Truly Asia?

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Well this is going to be a pretty short blog because we haven’t really done a lot. After surviving the near death experience of the journey through the mountains we headed off to the Beach House Backpackers, just south of Kota Kinabalu, the reason for this is in the name of the hostel. It’s in a great location about 2 minutes walk from the very nice Tanjung Aru beach, well when we say very nice that is to look at. We donned swimmers and headed off down and as we got to the long sandy sweeping beach we were met by a funny smell, oh well we headed a bit further along the beach, plonked ourselves down and when suitably warmed up (after about 30 seconds) we headed in to cool off. Then reality hit, the smell was coming from the sea, it was absolutely foul, the water was quite clear but obviously all was not right. Oh well we tried sitting on the beach but the smell became too much in the end so we headed off back. At the hostel we were kindly informed that the smell was caused by raw sewage !!!!!! WTF, what sort of country is this that pours raw sewage into the only public beach in the city. A bit of googling identified that yes it was a known problem but I guess by the speed of reaction of officialdom. stopping both tourists and the locals being infected & possibly poisoned isn’t that high on the agenda. Shocking & shame on you Sabah.

Needless to stay we didn’t hang around for long, which is a shame because the hostel was quite a nice place to chill & mix with a lot of folks. We headed off back to KK and parked ourselves in a hotel near to the terminal to catch the boats out to the islands of Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park, a few beautiful small islands all within a 20 minute boat ride of the capital. We first tried Sapi, a small island that you can walk around in about 30 minutes with a lovely soft sandy beach, but the real beauty comes when you slip on some goggles and swim a few meters off shore and there lies some lovely coloured coral, loads of beautiful fish, including finally, a gorgeous orange black and white crown fish, yep we had finally found Nemo. A few idyllic hours spent relaxing on the soft sandy beach was heaven. Mind you relaxing with one eye open is advisable because there are quite a few monitor lizards on this small isle and they’re not shy. Often appearing just as the 5* tourists BBQs are being prepared (funny that) but seem keen to eat raw or cooked meat. Being a subtropical Island it rains a lot, especially at this time of year but it was really interesting to watch the mainland. The mountains, a stunning backdrop to the forest in the morning, were slowly enveloped in big white clouds as the scorching day progressed and after about 2pm those fluffy white clouds started to turn dark and threatening. As we got the boat back to the mainland you knew it was just about to let go and boy did it. A few hours of torrential rain, thunder and lightning and all was clear again the following day.

Unfortunately Lisa wasn’t feeling too great so, despite Chris’s insistence it was age and Lisa’s that it was Dairy Milk Deficiency Syndrome, a visit to the local docs was needed. It was here yet another annoying practice surfaced again. After a quick consultation and drugs dispensed we were told that the appointment was 50RM despite a clearly visible price list saying 15RM. When we questioned why we expected “Well the Malaysian NHS subsidises locals”, or “our insurance covering advice to foreigners is so much more” but no the office manager’s excuse was “That’s what we do, you are foreign you pay more”, so red rag to a bull time. We decided that we were only going to pay the advertised price so did. This is pure discrimination and it’s about time that the Tourist Advice Bureaus of the UK, USA, Japan, Korea, etc finally advise tourists to only travel to Malaysia if they are happy with this official discrimination.

The next day Lisa was still suffering from DMDS so decided that a day resting would be the ticket, so obviously Chris did what all caring, compassionate husbands would do in this situation, stay in the hotel and mop his wife’s fevered brow.... nope, he went to the beach. Obviously this was to allow Lisa the time and space to recuperate in comfort and had nothing to do with the fact it was a stonking day outside. Well, as usual, stonking for a few hours then torrential rain. The following day, the patient felt a lot better so we tried Manukan, the largest of the Islands in the National Park. The beach wasn’t nearly as nice, a lot courser but the reef and the huge colourful variety of fish and marine life more than made up for this. On our last beach day we returned to Sapi, the quaint little Island is a great place to recharge the batteries. Our last day in KK was spent with Lisa attempting a bit of retail therapy in the large (but largely uninspiring) Sunday Market followed by a quick trip to the cramped handicrafts market. The latter seemed to be a collection of a few hundred tiny stalls selling identical tourist tat at very inflated prices. Given it isn’t that appealing to walk around and the cost (even with discounts) we fail to see how any of the businesses are sustainable. Yet another conundrum from this curious province. That evening we returned to the amazing fish market and were treated to another amazing plate of wonderful fresh fish, caught a few hours before and BBQ’d beside us. Lovely.

So, summing up our time in Malaysia. Did we like it, most definitely, but we wouldn’t recommend Borneo, or Sabah at least, as an Asian destination. The reasons have all been mentioned but mainly, it’s beautiful but expensive, the lack of a transport infrastructure means you pay for tours or taxis and absolutely will get ripped off. The trip to Turtle Island is more expensive than going to Milford Sound, or 10 times more than visiting the Taj Mahal, get real. Going to visit the little bit of rainforest that hasn’t been cut down is stupidly expensive; I guess they don’t really care with all the money coming in from the Palm Oil industry. Considering the prices in Malaysia are the same as at home, Malays drive cars as nice as (or better than) most of our friends, property is about the same as the UK, how can the Government justify charging, and allowing business to charge, foreigners who have chosen to visit and spend their hard earned cash in Malaysia, 3, 6 or even 12 times as much as affluent Malays. It simply is not right.

So would we recommend Malaysia, yes, and we will definitely visit again. We look forward to seeing the Cameron Highlands and KL again, visiting more of peninsula Malaysia but there are other parts of South East Asia we’d recommend first. And if the prices continue to rise, the scams continue and Sabah keeps on heading the way it is then the authors of “Malaysia, Truly Asia” might find themselves being sued for defamation by Cambodia ;-)

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Photos

The Good
the bad and the ugly were there too

Sweet Sapi
even if the Island is packed with Asians you'll still have the beach to yourself

So Pretty
the chicks not bad either

Tough Life
but someone ....... etc

Monitoring
this big boys progress

KK Bay
Looks great when it's not raining

Madness
How so many people can like this shopping thing

Relaxing Venue
Manukan and Mamutik islands

Comments

[Gary]

I found your blog by accident. Anyway, thank you for highlighting the foul smell at Tanjung Aru Beach. I am residing in Kota Kinabalu and often heard the locals here complaining about the foul smell at the Beach. But as far as i am concern, nothing much has been done by the authority to rectify the problem. The locals here keep on complaining but it seems like their voice has fallen to a deaf ear. So, it is good to have a tourist like you to highlight it. Shame on the country? Indeed it is true..let me add more to it..Shame on the government.....i hope you at least have a memorable time here in Sabah. Thanks and visit us again....

[Chris and Lisa]

Sabah
Thank you. Sabah was certainly memorable but KK would be wonderful with great beach accessable by bus for all to enjoy. Good luck.