PradoNPrada: Travelling back to wife's hometown: Lahad Datu

Both me and my wife have agreed that every year, both of us will have to go back to our hometown together at least once a year. The timing will be for mine, during the Chinese New Year (normally beginning of the year) and for hers, during the Harvest Festival (mid-year). The Harvest Festival is celebrated by the indigenous people of Sabah and Sarawak and basically to mark the harvesting of rice. Not that my wife is an indigenous people, she's Malaysian Chinese just like me. It's just that we get 2 public holidays on this occasion.

This year, the Sabah Harvest Festival falls on (30th 'Thursday' and 31st May 'Friday') so both of us utilised our annual leave on Tuesday and Wednesday. I would have taken Monday off as well so that we would have a week off but due to work commitment, we only managed to start our journey on Monday night.

Lahad Datu is a small plantation town located at the east coast of Sabah and it's about 401km from Kota Kinabalu.

From Kota Kinabalu to Lahad Datu

My usual practise was to drive from Kota Kinabalu but for this trip, we took a bus there and on our return, we drove home. The Long Distance Bus Terminal is located at Kelombong. Ticket per person from Kota Kinabalu to Lahad Datu is RM50 and we took the 8pm bus. It took 7 hours to reach there. FYI, if you wish to fly to Lahad Datu, flights are available and took only 45 minutes. In my case, this is the cheapest mode of transport and I prefer driving while enjoying the scenery along the trip.

Inside the Bus Terminal at night

Inside the bus

There are several bus companies operating

the route from Kota Kinabalu to Lahad Datu.

We choose 'Tung Ma' because of it's safety record.

At he beginning of the journey, there was a minor hiccup. The bus driver was helping my brother-in-law to place his luggage in the overhead compartment but accidentally hurt his finger from a protruding sharp metal from the luggage. We ended up apologising to him. The rest of the journey was sound and comfortable. The route we took to Lahad Datu went pass through Mt. Kinabalu and I managed to witness the mountain under the moonlight. Unfortunately, no picture was taken as my phone camera was too lousy to capture the moment. Nothing much to share for the rest of the journey as outside was in total darkness. We reached my father-in-law's house at around 3am in the morning.

My father-in-law has a very relaxing home. His house is located at the outskirt of the Lahad Datu town, made of wooden panels and has a nice view of scenery. Every morning, the cooling breeze is very comforting and is the best place to meditate let your imagination go wild. I mean, i myself have being staying in the city for very long time and every day i see people rushing, concrete buildings, traffics and noisy sounds. Staying here is just me vs mother nature and it's relaxing for me.

View from the balcony of my father-in-law's house

Trying to get the best shot of a coconut tree

Coconut Trees

My main purpose of going to Lahad Datu this round was just to let my wife to have a chance to reunion with her family so most of the time are spent at home. There are actually quite a lot to see in Lahad Datu such as the Danum Valley Conservation Area, Tabin Wildlife Reserve and Madai caves, which, I blog about places to visit in Sarawak and Sabah here.

A hypermarket

A mini washing machine which I have never seen before

Me, together with my wife and sister-in-law drove down from Lahad Datu to Tawau on the 30th for a day trip to meet up with their friends there. We drove a Toyota Hilux and it took about 2 hours to reach there.

Lahad Datu to Tawau

When people come to Tawau, they will definitely go for seafood as Tawau is well known for its cheap seafood. We were recommended by a friends of my wife's to visit this particular cafe called "Kedai Kopi San Kee" or in mandarin "生记海鲜面“.

Kedai Kopi Sang Kee

We ordered a bowl of assorted seafood in soup. The name of this serving is called 海鲜海中宝 or literally means "treasure full of seafood"...er...something like that. The serving comes in three sizes and we ordered the RM25 which was more than enough for me and my wife. The ingredients are shown in the picture below and let me try to translate some of them into English.