Advertisement
Published: February 14th 2007
Dancing to 'Staying Alive' - Bee Gee's
In our private Karaoke booth we let loose!Jeffery was a guy from Singapore and a little older than us, he had a huge welcoming smile and a unique dress sense to say the least; he would wear the tackiest tourist T-Shirts that would advertise various places in Borneo, he wore these with very loud shorts and a NY Yankees baseball cap. That evening he bought us loads of drinks from the Fridge in the front room and later on he produced some Vodka from somewhere and we started on that. We talked about everything from Football to the pysique of Singaporeans and their paranoia at being surrounded by Muslim countries. Jeffery had been in the army, in a section very strong for the region although he wouldn't specify which one.
Jeffery told us that tomorrow he would take us out to places most tourists wouldn't see; a great view over Kota Kinabalu and then to a waterfall for a 'free massage'. Not wanting to sound rude and thinking we could manage one day without football or shopping we agreed and went to bed excited and a little nervous about our day out.
We woke early and got ready so not to be late for our host
Jeffery
The man who showed us how to have fun in Malaysia. and sure enough Jeffery was there with a huge smile on his face. He was wearing a typically Jeffery outfit; a white T-Shirt with a turtle and the letters MABUL across the top, blinding shorts and he had a brown envelope stuffed under his arm. We set out in Jeffery's friends 4x4 and headed out of the city to go to the look out spot but first we had to stop somewhere as Jeffery had a meeting, he didn't elaborate on. We entered a gateway past two security guards and with one wave from our host the guards directed him to a parking spot right at the front door. We couldn't tell what kind of place it was but it looked like a health resort with conference rooms?
We sat and were served coffee while Jeffery spoke to his colleague Ben, an architect who had designed many of KK's buildings including the bank and museum. Suitably impressed we said hello and let Jeffery explain the contents of the envelope to ben. Silently sipping coffee we waited and after a few minutes Ben called us over and told us of a night where a Malaysian pop singer (his girlfriend) was
singing and invited us to join him as his guests. Unable to think of an excuse why not and with Ben and Jeffery waiting for our response we smiled, nodded and accepted wondering exactly what we had gotten ourselves into.
On the way up the hill away from the city we quizzed Jeffery about the meeting, the envelope, Ben and the party. He was grinning, he wouldn't tell us what he did for a living, although he would later apparently. With Ben he did explain some things; he was a very well respected architect in Malaysia and at 62 had done very well for himself. His girlfriend the pop singer, Ling had a few hits in the charts but no number ones as yet. She was 22 and a few pieces started to fit together, well just that Ben was a rich sugar daddy and we were to be his guests at a karaoke bar tonight.
As we climbed higher we passed a small village with a school and a catholic church, we also passed a detention centre for illegal immigrants, most of them from the Philippines. The camp looked tiny but apparently there were over 3000 prisoners
Michael and Amanda
On the hillside with a view of KK. Who forgot to remove the bag? Tut, Tut! inside. As the road left us the 4x4 kicked in and we rocked up the steepest part and onto a clearing. We were here and the views, as promised were stupendous; we could look over the whole bay and out to the islands close by that were popular tourist resorts for rich Malaysians. On our decent we stopped by a lychee tree, negotiated past some protective dogs and Jeffery asked the owner if we could pick some. The owner agreed, the dogs stopped barking and we reached for a bunch of the ripe ones. The juicy fruit made us crave some lunch so Jeffery stopped by a Chinese place, refused to accept any money from us and came back with three bags of food. We drove to the waterfall, our entrance was paid for and we sat down to have our feast. Rice, pork and a whole duck were laid in front of us with some black and brown sauce that tasted delicious.
With our bellies full we went to the waterfall and after some careful negotiation past some slippery rocks we found a pool all to ourselves. It was like a free massage (a powerful one) We stood
All of us
A lovely picture if Amanda had'nt pulled such a wierd expression...thankfully Davids T-shirt provides a good distraction. underneath it as much as we could but its strength would eventually push us away. Truly relaxed but knackered we headed home. Jeffery had to make one more stop off, this time past a building site. He spoke to the foreman through his car window for a minute and then we were off again. Apparently that was just a favor for a friend (the owner of the 4x4 and Jeffery did not expand on his business dealings apart from that he had another meeting at 9 and he would pick us up at 10 so we could all go and see Ben and Ling.
