SHAH’S RAMBLINGS

Thanks to two of our friends here, new year this year turned out to be a very memorable occasion, truly unlike any that we had in the recent years. We were invited for some new year’s eve makan-makan and to spend the night at their home in Tuaran. Though we would have loved to experience sleeping in the beautiful bamboo longhouse they just built behind the main house, that will have to wait till next time since the bamboo dust was still settling from the structure.

Apart from the four of us that came over to spend the night there, several others joined the barbeque and makan-makan in the evening.

With our post dinner full bellies, there was nothing else left to do but to chit chat and share some jokes by a bonfire while waiting for the clock to turn twelve. According to our friend, it was necessary to smoke out a new bamboo longhouse several times each week in order for the bamboo dust to stop shedding from the the walls and floors of the building, hence the actual reason for the bonfire that night.

We never thought we’d get to see any fireworks from where we were but we were pleasantly surprised to find that at midnight, one of the nearby beach resorts put up a fireworks display to welcome the new year.

Coincidentally that same night there was also a partial lunar eclipse. After midnight, the skies were too cloudy and we only got a glimpse of the moon every now and then. Since the peak of the eclipse was expected to occur some hours away and it seemed like it was going to be too cloudy to see anything anyway, we decided to call it the night. But just in case, BM decided to set the alarm clock for 3am wishing that the skies would have somehow cleared up by then. When we half heartedly dragged ourselves out of bed in the middle of the night, our efforts were paid off well when the skies were indeed clear enough for us to see and capture the eclipse that night.

Right after breakfast the following morning, while still drowsy from lack of sleep, we walked over to the nearby beach for some fun in the sun and the waves.

Apart from a couple of local kids out to catch some fish that morning, we had the beach at Pantai Sabandar all to ourselves.  For kilometers upon kilometers along the beach the two kids and the six of us seemed to be the only people there that morning.

The soft sands, unspoilt beach, shallow waters and big waves created the ideal conditions for a splashing fun time spending new year’s morning at the beach. We’re definitely gonna be back at this beach again and again in the future.

Thank you so much once again to our dear friends for opening their home to us and giving us this very memorable new year and a truly unforgettable experience.

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