We first visited peninsular Malaysia in 2001. We were not in any hurry to return but we knew when we did it would be Malaysian Borneo. And now we are back!
I have been checking the weather forecast every day prior to departure. "Thundery showers" and "severe weather warnings" every day. Yesterday morning we had better weather than "severe weather warnings" in the forecast.
Hello Sabah!
Temperatures hover round mid 30C/90F with very high humidity. Yikes! We are immediately reminded why we would rather not visit countries farther south or closer to the equator, or just too hot and humid in general. The most modern city in Sabah, the capital.
Lots of places to eat on my street alone. Couldn't check in until early afternoon so we had coffee at a busy kedai kopi in the neighbourhood of the hotel. Nice black coffee (Malaysian Borneo has its own coffee production). The ice cubes here are safe. A proper restaurant buys ice from a supplier. The partner won't consume anything with ice in it, though. Iced drinks cost a fraction more, btw.
Next time we'll have 3 each.
A busy kedai kopi (coffeehouse) with own pastries and steamed buns, as well as typical local noodle soups and rice dishes. The prices of food in the capital are amazing. Even cheaper in smaller towns.
First meal was at this well-regarded organic restaurant in the suburb (only a short taxi ride away). We chose the best time to come and had the place to ourselves for the first half hour. The restaurant has its own farms from where their vegetables, huge prawns, chickens, fish etc come from.
Always young/green coconut whenever possible. It's one of my absolute favourite thing to drink (and eat the opaque flesh) when in a tropical country.
Soft tofu with shiitake and egg whites. I don't like the slimy cornflour sauce in any food. But besides the slime we liked the tofu (which the restaurant makes their own).
Sambal kangkung with prawns (easier for the partner to eat peeled prawns).
For myself... huge prawns with salted yolk sauce.
Shells in sambal belacan (= beh-lah-chan). It's all about the sauce for me. There is very little meat and hard to pull it out of the shell using a toothpick. The meat is too deep inside the shell. But in the end I did manage to eat them all.
We are no Hainan chicken experts. It still tasted good to us.
It was a big meal for us. Took 2 hours to eat. Friendly, interested and kind staff. The restaurant (and its good reputation) is very, very well-deserved. There are a few more things om their menu we want to try before we leave the capital.
Malaysia on the world map. Borneo is a huge island (world's 3rd largest) and distances are vast.
Position of Sabah in Malaysian Borneo. In my 2001 Malaysia travel guide the writer recommended to skip the rest of south eastern Sabah. Some Western governments still advise their citizens to avoid travelling to this part of the world.
The guide book on left I bought in 2001 for the first trip to Malaysia (and Singapore). The style of writing for the Borneo section is irritating (the writer's personality comes through). I have also read the new Borneo guide by another publisher (on right in this photo), whose style is quite different. But it's good to get ideas and opinions from different sources.
Took us long enough but we are happy to be here, finally (after deciding to skip Mexico this year)!
