19th – KK -> Kudat

The plan was to leave at 0830 so setting the alarm to 0700 would give me enough time to have a relaxing and stress free morning. Guess who fell asleep after the alarm went off and didn’t wake up again until a bit after 0800?

Oh, well, we were off as planned and during the drive we went to see various locations before we arrived at Marina Resort a bit past 1900.

The first stop we had was at a place where they were making honey. While it wasn’t much different from how you make it all other places on the globe I believe it was the first time seeing it up close in person – and also having a taste directly from the hive. As an added bonus we got to see a rubber tree which they were in the process of milking, and it surprised me how rubbery the material actually is the moment it comes out of the tree.

Honey.

Pulling the rubber from the tree.

Raw rubber treated to be stacked as shown. It's dense and quite heavy.

Shortly thereafter we visited a village which made gongs. Unfortunately tradition dictates that no one is to play any gongs no matter the reason within 15 days after a death, and as this was the case when we were there, there wasn’t much activity. There is no exception to this at all which means that if 26 people die in 2 week intervals they will have an entire year they won’t be able to play or make gongs.

Lunch was had short after, 12,5 ringgit (app. 3,8 MYR (Malaysian ringgit) to 1 USD)) for a filling and tasty lunch was impressive. I’ll miss those prices when coming home again.

We visited a longhouse – it’s a traditional method of building a house that houses entire families and basically a long building, in this case on stilts. The one we saw was newly built but done so with old techniques and used as a lodge.

Yes, she is playing a flute. With her nose. This is how they attract the attention from the men.

The last stop was the Northern tip of mainland Borneo. The visit was combined by a bit of bathing in the sea, something a few of us decided to skip as we wouldn’t be able to shower until we reached the resort, 45 minutes away.

The northern point.

It's not official until you have a rock that says it's the northern point!