PAN BORNEO HIGHWAY

A couple of days ago, My nephew and I drove to Kimanis, a small town along the "Pan Borneo highway". There were heavy road work in progress in the first few kilometers of the highway..

 

 Driving through Penampang area.

 Entering the "Highway". 

The Pan Borneo highway also known as trans Borneo highway is a single carriage way road network on Borneo island connecting the two Malaysia states of Sabah and Sarawak with Brunei. The entire length of the highway is almost 2,239 kilometers.  Sabah and Sarawak joined Malaysia in 1963, very little has been done to improve the road. Only in 2013, the Malaysia Federal Government announced this highway to be upgraded to dual carriage way.

 

According to a friend of mine in the Public Works department, the upgrading work has started 3 years back and not a single kilometer has been fully upgraded to dual carriage.

 

Look like this stretch is almost completed. Hopefully will open to traffic both ways soon.

 

 Heavy hills cutting could be seen along the existing road.

 

 

 

They should construct tunnels instead of leveling the hills. It could improve travel reliability, safety and the environment.

A good acreage of padi (rice) fields was filled up with earth for the construction of the new dual carriage highway.  

 

 

 

 The end of the first 4-5 kilometers under upgrading. It's still along way to go.

The current congested single carriage "highway" all the way to Brunei and Sarawak.

This is the road map of the highway. We drove through the first 4-5 kilometers as shown in the pictures. Can the project be completed by 2022? I doubt it. Perhaps, in 2040?   

HEATWAVE - THE EL NINO PHENOMENON

There has been very low rainfall in many parts of Sabah with hardly any rain in Kota Kinabalu since early February 2016. Sabah is bearing the brunt of El Nino. Yesterday, the highest temperature readings were 37°C in Sabah and 37.5°C - 39.5°C in some area of peninsular Malaysia. According to the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry, the ongoing weather would last till June this year and such scorching heat would result in water shortages, air pollution, haze and massive bush and forest fires.  

  Haze in the countryside

The Ministry also forecast that this year hot spell would likely match the one in 1997-1998 which was one of most severe in the country's history resulting massive droughts and others. The Ministry would continue to monitor developments and may even declare state of emergency should the temperature reached 40 °C. People are advised to stay indoors, keep themselves hydrated and drink lots of water. 

 

 Bush-fires have kept our firefighters busy since early this month.

For tourists, it is still a good time to visit Sabah as they could enjoy the water sports at the island parks, good food and the cool mountain air of our Mt.Kinabalu National park.

KOLOMBONG INDIAN CURRY HOUSE - ROTI CANAI DINNER

We had "Roti Canai" for dinner yesterday evening at the Kolombong Indian curry house in Likas.   

It's a 24 hours restaurant located near the Likas plaza.

From the menu, we selected the combination of "Roti Telur"(with egg) and "Roti kosong"(empty) with dhal and curry.

.........and chicken and beef satay!  

 Roti telur with curry + dhal and teh tarik.

 Rati Kosong with dhal and ginger tea.

Chicken and beef satay with "ketupat" (rice cake) and peanut sauce.

Overall their food was good with prompt service. Believe it or not, the bill for the 2 "roti canai + teh tarik sets was only RM7.00 (very reasonable). The satay was a bit expensive costing 70 cents per stick. This restaurant also serve all kinds of Indian food, like curry fish head, chicken, mutton, Biriyani rice and many others.