KOTA KINABALU Second helping ~journeys 2010: journal with pfotos~April 15-30

~ journeys end ~

don't they! On returning from Kudat we find a cheap lodging once again in Sinsuran. The room's a small one, not much bigger than a double bed! It's up on the top floor on a corner and next to the toilet and shower rooms. It has lots of fresh air courtesy of a missing window. It's RM20 per night and quiet. The place is a Filipino-run place called the 'Kudat'. It's affordable! And livable. It's 'home' for the remained of my stay...our stay together in Kota Kinabalu.

I continue the daily walk-abouts. We go out to Tanjung Aru beach...cheaply by local bus a couple of times...to break things up. But mostly it's cheap afternoons down at the esplanade fishing with Noni. Kota Kinabalu's not unpleasant but it's become for me, increasingly depressing. It's not a new experience! I've been just recently before Kudat. I don't have too much money left. The realization is sinking in that my journeys are about over. It's taken two rather short months to travel leisurely to Penang and Melaka then on to Sumatra, Madura, and Kalimantan before Sabah!

I reckon I've got about two weeks worth of funds to gently blow before I must leave. Should I try to find a job and stay together with Noni? I have the feeling that it'll probably be a disaster. As a result I don't make much of an effort. I did make it out the university to have a look around though. And I did have an interview at a girl's Catholic school but nothing eventuated. I was relieved.

I'd stopped recording my daily activities and impressions on meeting Ms.Noni. By Wednesday, April 28 however I catch myself writing: “No jobs here. And Kota Kinabalu's definitely worn off anyway. Today buy a flight out to KL for Saturday, May 01. Just enough dosh left to do the new passport thing and find a job in Thailand, or head back again to Vietnam.

I thought, about 10 days ago, “...there are job possibilities here, and I'll give it until the end of the month”...but nothing has materialized! I continue introspectively: "I'm spending considerable energy love-making and combined with equatorial malaise for anything but pfotos this leaves me with absolutely no motivation or energy to write up the events I am experiencing...as I was doing”. “Ill write up later when I'm on my own and a bit more centred and balanced”, I continue.“Killing time in Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok waiting for the new passport I'll have time enough”. “I'll just let the pictures tell the day-to-day story of the second Kota Kinabalu visit”. I then try to analyzing the situation and my feelings: “I'm less at ease...why?”.

“Ms Noni's definitely crazy. I could handle this at first but not so much now...lately I'm becoming more 'uptight' with her...especially her antics in public. Earlier they seemed fun...just frolics! “Probably she's just milking another foreigner cash-cow. I feel like I'm once again just a walking ATM" This is often the lot of a foreigner boyfriend in South-East Asia. But it's unsustainable for this poor nomadic English teacher. “Like, literally, she's eating like a horse and getting fat. And she hasn't had her period like she should have, so could she be pregnant?”. “The old vasectomy hasn't let me down at this late stage, has it?”. "If she's pregnant, well,she was before I met her...on the rebound I think, from...”. To finish up this lone diary entry I find written: “Been in the same room for the duration” as if adding explanation...“Been in the same room for the duration”!

Our well-worn daily routine, perfected since Kudat's been going something like this. Sex in the morning after which we head out to the Indian 'roti restaurant' to start the day proper. I'd spend seven or eight ringgit on roti and kari ayam...my favorite. After that, in the afternoons there's sometimes a short expedition, for example down to the Fish Market or up Lookout Hill overlooking the town or a longer one out to Tanjung Aru beach. On one occasion we just kept walking in the heat of the day into the distance ending up at the far end of the airport runway. On the way back though, we sat and ate and drank at the very pleasant mid-beach restaurant.

Most days we'd have a bit to eat above the day market down on the front followed wiling away the afternoon at the 'new' esplanade'. Planes taking off from Tanjung Aru climb over the city banking out to sea overhead. Noni always yells out to them "Bye, bye, babe". I'd think, yeah, I'll be up there in a couple a days time not sure whether to laugh or cry!

Noni fishes with some line and hooks she finds. I hang around observing the sea and the waterfront. Evenings are always spent at the Filipino Night Market eating cheap delicious fish or my favorite terangbulan. We'd then buy our cheap Filipino cigarettes and wander back to the lodging for an ice-cream at one of the convenience stores along the way. Back at the room I'd upload the days pfotos and together we'd look through them together, Noni seeking faces and animal shapes in the clouds! We're generally asleep by 10!

