Kudat, a strange yet very welcoming place. The former capital of the Borneo state of Sabah, now a town that seems to be lost in another time. Shop houses with timber second stories, footpaths that are used for walking on (not parking scooters or stacking shop wares) and cheery locals that grin at Hugh and shout "hello, hello mister, I love you" before giggling. The man that stopped us in the street to show us the large glass ball that he was holding is his mouth was strange indeed, but funny nonetheless. It seems that tourists from western countries do not visit here much and the locals are stoked to get a chance to practise their English skills.
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| Kudat main street, neat two-storey shop houses and landscaped median strip |
We had spent a few days making our way north after quickly popping in to Kota Kinabalu (KK) - a busy and vibrant tourist town (also the current capital of Sabah). While it is a brilliant city to visit, it is a nightmare of a place to take your boat with no good anchorages in the current south-west monsoon and the single resort marina is slowly becoming more and more member focused, charging an outrageous amount for the simple luxury of using their dingy dock. So it was a quick provisioning stop to top up on cheese and other western delights, some fresh food from the market, oh and collecting our friend Abe who would be joining us for a couple of weeks aboard and we were off again.
On our way out of town, we were busy looking for a fuel barge that we had heard was anchored in the strait between KK and Pulau Gaya. We were following the channel markers and thought we could spot it, but we were not sure so we were asking off the bow of the boat to locals coming past if it was...they just smiled and waved...lost on translation I think. As we were in a precariously shallow part of the channel, we saw it and just came up beside throwing ropes and fenders over the side to secure us in. It was located in a particularly highly trafficked area, but we just had to tie on the best we could and hold on when the wake came crashing through. Seeing the fuel attendant smoking a cigarette next to the 'no open flames' sign, ready to create a floating bomb was just par for the course. The fuel pump was set for super yachts and fishing boats that use hundreds of litres an hour, so Hugh had fun trying to slow the flow for our comparatively meagre tank without sloshing it all overboard, making for another fun refuelling adventure.
All fuelled up we anchored on the northern side of Pulau Gaya, with a picturesque view of the jungle covered hill. There was a small family development nearby who took their canoes out fishing with nets in the evening. We followed their lead, though we had no luck with our fishing attempts, so had to settle for veggie stir fry instead.
A few days of uneventful sailing and motoring and we arrived in Kudat. Possibly the hottest place we have been to yet, though the afternoon storms do something to quell the searing daytime heat, the subsequent mozzies that come after it are less fun. Diving off the boat for a quick dip while we were underway helped manage our overheating en route.
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| Abe taking a refreshing mid-sail swim |
Kudat has an interesting history, stories about it being abandoned as the capital of Sabah varied depending on the source with tourist brochures referring to the British relocation of the capital due to the inability to secure a fresh water source, others refer to the repeated sacking of the town by neighbouring Filipinos. The town was then forgotten by authorities and remained remote, with the first road being constructed connecting it to KK in the 1970s enabling the old town to retain its charm and constrained its development or role as a trading port. A brilliant fresh food market makes it a great provisioning port for us. We were treated to some amazing hospitality by the marina managers, who took us out for lunch to gorge on some local Chinese delights and also to the local chamber of commerce to get a 'permission' letter to buy extra fuel (ie, more than 20lts), which made our time here fun and always interesting.
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| Our hosts - local city Councillor Johnie and his son John |
Having seen the main attraction on our way past (the northern most point of Malaysia), we had little else to do here. Impatiently awaiting our package of rope for our furler posted from Australia (which may have been lost in the bowels of the Malaysian postal system) and watching our new 12v to 240v power inverter blow up were just other fun things that remind you why not everyone is out here sailing.
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| Happy Captain, package success! |
10/6/2014
keep them coming - always a good read. n
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