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| One deserted beach |
Got to KK late in the evening, and managed to wangle a free
lift from the bus station to town with the Chinese couple from Uncle Tans, who
had got chatting to another Chinese fella who was getting his uncle to pick him
up. Lucky too as I got in a row with a cabbie who refused to budge on his price
despite saying a cheaper price first to the Chinese, and then saying that he
wanted to charge more when he saw we were white, and of course all of his cabbie
mates all around saw this and weren’t going to go with the decent price, they
wanted to rip off the giant white bloke too. I bloody hate taxi drivers. I have
only met one in my life who wasn’t a conning, lazy gobshite. Anyway, I digress…
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| Another deserted beach |
We got to the hostel, got a noodlepot, then went to sleep.
Got up next morning, packed our bags, had the Malaysian standard free breakfast
of toast with jam, and then dumped our big backpacks with the other hostel we
would be staying in when we returned to KK in a few days time.
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| Not a bad way to spend a Sunday |
We wandered to the bus station, and had to get a share taxi
to Kudat as there are only two buses per day, and sometimes not even that many.
Problem was we were passengers 4 and 5, so we had to wait for two more people
to join us. After almost two hours, Jo was climbing the walls (having a
‘western’ day – where you just want western promptness and adherence to
timetables) and we finally left KK.
Due to a) an old lady forcing the driver to take a detour to
drop her off at her door in the arse-end of nowhere, and b) the driver lying to
me, we rocked up to Kudat almost an hour later than expected, and late for our
pickup to take us to Tampat Do Aman, a guesthouse at the tip of Borneo run by
an Englishman called Howard. Luckily Jo had had some email correspondence with
Howard that morning, so he knew we were coming and to hang on for us.
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| Nice place to sit and read |
Howard took us to where we would be staying, on the fringes
of the forest in a longhouse which had loads of rooms, and is very rustic, but
with comfortable mattress and decent mozzie net. We sealed and hung up our
little bag of food we’d brought with us as I expected the grub to be a bit
expensive, and got taken the 2km down to the beach and the other arm of Tampat
Do Aman which is the restaurant right on the beach. The beach has a few local
huts on the fringes, and that’s about it else on it. Very quiet, and stunning.
We had a drink, then wandered the couple of km along the beach up to the very
Northernmost tip of Borneo.
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| Tip of Borneo |
Took some photos, had another drink and took in the view,
watched the sun set, then headed back to the room to shower and discovered a
tiny kitten and cat walk out from under our door. Opened the door to find the
mummy cat had smelt and fancied our food, and had knocked it down and got in.
We ate the remaining food (the cat wouldn’t eat what she’d got into anyway, it
was baked cheese rolls).
Jo played with the kitten, totally besotted, and I read for
a bit, then we turned off the lights and drifted off to the jungle soundtrack
all around us.
 |
| The 'busy' beach... 3 people on it |
Next morning we got up and got a lift straight down for
breakfast. We then started to walk along the road/track to look for all the
different beaches. We were given the instruction that “any track going off to
the right will take you to a beach”. I was a bit eager and took us down what
looked loke a track, straight into jungle. We carried on, and stumbled across a
huge deserted building which could have made a lovely holiday destination. We
carried on just past it into a garden. We were a little worried that we may get
shot at or something, but as we had just stumbled out of jungle, we were
clearly lost. A snotty Englishwoman came out all flustered and told us “this is
private”. We said we were lost and just come down a jungle track, to which she
just told us everything is “private”. We just retreated the way we’d come as
this upitty woman obviously wasn’t letting us out the front gate, probably for
fear that her holiday wouldn’t appear quite as “private” as she’d been bragging
to the girls at bingo.
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| Jo is famous |
We carried on going and found a proper track, and got onto
the first beach. Far too busy for us though; there were three people on it
(locals shore fishing), so we carried on around some rocks to another stretch
of beach about 300m long, with not a soul on it, beautiful clear (if cold)
water, and white sand. Sunbathed for a bit, then headed out to the track to go
further along. Found our way along between jungle and palm oil plantation to
another beach. When we arrived, pretty pooped from the heat, we got chatting
with a local woman. She and her two toddlers and two brothers asked to have
their photo taken with us, and then invited us over to her house to see her
animals. We were then a little surprised as we were expecting a couple of
chickens or a goat, but this lady had a deer. A young, judging by the antlers,
but full sized male deer in a pen. God knows what was in store for the poor
fella, but can’t be good!
We left and went for a walk along the beach, then found a
tiny hut with an open front that was a shop which doubled as someones front
room. We got a drink and carried on our walking. We’d made it less than a kilometre
on the track back when a man in a little minibus pulled over and offered us a
lift – saved us a very long walk back! No-one spoke any English, but they just
said “Tampat Do Aman?” so we gratefully hopped in.
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| Jo's "babies" |
We freshened up and Jo played with the, what was now, three
kittens for ages, coming up with names for them. We wandered down to the
restaurant for some dinner and few drinks, played some cards, then called it a
night.
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| Another stunning beach |
We were off back to KK the next morning. Up and had
breakfast, settled the bill, and Howard took us into Kudat to get the shared
taxi back to KK. Pretty uneventful, and we got back in good time.
We got some lunch and bought some bits we would need for the
Perhentians (suncream etc). Spent the evening in the hostel sorting our bags
out, then out for a last look around KK and bite to eat before bed, and early
rise following morning for taxi to take us to the airport. Our Borneo adventure
finally at an end. Very sad, but had an incredible time, and cannot believe how
much we saw, and how friendly people are and different to peninsular Malaysia
it feels.
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