1. Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei (23rd December)
Distance driven 160km (Duration from Miri ~2.5 hours)
Mandatory Ambuyat lunch at Food court in Yayasan Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah
2. Beaufort + Tenom (24/12)
Distance Driven : 380km (Duration from Bandar Seri Begawan to Beaufort ~4-5 hours)
Train ride: Beaufort - Tenom (24th December)
For the first time, we rode the old diesel-powered railway train from Beaufort to Tenom, which has been in operation in the 1960s. We call this the ultimate experience of "keretapi Rakyat marhaen" (train for the commoners). No air conditioning, no fans - just you, the train, your wits, and the combined BO of satu Malaysia.
The train passes takes a breathtaking scenic route through the Padas river, which is a popular spot for White Water Rafting; quite a few tourists were on our train for this purposes too.
It is worth noting that while scenic on one side (the "right" side if you are on the train from Beaufort to Tenom direction), the other side (on the left) is completely blocked by mountain so there is virtually no view. Noob tourists (such as us) are advised to take the seats on the right to get the best views.
Some coaches straight up don't have any seats altogether. Worth checking out if you want to satisfy the cowboy in you or if you want to bring additional stuff (I read blogposts online that bikers apparently bring their bicycles onboard too)
Safety Nightmare
Hear ye, oil and gas people: this train is a safety nightmare.
From a safety point of view, the safety features are pretty much non-existent; train doors don't close, leaving all the passengers completely exposed to the outside terrain. Some external terrain features such as the mountain pass and nearby trees are literally within inches of the windows/doors.
Trainride at your doorstep
Although there are fixed train stations, the train operators can stop anywhere they like, and many houses along the way are located within metres of the train track. Although it's difficult to show from the photographs, the train literally stops at their doorstep, such as the church and the houses in the pictures above.
Schools are also located along the way - also barely meters away from the train tracks.
Passengers are advised to go early to get good seats; but bear in mind, being train rakyat means there are lots of crowds, and not exactly the most systematic - when the train comes, people rush in like a stampede. Mufasa probably won't make it.
We had a short stopover by the town of Tenom. We didn't have that much time to explore or experience much of it, since we arrived around 11am and the departing train back to Beaufort was at 1:00pm.
Tenom prides itself for its famous coffee which is sold all over Sabah. But interestingly, there are no solid establishments to enjoy this coffee, unlike Sabah Tea Plantation in Ranau or Desa Dairy Farm in Kundasang - all the coffee is sold in prepackaged packs in typical stores like what we find at the supermarkets in Kota Kinabalu or virtually anywhere else; except that it's cheaper. Perhaps some of the local coffee shops make their coffee using the coffee, but they don't advertise it as such.
I personally see it as a bit of a missed opportunity here; I think there's huge potential to open up a small specialised "tenom coffee" shops a la Local Starbucks, showcasing their local produce, but brewed and made different styles; such as tenom mocha, frapucino, espresso, etc.
Maintenance blunders of the Train - courtesy of JKNS (Jabatan Keretapi Negeri Sabah)
Unfortunately though the train system seems to have a very poor maintenance management system. When we hopped on the second train at around 3:50pm (which walhamdulillah fortunately had air conditioning), we were stuck there waiting for one hour, only then for the train operators to realize they had run out of brake fluid; so the passengers had to go down and assist them to refill. After almost 2 hours around 5:40pm orso, the train finally resumed its journey - halfway, and stopped again, upon the realization that it ran out of brake fluid once again. Fail.
So they had to send a train from Beaufort to our location just to send in the brake fluid, for them to top up to resume our journey.
"Why didn't they check the brake fluid before they departed?"
"Isn't it common sense to do basic maintenance for such an obvious shortage prior to even starting the train?"
Perhaps common sense isn't very common.
We finally arrived at Beaufort Station at 8:00pm. As we were approaching the station, the conductor told us that "oh, this is still Okay. One time, we were stuck overnight - and we only resumed our journey the next morning"
Wifey said "this is the first and last time we go on this train."
I would be hard-pressed to disagree.
We had 2-hour drive ahead of us to Kota Kinabalu. Bismillah.
