Our Sabah Holiday Part 2

Our Sabah Holiday, part 2

After Tenom, we made our way back to KK to spend the night. I was told to minimize traveling from places during the night as a safety precaution and I would agree to that. The road condition in Sabah is not conducive for night driving to those unfamiliar with the place. Got back to KK around 5 pm and decided to freshen up before hitting the town. Dinner was at the Waterfront, after went for a stroll in KK night market.

Kundasang

The next day, had breakfast in KK before heading out to Kota Belud. Wanted to catch the Sunday tamu there but it was finished when we got there, hence retraced the route back to Kundasang. The drive up to Kundasang took about 1 hour, with the road condition about the same as the one heading to Keningau. With the lethargic auto gear, the most that I could get out of the car is 60 km/h. The view up in Kundasang is nothing short of spectacular, but Mount Kinabalu was hiding behind a veil of clouds. We can’t even see and guess where the mountain is as it was raining.

Decided to go down to Ranau for some late lunch, and managed to find a mamak for some mee goreng. After lunch, went back to the car and noticing there was two men standing near the car. They look the type that you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley and one of them approaches asking questions, and along the way I way feeling a little bit wary about the whole thing. Just imagine, somebody coming up to you and starts asking questions in a place that you’re not familiar with. In the end I asked him, what’s with all the questions only to be told that they’re working with a finance company and the loan on the car has been defaulted for four months. And they’ll be TAKING the car away until it is settled.

My mind was like OMG!! What to do? We’re in the mountainous heart of Sabah, with nobody we knew close by. Explained to the guy that we are here on a holiday and renting the car to get us around. Called up H, the guy who we rented the car from and he said that he’d sort it out as he has a friend nearby. Whilst waiting for his friend to come and rescue us, I started to chat up with the repo-guys. He told us that they’re were on the way to KK from Tawau, where the Repossession Order (RO) was issued on Friday, until they saw us in the car in Ranau and decided to have a go at it. What sheer bad luck to us!!! (they must thanking their lucky stars). They’re working on a commission of RM800 per car and wouldn’t let a car go until at least their fees and the two months of the loans has been settled. Credit must be given to them, despite their outlook they’re still willing to wait for the friend to help settle this issue, lets my wife and son to stay in the car with the aircon on with no threatening gestures at all. (I doubt that we’ll get the same treatment here, most likely we’ll be thrown out of the car and left us stranded ). In fact we talk and had a laugh about the situation. This is my first encounter with repo-guys and I hope it would be the last.

H’s friend E showed up, discussed with the repo-guys but to no avail. In the end, he said that he’ll put us up in his café first and would arrange for alternative transport to our accommodation. Seeing this couldn’t be settled here, we decided to take his offer. One of the repo-guy drove the car towards E’s café, let us take out our luggage and checked whether we have left anything in the car before driving the car off to KK. All we could do was wait for E to arrange another car, worst case scenario is that we would have to take a cab back to KK from Kundasang the next day.

He then sent us off to our accommodation for the night, Kundasang Pine resort with the promise of an alternative vehicle would be there for us before sunrise. Anyway, since we are all tired from all the drama, we decided to have a quiet night in and rest so that we could wake up early to catch the sight of Mt. Kinabalu.

Picture of the 'unlucky' Car

The Next Morning

After waking up for Subuh, E’s son called me and said that they’re at the hotel with the car. Went down to meet them and lo and behold, it was the same car that we had before. Upon asking them, they said that they managed to settle the confusion that arises in KK and were allowed to take the car back to Kundasang. Long about drive but at least we have a car back to be used.

The view from our porch was breathtaking. There she was, the majestic Mount Kinabalu, could bee seen in all her glory. The first light was just about to break and the cloud cover has gone away, revealing what we had come to see. It was like an illusion, underneath the cloud cover you would never guess that it’s there. We could also see hikers & mountaineers making their way up to the peak, trying to catch the sunrise. I’m lost for words to explain it, so better let the photos do the talking.

After breakfast, we headed to Poring, known for its hot spring. The drive down from Kundasang is about 40 minutes, and its located on the other side of Mount Kinabalu. There are the cool pools (water from the stream), warm pools for kids, medium warm pool for soaking your feet, individual baths (open) and private baths. Man, I tell you, the water is really hot that it could boil your eggs (pun intended) or scald your skin. Had a dip in the cool pool first, the water was icy cold and very refreshing to swim in. Them soaked my feet in the dipping pool, only then decided to soak in the open bath. Felt light after all the soaking session. Had lunch there (thanks for the tip, Nasir!) and after lunch, headed back to KK.

Seafood Session again!

Live lobster cooked to perfection!

The last night in KK was spent on a seafood galore, again. At this rate, I might have contracted gout. We went to Nelayan, where there was some stage performance to accompany dinner. The seafood selection was a bit lesser than Atlantis and the service also not on the same level, nevertheless we enjoyed the food.

Hope that we could do a return trip to KK. This time have to make time to explore the islands, maybe catch some snorkel time. Sabah, negeri di bawah bayu was truly an interesting and memorable trip! Thanks to Khairi, CJ & Ustaz for being the most accomodating hosts around.