Sea creature from Sabah

I almost cancel this trip due to health condition, but with help from few pills with multiple size, I was up and ready to go the next day. It was the periodical inspection and everything was just the same except for extra headache...it last until few hours at the hotel room, had a hard time to close my eyes and wander in zzzland...I watched Interview with the Vampire for few minutes and realised that I was alone, so switched to something safer...but still could not sleep until 1 am.

At 5am I woke up and saw the light coming thru from the sheer curtain, it could not be that early, but the reality is lifes are ahead over there, human activities start earlier than my normal schedule...forced myself to clean up and headed to the cafe..it was closed for renovation, and breakfast was set up by the sea..nice view but the food just so-so..I just finished two piece of French Toast and tea and headed straight to my usual spot.


It was already 9pm by the time I arrived at the location, walked slowly on the slippery cement floor and choosed my route carefully as I always avoid that b**@ area..:-)

People said that art is the expression of life and here in this market, simple purple brinjal has been tied up and become and art stuff..brilliant..looks like a flower

I passed by few stalls and the smell of salted fish were too strong with variety of fish were on the table..saw this one thing that I've tried before in kota Kinabalu, local call this as 'latok'...I think they boil it and top with some air asam and enjoy it with rice and grilled fish
It looks like a plastic thing but crunchy and fresh and unique..that the beauty of this side of world..

And at the side of the table..they call this 'agar-agar'...same kind of thing


I proceed to the wet area and headed to the usual stall, familiar faces were there but no familiar sea creature that day, my hunt for RM5 per kilo crab stop there when all stalls just have small portion of small size crab..I went to the prawn section, they look tempting at a reasonable price, ...so the aircraft loading was reduced to few kilos due to the absence of my big and cheap crab..:-)) The Carb Lady (my own imaginary name for her) told me that I should come early, maybe around seven..

I walked around the Sandakan market looking for some fish head and saw few basket full of kerapu just been loaded..big and fresh..and ikan yu and some kind of big fish that I don't even know their names lying on the floor --headless--

After finished my 'shopping spree' I made another tour looking for something different and here they are, colourful fish on the table..fish that I saw from few snorkelling trips..how could they eat this..when I asked them about the menu, they said..'apa-apa pun boleh' with a laugh...


And to my horror...they also eat this sea shell...euwww..sorry for being like this, but they look so delicate and I think that they are supposed to be for display on the seabed...or maybe I don't really understand the culture and way of life here..
Exotic sea shell with big cuttle fish waiting for their master who loves exotic sea shell....I wonder how they feel in our mouth...?

I left the market with box of prawns, fish head and some cuttle fish, just a small box this time around and asked hotel staff to wrapped them properly.

By 10.30am I was ready at the airport waiting for MH2711...it was full with passenger for due to school holiday, not a smooth journey..it was a bumpy ride up there with the aircraft jerk upon crashing the thick white cloud and the journey continue for half and hour in a thick cloud..spooky view..I look out and it was all white and suddenly all images from Discovery Channel came flashing in my mind...keep on reminding myself that they have radar and what not and the fact that the pilot is a Muslim makes me feel better..and maybe safer...you know what I mean...

To cut the story short, my fish head landed safely on dining table as 'fish head curry' ....