3. Kota Kinabalu (25-26th December 2018)
Distance Driven = 490km (Duration from Beaufort ~2 hours)
Tanjung Aru Beach
Tanjung Aru Beach - nice and calm weather when we went in the morning, though worth cautioning for those intending to take a dip, we saw some jellyfish at the seashore.
4. Tamparuli (26th December)
Distance Driven = 680km (Duration from KK ~1 hour)
Tamparuli Suspension Bridge - our first time across this bridge, upon first glance it looks like "nothing much" : it's simply a suspension bridge over the local river by the town of Tamparuli, which streches maybe about 50-100m in length, and is a 'free' bridge which hundreds of locals walk back and forth to access the local town and marketplace across the River.
But we were pleasantly surprised by the breathtaking scenery that the bridge has to offer.
For those of you who are taking a drive up to Kundasang or Mount Kinabalu Park from Kota Kinabalu, you will be passing by the town of Tamparuli anyway, so it will be worth your while to stopover for a few minutes.
Scenic view from Suspension bridge : On a good sunny day such as the one we went, the scenery kind of looks like a typical "pemandangan alam sekitar" drawing that we would draw back when we were 7 years old in standard 1 - rivers, houses, coconut tree, mountains, big clouds, exaggerated saturated colors. The only thing missing are the 'crooked V' birds and sampan. Heh
Now that's what I call customer service - Kangkung Belacan "Legend"
On our way to Kundasang from KK, we stopped over for Lunch and prayers.
Interesting story with our lunch; we stopped over one of the local restaurant/coffee shops near the Bridge - by that time it was after 1pm and most of the lunch choices had finished. But even when I'm on vacation, I make it a point to ensure I get a good dose of vegetables daily - so I ordered a serving of Kangkung (water spinach) Belacan style.
Usually, most "lauk-style" restaurants at this point will say "no we're finished" and prefer to just do the 'goreng goreng' stuff. When I placed my order, the waitress hesitated a moment, but then said OK.
Then I saw the cook leave the kitchen, heading towards the local market. She returned a few minutes later and lo and behold - she purchased a whole bunch of fresh Kangkung from the local market adjacent to the restaurant, just to cook for us.
It's kind of amazing and hilarious at the same time. We always joke that if restaurants ran out of stock they can just buy it at TESCO; in this case it really happened.
5. Kundasang (26-28th December)
Distance Driven = 740km
The drive up to Kundasang - Beautiful sights as usual Masha Allah. They say it's like Switzerland in Malaysia. Or like "real life Shire" without Mr. Frodo.
Hello, Switzerland yang macam Kundasang kot.
It is worth noting that Kundasang itself, though beautiful and nice place to relax, and we would definitely recommend spending the night here, it does have limited tourist attractions when compared to places such as Cameron Highlands. Aside from Desa Dairy Farm and the local markets, there's not much else.
Some of the local fruits of Kundasang. These prepackaged "three-for-five-ringgit" fresh fruits seems simple but it's one of my favorite aspects of the place: fresh, lots of variety and readily edible for those too lazy to peel or slice fruit.
My favorite is what they call the "Avocado cheese" - which is basically like avocado, but orange in color, similar in texture but sweeter in taste. It's one of the most unique exotic fruits I've tasted, and is in fact very rare - we couldn't even find it in Kota Kinabalu markets.
Accommodation: Kundasang Guest House
The rooms were decent enough (though unfortunately the room we slept in was directly beneath the water pump which emitted a loud noise when operated at night);
I made a new acquaintaince in brother Ibnu from Singapore who is an Educator by profession (in photo); he conducts leadership and management development courses to corporate companies. And Walhamdulillah we share a lot in common - he has a very keen interest in Islamic knowledge and 'integrating' aspects of 'modern' leadership literature and merging them with Islamic sources of the Qur'an and Sunnah.
Desa Dairy Farm
Feeding the calves
Desa Dairy Farm opens up its calf den to visitors to feed the little calves.
Unfortunately we didn't get to take many photos this time because it was rather congested with visitors and tourists.
