An Exceptional Surprise Pre-Birthday Treat

Yesterday morning (02.10.2024) just before 11.00am, I received a phone call from Grace, an ex-classmate and a very good friend from my high school days at Lok Yuk. She asked whether I and my wife would be free to join her and her sister, Jessie for lunch at Pacific Sutera Hotel. Even with such short notice, I obliged because such opportunity is really rare to come by. 

I have been asking her for meal numerous time in the past but somehow the meet up had not been successful. She was supposed to have joined us for a brief reunion with our former Art teacher, Mr. Liew Fui En when he came back from Perth for a re-visit of KK. Just before the meet up on 26.07.2024, she called to inform she could not make it for the gathering due to stomach upset. Attempt to have reunion is even harder after her knee cap operation in early February this year.

The greatest surprise of the get-together was when a staff of the hotel brought out a mini birthday cake and placed it in front of me. It was a surprise pre-birthday celebration she and her sister organized for me. Observing her movement difficulty and the her need to be aided by a walking stick, such kind gesture and effort moved me close to tears!

On top of that, the sisters managed to get the team of restaurant staff accompanied by a guitarist to sing a birthday song to the birthday "boy". This is truly the biggest surprise birthday celebration I have ever had so far!

I am truly blessed to have friends like Grace and Jessie!

Birthday "boy" with Grace.

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More than a year ago on 27.07.2023, the sisters too invited us for buffet lunch at Pacific Sutera Hotel. Coincidentally, we sat at the same table for both occasions :)

Online Family Game Night

My daughter Serene suggested on Saturday (28.09.2024) to have an online get-together for game time. I was instantly reminded of the online family get-together during Covid-10 pandemic period way back in 2020 when cross border travel was suspended (Read here). 

We all agreed to Serene's suggestion and the online game time was held on Sunday evening of 29.09.2024.

It was indeed a fun-filled night! After almost four years since our last online game time in 2020, Livvie has elevated to become a spontaneous and quick thinking participant! Bravo Livvie!

Among the four groups competing, we were placed third! That's not bad considering that we lack young and stronger legs to run around and to hunt for items!

Gong Making in Kampung Sumangkap

My SIL and her friends were exceptionally happy with their decision to stay on for another three more days after their initial tour ended on 24.09.2024. The trip to the Tip of Borneo allowed her to struck off another item from her bucket list.

One other place we visited during our trip to the north of Sabah is Kampung Sumangkap Gong Factory. This gong factory is one of the well-known gong making factories in Sabah. For the indigenous people - Rungus, KadazanDusun and Murut, gong is an important musical instrument integral to their culture and often being used for weddings and festivals. Since our last visit to this place in 2015, significant improvement has been made at this place. A corner is specially allocated to showcase making of gong by craftsman.

Entrance to the Gong Factory.

Gong making by craftsman.

These days, gongs are no longer made purely as music instruments. They are now made of many sizes and of different material (either brass or iron) for sale to tourists as souvenirs and display items. Gongs made of brass are comparatively more expensive than those made of iron. As the sale lady pointed out, bends or curves of brass gong are formed by manual bending while that of iron gongs are formed by welding. Interestingly, the sound generated from brass gongs are much nicer compared to that generated by iron gongs!

Visiting tourists now have the luxury of purchasing different kinds of local handicrafts at the government-funded souvenir outlet built next to the gong factory.

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Kulintangan which consists of a set of different sizes of gongs are also made and sold there. My grandchildren, Livvie and Maddie had a chance of playing Kulintangan when we were staying in Shangri-lah Rasa Ria Hotel in March this year for holidays (Read here).

Bargain at Kudat Market

A visit to the local market provides a good indication of what the local populace eat daily. Nowadays, markets are also one of the attractions that tourists love to visit! In our previous tours to Italy and South Korea, we did spend some time at their local markets to look at goods and merchandise sold and to try out some of their interesting delicacies (Read here) and (Read here).

