4th July - Kudat (Sabah, Borneo)

Friday 4^th July

Yesterday we rode our bikes back into Kudat to…check out with Immigration, Customs, Harbour Master (Jabatan Laut…Pete gets all spooner-ish with this word and sometimes asks for the Labuan Jaut, which causes… consternation!)

I found another karaoke parlour, just as inviting as the last one, near the Harbour Master

Anelia

and just next door, while I was minding the bikes in a mildly stinky stairwell, I found a darling young woman called Anelia, making frocks.  She was inordinately proud of her beautiful sewing machine which has, she showed me, breathlessly, an overlocker…

We also found a supermarket, with extremely narrow aisles, where we bought…oh well just admit it…ant poison and cockroach poison… (We have seen cockroaches on 2Xs the size of a fully grown mouse.  Last night we saw one in the marina building which was the size of a Chihuahua puppy!!!  These we do NOT want on 2XS!  Our ants, on the other hand, are exceedingly small, and don’t seem to be interested in our food.  They just want to scamper over everything and annoy us.  A lot!  A whole tribe of them live, for example, in the shower.  They just wander around in the wet, eating what??)

We couldn’t carry anything else in my backpack but we wheeled our bikes through the market, so interesting.  I stopped dead in my tracks – my way was blocked by a large, slow-moving rat, having a little snackerella in the dried fish aisle (SMELLY!!!)  One of the market women stepped forward, and said, laconically, It is a hamster.  Next minute I expected her to say, And his name is Basil…

The dried fish sellers were a total hoot.  Photo Op!

They shrieked when I showed them their photo on my iPhone, and shrieked even more when I took one of Market Dad, fast asleep behind the stall.

BadBoys stepped forward…

and Pete found a new BFF (Best Friend Forever)

Last night we had drinks, and an informal information session, on 2XS, with Rob (Jolie Brise,) plus the crew of Delos

Brian (Seattle)

Karin (Sweden)

Ragnar (Sweden, Karin’s brother, an army officer just returned from Afghanistan.)

They have spent nearly a year sailing in the Philippines and we were very keen to know how they found it, and whether or not it is safe…(They loved it there and yes…they were very safe.)

They have a fully-functioning drone, with camera etc, and...Pete wants one!

Maybe we are leaving Kudat today.  Time to go and see some islands; time to go and swim in the beautiful blue sea…Pete, and Rob, are carefully looking at weather maps and forecasts so it is not yet a done deal, but we will be leaving soon.  (I think…)