Kami di Sabah, bah!

Kota Kinabalu, Sabah state capital

Heard the Prime Minister will be off for his vacation. So that rules out any chance for general election soon.

With a Deepavali and Maal Hijrah holidays close to each other and school is out, the best thing to do is to take a break from current affair of the world and take that long needed holiday. So off we go for Sabah last Monday.

The choice for Sabah is simple. Putting the fluid and unstable politics aside, Sabah is a lovely state to go. People are nice and friendly. It's cohesiveness as a society with many races and 'tribes' 

is amazing. The true 1Malaysia. 

It served our purpose of visiting our old Rengus friend in Kudat of 40 years and friends and family spread all over Sabah.

It also serve to complete our "tour of duty" of Sabah that begin couple of months back. We had visited Tawau and Semporna and took a two nights three days rest and recretation near Sipadan Island. Last two weekend ago, we were in Sandakan for an NGO function.  

KK's modern extended airport

We left Kuala Lumpur for Kota Kinabalu by Malaysian Airlines  (but off course) last Monday at 3 PM to join our two other siblings and their family there. They reached earlier by flying another airline. 

By the time we landed, it is already dark and Maghrib at 6:40 PM. 

Maghrib in Sabah is around 5:50 PM, unlike around 7 something in Semenanjung. Subuh and begin of sunrise is at around 5:00 AM. While those in Semenanjung is up and readying themselves for work and school at 6:30 AM, it is bright and lively by 6:30 AM here. 

By the time they get to office at 9:00 AM, they've done their shopping at the market and sent kids to school. 

Time moves one or two hours faster in Sabah. The realignment of the time zone by Tun Dr mahathir when he began as Prime Minister only makes us Semenanjung people confused. There are many Semenanjung living in Sabah. 

Many Semenanjung marries Sabahan and reside here. One Johorean friend of mine has planned to retire in his wife's hometown in Keningau. 

One of my my Kota Kinabalu friend carries a Wan as a surname. Father Kedahan and mother Kadazan. He was sent here as policeman and end up living here all his life.  

Here is another interesting observation. 

Bet many Malays hated Kelantanis for their accent because they can't understand it and can't rid of it. Despite studying abroad in Australia, United Kingdom and US, they end up speaking English with a hodgepodge of accent of Kelantanis and those countries accent.

With so many Kelantanis in Kuala Lumpur, they can speak that accent. It makes living in Kuala Lumpur like living in Kota Baru. 

It seems we found a solution in Sabah. 

One friend we met in Sabah the night we landed was speaking in Sabahan accent. It was until we start getting into Kelantanis accent to camouflage our conversation from onlookers that he got back his Kelantanis groove. 

We begin our journey for Kudat the next morning. To be updated ....

- Another Brick in the Wall