Christmas this year was somewhat anti-climactic. Although I don't really celebrate Christmas, I usually do find myself in somewhat festive company or at least at home watching a Christmas movie. This year, I spent Christmas working in Beaufort, a small town in Sabah that really could use a few good eating places.
I was there to do some visitor research on one of our travelling exhibitions. Work was alright although I tell you, time passed so slowly my team and I were checking our watches every 15 minutes or so. The pace there is so leisurely that we even went to bed by 9pm out of sheer boredom.
There was a little drama though when a stray cat who was mewing from the ceiling jumped and landed on an airconditioning unit and was stuck. Valient staff members jumped to the rescue albeit dangerously. I was standing a little distance away as I did not want a frenzied feline jumping on my head.
Being a small town, the best accomodation we could find was the Borneo Golf Resort which is about a 30 minute drive away, leisurely of course considering the winding single lane roads. The only lodging options in town is some guesthouses and I definitely do not want to spend 4 days in a seedy joint. Then again, the resort isn't any better. Rooms are decent but the pool is filthy, breakfast is bad and there are insects everywhere! Can't beat the view of the golf course though.
The resort also seemed to target Koreans so breakfast is a little funky and Korean channels is a aplenty. Only thing worth watching was CNN thus the early nights.
It was an interesting Christmas but I've never been so happy to be back.
