Sabah the land that was

I came to know of Sabah on August 2nd 1962, that was the year I was born. My initial years with Sabah were quite blurry.

As for the period before attending primary school, I could only remember the beautiful scenic view of Tanjuang Aru 1st, 2nd and 3 rd beach. The time when the beaches were freely access by those who could come.

There was no Beach Hotel, not sure if the skating ring was around at that time, but one thing is for sure the Tanjung Aru beach at that time was probably the most beautiful, clean and scenic. You could easily get shells or starfish on the shore. I guess during the time Pulau Gaya was still not infested by the PTIs.

In 1969, I began my school life at St Agnes Primary School. Though I could not remember how I went to that school. My elder brother who is 3 years older than me also went to the same school. My mother was illiterate and was working as Maid with an Urang Putih couple, whose husband was a pilot with MSA (Malaysia Singapore Airlines). Even my younger sister went ti the same school. The funny thing is that, we were staying in Tanjung Aru which is about 10 miles away from the school.

At that time, the only road to reach the school was via the old Tuaran road and the old KK Tanjung Aru road. The buses during that time were TUT (Tuaran United Transport) for KK-Tuaran, Luen Thung for KK/Sembulan/Tg Aru/Kepayan/Putatan and PUT (Penampang Union Transport) if memory serve me right.

During my primary school life my family move to quite an number of location, around KK. I completed my primary six in 1974 and manage to pass the Primary 6 exam with 66%. I was allocated La Salle in Tanjung Aru as my secondary school

One Tg Aru land mark that is gone for good is the Boon Pang Theater, which is now a church. Who could forget Hone Place padang, where all the defacto football field at that time or the soon to be forgotten Tang Aru Turf Club (lumba kuda) wher we could pock tri forecast..

To get to Tanjung Aru from KK, I had to take the bus, Luen Thung Transport (if memory serve me right) The bus stop at that time was in front of State Library before it move to where Centerpoint was. Yes Center Point was actually the bus terminal for all (TUT) Tuaran Road, (PUT) Penampang and (LTT) Tanjung Aru.

Tangung Aru Beach was the cleanest beach around and the scenery was breath taking unlike now where Tanjung Aru Beach is very commercialised. When I escape from class, I would walk to Tangjung Aru beach and loiter around until noon before taking the bas back to KK. I spend 5 years in La Salle completing my MCE in 1979 before I accidentally apply for ITM that time it was located in the building infront of the Federal House Sembulan, just beside PWD HQ.

But the point I would like to make is that, very minimal information with regards to the history of Sabah is available on the net. Our Sabah Bahasa for one is dying out......words like main bubut, lusir, alun alun, mangkali, indada ..... click here to read some of the Bahasa Sabah . Even pictures of Sabah are very few.

If any of you have any picture or if there are words that is peculiar to just Sabah, post it here or email me.