KUDAT

we had been promising ourselves that we would make trip to Kudat to visit the "Northern most tip of Borneo" That 'day' finally came this moning (30 May) . Kudat is one of the earliest chinese settlement in Sabah. The North Borneo Co. invited the chinese to work in Borneo, promising them land. So the mostly poor chinese hakka took this offer. It was interesting to see so many "Basel Mission Churches"along the way. In fact, the first Basel Mission was established in Kudat. The land was hard and infertile and only coconut trees thrive there. Thus vast trats of lands were devoted to coconut cultivation. It became an important cash crop - this large structure pays tribute to the coconut.
After Kudat, we drove to Kg. Mengayau - which is the northern most tip of Borneo. Along the way, we passed many villages. The people here are mostly Rungus tribe - very poor.
Ah, the place reminds me of Augusta, only less comercialised. Thanks to Datuk Chong Kah Kiat, the people here can earn a bit of tourist dollars. I must say he has done quite a bit for Kudat. Here, the villagers sell sea shells.
We bought some fish and prawns - at half the price of KK's. Naturally we were delighted by our purchase - so cheap! until we did some hard calculation - petrol costs RM70.00. so if you add that, it's more expensive than KK.