Recently, I went to east of my country which consists of two
states, Sabah and Sarawak. Sometimes we call it as Borneo. Whatever it is, it
still in Malaysia. Down under the both states, lies Kalimantan. I spent about 2
weeks over there to see and observe the culture and uniqueness of their people.
In term of culture and people, they have various races which are different with
the peninsular Malaysia. For example, peninsular is famous with 3 major races,
Chinese, Indians and Malays though there is presence of java linkage however it
does not show much difference on these races. On the other hand, in Sarawak
itself, they have like Melanau, Iban and Orang Ulu while in Sabah, there are
Kadazan, Dusun and several others which I forget their names.
Before I forgot, make sure go to any cake house to buy ‘Kek
Lapis’.
After 3 days in Kuching city, we packed our bags and made
our steps to airport. Due to big size of Sarawak state, the journey from
Kuching to Kota Kinabalu took one and a half hour. It was quite long for me
because I had flight from Brisbane to Sydney and it only took 1 hour.
Here comes the real journey…
1st day in Sabah wasn’t a big deal. We had the
chance to tour the city and had dinner in one of the seafood stalls. We spent
several days later in house watching movies and dramas. The real Sabah visit
came when we made our way to Kundasang. It wasn’t so far from Kota Kinabalu. I
could say 2-3 hours journey from Kota Kinabalu without any traffic
difficulties. Unfortunately, due to expanding technology and city, traffic jam
could not be avoided and it was like one in federal highway to Kuala Lumpur. In
Kundasang, we went straight away went to Kinabalu park. The fee for the
trekking till Layang – layang hut was MYR5 for Malaysians and might be more for
foreigners. It was 4km trekking with about 1000m ascending. We took 4 hours to
finish the trekking. We didn’t plan to go up to the mountain because it had to
be booked early and the fee itself is about MYR500. Thus it needs a
well-prepared planning. The other place that we did go was Poring Hot Water.
Actually it did only have hot water, but a swimming pool, 2 waterfall track,
canopy walk (MYR3 fee and MYR5 for a camera) and Ladang kupu – kupu. Next on
the list, Ladang New Zealand (New Zealand Park). It was like a farm in New
Zealand with polka dots (white black) cows. The best thing was that my friends
were studying in New Zealand, thus nothing to be impressed of because they
could see the original scenery in their places and I bet it is much more
beautiful compared the one in Malaysia. Bhahaha. One more thing, just my personal advice,
please careful when driving because sometimes the fog can be very thick and
limit the driver’s sight distance.
In my person view, what makes Sabah differs with Sarawak is
the nature. Sabah has a lot of things to see like the beautiful reef in Manukan
Island, Semporna, Mount Kinabalu and several others. They also have more advanced
malls. But in term of manner, Sarawakians win. In overall, it is subjective
thing and it depends on the environment and culture itself.
*akhirnya, habis jugak checklist pergi melawat semua negeri
di Malaysia.
**kalau nak pegi lagi sabah sarawak, pastikan ada tour guide dr negeri tu sendiri untuk elak daripada ditipu oleh orang tempatan. orang tempatan selalu akan dapat barang murah lagi daripada orang semenanjung dengan oranng oversea
***will update for pics