Kota Kinabalu has delicious sunsets. Everyone who's visited Kota Kinabalu has surely witnessed tremendously colorful skies in general and sunsets in particular. The esplanade's excellent with it's offshore islands and cloud-banks just above the horizon. Another great sunset vantage point is on Lookout Hill. The special thing about sunsets from up here is that the town's buildings many with lights already on are silhouetted! Nature is to the fore on the walk up from Merdeka Park. Freedom...Independence...

On May 01 the Sabah journey comes finally to an end. I've got to leave! I take what little I've got...and freedom. It's out to the Air Asia terminal at Tanjung Aru by local bus in lots of time. Noni comes out with me. I leave her sitting outside the terminal while I check-in. She creates a big mess around where she's sitting...litter, plant material, cigarette butts. There's a trash container within easy reach. It's her way of showing that she's sore at me for leaving. It gives the cleaners a sense of being needed. The supervisor even comes out. They seem to feel sorry for her, understanding of her 'plight'. Eventually she walks off about 30 minutes before my boarding time. She's got five packs of the cheap Filipino cigarettes and RM50 I could afford to give her. I stare after her with a numb feeling, moisture in my eyes. So that's that! I had been dreading a big scene. Emotions boiling over...And journeys begin ~

KOTA KINABALU Jesselton Point ~journeys 2010: journal with pfotos~April 09

~ kotuku and history ~

Friday, April 09 we make a short outing from our lodging in Sinsuran to Jesselton Point wharf. It's just a short walk along the waterfront from the centre of Kota Kinabalu. Or you can take a local town bus instead. We returned to the central town that way. It's a hot one!

Mid-morning Ms.Noni and I head down to the esplanade stopping off for a bite to eat on the way. Then we take a noon stroll along the tourist esplanade, to the right, away from the Filipino and fish market. Like most tourists we encounter the huge swordfish statue on the traffic roundabout. There are also giant stone fish statues on the boardwalk nearby. Ms.Noni loves to frolic in public! It's really hot.

We take shelter on a park bench conveniently placed under the welcome shade of adolescent trees. This is the capital of Sabah and it's a place where nature's to the fore. I remember yesterday having seen a giant bird statue being 'frolicked on' in a street not far away! Looking over the harbor now I realize the bird signified. White herons frequent this part of coastal Sabah. The central fish market nearby must provide a easy ready made take aways!

They're definitely white herons! 'Kotuku' is the Maori word for these beautifully graceful birds. These days they're a famous icon of the west coast of New Zealand. Kotuku don't live there. Rather they arrive to mate and nest around November. No doubt some of these birds I'm seeing right now on the esplanade at Kota Kinabalu have made that flight south to Okarito, New Zealand!

To our right about one kilometre distant I can see the tip of Jesselton Point wharf. From the statued esplanade where we're sitting it's possible to walk along the waterfront. This waterfront's developing. Although it's not completed yet, this impressive new extension to the existing esplanade bears warning signs against entry. But it's easy to access.

And it looks like most of the structural construction work's completed so there's little risk involved. It's a favorite spot for local fishermen. Under it's protruding concrete buttresses live some apparently homeless folk. It's a place we increasingly frequented on our return from Kudat. I was pretty penniless though we weren't homeless! We just liked to hang out fishing away the afternoons. Today though, it's just the most direct and appealing way to walk from the esplanade to the wharf at Jesselton Point.

Jesselton Point wharf's been welcoming visitors for a long time. In former colonial times it was the main disembarkation wharf for Sabah. Today, some of that history's on display. Large reproduced photographs decorate the wall to our left at the entrance. One scene in the early 1900s shows cargo ships anchored nearby. Another shows it's state as a result of WW2 when the British destroyed most of the town's infrastructure before abandoning it. History on public show. And for free!

Today Jesselton Point welcomes all, including both British and Japanese tourists. They as well as local tourists, come here to catch ferryboats to the beautiful TAR National Park islands.

