What’s in a holiday?

Hey, hey, hey! I’m back!! Back from watching sexy babes by the beach. Wahahaha… of course not. Way better than just a beach… I was in Sabah, the land beneath the wind. W.O.W. Haha, I know – it’s a great place with loads of fabulous holiday activities that completely bowl you over…

1. Climbing Mt. Kinabalu
2. White water rafting
3. Adventure caving at Gomantong
4. Jungle trekking at Tunku Abdul Rahman Park
5. Marvel at orang utans and proboscis monkeys in Sandakan, turtles in Turtle Island Park
6. Snorkelling at Sipadan
7. Indulge in rich seafood delicacies!

See that? That’s what I call an absolutely amazing holiday! Yuppers! BUT (the “but” is always there)… I didn’t do ANY of the above. Damn, yeah. *sob* Well, save for maybe number 1 and 7. I climbed the Low’s Peak of our majestic mountain 2 years ago and this trip, I did savour a lot of delicious seafood. Other than that, nothing exciting like the above. None at all. Yeah, how sad. *sob* But then again, I see it coming even before I fly to Sabah so it actually doesn’t feel so bad.

Well, this trip is planned specially for Mom. My main aim is to accompany her to visit her sister in Lahad Datu, Sabah whom she’s very close with. I figured that now is the best opportunity since I have some decent spare time. My aunt, uncle and Mom were super excited about the trip. They haven’t met for ages and so their main activity throughout our stay was CHIT-CHATTING. The women chatted from early morning to just before bed time. They chatted over meals. They chatted in the living room discussing Astro shows. They chatted in the kitchen while preparing meals. They chatted by the clothes line. They chatted in the 4WD. They chatted about everything and anything under the sun but medicine and health were their favourite subjects. Sometimes they’d acknowledge my presence and regard me as a useful tool providing medical information to clear their doubts. Basically, they chatted EVERYWHERE and ALL THE TIME. Non-stop.

When they’re not chatting they go shopping. No, not shopping complexes – there’s none of that in LD anyway. They shop in pasar. Yeah, you should see how delightful they become when they’re shopping in the local markets. Mom’s shopping spree added an 8kg carton full of dried seafood to our luggage. And everyday she smiled like a little child with a lollipop in hand. She really had a great time and I’m glad she enjoyed herself so much coz this trip is for her anyway. But what I didn’t need by the end of this trip is her falling in love with the place! She likes the peaceful way of life in Sabah that she actually hopes that I’d find someone there, get married and finally move over to Sabah for good – and then she gets to tag along! Ohmegosh! When I wanted to apply for Sabah for my housemanship she was all about “Muar is our home”. Now that I’ve chosen Muar just for her she comes and tells me Sabah would have been a better choice. Sigh. ANYWAY, nasi sudah jadi bubur. I’ve already sent in my application and Sabah was not one of my choices.

Well, back to the trip story… as I was saying, Mom had a really swell time. As for me, I welcomed the boredom with open arms. Believe me, there’s absolutely nothing to see or do in LD. I wasn’t planning to be a sloth but I couldn’t help it. Everything that’s on Astro is in Cantonese, which I don’t understand. Not a single nice channel (in English) like the movies, MTVs, family variety shows, etc.  The only good ones are perhaps National Geography and Animal Planet – which I would have enjoyed if only my folks do not hog the TV all the time, watching Cantonese TV series. Haha. So basically I just sit around reading every English material I can find in the house, including the Astro guidebook (Everything is in Chinese in the house). Later I bought papers and mags to pass my time. Seriously, I never had SO MUCH TIME in hand. I read at a snail’s crawling speed but still, I kept running out of things to read and I’d be so damn free again. Other times I sleep. Then I wake up to eat. Yeah, I think I’m destined to be a sloth this holiday. One day, Mom actually noticed that I slept too much she came into my room to check if I died in my sleep.

On the third day, God must have realized that He should do something before I eventually die in my slumber. He decided to shake me off those Dopey eyes. After my first sumptuous seafood dinner of shark fin, mussels, crabs, fishes of XL sizes, I had food poisoning. Yeah, I was the lucky one. I should have just go buy 4D. Everybody else on the table was as healthy as a whatever-is-the-healthiest. I stayed up the entire night running between the toilet and the bedroom to vomit and pass loose motion. Altogether 4 rounds of vomiting and 7 rounds of diarrhoea. I thought I was about to worship the toilet bowl. By morning when they got up to resume chatting, they discovered that I was sick and fussed over me a lot. With my remaining strength, I assured them that I don’t need anything but the toilet and lots of fluids by my bed. I even had to give them a brief lesson on food poisoning and convinced them that I don’t agree with weird Chinese remedies for diarrhoea. 12 hours later the vomiting and diarrhoea ceased. But my alimentary system deactivated itself for the rest of the trip. Indigestion followed and my appetite reduced. I was dreaming of adding the kilos in Sabah but now I’ve lost so much! Argh. Anyway, after the terrible purging, I resumed my heavy duty sleeping.

The next day we drove to visit my friends in Sandakan. The roads were bad. Hilly, winding, bumpy and full of pot holes. At one section there was a road sign that said, “Awas. Tanah runtuh di hadapan“. Can you imagine that? I could have visited the orang utan sanctuary that day but my folks felt that the local pasar was more appealing than monkeys so we went to the pasar instead and bought more sea products. Great. I told my friends that all our nice activities would have to be postponed to my next trip. This time we just let the old folks have their fun So that was it. On the way back through the same horrible route, I thought that would be the end of my alimentary system being jostled around in the abdomen like rojak. Then, I only have one wish – go back KL asap.

However, on the second last day we made another road trip to Tawau. By then I felt physically better and my cousin niece, Crystal – a charming and sweet 5-year-old totally made my day. She was so adorable and obedient I vote her the loveliest kid in the world! We shopped in a pasar (again) in Tawau but I didn’t mind anymore. Crystal and I had such a wonderful time together. Oh how I wish to bundle her back to Peninsular Malaysia (I’ll post her pics when I get Streamyx in about 2 weeks’ time after my 2nd Holiday Project – now dial up can take years!). She’s the best thing that had happened to me during my trip in Sabah.

Yesterday as we were leaving LD, the whole trip felt like a dream to me. Mom stressed again that she totally loved Sabah. Uncle and Aunt were beaming beside her. I smiled too. But it was all because I couldn’t wait to back KL. Shhh! Wahahaha… My happiest moment on the entire trip was probably when the flight attendant announced that we’re touching down at the LCCT airport in 15 minutes :p  But my greatest consolation was that Mom had a wonderful time, so it’s not at all a wasted trip.

White water rafting, jungle trekking, snorkelling, etc… sigh, I guess all that will have to wait for another time. For now, I’m allergic to listening to people chatting and shopping at pasar. LOL.

Explore posts in the same categories: Daily Bytes