SHAH’S RAMBLINGS

The Interior Territory of Sabah is made up of  the districts of  Tambunan, Keningau, Tenom, Sipitang, Beaufort and Pensiangan. We managed to visit almost all of them during this trip except for the innermost and most out of reach which is Pensiangan. We started our journey to the Interior Territory by driving  from KK to Tambunan via Dongongon along a very familiar road leading to this favourite spot which lies along the way.

There was not enough time to dip in the river this time but still we couldn’t help stopping by for a quick breakfast by the river. On the breakfast menu – BM’s freshly made Cucur Udang dipped with Sambal Bilis & Sambal Totok and later washed down with some extra strong Kopi Tenom

Our first official stop was at Kipandi Butterfly Park which sits on the Crocker Range at about 700m altitude. The cloudy morning plus cool refreshing mountain breeze created the perfect conditions to spend hours exploring the grounds of this park and capturing macro shots of the flora and fauna within.

Also located along the road from Dongongon to Tambunan is the Tambunan Rafflesia Centre. Here a ranger took us on a short uphill hike into the forest reserve to witness the Rafflesia that was currently blooming – and it happened to be the only blooming Rafflesia in the entire 356 ha forest reserve. By the way – this ISN’T that sole blooming Rafflesia. It’s a picture of the one from the previous week – each flower dies after seven days just in case you didn’t know that.

We then made our way all the way across the Crocker Range into the district of Tambunan and were pleasantly greeted by the beautiful sight of acres upon acres of paddy fields ready for harvest.

It was a relatively short drive From the Rafflesia Centre to reach a T-junction where to get to Tambunan you’ll need to take the right turn. But instead of driving directly to Tambunan, we took the left turn instead and went on the road towards Ranau where 17 km away lie this beautiful spot…..

Mahua Waterfall - beautiful, pristine, refreshing, icy cold, desolate and unfortunately a little eerie since we happened to be the only two visitors there that afternoon.

The town of Tambunan didn’t have much to offer so instead of spending the night there we decided to drive on to the bigger town of Keningau for the night. We only made brief stops at the surrounding countryside in Tambunan but each time we did so, we never failed to gasp at the beautiful scenery before us. For those of us living and working in concrete jungles and choking everyday on the smog we call modernisation, doesn’t the picture above just make you wanna weep?

The town of Keningau is surprisingly much bigger than I imagined it would be. Even the hospital seems bigger than the one in the capital! There wasn’t much to do in town but it didn’t matter since it was already almost evening anyway and we were exhaused from the day’s activities. We were just hoping to find a decent place to have a shower and some shut eye and were going to leave the first thing the next morning. We didn’t think it was necessary to book at one of the bigger hotels in town since it seemed like a waste for the few hours we were going to spend in the room. Unfortunately each and every single budget motel in town was fully booked that day. I never imagined that would happen in Keningau – especially on a weekday but apparantly some government department was having a statewide meeting in town and fully took up all of the cheaper accommodations. We drove around and had to ask at least eight or nine of the budget accommodations before deciding that we’d be better off trying our luck at one of the bigger hotels. So we ended up at Juta Hotel in the centre of town which had free WiFi – but the bad news was that you had to get a new username and password printed out from a machine at the reception every 2 hours ?!?!? By the way – don’t be fooled by their so called “Fitness Centre” which only had a pool table and several massage rooms

Immediately after breakfast in Keningau, we made our way to Tenom about an hour away. Our first stop was at the Murut Cultural Centre which showcases the culture of the predominantly Murut community in Tenom.

Just before we entered the town of Tenom, we detoured to this attraction lying about 15km away from the town centre – the Sabah Agriculture Park.

(Note that the new Malaysian flag in the shape of the number 1 has even made its way all the way to Tenom. By the way – why is it necessary to 1-this and 1-that everything nowadays?!?! We even 1-this and 1-that our greetings, festivals and all formal events lately)

In Tenom we stayed at the Perkasa Hotel Tenom which is located on a hilltop overlooking the town in the valley below. Kindly not look towards the hotel when you’ve arrived in the town of Tenom or you will frightfully cancel your reservation at this hotel once you notice the huge landslide right to the edge of the hotel’s field. But if you’re bold enough to stay there the you’ll be rewarded with a beautiful sight the following morning – Tenom underneath a blanket of clouds.

Ask anyone in Sabah what Tenom is most famous for and the answer would be a unanimous – Kopi Tenom bah!

We wanted to visit one of the coffee factories there but were told that we needed to make a prior appointment and prepare a formal letter in order to go on the guided tour of the factory and plantation. So this local coffee company just missed out on the free online publicity from a permanent dedicated blog entry on a website with high Google Page Rankings (sekali sekala angkat bakul sendiri). So instead, we just stopped by at this outlet next to the fire station in town and got a few packs of coffee varieties we never came across before in KK.

Here you can even sample some of their varieties of coffee for free as well as ooooohh & aaaaahhh at how young and skinny Mahathir and Pak Lah looked in those posters of their visits to the coffee factory. After the coffee outlet visit, we started out on our journey across the Crocker Range once again. Instead of returning to KK using the same route we took to reach Tenom, we decided to try this newer road across the more western part of the range. The road connects Tenom with the town of Sipitang, not too far from the border with Sarawak. By the way, this relatively new road is not yet on Google Maps so don’t bother checking there for directions. The drive through this hilly route was a pleasant one thanks to the breathtaking landscape unfolding beyond us after every turn and after every peak. Only one part was noticeably continously steep for what seems like forever but my 6 year old rusting Kia had no problems during the climb despite the engine screaming in sounds I have never ever heard coming from it before…..

Most of this road seems in better condition than the one from from Dongongon to Tambunan. That older Tambunan road was frequently reduced to a single lane at the many many many many many landslide damaged parts (with only some signboards and small mounds of earth by the roadside to prevent you from plunging off the road into the abyss). However on this Tenom-Sipitang road at a stretch between 35 km to 25 km from Sipitang , the road suffered quite badly from surface damages. Huge potholes and badly uneven surfaces dot the road so it’s best to take it slow once you see the 35km Sipitang milestone or else you’ll end up sending the car cruising midair.

At the end of the winding hilly road lies the quiet town of Sipitang. This shot was probably the only scenic view from the small town. If you turned left by a few degrees you’ll notice rows of ships and tankers lining up in the horizon. And if your turned a few degrees the other way you’ll see a rubbish strewn beach and sidewalk with rows and rows of foodstalls lining up the waterfront. We stopped at Sipitang only to capture a few coastal shots before making our way to Beaufort lying about 50km away.

We made a short stop att he town of Beaufort to catch the first day of the Bagandang Festival. Since most of the cultural activities were scheduled two days away on the last day of the festival, we only managed to visit the booths and stalls there.  But we happened to arrive just in time to watch a rehearsal of the combined drums performance featuring various traditional percussion instruments as well as percussionists of all age, gender and racial backgrounds – with no need to scream 1-this and 1-that coz it’s just the way things naturally are over here.

After Beaufort, we drove on to Bongawan for some fresh coconut water and some really cheap dried anchovies by the roadside. We then made our way to Papar for a quick lunch before driving back to KK and in the final stretch of our 500+ km journey- getting caught for over half an hour at the bad jam just before the KKIA flyover – not exactly the welcome back to KK I was hoping for…

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