Monday 31 July 2006 - Kota Kinabalu Via Kuala Lampur, Supper With Haji Safari &
Helena
We arrived at Kota Kinabalu airport on time at 12:30. We had been traveling for 26 hours non-stop from the time we left the house at 19:30 EST and Ottawa airport at 22:05 EST. (The time difference between Sabah and Ottawa is exactly 12 hours.) We very quickly deplaned, picked up our luggage, and breezed through customs. We had no problems whatsoever with our luggage, considering that it had been checked in at Ottawa and had traveled through London and Kuala Lampur. Mahani was waiting for us outside with her driver. It had been four years since we had seen each other at our wedding in Ottawa. We loaded the luggage into the car and went for a quick tour of the City of Kota Kinabalu. The sky was overcast and raining but the warmth made it seem as if it was only a day without sunshine.
Kota Kinabalu, population 700,000 is very nicely laid out with only a moderate amount of traffic. It has been built on a coastal plain with several thousand acres being claimed from the sea. Always in the background are the mountains. There has been a large investment in tourist facilities, hotels, office buildings, apartments, and marinas as it has become a tourist and investment destination for visitors from Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia, Taiwan and other Pacific- rim countries. The city is prosperous with very efficient roads, nicely laid out commercial buildings, and an air of ordered development. Except for two buildings in the downtown area, the city was completely destroyed at the end of World War II, either burned by the Japanese or bombed by the Allies. Most of the building has taken place on the plains which, because of the sand, requires piles to be driven into the ground to support the buildings. This limits the height of the buildings to a maximum of 4 - 6 stories. Taller buildings, such as high-rise apartments, have been built on the rocky hills and the small mountains which pop up throughout the city.
Mahani explained to us how the city had developed, the influx of investment, the immigrant population, the multi -cultural nature of the city and of Sabah, and how the specific areas were developed. The Pan Pacific Sutera Hotel and the Magellan Sutera Hotel on Sutera Bay are examples of this new development. The Magellan Sutera has a large lobby was open at each end to the elements. As we would see in days to come, this open-lobby concept was quite common for these large hotel resorts. The lobby was divided in such a way that the place could accommodate large conventions and receptions. The land had been reclaimed from the sea by dredging the sand in the harbour. Two 18-hole golf courses had been laid out on the reclaimed land and lots were for sale for prospective home-builders at obviously high prices.
We arrived back at Mahani's house around 13:30 where we had a bite to eat - fried dried bananas, a "noodle" roll with a curried beef sauce, and lots of tea! It was nice to sit back, relax and talk about what had happened since we had last met, the history of Sabah, and what we might do during our stay in Malaysia. As a person who has always been interested in the economic development of cities and countries, I found Mahani’s conversation to be quite interesting. What I didn’t know was that we would see how this development was part of a larger industrial master plan for the whole country.
To our surprise!, Mahani had arranged for us to stay at her apartment which overlooks the City of Kota Kinabalu and Likas Bay. We could see the South China Sea and the five islands of Tunku Abdu Rahman Park on one side (Gaya Island, Sapi Island, Manukan Island, Mamutik Island and Sulug Island), with Mount Kinabalu and the mountains on the other side. We arrived at the apartment with Mahani around 2:30 pm, unloaded our bags from the car and went up to the 15th floor. The 3-bedroom apartment is a humongous with a large dining-living room, a large kitchen which overlooks the dining room, and two bathrooms. Mahani had stocked the apartment with everything you could think of, complete with a computer, printer, and Internet access!
I laid down for a nap around 15:30 and was very quickly out to the world. I was very weary from the jet lag, the lack of sleep and the fact that we had been on airplanes for over 20 yours. I woke up around 7:00 pm, showered and got ready to go to Mahani's. We arrived at Mahani's around 20:00 for supper. She had invited two very good friends, Haji (or Datuk) Safari and Helena. Persons who have made the pilgrimage or Haj to Mecca are called Haji as a sign of respect for having done so. Haji was retired from the Sabah Foundation and had lived in Kota Kinabalu for 37 years.
The Sabah Foundation was established by the Sabah State Legislative Assembly in 1966 for the purposes of providing education and educational facilities for all Malaysian youths in Sabah; creating opportunities for a more equitable distribution of economic wealth among the people in Sabah; and providing aids to charitable institutions and victims of natural disasters. Funding was generated from the harvesting, replanting, and conservation efforts of about a million hectares of timber concession area. Today the foundation is involved in the hospitality and tourism industry, agro-plantations, shipping and real estate development, biotechnology and horticulture, fisheries and food industries, oil and gas, and information technology. As we were to see in the days to come, this state-owned foundation provided educational facilities and opportunities far beyond anything we could imagine back home.
Helena has been in Sabah for 14 years. She and her husband, an architect, run an architectural firm. They are in the process of building a new house. I could only imagine what this house would look like. It will be interesting to visit their new house on another visit to Sabah.
We had some most interesting discussions on the history and development of Sabah and Kota Kinabalu and how the development of the State had been influenced by the peoples who had settled the island. At my questioning, both Mahani and Haji explained the Muslim law, called Halal, for the slaughter, preparation and eating of different types of food. I found this to be most interesting as Zubair had sent me a piece on the slaughter of animals and we had had an e-mail discussion on this. Mahani related many stories about her attempts to ensure that she and her family kept the Halal laws. This included a trip from Toronto to Calgary to find some chickens that could be slaughtered in accordance with Halal.
Kota Kinabalu was called Jesselton when Sabah was a British colony called North Borneo. Mahani's family history is most interesting. Her father was the head of state from 1965 to 1973. Mahani was first elected to the state legislature when she was in her late twenties - early thirties. She was the first female legislator in government and has held important ministerial positions in the state government. She has obviously been a very strong influence in how the state had been developed. The infrastructure of roads, water and sewerage works, industrial development is very complete and well developed. Mahani is now in her 3rd year in the second of two 4-year terms as a Senator in the federal government of Malaysia. She spends much of her time in Kuala Lampur and had only just returned from KL as the legislature had just prorogued only two days before our arrival. She has been a leader in passing legislation on women's rights and other social legislation which has obviously moved the country to the forefront of the rights of its peoples. As we would see in the days to come, she is well known and highly respected throughout the state. Mentioning the words "Dato Dayang Mahani" quickly changed our status from regular tourists to very special guests wherever we went. There was nothing that wasn't done for us to make sure we had a most enjoyable stay wherever we went. We returned to the apartment around 10:30 pm. I went to bed at 01:00 am after fiddling around with the computer.
