandakan's iconic tourist spot is the 540-kilometer long Kinabatangan
River in Sukau district which has the largest concentration of
wildlife in all of Malaysia. A favorite site for wildlife watching and
photography, it is habitat to tropical animals such as hornbills,
various bird species, proboscis monkeys, and the Bornean pygmy
elephant, the world's smallest elephant species.

Sandakan will also host the second International Bird Festival in
October which will gather bird watchers and conservationists from all
over Asia to determine collaborative efforts to conserve the remaining
endemic species in the region.

Cognizant of its biodiversity, the SWD recently set up the Wildlife
Rescue Unit to undertake wildlife rescue and translocation operations
throughout the state. The first of its kind in the country, it will
also carry out enforcement, monitoring, and liaison with the
stakeholders such as WWF Malaysia and the plantation sector.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Magic Borneo 3D [Blu-ray]

http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Borneo-Blu-ray-Andreas-Stickel/dp/B003J2QU3W/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1275644469&sr=1-18

This blu-ray will be released in November. Which part of borneo will
it be?

Is Borneo so special that it warrants a 3D movie in blu-ray?

Sunday, February 7, 2010

A good article on Sabah

http://www.news.com.au/travel/world/swinging-time-in-the-tropics/story-e6frfqb9-1225827006490

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Sabah Foundation Building

Bandaraya Mosque

Heaven in Borneo

Heaven in Borneo: Land below the wind

Northwestern Sabah : Heaven in Borneo

Disclaimer on the usage of English terms:

Heaven does not exist on earth. It only exists in the hereafter. It is used here as a metaphor to convey the extreme feeling of peace and tranquility.

Sabah is truly heaven. It has beautiful shark-free beaches and accessible mountains right next to well equipped urban centers, with perpetually nice weather and well protected from hurricanes and tsunamis, with its numerous bays that form the best deep sea harbours in the world protected by islands in front of them. Paradise is not the right word because Sabah is pleasant for all aspects of living in the long term instead of primitive living in isolated and dangerous places. Sabahan living conditions are even better with the good quality international food especially Islamic food among friendly people of all cultures and religions.

It may sound like I'm exaggerating the situations because of my homely feeling but the feeling wasn't like this in my early days. It was only after I had traveled all over the world that I realize that Sabah is really the best that I had ever experienced for long-term living.

Of course, this “heaven” is actually restricted to the west and northwestern part of Sabah. The eastern part of Sabah that is described by Agnes Keith’s book "The land below the wind" is more suitable for adventurous travelers. This article concentrates on the most beautiful beaches in the world that are still relatively unknown even among locals. The areas that are covered are 200 km to the east and 250 km to the north of Kota Kinabalu, up to year 2006.

The Journey:

Kota Kinabalu:

Kota Kinabalu is a well-serviced city. You arrive at Kota Kinabalu via Kota Kinabalu International Airport. It is a mid-sized airport that can cater to the biggest aeroplanes in the world. The terminal is small and not over crowded. Malaysia Airlines has a “golden lounge" for business class passengers, equipped with WiFi so that you can surf the web briskly. Outside the lounge, you cannot get any reliable WiFi connection but Cellular phone coverage is good and many operators offer GPRS and WAP for Internet access. For the move savvy traveler, you can easily buy prepaid Cellular phone SIM cards for as low as RM8.60.

For accommodation, there are two 5-star resort hotels within the airport. The Shangri-La Tanjung Aru Resort hotel was the first resort hotel in Kota Kinabalu and it is situated at Tanjung Aru beach, the premier outdoor location in the city and the beach most accessible to city dwellers.

The first beach stretches about 2 km to the right of the access road, where the Waikiki condominium is located, along with restaurants and hawker food centers. To the left is located the Prince Philip park complete with playgrounds for children, with an open-air restaurant next to it.

The sand quality is not as it was 30 years ago, but you can swim with relative safety because the beach is shallow and there are no huge waves and currents but there are cases of fatalities at the second beach during windy and wavy seasons. There is no gravel but visibility is only about one meter.

