Author: Yellow Duckie
•05:44
Simpang Mengayau, Sabah

Day 2

Kota Kinabalu ~ Tuaran
Our journey begins as early as 8 am. Thanks to my uncle's pajero, we were cruising comfortably along the bumpy roads of Sabah. We headed off Foh Sang for breakfast before setting out to Tuaran town via the Tuaran Link Road. The journey to Tuaran town takes about 35- 40 minutes. We paid Aunty Jenny a visit and headed off towards the sunday market where the hanging bridge is, a common structure to get across rivers in Sabah.


Tuaran's hanging bridge "Sa Bak" sold at the market...wished I could buy them

Tuaran ~ Kota Belud
We cruised through the vast padi fields of the Sabah's countryside. There are not much development done to this part of the state and it's a wonder how one can passes their time here. I can't never imagine staying here for more than a day! I supposed these people spend quite a fair amount of time watching the satelite tv as the wooden houses along the road have at least one Astro satelite attached to its roof...I supposed life here it's not so boring after all.
Along the road, there were many wooden huts where the villagers would sell their harvests such as rice, potatoes, vegetables,fruits and also roasted corn to passer-by like us.


Roast Corn...don't be deceived by the burnt husk, the corn inside is nicely roasted and sweet :)

After about an hour plus we arrived at Kota Belud town. My attempt to look for the "Tamu", open air market, was unsuccessful. Nevertheless we got a glimpse of how this town looks like, pretty much like Tuaran. According to my dad, whose last visit to Kota Belud was about 20 years ago, this town is much more developed than it was before.

Kota Belud is known as the cowboy town of Sabah. Most of the Bajaus resides here and in the olden days, they were the famous horse riders. Although the only horse(a skinny one too) i see was the statue in front of the town's welcome board, I am sure there are some horses to be found, most likely somewhere away from the town.


Kota Belud Town

Kota Belud ~ Kudat
It took us another hour from Kota Belud to Kudat. Half way through the journey, it started to drizzle, we were quite worried that we might not be able to get good shots of the tip in this kind of weather. On the way, we managed to get some Kudat's famous Peanuts roasted in sand in one of the wooden huts by the road side. Although I am not a big fan of roasted peanuts but after tasting the Kudat's peanuts, I seriously think that they roast pretty good peanuts!

Fortunately it was bright and sunny when we arrived at Kudat town. Although the weather was on our side, to our dismay, this town looks deserted when we arrived. We were expecting some crowd as it is a sunday but I guess the people in Kudat seems to be resting at home. 98% of the shops were closed so we headed towards the fishing dock for a short visit before setting out to hunt for fresh seafood for lunch. Seems like there are more actions in the fishing docks than the town itself! I think some fishermen have just returned from the sea when we got there. There were workers sorting out fishes and there were loadful of fishes all over. We managed to braced through the unpleassant fishy smell and took some shots of the dock.

Lunch was pretty hard to find in Kudat town on Sunday unless you don't mind settling down for KFC. However, we managed to find a place, right behind the fish market, for good seafood at unreasonably cheap prices. We had a fried fish (medium sized), two types of shell fishes and another dish of prawns. The bill came out to about RM 30+ only!


We had this for lunch... yummy!

Kudat ~ Simpang Mengayau
The road to Simpang Mengayau (Tip of Borneo) wasn't all tarred. Most of the journey was on a paved dirt road so it was like sitting on an OSIM chair. We passed by the Rungus longhouse, Honey bee Farm and the Gong Maker's place but unfortunately we did not stop by to any of these places.

Our journey takes less than an hour to reach Simpang Mengayau. The moment we arrived, we were mesmerized by the beauty of the white sandy beach. The beach is well perserved. There were only two families were picnicking there. Right by the side of the road, village children were selling sea shells they collected in a wooden hut. You'll find some polished crowie shells, some rare shells and salted fish for sale.


Sue Ann and I at the Tip of Borneo ~ apparently where we were standing is the tip of borneo not those rocks behind us.



Although there is nothing much here except the beatiful beach. For those who are interested in spending a night here, wooden huts are available for RM5 per space or you could also choose to have your own private hut (Remember to bring your own mosquito net!). There's a canteen where you can have your meals and proper common bathrooms for your use. For a perfect peaceful vacation with a view of a beautiful beach, perhaps this could be a good choice. Although we were told by the locals that they are not entertaining the idea of developing into a tourist 5 star beach resort, but you'll never know. So if you have the chance to visit this place, my advise is don't miss it.
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