Kudat has a wet market and a dry market. We dropped by at the dry market just before leaving for home on 26.09.2024. The dry market is rather huge and the majority of the stalls either sell vegetables or dried staff. Since Kudat is well known for their seafood, the bulk of the dried staff are dried salted fish, ikan bilis, dried shrimps, dried squids, dried scallops, dried oysters and dried sea cucumbers.

The ladies spent significant time at the stalls which sell ikan bilis, dried shrimps and dried sea cucumbers. They put their bargaining skill to good use in dealing with the stall operators. Though this is not a flea market, they managed to get the dried sea cucumbers regarded with high-vale components and bioactives at almost 30% discount! Dried seafood products sold in Kudat are indeed much cheaper than those sold in KK - some as much as 50% less!

At the peak of their bargaining, I was reminded of some of the purchases I did in my previous tour to China. One can bargain prices down to one-fifth of the original price offered (Read here)! Personally, I hate this kind of sale tactic!

At the stall selling dried sea cucumbers, I chit-chatted with a Chinese speaking customer who was also looking at these dried staff. He commented that the total value of the goods sold at this small stall could amount to at least RM50k. Though the people manning the stall are local natives and Bajau, he contended that the ultimate man behind it could be a Chinese towkay! Looking at the prices of the some of the packs tagged at RM1k and above, RM50k is indeed not an exaggeration!

Bee Farming in Kudat

Ever since we were introduced to stingless bee farming at Hotel Shangri-lah Rasa Ria on 12.03.2024 (Read here), this exposure has led us to start our own stingless bee farming at our backyard (Read here). And before our latest trip to Kudat, we visited another stingless bee farm at Kokol Hill with our CG friends at the end of August recently (Read here).

It is therefore natural that we would search out for bee farms in our trip to Kudat. Our first visit was to Borneo Honeybee Centre at Jalan Sikuati Marabau after lunch on 25.09.2024. Unfortunately, though the Centre was "opened" and accessible, there was no one available at the Centre at the time of our visit because it's "closed" during lunch break from 1.00pm to 2.00pm. 

Borneo Honeybee Centre.

Even in the absence of any staff at the Centre, we did spend some time browsing through the extensive items and information on display. This is a good place to visit and to gain knowledge about the great variety of bees in Sabah!

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The next day on the way back to KK, we made a detour to DMA Gombizau Honey Bee Farm at Kampong Gombizau. The sign, "Gombizau Kampung Madu" we saw just before DMA Bee Farm reminded me that we had in fact been here way back in 2015. The owner of DMA told us later on that the original operator of Gombizau Kampung Madu no longer runs the outlet. 

One key lesson we learnt from the lady manning the counter of DMA Bee Farm is that harvested honey should not be refrigerated but kept in the open at room temperature. I did an instant internet search and found that her assertion was indeed correct!

The Farm sells a variety of wide honey and the lady operator contended that honey of stingless bees is the best! That assertion reassured us that we made the right decision in keeping stingless bees!

Kudat, the Hakka Town

Kudat is recognized as a Hakka town because her founding migrants were mostly Chinese Hakka who came from the Guangdong Province of China in the late 1800's.

For our breakfast on 26.09.2024, I decided to look for one old traditional Chinese coffee shop. An internet search led us to Kedai Kopi Lok Kheng Lim. As I have expected based on the word "Kheng" in the name of the shop, the coffee shop is run by Hainanese as confirmed by the proprietor lady who manned the counter. She told me she is Hakka and her husband is Hainanese. The coffee shop is more than 70 years old. It first started operating in the old Kudat town for over 40 years and then moved to its current premise more than 20 years ago. 

Teresa loves graffiti and she was happy to pose beside this painting of traditional old coffee shop setting painted on the exterior of the coffee shop.

Typical of traditional coffee shop, this outlet serves dim sum, roti kahwin (toast bread), boiled eggs and and a variety of mee. I noticed that it is mee kosong (mee ekonomi) which is the most popular among the patrons.

