The Tamu; Sabah's Native Markets

This latest title from Opus Publications in KK is a celebration of the native markets of Sabah, where people gather at intervals to buy and sell goods, meet friends and relations and exchange gossip. Going back hundreds of years, originally goods sold were the staples of existence and culture, from vegetables and dried fish to gongs and parangs to live water buffalo, puppies and horses. Nowadays T-shirts, CD’s and souvenirs are there too.

These markets are created by the locals for the locals. Tourists are few but very welcome, as everywhere in Sabah (people here are exceptionally friendly and always seem to be more interested in who you are than your money). These markets are one of the best ways to see local society doing its thing. Bargain con brio.

This book of 130 pages has, on every page, high quality pictures showing what people buy and the range of colourful characters who buy and sell. Seven different markets are featured along with 50 pages of introductory information. At around USD11.00 (Ringgit 35.00) this is good value for money.

Bus ride from Miri (Sarawak) to Kota Kinabalu (Sabah) in 10 hours?

There is a report in the Kota Kinabalu papers that a direct bus service twice a day is being planned for September between Sabah and Sarawak - a first. This journey means passing through two separate parts of Brunei, so have your passports at the ready.

More Fishy Landings at Bridge No. 8

Reference yesterday's blog entry, here are some more photos of the fish being landed. The sharks were all from one boat and all the same size and looked to be the same species.

Hawker Stall at Sim Sim Bridge No.8

The first of our Hidden Gems of Sabah is on the outskirts of Sandakan - a very simple place to eat in a water village a good 100m from the shore. It is a hawkers stall (simple restaurant). When BBooks was there the only item on the menu was mee (noodles) but.....mee with anything that was being landed by small fishing boats pulling in all the time with everything from flatfish to garoupa to snakefish to prawns to belligerent mantis shrimps. We watched one bucketful of prawns come in and were eating them a few minutes later. Seafood doesn't get any fresher than this! In a screened off section tuna or something similar were hung in silent serried ranks, drying in the wind.
To find the place ask to be dropped off at Sim Sim Bridge no. 8. There is a statue of a prawn as a landmark. There is no signpost but head off into the water village straight out to the seaward side, and ask if necessary.

Hidden Gems of Sabah

BBooks intends to use this blog from time to time to highlight visitor attractions and activities in Sabah which don’t appear in the guide books because they are too new, or have simply been overlooked. At the same time we will correct mistakes which we find in the guides.

We will index these ‘Hidden Gems’ in one entry of the blog and cross refer in this index to the date of entry for each item so it can be easily located.

Since charity begins at home let us begin by pointing out that our big bookshop BB2 is itself indeed a hidden gem, in that the location is given wrongly in the hot-selling Lonely Planet guide ‘Borneo’, published in Jan08.

BB2 is not on the ground floor but the 2nd floor of the Wisma Merdeka shopping mall, directly above BB1 on the ground floor, but up 2 escalators. The confusion has arisen precisely because it is directly above. They show up on the town plan in ‘Borneo’ therefore as one dot, since it isn’t in 3Dm and the text entry has been edited to follow the map!

The list of Hidden Gems will include the following:

• Kundasang War Memorial
• ‘Taman Poket’ sea front outside the Hyatt in KK
• Tune Hotel, KK
• ‘Last Borneo Paradise’ homestay, Crocker Range
• The Butterfly Garden, Crocker Range
• Fish Landing & hawker stall at Sim-Sim Bridge no.8
• @Ease Hotel & Sandakan Harbour Square

.....and a steady stream of others. This will enable visitors to keep up to date with what is available and hopefully tempt even more visitors to come to Sabah. Mind you, keeping up with tourism development in Sabah is a challenge.

Harbour Square

Sandakan Kampong Sim Sim fish landing and eatery

Rainforest Discovery Centre, Sepilok

Motor bike trail riding from KK

Adywow’s music at the Kinabalu Daya Hotel, KK

‘Magic Mountain’ B&B, Mesilau, Mt Kinabalu

Mt Silam, Lahad Datu

Langkayan Island NE of Sandakan

Nearly all of these have been sampled by BBooks. Where not, we will say so. All will be based on recommendations.

Sabah is changing rapidly, usually to the visitor’s advantage. Sadly, in a few cases we will have to mention ‘Disappearing Gems’. Where appropriate, we will advise where you can write to make authorities aware of the loss.

Coffee, anyone?

BBooks’ meeting and coffee area has shrunk as part of it is now an office into which BBooks can retreat when anybody comes in to buy anything. However, customers are still welcome to sit down and have a good look at a book they want to buy, or to browse things like the London Review of Books, Sarawak Museum Journal or National Geographic. Tea, coffee and Milo are available free from the pantry. Please help yourself and wash up as the staff are here to sell books.