KOTA KINABALU ~journeys 2010: journal with pfotos~April 07

~ first impressions ~

“Before independence Sabah was known as North Borneo and controlled by the British North Borneo Company. Before that, it was part of Brunei's empire and renowned for it's pirates. Kota Kinabalu was at one time known as Api Api [Fire Fire] because of the pirates' tiresome habit of repeatedly putting it to the torch...Kota Kinabalu [KK], known as Jesselton until 1963 was razed during WW2 to prevent the Japanese using it as a base. Today it's a modern, functional city of wide avenues and tall buildings, with little in the way of historical charm or attractions, but it's not unpleasant” [Attribution: South-East Asia On A Shoestring Lonely Planet Publications 2001:521]. Agreed!

Wednesday, April 07. First impressions on arrival from Tawau. Our bus finally arrives at 1am. We have to take an expensive taxi in to the town, to Sinsuran. It's now 2 am. After a late night feed and tired we find a nearby lodging, the Pamol-Swiss. It's run by a Filipino woman and her children. A share bathroom room overlooking an evening market costs RM30 per night for two people. Our routine for the ensuing days is determined on the first. It goes something like; breakfast at the Indian roti restaurant then a wander. A siesta in the middle of the afternoon is followed by another outing. Then it's down to the night market for dinner. The tasty favorite is terambulan...a pancake with nuts on top. Not too nutritious but cheap, delicious and filling when hot.

After rising understandably later than usual it's out to find a 'water machine'. They're usually scattered around most Malaysian towns. They provide a very cheap supply of cool clear water. At ten Malaysian cents per litre it's worth knowing where the nearest one is! In Kota Kinabalu they're not in obvious places. Even the locals deny knowledge of their location. Eventually we locate one by the taxi parking place nearby.

Great! We fill up a couple of one and a half litre plastic bottles and head on foot out to a 'suburb' called Sembulan. It's beyond the modern centre of town and the bus station from our room. Ms.Noni wants to visit some family. It's a very hot day. Most of the houses at Sembulan front onto a stagnant swamp. The whole scene brings back memories of squatter settlements in Port Moresby! The families that live here are poor but very friendly. We meet an uncle and his son. An hour later we leave and decide to go out to Tanjung Aru beach. There are buses that run there. But the family won't hear to it. Some young neighbors are going into town. They happily go out of their way to take us the seven or eight kilometres.

Tanjung Aru is Kota Kinabalu's beach. The airport KKIA is at it's far end. We paid a visit because in six weeks of traveling I hadn't been to one. It's OK...clean and sandy! We buried Noni's bird.

There are pleasant enough pavilions to picnic under provided free. A local bus goes right to the entrance. On this occasion we took it back into town, and headed straight to the Filipino night market. I couldn't wait to get stuck into one of those delicious terambulans!

TAWAU ~journeys 2010: journal with pfotos~Apr.04-06

~ birds of a feather ~

April 04. Back in Malaysia. Back to roti mid-morning breakfasts of curried chicken with coffee. RM.7. Off to explore Tawau town. I walk the esplanade away from town as far as a village with it's Sunday market. I meet there a Sabahan princess. She's a rather oddly dressed lady. We speak mostly in the broken bahasa that's returned to me lately. “Looking for a girl” she says, in English though. “No” I say...“like traveling alone”. “Me too” she says. And then “Want a juice drink”. “Yes, OK. Thanks”, I say. I end up paying as she fossicks for coins. The drink's a cheap iced concoction. It's sweet and kind of refreshing in the heat of the day. That finished I say “Bye” and head back whence I came.

She follows twenty or thirty metres behind me. About 1km later we're sitting together at a table near the big mosque at the far end of the esplanade. Noni. Says she's 27...but 35 is closer. She's half Saban, half Philippino and grew up in a kampong near Sandakan. It was once the capital and is a coastal Sabahan~Philippino-influenced town near the famed tourist Sepilok Orang Utan sanctuary. Noni proceeds to ask if I want a massage! She doesn't look that well and I doubt she has energy for a real one. I don't look keen. She says “Give me RM10 and I'll go away”. I give her 5 and off she goes...to sleep she says, because she has been sick.

