Towards the "Tip of Borneo" ...

August 15, 2012 - Towards the "Tip of Borneo" - From Kota Belud to Kudat

After 3 nights, I left Kota Belud for Kudat. The only problem was that there was no public transportation from KB directly to Kudat and I had to take a minivan back to Kota Kinabalu and then another one to Kutad which turned into a long journey.

But before leaving KB, I went for a last coffee and sponge cake at Thai Lee, a small cafe run by a lovely elderly Chinese couple. Actually they have been in Kota Belud for 3 generations as Mr. Liu Jit Yin told me and the coffee house has always been in that same location although before it was a wooden building and now it is of concrete. I met them when I was looking for a place to eat on my first day - due to Ramadan a lot of the restaurants are closed until late afternoon - but realized that they only serve coffee, tea and a number of soft drinks as well as homemade sponge cake. After lunch that day, I went back and did so for all three days. Coffee and 2 small pieces of sponge cake were 2.50 Ringgits, less than a dollar. The owner spoke good English, so we chatted about all kinds of things and on my last day, his wife gave me a plastic bag full of freshly baked, still warm sponge cake for the road - it was delicious.

The people who know me, also know that I don't like to be in photos, I always prefer my place behind the camera but hey, things can change ... so here is a photo one of the other guests took with my camera of Mr. Liu Jit Yin, his wife and me ... yes, the one with the hat is me ... The photographer aimed a bit high and a bit too much towards the right but I feel a intimidated and lost too when using someone else's camera.

And here is the cafe itself ...

It was quite a long trip from Kota Kinabalu to Kudat, partly due to bad road conditions and once I arrived, already after dark, it took me 5 hotels until I finally found a vacancy - this had never happened to me before here in Borneo.

So today, I was still pretty beat from the trip and only wandered around the city. I really liked the port part with lots of fishing boats and trawlers waiting for their next trip in the early morning.

One of the boatmen posing for a photo ...

When the fish gets unloaded, some end up on the floor ... I was just surprised that I didn't see any cats around ...

Dried fish sold at a nearby market ...

Not sure if this boat will ever sail again ...

Kutad has probably one of the most impressive Chinese temples I saw in Borneo so far ...

This looked like a kind of information office but it was closed ...

A group of locals in front of the Red Cross building ...

A nearby mosque ... unfortunately that car was parked there, otherwise I would have waited ...

Tomorrow, I am planning on taking the ferry to a nearby island and also hire a car to the Tip of Borneo which is some 40 kms away and as I was told there is no public transpoartation ...