Swordie Bloggie

After the exciting 6 hours journey on 24th August at Kalabakan road, we decided not to return with that road to Kota Kinabalu… furthermore the weather was cloudy and raining. We returned on 26th August through the common old road which is much longer… I think about 600KM or so and more hilly paths where it will pass Mount Kinabalu.

We reach Tawau around 4pm on 24th, and booked into Heritage Hotel. And this is the first time I have to change room. Before we went out around 6pm for dinner and ‘work’, I checked the windows to make sure it is locked, and it was not… and I can’t lock it. The latch is locked but not hooked… 😛 I decided to report it later when I come back coz need to rush for dinner… ‘buka puasa’ actually since my two colleagues are fasting for the Ramadan. But we were only back to the hotel around 10pm something… coz after dinner we actually went to install and configure the server and troubleshoot the network that night at our branch office so that we will not be rushing the next day… after all we are still excited with the journey I guess… and it is ‘puasa’ month, easier to work at night.

I called the room service and reported the window problem, and they sent two maintenance guys. They tried and said, they can’t unlock it coz they don’t have the key and the person in charge of the key has gone home for the day. The other guy assure me nothing will happen… it’s safe he said. I scolded him… I asked him what happen if someone kill me tonight?… the other guy was more professional and said, they will find a solution, they need to talk to the manager or something and they left. A few minutes later, the reception called and inform they can’t unlock the window, and the only way is for me to change room… 😛 So change room from 312 to 212 😛

The next day after troubleshooting at the Tawau branch office, around 2pm, we started our journey back home by staying a night at Lahad Datu. Lahad Datu town roads are in the mess… I can say it’s a cowboy town… worse than Kota Belud. Then we continue our journey around 9am the next day.

Travelling through this path is a bit comfortable… the roads are all sealed… only a few section under maintenance… but that’s not a big problem compared to the Kalabakan road. But this road are busier… either overtake or trail a long traffics. There are many big size vehicles like lorries, trucks and buses too… and they are speeding like mad man when the road is not climbing but crawling when they climb the hills… 😛 Just have to be careful…

The 6 hours journey was great… except for one accident at Ranau. A lorry tanker felled on its side at a corner. When we reach the accident area, it was already quite a long queue and we can see a crane was trying to move the lorry. The smell of the diesel fuel plus donno what chemical from the lorry was giving me stomach ache… feel like vomiting, so I stayed inside the car with the air-cond while my colleagues went outside. After like 30 minutes, the crane manage to shift the lorry to the side of the road so that traffics from both directions can continue their journey.

And along the journey, there were many big buses ferrying passengers to and from Kota Kinabalu to east-coast like Sandakan, Lahad Datu, Tawau and Semporna. And frankly, I never seen double-deckers in Sabah… A couple of few weeks before our journey, I did read on the newspapers about a bus operator which just acquired 3 units of double deckers bus which cost about a million ringgit each. And surprise… surprise… I saw 3 units of double deckers bus… Two yellow colour and a white colours from two different operators. Bus service business along this route must be good… maybe can start bus renting service like the Arizona bus rental… 😀 Yeah why not… not necessary the big bus… it can be the small luxury bus… or motor home… that will be cool… driving your rented motor home at your own sweet time… don’t have to worry about hotel or changing rooms… 😛

Some photos…

Lahad Datu old shops.

You really have to squeezed between large vehicles sometimes… they stopped at the road side coz there are Police road block or probably they just feel like parking there… 😛

See that guy on orange shirt?… He simply park his lorry there and walk to the other side of the road to meet his friend… 😛

Previously we thought we were in Florida beach and saw a convertible… this time we thought we saw Transformers… 😛

You want to go to Paris? Don’t sweat it… just come over to Lahad Datu, there is a place called Kampung Paris… 😛

This bus was traveling like beatle… virtually it tried to overtake everyone… sometimes 6 cars at one time although there are incoming traffics… crazy!