We waited in the guesthouse and got ready for our night out. At 10pm Jeffery came back, this time with an Orangutan T-Shirt on and we were off. Still not expanding on Ben or his meeting he told us to relax and enjoy the night. We stopped off at a restaurant where Ben, Ling and a few other old old guys were sitting; as we sat buckets of ice cold lager were placed on our table and the food was shared around. Ben with his pop princess on his arm asked us about our day
Waterfall massage
The free massage from the waterfall Jeffery took us to. and we told him all about the free massage and feast. We drank continuously as our hosts kept raising their glasses every two minutes and clinking them with us. This was a sign to drink and drink more, so we did and the buckets of ice cold beer kept coming and everyone kept raising their glasses to say cheers - an odd custom but one with good benefits especially when you are not paying for the tab.
It was time to head to the club. Ben and Ling went off in his Mercedes and we followed with Jeffery. We pulled up to the club and climbed the stairs to a small doorway with 'KARAOKE' written in red neon lights above. We walked into a cloud of noise and people; the stage in the centre of the room at the back was surrounded by tables and chairs, next to the stage was a large dance area and a pool table where most of the customers were congregating. As we looked around absorbing our new environment we were whisked off to a private room to do some singing of our own. We were followed by Ben and another one of his
Michael and Amanda's duet
We sang 'Where is the love' by the Black eyed peas...very badly! girlfriends; a very good Chinese singer as we found out with the songs she sang that all sounded like speeded up Britney Spears tracks.
We embarrassed ourselves enough; Amanda and I sang 'Where is the love' and we all sang and danced to 'Staying alive' much to the amusement of Jeffery and Ben. It was time for Ling to go on stage and this timid mute girl we had sat with earlier turned into a performer with tons of stage presence. She came out in different costumes which certainly got the crowd going. As we watched Ling, Jeffery and Ben were soon joined by another man; stocky and short he had slicked back hair and a huge jaw that hung off his face. He was a mean looking guy. We were introduced to him; his name was Jin. Jeffery nudged us and told us that he was head of the KK mafia, not sure if he was joking we clinked our glasses and quickly drank our beer.
Soon the three guys; Jeffery, Ben and Jin were in deep conversation. I was trying to see what was going on but they were all well aware of my interest and
Michael and Ben's girlfriend Number.2
Ben ordered Michael to dance so he put on his best performance. I soon looked back at Ling and enjoyed the show. One of Jin's friends asked Amanda to go up on stage and dance with Ling and seeing as Jin did not seem the type of guy you would say no to she agreed. As Amanda and Ling danced together the whole crowd cheered and after a while other people got up too. David, Louise and I braved the stage and what has come to be known as David Dancing took place. With the help of a new Malay admirer David took to the dance floor with an enthused running man expression in a Russian/Techno style.
Jeffery had re-joined us and seemed very happy with his meeting. Jin had left and Ben was in his element. It was time to go and say goodbye. Jeffery drove us home, a little drunk and David and Louise stayed up for a few Vodkas while Manda and I slept.
The next day we had to go back to Kuala Lumpur and we got a lift off Jeffery to the airport. On the way he eventually told us what he did, what all those meetings were about and why the KK mafia had
Ben and his girlfriend Number.2
Ben saw Michael dancing earlier and picked up some of his moves! shown up last night. Jeffery's friend, with the 4x4 and the construction site also owns an island (one of the ones we could see from the viewpoint). Jeffery and his friend want to develop the island for tourists. They want Ben to design a brand new resort and they want him to build accommodation, a restaurant, a port and a club where Ling and her friends can perform. The Mafia have to agree to give protection to the port and residences. Jeffery was the project manager and staying in a low key guest house would be the perfect cover to likely competitors apparently.
We had arrived at the airport and thanked Jeffery in amazement at his generosity and for the experience he had given us with the top brass of KK's society. Jeffery had shown us how to have fun in Malaysia and thanks to him our previous memories of this place were washed away and now we look back with fond memories. We wished Jeffery luck on his project and waved goodbye. We were sad to be leaving but only for a second as we were heading back to Thailand and Cambodia for some more adventures.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.057s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0333s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
GRETA
non-member comment
WOW!
Jeffrey experience - amazing experience! Really entertaining blog - can't wait for the next. Love Mumx