At the first beach, there is the Kinabalu Yacht Club and Kinabalu Golf Club. Sailing boats can be seen and at times, we can see large but safe whale sharks and we can catch tiny shrimps when they appear. Dangerous sharks are unheard of in Sabahan beaches. The most dangerous creatures are the floating reddish jellyfishes and the bottom-lying ray fishes.

Right in front of these curved beaches are the Islands of Tunku Abdul Rahman parks, just 3 km away. The sun sets down at this beach every evening, among the clearly visible islands. The beach is never crowded except during New Year’s Eve. You should be able to enjoy in peace and tranquility the sunset amid sandy beaches adorned with bluish sea and greenish islands.

To the north of the coastline, you can see the remaining Water Village of Tanjung Aru, wooden houses built on the sea. I used to live on such a village when the houses were not overcrowded and the sea polluted with non-biodegradable plastics and aluminum cans.

Next to it, is the billion-dollar Sutera Harbour resort reclaimed from the sea, turning the former water village of Sembulan dry. There was a spot where a former chief minister, Tun Fuad Stephens, and companions died when their Norman Islander just crashed into the shallow sea, after returning from Labuan negotiating the petroleum rights of Sabah. A monument was set up at the site, to remind Sabahans of that tragedy. Soon after, the acting chief minister, Harris Salleh signed away Sabahan petroleum rights to the national petroleum company for only 5% royalty.

The Sutera Harbour resort consists of a 5-star resort hotel, the Magellan, a 4-star business hotel, Pacific Sutera, and a Marina. Within the artificial sheltered bays, you can access luxurious yachts and cruise boats berthed near pontoons. From the marina, you can hire boats or yachts for cruises to the nearby islands. Public transportation to the resort is limited to taxis but you can walk from bus stops at Sembulan, one km away.

The resort is equipped with an eighteen-hole golf course and an Olympic size swimming pool and another mini water world with two-level water slides, with sea views. There are artificial beaches but they are bordered with rocks and changes depth suddenly.

Just one km away, is the city center. At the new bus terminal, there is a food center aptly named, Anjung Senja, Evening Arcade. It serves hawker food at the sea front, at night. For a more trendy eating place, move a half km north, to the "Water Front", Anjung Samudera. You can find all types of food in a restaurant environment as well as full pledged fresh seafood restaurant there.

Nearby is the wet market, handicraft market, Sinsuran old-fashioned terraced shop houses, "Centre Point" air-conditioned, car parked, huge shopping complex, and Le Meridian the latest 4-star business hotel. The wet market is typically the heart of the towns in Sabah. Traffic in this area is busy. Many types of accommodations and restaurants are available, just like most towns in the world.

Of typical note is the ferry terminal where you can catch boats to the Islands. Just in front is the huge Gaya island, just one km away, but of a size of approximately two kilometers end to end with a 30 m high hill at the center. The water villages are visible from the ferry terminal but there is a resort at the northern edge, the Guyana Resort. It is wooden and built on the sea. You can sample the heavenly experience of living in a well-organized and clean water village but at a price. The only access to this resort is by boat.

The head quarters of Sabah Parks is located at Manukan Island, the largest of the completely uninhabited gazetted marine park islands. You can hike around the island since it is only about one km across. It is the best equipped but busiest. Mamutik island is more primitive but the beaches are better, with visibility about two meters allowing you to see more corrals and fishes. For the most adventurous, you can try the Sapi Island.

The finest beach, especially in terms of whiteness and clarity is actually located at the Police Beach, Gaya Island. The only access is via the sea. Visibility is about four meters but no coral so less fish but lots of water insects. It is virtually deserted.

The weather is equatorial. Under the shade, temperature is thirty degree Celsius in the afternoon, but lowering to 26 degree at early morning. You may think it is damned hot and with a high humidity, you will be toasted but I set my air conditioning at 28 degree Celsius. I had to wear blankets early in the morning. It is all a matter of acclimatizing. Of course, you must dress light and loose. Of course, we must use air conditioning in cars, in offices to prevent excessive sweating. That is why the most popular places to visit in the city center are the air-conditioned shopping complexes that may also have offices.

