LAND OF NO RETURN.

It has been quite a long while since I last posted in my blog. Frankly speaking, not only had I run of materials and ideas but the fact is that I felt shy because I was and am still tagging miles behind Chris and Amy who had created a big gap for me to catch up with them. Anyway, I must adopt the 'never-say-die' attitude by fighting against time to make my presence felt just like Senator Clinton's last lurch before reaching the finishing line, ha, ha, ha. Well, I don't mean that I could over-take or beat them but to continue producing more posts to avoid myself from further embarrassments, he, he, he. It is just impossible but the least I could do is to contribute by posting regularly, ho, ho, ho, Sad but I just cannot escape from reality and the naked truths, right?

We heard some stories about the 'head hunters' in the North Borneo but what the heck, we thought that if we had stayed back home all the same we would have to fight for survivals anyway. Why not face the real challenges even though there were such risks and rumours. It was some forty-four years ago, when my wife (fiancee then) and I left our hometown in Penang, with less than two hundred dollars (fortunatelty, the cost of living was pretty low then) in our pockets heading for an unknown place called Keningau. It was a journey of no return without any knowledge of whether how long we would stay on with our new jobs. I must admit that we are still grateful to the late Father Fung (who later became the first Chinese Bishop) who interviewed and recruited us for the teaching posts at the Brothers' College in Penang to teach in Keningau. We knew nothing much except that the birth place of my father was in a remote town called Tenom in Sabah.

The costs of the passages from Penang to Jesselton, (presently known as Kota Kinabalu) were borne by the school. We spent one whole day travelling in a train from Penang stopping in Kuala Lumpur where we then hopped into the southward bound train to Singapore. We spent a night there before the next day we took a small boat from the jetty to the steamship anchored in the open sea. I really did not know the rationale behind it as to why the ship was not allowed to anchor at the harbour then. The sea journey was not so pleasant as we were travelling during the monsoon months of December and January. We spent five days tossing about in the steamship crossing the rough South China Sea. We were fortunate that we could withstand the journey and did not vomit. We reached Jesselton after five days of torturous journey fighting for our physical balances in the ship slicing through the rough stormy sea.

That same morning, we were met by the missionaries at the harbour. We had some "tim sum", Chinese assorted breakfast before continuing our journey by a train to Tenom, the place where my father was born. We were warned not stand by the windows of the train as the ashes from burning coals at the steam engine would fly with down stream winds landing on some passengers' clothings with dotted holes. It was quite scary but it was true as we noticed that some passengers were complaining about the misfortunes. Beaufort, another small town, is half way in between Kota Kinabalu (formerly, Jesselton) and Tenom, we had to travelled along the snake-liked railway tracks built very close to the land adjacent to the Padas River. I felt very much relieved after reaching Tenom thinking that it was end of the journey but we had to travel almost another 30 miles of the bumpy gravel roads for another hour before reaching Keningau. The kind priests there had pre-arranged our accommodations where I had to stay with a Chinese family while Elsie stayed in the teachers' quarters which was within walking distance. The people there were very friendly and we felt very much at home. We could ask for their assistances if there was a need to.

Obviously, we were referring to our experiences based on our journey from Penang to Keningau which was an unknown land to both of us then. Jobs in Penang were scarce and hard to come by during our time thus we had practically no choice but to take up the challenge to teach in the "land of no return". We knew that there was turning back but to proceed on our adventurous journey.