I came, I saw and I'm glad!

I just came back from my third time or perhaps the last journey of Telupid and Tongod. As the name may sounds strange it has nothing to do with the Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean! Both Telupid and Tongod are the small town within Sandakan province and they are not depicting a single-merged town. Telupid is two and a half hours driving distance away from Sandakan while Tongod is 45 minutes driving distance away from Telupid.

Since the lack of government dental officer is still a lingering issue, it is Sandakan's prerogative to send out their officers to do the out-station job on rotational basis. It is not something that I or perhaps other colleague willingly to put on our calender of event as I pretty sure that nobody are fond of this out-station thing. As a matter of fact, going to both places are not as if we go to the hype and cool urban city such as KL or JB. And the idea (more to implementation, though!) of must-be-having an overnight stay in petit and fusty lodges in Telupid makes my head spinning asking for beheaded. Perhaps I'm too much with the discouraging idioms it makes my juniors scare to come and work in Sandakan. But, hey, every place has their own signature. Just don't look at the world through the rose-colored glass. Be young and bold!

We stayed in Queen Alice Hotel in Telupid. Yes, the name surely sounds funky even though I didn't even have a slightest clue who this Queen Alice was. The room was relatively small and musty. The space was matter-of-factly modified from the back garage of the terrace shop. Intriguingly, the owner didn't even remove the garage roller shutter, well, I guess he was trying to preserve the au naturale of the room.
Perhaps, I'm too exaggerate and asking too much from a small town like Telupid. But, sincerely I'm not intended to patronize or condescend anybody. I just want to highlight about the experience we have been through  and how privilege we are to work in this beautiful part of Borneo.
 'Palis-palis' as what local says to deal with something that they don't want to occur.
 

 

Telupid wooden dental clinic

Tongod on the other hand has 'less' to offer. The town or perhaps it is a misnomer if not overwhelming to say that Tongod is a real town. A row of terrace shops was all about Tongod. Too odd to be true but that was the fact about Tongod. But, ironically, the health clinic was as good as Sandakan's. Spacious and large the Tongod health clinic was also furbished by government quarters that was way better than 'Layang Apartment' the so-called Sandakan's government quarters. They even had a volley ball court!

Tongod Health ClinicOne row-shop town (Tongod)

Since I was there, I couldn't refrain myself from having at least a lunch in the town. Despite the thought of cholera wandering around my head, the hunger was more killing. So, we stopped by at a decent halal restaurant (the halal was a big question mark as I spotted Dutch courage empty bottle all around the restaurant). But there were none in the restaurant so that relieved me very much as I consoled myself that perhaps they (the bottle) came from the gloomy pub at the other end. I bought the lunch for the team thinking that Dutch treat won't do anybody good as it was a middle of the month. Furthermore as an officer I could score more on the daily and food claims.

p/s: You may notice that at the last paragraph I wrote a couple of idioms involving the Dutch. If you are a British-educated you may catch the meaning in instance as these idioms are originated from the English people. I accidentally bumped into these idioms while I was looking for Dutch Lady milk, though!