Sabah-fied

Everything has been reminding me of my hometown today, thus a Sabah-fying day.



Waking up to the gloomy and rainy weather of Melbourne, the tinge of chill and smell of rain under the grey surroundings reminded me of the countless holiday trips we used to make as a family to Mount Kinabalu. Always wrapped in tracksuits, colourful jackets and thick socks, my family would shift steamboat pots and cooking ingredients all the way to the resort area of Mount Kinabalu and make the vacant resort house a temporary home of ours :-)

How?

Home cooked claypot rice with Chinese sausage and soysauce brought from home.

Karaoke sessions without mics.

Children running and being scolded for running haha.

Steamboat with everyone at night.

Poker cards and snacking similar to Chinese New Year.

Best of all - huddling together to keep warm.



Although my very last experience in Mount Kinabalu resorts wasn't a very good one. We took a house which was only for the thrill-seeking ones, or fans of the TV show Supernatural/Ghostbuster, or just the butt-itchy-cari-pasal ones. I think you get the drift *wink*

Still thinking whether I should divulge the details here, oh well, I will soon if someone is interested or I get too bored (which is unlikely, cause I have just restarted my FinalFantasy12 quest!)



Anyway, it has been a while since I have had a road trip with my family. Sigh. Sigh. Not just any road trip, one with Sabah as the setting because it really feels very different! Endless plains of palm oil estate, rubber trees and sometimes rainforest. Relatively bumpy roads and muddy tracks - trademark I guess. Long, windy, narrow roads - another trademark I think. Sleeping on mattresses at the boot of a Land Cruiser, loadful of snacks, motion sickness, being laughed at for motion sickness, fighting with Sis cause being laughed at for motion sickness - ending: Mum releasing her ball of fire/anger in the form of a strong "Shut up!".

Awww. So much fun :-D



Speaking of rainforests, some friends and I went to this place near Colac called Otway TreeTopWalk last weekend. Loadsa funny pictures, shall upload soon for the good of mankind :-) Anyway, being in a rainforest brings back memories. At this point, some of you non-Sabahans might be envisioning my childhood to be one surrounded by tall trees, houses made of hay, with a beer-bellied Ketua Kampung and a 5 year old me running ard naked while climbing trees to pluck mangoes. Weeelll, sorry to disappoint, it was not so at all. I even learnt ballet (and failed) when I was 4 alright?

Sabah is a hard to describe place - hence, go there and see for yourself!



Back to the topic, at TreeTopWalk, we got to walk across hanging bridges and experience the rainforest. Okay, before I reveal how it is, try to imagine how it must look like in your mind.



*

*

*

*

*



Did you think wooden bridges held together by ropes, swaying left and right with every step, located so high up you can't even see the floor of the jungle/forest? Or maybe ferns so gigantic that it is even taller than a 157 cm being (haha, as if 157 cm is that tall . . .well, it is over 1 metre, yay)? Or huge trees with their trunks so humongous that it takes more than a few people to circle it?

Then you must be a Sabahan kyaaaaaa.



Well, at TreeTopWalk, the path leading to the hanging bridge was clean and easy to walk (unlike Sabah - pure rainforest). The bridges were made of steel and looks safer than saying I will never get my bikini body anytime soon, and it doesn't sway but merely vibrates with every step! The floor of the forest was clear and you can even see the aerial view of ferns. The bridges were clean and easy to walk on. There were a few big trees but none as gigantic as those in Sabah.

The feeling was different - but it sure did make me miss my home :-(



The latest Sabah-fying moment? Well, Me lazing around at home in a Mount Kinabalu-like weather playing on a PS2 while snacking away on biscuits, bread, cherries, etc while shrieking away whenever I was on the verge of game-overing. Same thing I used to do every summer break from university back in my Taman Indah home.

Not to mention the increasing Facebook statuses like "I am back at home!" "I am in Sdk" "Home sweet home". Sulk sulk.

And a smart Sister suddenly nudging me to talk about her weight in a serious manner - an everyday activity in Sandakan. Sob sob.

And a grandma who called just to ask me not to go to Thailand in January. Sniff sniff.



*Hordes of tears and snot shooting out now*

I really miss Sandakan right now.