Mount Kinabalu:

If you want a cooler place, you can travel to Mount Kinabalu national park. Better still, you can climb up the mountain, more than 4 km up. It is not that difficult to climb because you can take your time but must never be complacent. Many deaths had occurred because climbers ignore safety rules. You start climbing at 2.6 km but stay over night at Panar Laban before proceeding to the Low's peak early in the morning. It can be freezing cold up there early in the morning, so you must dress appropriately.

If you are not satisfied with chalets and hostels, you can stay at Kundasan Perkasa Hotel, a 3-star hotel with an award-winning restaurant on top of a hill, overlooking the highland town of Kundasan, the vegetable center of Sabah, of course, temperate vegetables, and fruits, inclusive of mushrooms. Houses are built at the edges and children carried heavy school bags up steep roads, with their cheeks reddish in color.

Tip of Borneo:

Another landmark is situated at the northern most tip of Sabah, the tip of Borneo, which I would like to call the Horn of Borneo, Tanduk Borneo. If you look at the map of Sabah, you should see the shape of a dog's head. Sabahan children are trained to draw the map Sabah as comprising pointed ears of dogs with long snouts, incidentally the most common specie of dog in Sabah. Just like Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, the Horn of Sabah is made up of rocky outcrops that resulted from the constant pounding by waves generated by the meeting of two seas, the South China Sea and Sulu Sea. Even Magellan stopped in this area for provisions, in the first voyage around the world.

To the south of this rocky offshoot, are stretches of beaches exposed to the open seas in bays devoid of any population. Just 2 km south, there is the finest beach in the world. There is a tiny island 50m away from the coastline but we can walk right up to the island most of the time. On both sides of the islands are bays that are lined by white sandy beaches. The island is called Kelambu and there is a wooden resort called San Jamal resort but it does not have any reliable communication link despite being located high above the ground.

The nearest town is Kudat. A tiny but complete town with a 4-star resort and marina where a ship-repairing center is well established, even with facilities for dry docking of smaller vessels. It is located at the fine well-sheltered Marudu bay. It has only one air-conditioned super market where travelers can stock provisions late into the night, until 9 pm every day. The other sundry shops close early by 6 pm but they open early at 8 am. It is important for travelers to plan properly the places where food, medicine and raw materials can be bought because many of the interesting natural places are uninhabited or at best sparsely populated by poor locals that do not modern amenities.

However, the back to basics living environment is extensively marketed in this part of Sabah, i.e. The northwestern part of Sabah. The are Rungus long houses and homestead, apart from the hill-top wooden resort, San Jamal resort, near Kelambu island.

Returning south, there is a fine beach at a river mouth at the village of Kimihang. The village is on land but a European research team was building a wooden house on the beach. There is no toilet but there was a small church nearby and we may be allowed to use its facilities, but that was back in the year 2004.

The seashores in this part of Sabah are not inhabited. It is exposed to the open sea. As a local Sabahan, I am frightened to look at open seas without any island in front. Most villages in Sabah are built behind the shelter of islands. The lack of population pressure in Sabah made this possible. In this part of Sabah, the local inhabitants, the Rungus, are more famous for their hill-agricultural skills and their houses are built on top of hills.

It made me wonder if there had been a huge tsunami in Sabah that reminded people of the dangers of living near exposed seashores. The recent tsunami disasters in Indonesia made me wonder of the wisdoms of our elders. Another explanation was the memories of tsunamis in the Philippines, where the sea faring people, the Baja’s are thought to originate from. I also recall the shark stories at the open seas near Tonka at the Darrel bay, to the east of Sabah. Strangely, there are no large man-eating sharks to be found in any of Sabahan beaches, i.e. at the northern part of Borneo.