Mee Kosong and Meehon Kosong.

We too ordered both mee kosong and meehon kosong to reminiscence the old days of eating this economic mee (經濟麵). I recall eating this mee wrapped in Simpoh Air leaf sold in the school canteen of my primary school in the 1950's. It costed 10 cents per pack then compared to RM3 per plate now! That's 300 times increase after 60 years!

Picture of cooked food or mee wrapped in Simpoh Air leaf.

Simpoh Air leaves.

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Before leaving Kudat, we stopped at the Basel Christian Church of Malaysia (BCCM) at Lau San. This is the oldest Church of BCCM. The original attap church building was built in 1886 by the first 10 families of migrants from China.  

Chinese migrants left their home country for a new country in Southeast Asia because of two reasons. Soon after the failed Taiping Rebellion, the Hakka speaking Christians affiliated with the Basel Mission were viewed with suspicion by the Qing government as the leader of the rebellion, Hong Xiuquan was himself a Hakka. This resulted many Hakka speaking Chinese leaving China for Southeast Asia. Secondly, many hoped to seek new economic opportunity in a new country with the hope of reversing their hard lives in China.

3rd Trip to the Tip of Borneo

On 25.09.2024, we visited the Tip of Borneo for the third time. The first was on 30.05.2006 (Read here) and the second on 05.06.2015 (Read here). Coincidentally, the second trip happened to be the very day Sabah suffered the worst earthquake she had ever experienced. On that fateful day, sixteen people were confirmed dead (Read here).

Since that disaster, we did have plans to re-visit the Tip of Borneo again but somehow the plan has not been activated. The plan to re-visit was finally activated when my SIL (my wife's oldest sister, Yong Kiow) came with a group of friends to tour the surrounding of KK. When the tour ended and she and another of her friend decided to spend another three extra days in KK. With them as company, we decided to take them to the Tip of Borneo - one of the places she has yet to visit.

Yong Kiow (Right) and her friend, Teresa.

Since our last trip in 2015, significant improvement has been made at the site. This includes providing more directional signs and information at the Tip of Borneo. 

But sadly, the final stretch of the sealed road leading to the Tip of Borneo is in very deplorable condition as we have experienced first-hand in this trip. If a concert is to be held this year, the top priority will be a major road repair exercise before the event!

Quite a number of visitors came hoping to see the sunset view. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy day and the western shoreline was only splattered with patches of mild orange!

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On the way back to the car park, we detoured to the site where the annual sunset concerts are held. Quite to my surprise, other than the mildly overgrown grass, the stage and the terraced seats are still intact and reasonably well maintained. Trees behind the stage have grown much taller blocking off significant sunset views!

The Sunset Music Festival also known as the Sunset Concert, has been held annually at Tanjung Simpang Mengayau or the Tip of Borneo. It was first held in 2006. The one we attended in 2015 is the 10th. 

However, there was no music festival or concert from 2017 to 2022. This was only revived in 2023 after a gap due to the pandemic and other interruptions. The festival offers a unique open-air experience featuring local, regional, and international performances with breathtaking views of the sunset over the South China Sea and Sulu Sea. 

The concert is normally held in June. So far with three months left in 2024, there is still no sign or news to confirm whether it will be held this year.

A beautiful bay next to the open concert site.

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A piece of new information in the form of a signboard about the highest point of the Tip of Borneo has been added after our last trip in 2015.

The highest point, called Tomanggong Kurantud is named after a renowned warrior and chief of the Rungus people. Rungus is the dominant indigenous people residing in the northern region of Sabah. 

Story has it that Tomanggong Kurantud led a fight in a battle against invading pirates in the area around Tanjung Simpang Mengayau. In 1881, he signed an agreement of cooperation with the British representative of North Borneo Chartered Company to maintain peace in return for the promise of development and prosperity in this region.