Here, there and everywhere...

Mmm, so much for the plans we had, to quietly pore over the world map and decide on our route.... Our feet have hardly touched the ground in the past week.

Visited Father Deposte. The last of the 'Mill Hill Fathers' who brought catholicism to this area. he said it was the first time that someone (Rene) from Mill Hill, London had visited him. 88 years old and as sharp as they come, his memory was faultless.

Visited the first church built by the Mill Hill Fathers in Sabah - St Micheal's

A trip to an orchid grower... we thought it was just a nursery, not so - the sales of the dendrobium hybrids funds their work in conserving Borneo's orchids and we had a guided tour around the site to see the native species. Judith our guide patiently sat with me and the camera afterwards and told me the names of each of the flowers I had photographed...

Crossed the Tamparuli River, where two soldiers saved the life of a local woman in a flood - and drowned themselves...

Up at 5am for mass at St Micheals, then met up with Anthony Yan whos brother builds boats.... had breakfast - noodles with fried egg (???) Anthony took us out for the day, not only to his brother's boatyard but also to look at tourism development in the local area. We walked through two developments. It was weird - we could have been anywhere in the world.... the architecture doesn't reflect local traditions - in fact we have since heard that everything was shipped in from Bali! we named them 'Touristville A and B' I guess Sabah is just the latest in a long line of Dominican Republic/Maldives/Seychelles Touristvilles Wonder if the guests actually see anything of local life or even want to?! Ironically, the local people tell us that the two 'paradise' beach resorts we saw both have very dangerous rip currents. One of the beaches we saw was a popular public beach, before the developers moved in!
check em out here: http://www.nexusresort.com/new/index.html
http://www.malaysia-hotels.net/hotels/rasariakk/

The boatyard makes catamarans... and dragon boats. On reflection, we think we'll stick with the Amel Sharki
http://www.amel.fr/en/pages-amel/sharki-photos-plans.htm
http://www.amel.fr/en/pages-amel/sharki.htm

Ate Tuaran Mee - in Tuaran, walked across a footbridge - a modern version of a ropebridge. very bouncy and very very iffy - it's the only way to get to the village on foot....

Finished our day with a visit to Kinsom waterfall, truly beautiful... Fe's last visit was 40 years ago when she took a group of schoolkids. She said that in those days, there was no road so it took them about four hours to get there and there was lots of wildlife. It took us 2 minutes to get there from the carpark and we saw one frog, one butterfly, and we collected a bag of rubbish, which we put into the rubbish bin - 6 paces away.

Have taken 1600 photographs so far, but the connections are slow and unreliable, so uploading is a real pain.

What else have we been up to? Traipsing around farmers markets.... wow, Weird Veg Inc. and namethatodour.com. Take a look at the ladies who graciously allowed me to photograph them....

Watching the caterpillers in Fe's garden - in 10 days they have doubled from 2"x 1/2" to 4"long and 1" wide -bright green with white spikes...

Got some great shots of the tree frogs and chamaeleons - just love those little critters... have NOT bothered to record the cockroaches.

Last night, walked up the lane to Edwin and Clementine's house for dinner. Edwin showed us his collection of plants to cure all ailments from high blood pressure to cancer.... and he keeps sheep! The flying ants were out in force on ou return to Fe's. Very dark and lots of barking dogs, croaking frogs, weird insect noises.....

This morning, up at 6am to catch the minibus (the driver rents a house down Fe's drive) into Kota Kinabalu. Walked through the Sunday market which sells everything from Tourist tut to herbal remedies, live fish and animals, weird veg, reflexology, music cd's, dried fish (wto.com) then caught the bus for 9am mass in english at the cathedral (full to bursting) brunch at the golf club with Jane and Peter, chinese 'pau' (scrumptious baked bread filled with coconut stuff) washed down with chinese coffee, thick, black and sweet floating on top of half an inch of condensed milk..... mmmm

This afternoon, we met up with Anthony at the Kinabalu Yacht Club. it's a small club, full of local people. In the 50's it was a hang out for ex-pats - Anthony can remember being chased away as a child! Met a guy from Hull - been here since the 70's!

It's been very interesting hearing our new friends talk of their culture and childhood experiences:
Working in the paddy fields... sent out each morning to catch frogs in the paddy fields ("I had to carefully part the rice and catch the frogs or we didn't have anything to eat", searching the forest for food... sole responsibilty for her baby brother - she was busy and he fell out of the house (on stilts) so after that she carried him everywhere she went. She was 6 years old.

Another friend was sponsored by the Peace Corps to go to America at age 14. Imagine the cultural shock - from Kadazan village life to wealthy American Wisconsin family. She came back to Sabah when she was 18.

Both these women have promised me they'll write about their early lives. They have seen such changes in the past 50-60years.

Anthony is explaining to Rene about the ethnic mix of Borneo, so here goes....

In Sabah, Chinese brought in by British to work on Estates. Before independance, the Chinese began to set up businesses, there were tensions between the chinese and the 'locals' because the chinese were more economically motivated than the locals. Many chinese who started as coolies, worked hard to then open their own businesses. This is evident in the Town, most of the businesses are chinese owned. Happily, now, there is full integration - although some do say there are still those who are resentful.
Indigenous Sabahans: Kadazan - west coast and interior, Suluk - east coast, Bajau - Northern
Sarawakans Iban and Dayaks.
Kalimantan (Indonesia) the indigenous people were pushed out of their territory by another, more 'economically motivated' group so the 'natives' chopped their heads off.

the head hunters? Well we haven't met any (we don't think we have anyway) it was the tradition for a man wishing to marry, to prove his 'manhood' and his ability to support a family by going out into the forest and bringing back a head.

On that note, with a battery low warning, I close....