Trip to Sabah (Day 7)

Well, we are finally at the last day of my trip to Sabah. Looking back, I realized that it actually took me one whole month to finish talking about the trip!!! OMG!!! And the thing is, I did not really find my trip to Sabah THAT interesting at all. I shudder when I actually go to some place that I like… might take me half a year for me to finish describing it :P. Of course, after finishing this long series of my post, I might have to rack my brains to find something to talk about. I am not a very exciting guy and thus, there’s almost nothing that I can talk about my life. Well, that is a problem in the future…

It was the last day in Sabah. Sore and energy drained from the stupid mountain-climbing the day before, I really wanted to stay in bed for the rest of the day. However, being a responsible person and not to miss our afternoon flight, I forced my eyes open when my hand phone rang. Apparently, I was the first one to wake up. After cleaning up, I went to the lobby (it’s actually just a small living room) to use the computer for online. It’s free, but there is only one… so if there is someone else waiting to use the computer, one is expected to use it for only 15 minutes. There are already hundreds of mails waiting for me when I sign-in to my e-mail account. Just as I finished sorting out the junk mails, the girls came downstairs with their luggage and the guys were ready to go too.

For breakfast today, the lodge owner took us to one of his friend’s restaurant called Apiwon… don’t know what it meant. The restaurant is famed for beef noodles. Unfortunately, I was unable to taste it since I don’t eat beef. Instead, I ordered a bowl of seafood noodles. Well, the taste is really quite normal lah, but I must say that the ingredients are really generous. The prawns are quite huge to be used in something like normal noodle soup. There are also fish balls, fried fish slices and fish cakes too. We also ordered fried fish cake which when taken with the special sauce given is quite good too. Normally, the fish cakes that I eat elsewhere are either too salty or are so tasteless that I doubt there is actually fish in there. The fish cakes in Apiwon are not too salty and you can actually taste the fish when you eat it! After the lodge owner paid the bill (yay!), we asked him to take us to the market to do our final shopping craze (well, actually, it’s the girls’ shopping craze).

Apiwon Restaurant...

Nice fried fish cakes with sauce...

The gorgeous beef kuay teow...

Porridge ordered by the lodge owner...

My generous bowl of seafood kuay teow...

It was around 9am and it was the first time I was in a van in the city center at that time. Previously, we were already on our way out of the city center to other places before 9am. The streets are jammed with cars! It can actually rival the streets of KL, except that the roads in the city center do not have so many lanes as that of KL. Even with the small lanes, the cars, vans and lorries still park haphazardly at the roadside without regards for any other people… I guess this shows that Sabahans really are Malaysians :P. Finally, after crawling through the cars, the lodge owner left us beside the market and asked us to call him when we are done as he drove back to his lodge.

First stop, we went to the fruits section of the market. There, our group bought avocadoes! The girls have been yapping non-stop about the benefits of avocado and how different Sabah’s avocado is from the ones in West Malaysia… heck, I didn’t even know that there are avocadoes for sale in WM! I supposed the avocadoes here are considered cheap kua (which I suspect is the main reason for the shopping hysteria). There are rows and rows of avocadoes there and they are divided into green ones and purplish ones as well. The green ones are those that are still raw while the purplish ones are ready to be eaten. It’s priced at RM3 per kg… which means it’s about 3 to 4 avocadoes. They took a really long time shifting through the gazillions of avocadoes available there. I bought only 3 avocadoes myself and it cost me RM2 only! The strange thing is, some of the avocadoes, when you shake them, you can actually hear the seed rattling inside. I enquired the shop owner if that is a good sign, and he says it is… so I ask him if those without t seed-rattling sound are bad, he said no too! He said each and every fruit there is in good condition! He doesn’t even know how to lie properly!

Avocadoes... common sight in the market

Next, we passed by a shop that sells tit-bits. Well, there’s no better gift than food. If you buy food, you can share one packet with several people but if you buy gifts, you can only give one to each person. So, it’s more economical to buy food. I bought two packets of brown sugar filled cookies called “kuih cincin”. It was quite nice. Of course, it’s nice only if you do not pay attention to the amount of sugar you are consuming. All those low sugar diets are just crap. Also, I bought a packet of prawn crackers and another packet of white round shaped thing which turned out to be coconut flavoured cookies. I’ve tried all of them and all of them are quite nice… but then again, I have a sweet tooth… so, if something sweet tastes bad, it would have to be horrendous for a normal person.