Lingering on the esplanade I eventually return to my 'penginapan' or lodging. I've changed to a room with a window for the same RM20 price. After resting I walk around the main part of the town in the evening. I'm thinking that Tawau needn't detain me. The people seem OK. They're kind of friendly. But unlike Indonesians they just sort of ignore me...which is a big change from Tarakan. I don't mind being ignored. I'm just not used to it right now. There are some other differences too. The electricity wires are missing in this town. They're all underground these days. Central Tawau's been rebuilt in that some would say soulless, Malaysian fashion so common in post-colonial developing counties today. It strikes me that there are virtually no motorbikes and fewer fat women. The degree of 'moslemness' is far less obvious here. There are next to no audible calls to prayer for example. Other foreigners, travelers? My guess is that they used to get a lot more travelers passing through to Indonesia. But that's dried up to a trickle now. I must've walked about 15 km today easy. Just another first day in a new town.

April 05. A Monday. A fine, sunny one too. The seven rooms here share the 1 bathroom. By the time it's free in the morning rush hour the call-of-nature's waned. I might mosey on to Kota Kinabalu (KK) Sabah's main city today. It's an eight to nine hour bus-ride away across the top of Borneo island. It costs RM50. There are buses to KK not only early at 7:30am but also at about 2pm. I could catch the latter today. On the other hand, I'm feeling good so why think about moving. I'm listening to Frank Z. and Bob D. There's no particular rush. This accommodation isn't breaking the bank.

Tawau reminds me a little of Fiji. That's hardly surprising. Both share the same colonial heritage. It shows in the style of the older and modern buildings. A proportion of both populations is of Indian heritage. But I head out again as always...on foot...because I want to see if I can get to the shoreline villages I saw from the ferry. However I have a 'coincidental' meeting on the way, with Ms. Noni up on Jalan Chester near the local market and bus 'station'. I had to run into her again somewhere along the line. Small town. She'd be keeping an eye out for me. I'm walking taking some snaps. She sees me from inside a cafe I'm walking past and rushes out. She runs up from behind and invites me to come and buy her a coffee! That's done it. I won't be leaving today. With nothing to do in the heat of the day...about noon...we decide to try and find a way to the sea together in the general direction of where I was heading. Her local knowledge should get me there. It's a very hot walk. She points to aquatic life in the roadside drains...which have incredibly clear water. “Good protein” she remarks. This was my first inkling to her subsistence means of survival. She lives off the 'land'. And what other's discard or lose.

We end up on a small 100m strip of 'beach'. Well hardly. It's got no official public access, next to the container terminal, behind the hospital and is reach by following a polluted creek off from the road. This beach is on the town side of the yacht club. British colonial heritage. We sit in the shade of the only tree, feet dangling over the sea wall. The tide's out. She goes off slowly scouring the beach up to the high-tide mark for 'finds'. She plays with the small sea-creatures she encounters. Not content to stay still in one place for long, her eagle eye spies a bird's nest up in the thin branches of the shade tree. Climbs. Shakes free a solitary chick. It lasts four sad days then croaks. After about 4 hours of listening to music and light conversation in broken English and bastardized Bahasa we sheltering from some tropical mid-afternoon showers. We then...me, her and the chick...walk back to my room. No hanky-panky. She sought my clumsy embrace under the 'chick-tree'. She knows where I live now! Run rabbit, run. She leaves...with a “See you tomorrow”....after asking “You go KK tomorrow?” I give her RM10 so she can hopefully buy a meal. I find out later she bought herself a few beers! All up today I spend about RM 40 or about US$12. This is a pretty uninspiring place. I didn't get round to making another 'street-corner' video like I'd half planned. As I drift off to sleep, thinking Hong Kong's a passport possibility I tell myself that I can't afford a passenger.

April 06. I arise early after a good sleep. I know that I should catch the early bus. Catch the early bus, you fool. I can't afford a passenger along for 'the-Dave-ride' at the moment. I know that when Ms Noni said 'see you tomorrow', she meant it. The morning bus out of here arrives in KK at a good time. I procrastinate buying the afternoon ticket. I'll leave fate to decide and give Ms Noni her chance. Maybe it's time for some company! About 11am. I had breakfast and bought the bus ticket. I'm back at the room getting ready to checkout of room by the ubiquitous 12 noon. I'm not going out. I'll wait at the lodging outside on the terrace until close to the bus departure time and then cross the road to terminal.

And of course fate comes tapping on the door late morning. Ms Noni all ready for a bus journey! The chick's still alive and all wrapped up. She' s got her green bird-kite too. And some other basic possessions. All are wrapped in a sarong and slung over her shoulder. She knows we're all off to KK. I accept my fate and without too much worry. I purchase her a ticket. Que sera, sera.