Strawberry Farm at Mesilou, Kundasang, Sabah, at 1850 above sea level

Started off with my semi-retirement with a trip to Kundasang Ranau early this month, February, 2023. 

We had a 3 days 2 nights stay at Jabez Resort at Kundasang. Jabez is situated along Kundasang-Ranau road at 11,000 ft above seal level. 

We visited one of the strawberry farm at Kundasang, unforturnately they have just harvested their strawberries, none single strawberry for us to see, and it's also a Monday when the farm's cafe is closed, we only managed to buy their ready made bottled strawberries drink, ice cream and macaroni salad.  Check out my video  here.  

Jabez Resort at Kundasang, Sabah (3 days 2 Nights stay ) Feb 2023

This is our second time stay at Jabez Resort at Kundasang. Let's me bring you around the resort in this video.

Varieties of Sabah Tea Flavours

Little did I know that our local produce Sabah Tea has added some many types of flavours to its original tea.  I came across this when my colleague ordered all the flavours to be sold at the resort's lobby shop.  I am fascinated to see the colourful metal containers to differentiate the 9 varieties of flavours including the original one. 

It is a good item for the tourists to bring back this tea when they visit Sabah as gift and the metal container can be kept as souvenir.  I have not come across this packaging in the supermarkets nor any of the hypermarkets so far.  I guess these are meant for the tourists markets.

These are the 8 added flavours and the 1 has to be the original Sabah Tea with no added flavour.

Misai Kucing

Ginger

Agarwood

Tongkat Ali

Pandan

Lemon Grass

This must be the original Sabah Tea with no added flavour

Geranium

Cinnamon

Besides the original tea, I have not tried any of the added flavours.  Hope to find them in the supermarkets so that we have got the chance to taste all of them.

Upperstar Restaurant

Upperstar is a very successful chain restaurant in Sabah. Credits are given to its reasonable price, good food and cosy dinner environment. Just a few weeks ago, we went to its Damai branch restaurant just after it is opened for business at 10.30am. We had our family Christmas party meeting there. Gathering is not complete without food, we went there empty stomach after Sunday morning mass from church. 

I ordered a cup of coffee, they serve our local Fatt Choi Tenom coffee (I like the idea of them supporting local produce).

Fatt Choi coffee sachet is very thick and kaw, I can make a pot of coffee instead of a mug using one sachet at home.

My cheesy girls ordered lasagne and

spaghetti carbonara for breakfast in the morning

on the side we ordered the mixed sandwiches - Tuna and Egg sandwiches

and curry buffs

On the meeting table

We were sitting at the open air, this little fella came around, not asking for food, simply hanging around.  My girls always wanted to have cat at home, they are still waiting for my green light to have a cat.

I might adopt a cat to scare away the rats around the house since our dogs could not do their job.  Still considering.

The construction of Pan Borneo Highway

The Pan Borneo Highway or the Trans Borneo Highway which is expected to be 2083km long on Borneo land linking Sabah and Sarawak is still under construction after all these years.

image courtesy from google

The major construction started about 2 years ago along Dongonggon and Kinarut stretch (on Sabah side). We drove along this road to attend a cousin's wedding last weekend. I have recorded down the progress of the construction of the road for our future generations to see. We are all excited to go for a Trans Borneo convoy once it is completed, hopefully we will have a good car by then to explore the towns and cities of Sabah and Sarawak including Brunei. 

At 1M UTC

My better half lost his wallet 2 weeks ago, after making a police report, he has to redo his ID card and driving licence.  We went to 1Malaysia UTC to get these 2 things done within 2 hours.  The fine for first time lost of ID card is RM110 and driving licence is RM20.00.

While waiting for the cards to be done, our girl asked to go to the library situated at the next building, there is a 1M store too where I can find cheaper can food like sardine and condensed milk. The eatery is just outside the 1M store, initially we just wanted to have a drink but ended up ordering food as early lunch at 11am+. 