As mentioned earlier, since there aren't many attractions per se in Kundasang and Desa Dairy Farm seems to be one of the few there, it actually gets Very crowded during school holidays. When we went there around 10:30am (which we thought was quite early), there were hundreds of people already there and it was actually quite difficult to get parking. And in fact even the retail store of their in-house dairy products didn't have much left in stock.
Perhaps would be better to come outside School Holidays season or to come early morning.
6. Ranau (27th December)
Distance Driven 800km (Duration ~1 hour from Kundasang)
Poring Hot Springs
About 1-hour drive away from Kundasang is the Hot Springs in Poring. It was quite a nice place, cheap admission (RM5 per adult) and a lot of fun for the family, especially the kids.
There are quite a lot of variety in the attractions, though we didn't get to experience it all due to the rain in the afternoon.
Outdoor Sulphur bathtub & public pools
The Hot Springs offers up outdoor and indoor bathtubs, though unfortunately the indoor bathtubs (which we reckon would offer betterprivacy) were closed.
The outdoor sulphur bathtub had these smaller private pools which can fit up to two to three adults. So our 10-month old Muawiyah could also get a good hot-water dip.
One thing to bear in mind is that A LOT of people go there, so there are significant crowds, especially during school holidays. So it's advisable to go early morning and leave before the afternoon.
In our experience, we arrived around 10:30am and it was quite crowded, but still able to find parking and get spots at the outdoor bathtub cubicles. By 12pm onwards, the crowds built up even more and parking was nigh impossible - perhaps the hot springs would be even more difficult to get spots.
Fish Massage at Tagal Kampung Luanti Baru - Ranau
We dropped by this local attraction - from the fish in the natural river. Get the fish to eat the dead skin off your feet.
Unlike the fish in the typical fish spa we see in the controlled environment in KL (like the one in Aquaria KLCC), however, here the fish are HUGE - something to bear in mind if you're grossed out by that kind of thing. Heh.
Sabah Tea Plantation - Ranau
We managed to visit the plantation of the famous Sabah Tea. Offering a beautiful view overlooking the vast tea fields, with Mount Kinabalu in the background,
Makan
The local store also offers up a nice variety of tea and a restaurant with a nice selection of food and drinks of local variety - including a mix of Sabah tea and Tenom Coffee. heh.
We had our dinner here and ordered this dish of Ayam Bambangan - chicken cooked with Bambangan fruit; which basically tastes like a sour version of Mango Chicken.
Chasing the Rainbow: Drive to Kudat
Because we had an issue with our previously-booked accommodation at Karambunai, we had to improvise our plan, so we made an impromptu decision to go to Kudat for the first time. After we got an accommodation choice, we made a call, secured our booking, Bismillah.
7. Tanjung Simpang Mengayau @ Kudat (28th December)
Distance Driven = 980km (Duration from Kundasang ~6 hours)
Tip of Borneo - best kept secret of Sabah
Alhamdulillah for the first time we were blessed with the opportunity to drive up to the Tip of Borneo: Literally. Located at the northern-most tip of the entire Borneo at Tanjung Simpang Mengayau just outside the township of Kudat, Sabah, it is one of the best kept secrets of Malaysia, housing - in my humble opinion - the most beautiful beach in the whole country.
Even in spite of the monsoon winds, the waters seemed crystal clear, and the cliffside rocks provided a safe space for virtually no waves - perfectly safe for babies such as our 10-month old Muawiyah to take a dip (for the first time! 😄)
The location is very remote, with a few small accommodation chalets nearby, though quite a distance to the nearest township : Kudat, around 30 minute drive away.
Surprisingly though despite its Awesomeness, it seems odd that it is so under-advertised and so few people - even those native to Borneo - even know about its existence. Even as we approach the place, there are very few signboards that pinpoint the location, and even the Sabah Tourism material barely make mention of it.
In fact, we happened to stumble upon it "by mistake" biqaddarallah when our first choice for accommodation cancelled last minute and we came up with a spontaneous backup plan to go to a city we've never been - Kudat. Little did we know we would experience one of the most beautiful placss I've ever witnessed my country has to offer Masha Allah allahumma barik 😍
If you have plans on an epic road trip, we highly recommend you to go - if possible, outside of monsoon season. Just remember to fill up the tank.
