Revisit Sabah Tea Garden

An overnight stay at Sabah Tea Garden was another outing planned for my MIL's visit to Sabah. 

As we moved towards the newly renovated restaurant after arrival at the car park, we could see that the place has undergone a major "face lift" since our last visit over ten years ago (Read here),

A popular backdrop for photography by visitors.

Taking advantage of the world renowned Mt. Kinabalu, the owner has installed a photo frame for visitors to capture the scene of the mountain as a backdrop. The frame instantly reminded me of the photo frame we saw in Stanley, Tasmania (Read here). In the case of the photo frame in Stanley, the frame is perfectly aligned such that the "Nut" fits perfectly within the frame. The frame in Sabah Tea Garden unfortunately is slightly misaligned resulting Mt Kinabalu not centered exactly within the frame!

The restaurant is popular among visitors. Its key attraction is to enjoy the awesome view of Mount Kinabalu while having a meal or snack.

Now, Sabah Tea Garden is also one of the love lock
destinations where couples can go to "lock up their love"!

The Plantation offers both dormitory-typed as well as chalet-typed accommodation. These facilities are built atop a small hill commanding a terrific view of the undulating landscape of the plantation. 

We stayed in one of the semi-detached chalet units which is named after Alfred Dent. This man, a British colonial merchant and entrepreneur was also the founder of the British North Borneo Company established in 1882.

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At the plantation, I met an ex-colleague, Mr. Tam Yaw Kong whom I have not met since 1989. He used to work as a storekeeper when I was working in Antah-Biwater way back in 1988-1989. Being an avid Mt Kinabalu climber, he has since ventured into tourism business, TYK Adventure Tour. He has climbed the mountain more than 500 times, a feat few can rivaled with.

At the time of our encounter at the Plantation, he and his son (an equally enthusiastic mountain climber and cyclist) were taking a few cyclists to do a cycling tour to Lahad Datu.

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On the way back to KK, we made a detour to Poring Hot Spring of Sabah National Park. We hoped that my MIL would get a chance to see the real Rafflesia in the Park. Unfortunately, there was none that time. Then, an advertisement put up by local inhabitant not far from the park entrance gave us a chance to see one. We called the contact number and was soon directed into a fruit farm. After half a kilometer walk, we saw what we looked for and we were not disappointed.