Sabah 2006 - The Trip Begins

This is a blog that I should have written 5 years ago.  However, back then I wasn't familiar with blogs and we didn't have blogs like blogger that make things really easy when it comes to writing blogs.  And I wasn't using my digital camera like I do today to "document" and explain my daily happenings.  I did, however, carry on with my tradition of keeping a daily diary of what we did on our trips, even to the extent of writing my daily diary on the computer.  Well, at least I used the computer for 12 of the 30 days we were in Malaysia.  So now I'm going to back in time and recreate our experiences in that wonderful world of the "Land Beneath The Wind" - Sabah, Malaysia.

In the 1960s, my wife, Sharon, befriended a young Malaysian girl who had been sent by her family for schooling to Toronto.  Sharon and her mother befriended this young girl and they all became very good friends.  This friendship lasted throughout the decades even though the distance between them was great.  In 2006, Sharon and I had the privilege of visiting the home land of this young girl - now a woman who had had a very prominent and active life in the politics and government of her state, Sabah, and her country, Malaysia.  This was Datuk Dayang Mahani Raffae.

I first met Mahani at our wedding in July of 2002 here in Canada.  A most gracious woman who came all the way to Ottawa Canada to participate in our wedding.