A Trip To Sipitang,Sabah

It was my first trip to Sipitang, a town located at the south west of Sabah. It is 144 kilometres away and reachable by road. A ride from Kota Kinabalu will take one through Papar, Kimanis and Beaufort. 

Sipitang has became a stopover town for those travelling from Brunei to Kota Kinabalu and vice versa. 

Above: The main road in Sipitang Town

I stayed at the Venture Reach Motel by the seaside and of course it is not as good as Port Dickson or Batu Feringgi in Penang. However the pounding of the wave is clear. The motel is also known as rest house and it was the government rest house before being taken over by a private company. There is only  5 rooms and all with seaview. 

Rate is only RM 65. A restaurant is also present within the building and guest has no problem to dine. Food is nice and service is quite fast. All food served are freshly cooked. 

The beach behind the motel

If one prefer the cheaper stall typeof food, there is a row of stalls just less than 5 minutes walk away. However only one stall is open until midnight whereas others close around 9.00 pm.

 There is also a few curry house restaurants for those who savour mamak dishes. I saw only two banks in Sipitang that is Maybank and Bank Simpanan Nasional. Maybe there is also other banks hidden somewhere. 

When I was in Sipitang I had an opportunity to make a short trip to the town of Lawas in Sarawak. It is only about an hour drive away at highway speed. To go to Lawas one has to pass the Immigration check point at the border. I am not sure of the procedure for non Sabah or Sarawak residents travelling between the two states. But according to the stamp on my passport, I was given permisison to enter and stay in Sabah and nothing mention about Sarawak. Since I travel with a local in his car, maybe I did skip that procedure because he was not asked to stop at the check point. 

At Lawas I only go to the market and bought a basket and rock salt. Below is row of hill padi and bee honey sold at the market. Since we arrived a bit late in the evening, most of the stalls were closed.

My friend bought and presented me with this hat made from park of tree.