Tuaran:

Further south, it gets more crowded but still filled with beaches, bays and wet-water forests, the mangrove swamps. At the bigger river, river Tuaran, there are river cruises that can be hired from resorts such as Shangri-la Rasa Ria with its golf course and proximity to Kemabong bay, a site for the fishery research center but also the Petronas oil terminal. Another is Nexus Karambunai that is located at the impressive Karambunai lagoon where you can enjoy sea water swimming in a completely sheltered bay with about 1.5 m visibility. Not as good as Mamutik but better than Tanjung Aru or even the beach right in front of the resort that faces the ocean, with huge waves, at least to me but strangely no water surfing activity. Maybe water surfers have not discovered this beach yet.

The culture:

Living style:

Malaysians are known for their friendly and smiling faces but for Sabahans, our weatern counterparts are deemed as competitive, rushy, unsmiling and stingy people. Prices are high because people do not bargain aggressively but tourists are well advised to always bargain because it is the culture here. Once the bargain had been concluded our sellers are so slow to produce the goods, as though they have all the time in the world. As one counselor and former Malaysian world-class hockey team coach had commented, no need for Sabahans to hurry because they do not need to. They have everything they have but deeper down this is not the case.

Our west Malaysian counterparts may consider us slow, stupid and spendthrift and attributed to our monetary wealth to these attitudes but it was this attitude that made Sabah so prosperous and peaceful. The spirit of cooperation and understanding has contributed to the maximization of our natural resources for the betterment of every inhabitant. No need to defeat others in order to win. By cooperations, we all win, but this has led to exploitation by outsiders.

Sabah only gets a tiny portion of our Petroleum resources, even those that are promised. Our timber resources had been exhausted and heavily taxed. The federal budget is tiny compared to the more than 12% population contribution, let alone the more than 25% land area contribution. Even then, the spending of that budget is made difficult by the centralized control making the budgets unspent and diverted somewhere else.

Despite all these, Sabahans remain friendly and smiling. We have sufficient income to enjoy our quality food and environment although not enough to enjoy luxuries such as LCD large screen displays that tend to display multi channel digital broadcasts via satellite. The lower population does not make it economical to broadcast using terrestrial stations. It however shows that we are aware of these products because they are available for sale for the selected few. We are not living on treetops in the jungle anymore.

The livelihood of the people in this part of Sabah depends on the government and hospitality industries. There are attempts to establish heavy industries at Sepangar bay, next to Karambunai but it is so slow to pick up due to the non-existence of any free trade zone status. Oil palm is slowly taking over the coconut trees at the Kudat peninsular.

Technically data suggests that Sabah is the poorest among all the Malaysian states but in the urban centers, wealth indicators such as the appearances of satellite dishes in many homes do not support this figure but data should not be disputed. Those with low monetary income are people living in the interior, which is not covered by this region that I am narrating at the moment.

All is not lost. There is a university at Sulaman road on the way to Sepangar port and there is an increase in developments of commercial and residential buildings. The new style dwellings do not allow village style occupancies where close relatives stay near each other. This may increase racial integration but people are beginning to adopt urban lifestyles where they do not know their neighbors well.

The northwestern part of Sabah has average income and there is no dominance of any particular race or religion. The eastern part of Sabah is mostly Muslims. Christians or pagans are located at the interior. Incidences of interracial marriages among locals or with Chinese are high even in traditional villages.

Language:

Each of the tribes either Rungus, Bajau, Irranun, Dusun, Suluk, Brunei and Chinese have many versions of their mother tongue languages but all can speak Malay with a Sabahan dialect that is unique to Sabah. It influenced by Bruneians that speak heavily modified Malay. To west Malaysians, we appear to speak with an Indonesian accent. Actually, this is not the case because I can easily distinguish if an Indonesian speaks Malay. The closest analogy would be reading Malay by the book. Malay speakers will resort to this accent less form of Malay when they sing, read poets or formal speeches. This version is officially called Bahasa Baku. Therefore, travelers who want to communicate well with locals should just pronounce the phonetic sounds of the alphabets. Of course there are the extra words in our dialect such as the word 'bah' but this should not be used too often as is done by new west Malaysians trying Sabahan dialect. Use the standard form 'lah' for that.