الحمد لله الذي بنعمته تتم الصالحات
Accommodation at Tip of Borneo : Kotak Kotak (Box Box).
An odd name, perhaps, but only when we arrived we understood why : the place offers up accommodation within refurbished cabins - and they are actually very comfortable and reasonably affordable. Our cabin pictured here had a King Bed, a sofa bed, a super awesome hot shower, at RM320 per night - easily accommodating our team of 4 adults and 1 baby.
Nice place to stay, only around 30 metres away to the beach.
Tanjung Simpang Mengayau Beach
Beautiful beach for a morning run at dawn. I had a short barefoot run at around 6:00am just before sunrise.
Just look at the color of the beach at the bottom picture (taken around 11:30am) when the sun comes up - the true colors pop of 3 shades of blue and green.
Kudat town
Kudat itself is actually a very pleasant town; very well-planned.
Jetty - Kudat town
There are lots of seafood outlets here but are only open for dinner, so we couldn't get to try them out.
But man, subhanAllah - check out that clear water.
Masjid Asy-Syakirin - Kudat
Seems that "Asy-Syakirin" is quite a favorite name for the mosque. We have one in KLCC, Bintulu, and now Kudat.
Kudat - Beaufort
Long drive back to Miri, break journey at Beaufort (29th December)
Seems there are lots of wild cows across the road throughout our journey in Sabah. We jokingly remarked that if Sabah has shortage of animals for Qurban during Eid Al-Adha, they should have no problem searching for backup plans. (or Perhaps we're only half joking. Who knows?)
Masjid Daerah Beaufort
Subuh prayers at Masjid Beaufort had surprisingly huge number of Jamaah, which we noticed many of them comprising of Jamaah Tabligh.
8. Kuala Penyu (30th December)
Distance Driven = approx 1200km (Duration from Beaufort ~1.5 hrs)
Since we were in Beaufort we decided to take a drive to Kuala Penyu to see what attractions were there.
This is where the Jetty is to go to Pulau Tiga - most famously known as "Survivor Island" where the reality TV show Survivor takes place.
The town unfortunately seemed very underdeveloped, and even the Jetty itself seemed kind of barren and isolated. Apparently tourists can choose to travel to Pulau Tiga by taking the boat from Jesselton Port in Kota Kinabalu itself; as a result, very few people would go to Kuala Penyu, since it's a good 2-3 hour drive from KK.
The place has beautiful beaches as seen here; but unfortunately because there are so few locals or tourists, the area seems very run down and abandoned - so it wasn't particularly inviting to take a swim.
We also made a stop at Menumbok, which houses the Ferry terminal to Labuan island. But there was nothing much there; just the jetty for the Ferry, parking lot, and local eateries - nothing work taking photos, so i kind of got lazy. Not really recommended to stopover unless you want to go to Labuan and perhaps get some duty free chocolates. Obviously not cigarettes or liquor. Because it's like, Haram and stuff. duh.
9. Lawas (31st December)
Distance Driven = 1590km
Breaking our journey from Beaufort to Miri, we decided to spend the night at Lawas.
Although the town of Lawas itself has "nothing much", it has a beautiful waterfront.
Although we were severely disappointed by the lack of masjid here. When we search google maps, only one masjid appears, and that masjid doesn't open for subuh prayers. Only later we found out there is another masjid, but is not listed in Google maps. Too little, too late.
It was actually really pleasant stay here. The hotel rooms are comfortable and have reasonably good facilities, plus the restaurant serves some really good food, in my opinion.
Disappointing Headline @ Borneo Post, 30/12
Meh. Disappointing. Nuff said.
10. Back to Miri : 31st December
Our Road Warrior companion : Proton Perdana
Alhamdulillah this guy served us very well after 1800km of Borneo-trippin', proving a comfortable and good ride through the challenging roads of Sabah: though desperately in need of a shower. Heh.
General tips and advice
1. Road conditions
In general, the roads of Sabah are actually pretty good - vast majority are free from pot holes and bad construction. Just as the situation in Sarawak, the only real issues we faced were the streches of the Pan Borneo which is still in construction (after all these years) - in our case, the stretch from Sipitang (near Sabah/Sarawak border) to Beaufort.
