Sabah: The journey down the back of a doggy’s head.

Note: while writing this, I’m already in Peninsula myself. Just a recap of my last few days in Sabah =)

It’s a standing joke that the map of Sabah resembles that of a doggy head. And so, with the arrivals of my 2 pals from Peninsula kick-started a crazy journey where we almost reached Brunei. Almost, as in... Well, almost.

We stayed the night in Jesselton Hotel, along the infamous Gaya Street in the heart of the city, a charming 4 star city hotel where the maids still don the frilly black and white maid uniform and carry bells. (Online reservation / booking available)




The trip started peacefully enough, we passed Putatan and Papar. Our route originally was that to Kuala Penyu where you’d pass Klias on the way, popular for all those river cruises and sightseeing. After Papar was Bongawan district, where we just cruise around its small main town which resembles Tumpat (Kelantan) in the older days.

Bongawan town.

Klinik Kesihatan Bongawan, Bongawan town.

And so we moved on to our planned journey. Except that along the way after Membakut, 500 metre before approaching the fateful round-a-bout of Beaufort and Kuala Penyu, my pals decided to head straight off to Beaufort instead of the 3 o’clock turn. And so here we are in Beaufort district.

The mangosteens on Beaufort round-a-bout.

Sago and beras bukit (rice planted on the hill terraces) at Beaufort market. The interesting thing with this rice is that when you mix a cup with your plain white rice, it’ll tint your rice pink and gives it a thicker texture, almost like pulut.

Huge pomelo in Beaufort market.

After a while, we left Beaufort through this rustic metal bridge which seems to be all over Sabah.


To reach Sipitang. A town by the sea, hot and breezy.



Then straight to Sarawak border after Sindumin. Here the immigration will stamp passports or pass out temporary passes to visitors to entitle you a 3 months stay within this Bumi Kenyalang.


Another metal bridge to cross to go for Lawas. A one way bridge where you wait for the approaching cars to pass before you go forward.

Sungai Lawas, Sarawak. Viewed from the bridge.

Then you take a ferry to cross the “terusan” (manmade river in Malay) to Trusan, which cost us RM10 for a distance less than 100 metre and a journey lasting less than 5 minutes.

And so here we were, the border of Brunei where my pals announced that they didn’t have their passports with them and can we just apply for temporary passes here like at the Sarawak border? The answer was no, we should have done that a few days earlier at the Bangunan Persekutuan next to UMS.


And so our pack made our way back into Sabah...

Then I found this...

I forgot where this was but this was the most detailed signboard that I’ve ever seen. The distances of each place were given in point form.