Dances:

In parties, adults still prefer traditional dances such as Sumazau for Dusuns and Joget for Muslims. I do not recall any version of Chinese dances for the mixed sexes dances, they tend to go for western styles just as in discotheques or nightclubs. Children of all races tend to dance the latest western dances during birthday parties.

These parties are almost all in arranged as part of marriage ceremonies. Here, traditional dances are performed while guests are having their dinner.

Of particular note is the Darling-darling dance. I use the English form from which it originates. In its pure form, it is accompanied by a Suluk poetic song. In its full dressing, the dancers look like Thai or Bali dancers complete with long artificial fingernails in order to accentuate the sensually erotic movements of the hands. The breast and hip thrusts are prominent and can put western dancers to shame, although the rhythm is slightly slower but definitely faster than Thai or Bali dancers. Unlike modern western erotic dances, or Arabian belly dancing, Darling-darling is sensually erotic without any tint of vulgarity.

Food:

Western fast food can be found in all the major towns, Kudat, Kota Belud, Tuaran, and Kota Kinabalu. In all towns including Kundasang, Nabalu, Tamparuli, Telipok, Menggatal, Matunggung and Sikuati, fast local food, Malay food such as fried rice, halal chicken rice, beef noodle soup called soto or mee sup, chinese chicken rice and dim sum, Indian(mostly muslim) roti chanai with curry sauce should be available at low prices but fast service.

Western fast food is located in clean and air conditioned premises with the highest standard of hygiene and toilet facilities. Local fast food is mostly served in open-air restaurants with just tolerable hygiene standard. With boiled water and centralized supply of ice cubes, incidences of diarrhea should be rare. One weakness is the water used to clean the dishes. Beware of roadside stalls that are not equipped with running piped water supply.

Most Sabahans take food at these open-air restaurants or at canteens that are of equivalent standard. Breakfast is usually light for all races. If you insist on heavy bacon and eggs, you have to take them at Hotel restaurants. Locals just take hot drinks that can be Ground coffee, Nescafe, Tea, Milo, Nestum, Ginseng and Tongkat Ali 3 in 1 packets, all with choices of, low or high concentration pok for light, kau for heavy, with plain condensed milk(see) and with sweetened condensed milk(nai), the last but the most common and the default.

Tea and Nescafe with sweetened milk can have the 'tarik' option at zero cost, which creates bubbles. Tea without milk, can have lemon slices added. Plain water can be added with lemon plus chinese salted small plums(ah moy) called ki chai. If they are iced, they are called pink.

Iced sweetened drinks are put in larger glasses with more sweetened milk or sugar added, and cost up to 50% more at RM1.50. One variety, called iced milked red syrup is called Air Bandung that is unheard of in Bandung itself. Iced canned lychee can also be requested as well as black jelly(liong pun). Plain water either warm, hot or cold can be provided, for free at most places.

It may not all be on the menu but you can request anything and they will comply as long as they have the ingredients handy. One example is the introduction of Neslow, Nescafe with Milo. Even ice cream served in any way you like. My description above could be the only complete description of the usual drinks ordered by locals, valid up to this year of 2006.

The summary:

The view that Sabahans are stupid and slow should be discarded in favor of flexible and enterprising people who are hospitable enough to comply with customer requests to great lengths. It is this relaxed and peaceful atmosphere that allowed Sabahans to accomplish this adaptability and cooperation among each other.

This part of Sabah is truly heaven. It has all the nicest climates in the world. Instead of waiting for them to come, you just shift positions nearby mount Kinabalu to enjoy spring conditions. It has no shark infested beaches, no hurricanes, no draughts, no tornadoes, no tsunamis, no earthquakes and no floods. For food, we have all the major civilizations in the world, Chinese, Indian, Western, Indonesian, Thailand, and Japanese using the freshest ingredients. Although Sabah is not a developed nation, it may be a blessing in disguise. We do not have huge factories and pollution to destroy our environment. Of course, living in heaven is not cheap but it is still cheap judged against world prices, and it is not conducive to sinful activities. However, you can name any entertainment, you can always find them somewhere or sometime.

Resources:

http://www.sabahtourism.com/