Assortment of cookies...

"Kuih cincin"...

After we shopped for the delicacies, the girls wanted to buy dried seafood!!! They got some sea cucumbers, abalones, dried mini prawns and other unknown stuff. Luckily, they stopped before starting to buy bird’s nest and shark fins. But then again, I never heard Sabah being famous for bird’s nest, have you? While I was at the dried seafood market, I snapped pictures non-stop to compensate for its lack of usage in the mountains.

Dried seafood...

Scallops... thanks the witch for telling me that :P

Used by my mum in porridges!!!

Sharkfins... don't know if it's real though...

Rainbow sifting through a basket of sea cucumbers to make a nice meal for her bf... so envy!

Big, small, long, short sea cucumbers...

Abalones... doesn't look like the ones I ate decades ago...

Close-up on abalones... if you ask me, they really don't seem like those shown on tv

Dried mini prawns (don't know the exact term :P)

Dried cuttlefish...

Don't remember what this is but it look like salted fish...

Sea horse for sale... poor horsey

Finally satisfied, we called the lodge owner and we crammed ourselves inside the van as it start on its way to the airport. I think I did not mention this in my earlier posts, but you would be given a piece of paper when you enter Sabah. Thus, when you leave Sabah, you must return that piece of paper… think of it as a one-page passport… lose it and you’ll be visiting the immigration department and police station in no time.

In the airport, I even shopped a few souvenirs for some people that need to be bribed back in West Malaysia… and the plane was delayed!!! Well, it’s not actually delayed… it took off around 15 minutes later than the scheduled time. I’m supposed to take another flight in LCCT… and initially, I had around 45 minutes before the counter close after the plane from Sabah touch down. By the time we arrived at LCCT, there was only 30 minutes left for me to catch the next plane… and the luggage took forever to come out! Not to mention there are thousands of people waiting right next to the conveyor belt. Finally, when I got all my bags, there’s only about 10 minutes left!

I ran all the way to the check-in counter like a madman. Luckily Richard helped me carried one of my bags or I’ll have to slug it all the way to the counter. When I reached the counter, the destination sign had already been changed to Phnom Penh or something like that!!! I was really panicking. Luckily, there are still several people who are going to the same place as me in the line.

View of Sabah from the top... well, part of it anyway

Leaving Sabah...

My lunch... very expensive lunch :(

Not very nice roti canai... and not very nice sauce too...

Flying through a thunderstorm!!!

As if all the running is not enough, when it was my turn to check-in my luggage, the Air Asia person told me that my luggage is more than the allowed 15kg per person! Huh? When I took the plane from Sabah, the Air Asia weighed my luggage and it says it’s just 14kg! Did I take the wrong luggage? Or am I one of those victims who are used to bring “extra” stuff? The latter is not possible since my bags passed through the scanning. I suspect that the weighing scale in LCCT for Air Asia is inaccurate. Of course I did not argue. Then, the AA person told me that I have to pay extra for the extra weight and the extra luggage. Extra luggage? Apparently, each person is entitled for only one piece of luggage that weighs no more than 15kg for tickets that are bought March/April 2008 onwards! Previously, you can have any number of luggages as long as the total weight does not exceed 15kg. Thus, I have to pay extra!

This is really putting a thorn into my otherwise beautiful day! Well, I paid them without complaint and was just glad that I managed to catch the plane. Also, did you know that there are no tax-free alcohols for sale in LCCT? At least there’s none in the domestic departure and arrival hall. Maybe there’s one in International halls?

The leftover chocolates I bought from Laban Rata... please note the price...

Anyway, in conclusion, it was an okay trip… if I ignore the fact I had to take 6 days unpaid leaves (which costs me an extra RM1000++) and also failed to complete the main objective of the trip. Even though I complained a lot in my posts, those are just the needy me...I did have some nice moments in this trip. And I do relish in the pleasant company of my friends. I also tried some interesting and good food took part in some exciting activities (banana boat ride, white water rafting) which I would never do alone. I would have happily declared that this trip is a very good one if I managed to reached the top of Mt. Kinabalu. I do hope that their next choice of destination is less “demanding”. Some pampering resort near a beautiful seaside would do just fine…

The Sabah group...