The eatery

my eldest ordered her favourite plain chicken rice

soto for my better half, I like it too

I ordered the Gado Gado.  My better half spent his childhood time in Tawau, he is pretty sure that only those from Tawau will serve Gado Gado, after chit chatting with the lady boss, we confirmed that they are indeed from Tawau, a place famous for its Gado Gado.

let's dig in to find out what's Gado Gado. It is served with lots of beansprouts, cucumber, boiled egg (halve), ketupat (rice cake), spread of peanut sauce and crackers, I feel full after eating this because of the rice cakes.   

Wholesale fruits market

last weekend, I followed my better half to this wholesale fruit market to buy some fruits.  Buying stuff from wholesale places are usually cheaper.  They do sell their fruits to individual with a slightly higher price than to the traders who buy in higher quantities.

Fruits are perishable goods, they have to sell fast, frequent buyers will be able to get good price from the wholesalers.

We can only find local fruits in this wholesale market.

Soursop, RM6.00 per kg.  Other place sellling RM8-9 per kg.

we bought some honeydew, there are sweet.  I took some to my classmate reunion in the evening.

Pisang Sabah, famously used for banana fritter

Will come back here for local fruits again.

Beaufort Mee 保佛面

There are several districts in Sabah have got their signature mee.  For example Tuaran mee, Tamparuli mee, Tenom Mee and Beaufort Mee.  To me there are similarities among them which at times make me confused which type of mee we are eating.

Today, I would like to introduce our girls' favourite mee, the Beaufort Mee...

Lots of sawi with slices of char sau and pork in starchy gravy

I was told that these yellow spring noodle is handmade locally

I am not a mee person so I opted for meehoon instead

with the same gravy and cooking style, I could enjoy the Beaufort style fried meehoon.

There was one time we drove to Beaufort to look for the authentic Beaufort mee, unfortunately it was a public holiday, the coffee shop was closed..now without much hassle, we could easily find Beaufort mee around KK.

Beaufort is a quiet town some 95KM away from KK.  It is about 1.5 hours drive on the highway or 2 hours by train from KK city. Here is where Beaufort is located in North Borneo, you can read more about it via Sabah Tourism's website here.

Mount Kinabalu Re-open to climbers in September 2015

After near 3 months of closure to repair the mountain trails caused by the magnitude of 5.9 earthquake on 5 June 2015,  finally Mount Kinabalu of Sabah, North Borneo is now opened for climbers starting from 1st September 2015 amidst a mild quake struck Ranau on the very same day.  Climbers can climb up to Laban Rata via Timpohon trial.

The summit trial to the Low's Peak is expected to open by December 2015.

A photo from my brother with his tour coach at the fore ground and a nice and clear view of Mount Kinabalu as background.

Bambangan 野芒果

My colleague from Papar brought us some Bambangan from his family farm last week.  Our office immediately filled with its pungent smell as soon as he stepped in.  I have to keep these mangoes outside the office because some of them might not like its distinguished smell.

The fruit is brown in colour, selling at the tamu, we can also find the ready prepared ones in the containers, selling from RM4.00 per container.  It is one of the famous pickles in Sabah which believes to contain valuable source of antioxidant.

 

I like to eat jeruk bambangan (pickles) but never know how to prepare it.  My Kadazan colleagues gave me some guides on how to opening up the bambangan.  We have to open it up like a pomelo, petal by petal. That's my better half helping me out.  This is the first time we made Bambangan pickles at home.

looks like it is overripe

slicing into cubes, add some salt and keep in the containers, some would like to add chillies into it. 

Sour sweet Bambangan pickles are very appetising,  add some to the rice to make simple lunch for today.

Tenom Coffee "Kopi 'O'

Introducing Yit Foh Kopi 'O' from Tenom of Borneo Island. Kopi 'O' simply means black coffee without sugar and cream.  No colourful fancy packaging, simply silver and black.  

A big pack consists of 12 small packets of 10g sachet 

This black coffee reminds me of my grandparents who always have a mug of black coffee sweetened with sugar on the dining table every day.  As a kid, I do not drink coffee but out of curiosity I tasted it, they made it so sweet, probably that's the way to provide them with enough glucose to work in the farm and padi field throughout the day.  During that time, they used black ground coffee powder, unlike now, it is packed into sachet.

Tenom Kopi 'O' in a sachet. Thick & black, it is enough to make a big mug of coffee for the family.