The traffic diversion is really unsafe, barely offering good direction and clear signage which, coupled with the lack of any street lamps, make it especially dangerous to drive at night. Plus the old portion of the road conditions in these stretches are quite poor in comparison to the rest of the journey.
Overall we didn't face any issues except for one nasty bump in Temburong, Brunei - this bump didn't have any good signage or road markings, and completely caught me by surprise as I whacked it while driving around 60-70 km/h: which caused an exhaust leak, loosened spark plug cable and a few other minor damages here and there. Alhamdulillah fortunately we managed to arrive Miri safely.
2. From Miri to Sabah, You will be passing through many checkpoints throughout the journey - seven to be exact. It would be wise to plan our your timings so you don't waste time queuing up at Check Points. In our experience
- Avoid times where generally many Bruneians travel to Miri for the weekend. This includes Fridays and Sundays (though the opposite direction is usually fine).
- Weekday mornings and afternoons are very clear
- I was told the checkpoints are also quite clear at night, though i wouldn't recommend driving at night
3. Vehicle Entry Slip (VES) to pass through Brunei Customs
- the Brunei government has upgraded their Customs systems to be fully electronic, so make sure you register your car in advance here :
http://www.bdnsw.gov.bn/Pages/VehiclePass.aspx
Once you're done, just bring the printed slip (or your mobile phone) and flash it at the panel - you'll be done in a few seconds.
4. Chat with the locals: Local Attractions are sometimes more awesome than the 'mainstream' advertised stuff.
- Throughout our times in Sabah we noticed quite a few really nice things exist but aren't very well known or advertised by Tourism ministry.
- The best way to know this is to just chat with the locals and ask them their opinions. Once you got a few leads, it's easy to Google other blogposts for further informtion. Sabahans are generally very approachable, friendly and chatty so it should be no problem starting conversations with anyone. The cashier at the restaurant that you're dining in - perhaps that might be a good starting point.
5. Get a great mobile phone
In a journey like this, your mobile phone can be your best friend; you'll use it for GPS navigation, Google browsing for local geographical and weather information, camera, and perhaps streaming podcasts throughout the journey. Oh, and for communication too, I guess. Heh.
And for that it's also important to have a device with strong battery life - so do ensure you choose a good companion throughout.
I used a Huawei P20 Pro, and for all its intent and purposes it was perhaps the most useful technological companion throughout my journey. For starters, the camera is great :all my photos taken above were taken using my phone. Even the critically-disliked feature of the Master AI actually made the photos have a vibrant, saturated look, which made the colors really pop. Though some tend to dislike it due to it not looking natural, they almost always provide results pleasing to our eyes.
In a road trip where you're constantly on the move and need quick access for snappy photo or video-taking, a DSLR or mirrorless might be too cumbersome to lug around - in fact i barely used my Sony A6000. The Huawei P20 Pro camera is very versatile with great portrait and night shots, all in all i took a total of around 2000 photos in these 8 days. The battery life is also fantastic; throughout most of the journey i was using bluetooth, GPS navigation and 3G mobile data all the way, relentlessly snapping photos along the way "just cause", and by the time we settled down to a hotel room in the evening, i'd still have a decent 20-30% battery remaining and never once did i have to pull out my power bank for the phone. The super-snappy fingerprint scanner and interface also made it infinitely easier for quick access at any time.
For the most part, we didn't have trouble receiving 3G signal throughout the spots in Sabah : the one exception being Tip of Borneo, where i lost my Digi signal near the beach and accommodation area, except at certain areas at the tip itself. But celcom worked fine.
Alhamdulillah it was a great trip overall, made all the more better and meaningful with bringing our 10-month old Muawiyah (who Masha Allah was a good boy throughout, only cheekily climbing out of his car seat disturbing his grandma when he got bored).
We would highly recommmend others to go, and would go again if we are able to insha Allah . Now that we got some experience, should allow us to plan better.
الحمد لله الذي بنعمته تتم الصالحات
