As in all Asian countries I have visited there are the struggling poor making their dollar a day as labourers, maids and beggars.  One old woman used up her English vocabulary by saying to me, "Give me one Ringit".  If you don't give, you feel guilty; if you do, you wonder if she is faking.  This is one gambit you can't win, so it's best to give I suppose, and if she is a faker the guilt be on her head.  It's really wrenching when they use children to beg, sometimes punishing them if they don't collect enough.  This is a serious problem for anyone coming to a 3rd world country for the first time, and you never quite get used to it.

There is a lack of hygiene even in parts of Kota Kinabalu, the capital city, a place which is in most other ways quite modern.  It is disconcerting to catch a whiff of sewage while waiting for your meal at a streetside cafe, and maybe even more disconcerting to find a fine, exclusive (and enclosed) restaurant a few doors away.  The same contrasts exist in western cities too, of course, but there the bad bits are better hidden and more efficiently segregated.  On the other hand, there are modern malls and merchandise in the larger centres of Sabah, and life here does not need to be very different to what you are used to.

There is government corruption, but not as bad as in Indonesia they tell me, and the natives of Sabah sometimes feel neglected by their leaders on the Peninsula.  That may be because Moslems are in the minority here, in a country that is officially Islamic.  Still this state is renowned for its various ethnic and religious communities, both indigenous and imported, living in harmony.  My wife and I were even taken under the wing of an extremely generous Sikh family in Lahad Datu, who have fed and boarded us without stint. 

The national language is called Bahasa Malayu, very similar to Bahasa Indonesia next door, and reputed to be one of the easiest languages in the world to learn.  A gentleman explaining to me the complex mix of original peoples, let it slip that most individuals here learn 2 or 3 languages, and that even in a small area there are many local dialects, "so to speak".  I don’t think he recognized his pun.

And the countryside, ah, who could imagine such green, such misty distances, such diversity of plants and animals?  The north-east of Sabah is said to be among those areas having the greatest variety of species on the planet.  During our two outings on the Kinabatangan River near Sukau, we lost count of the families of macaques and monkeys in the trees; the unknown flowers and fruits growing by the water, some edible only by the proboscis monkeys whose three stomachs can accommodate foods that would otherwise be poisonous even to them; the rhinoceros hornbills; the monitor lizards; the crocodiles - well, ok, only one each of the latter two, but you get my point.  So what do we do, us short-sighted humans?  We plant neat rows of oil-palms in plantations that stretch to the horizon and leave only a narrow lane of original forest along the river for the wildlife. 

There is a herd of some 60 elephants in the area who are forced to go up and down this thin stretch in search of their livings, held off from the plantations by deep ditches.  As you float blissfully down the river, you have no inkling.  Oil-palms are attractive plants, and flying over penninsular Malaysia last year I was amazed  by the endless fields of those pretty green and frondy circles covering the land.  What effect must they be having on animal habitats? 

What effect on the world's ecology?  Isn't there a cancer cure down there amongst all that DNA that's being snuffed out?  Oh well, a generation ago it was all rubber trees, wasn't it? - and nature has survived, hasn't it? - besides there’s money to be made producing this worst-for-the-heart substance.

I don't think I am exaggerating, and I have to concede that there is still much virgin forest left for the loggers to plunder (some have reforestation schemes in place), but I do seriously wonder just how much palm oil the world can consume.  This land will benefit most from new residents who have a certain awareness of world problems and a willingness to work to preserve what is here.

What is here, you ask?  Nature in abundance: hikes and climbs around Mount Kinabalu and other parks and preserves; rafflesia, the largest flower in the world (a meter across!); local festivals, regattas and costumes of some 32 minority groups; orang-utans in the wild and in sanctuaries; coral reefs, wrecks and diving to take your breath away (sorry, poor choice of words); huge turtles laying their eggs and rangers collecting them for safer hatching; beaches; caves full of bats; the sad walk from Sandakan to Renau, if you wish to take the pilgrimage - the route of the infamous death march on which 5000 Australian soldiers perished in WW2; and in the cities the usual night life; even a symphony orchestra. 

Regarding awareness, there is the admirable but ridiculously expensive Denam Valley Field Center, not far from Lahad Datu.  Even a Ph.D. candidate, a legitimate researcher, confessed to me that he could not afford to stay there.  I can understand their not wanting to be overrun by tourists and so keeping the price high, but penalizing the scientists too?  That seems a little silly, and not only that, the toilets and showers were filthy.  Perhaps the administration has become deafened by that thundering rustle of greenbacks.  I attended a lecture given by one of the biologists on the subject of boring beetles (actually very interesting and not boring at all).  Researchers are learning more and more about the byzantine interaction of species in the tropical rainforests and this can only be to the good. 

We walked there and saw the grids they have placed around areas reserved  for study, the nets that capture what falls from the canopy, the coloured markers and signs admonishing us not to trespass.  We also came to realize how easy it must have been for the tourist last year to become lost for several days.  Having breakfast on the balcony next morning, while watching an orang have his in a nearby tree is one of the best awareness raisers I know.  I recommend it to all.

Yes, breakfast on the balcony is preferable to jungle slogging in my book and the comforts of home are all available in Sabah, if that's what you seek, from high-speed internet to modern apartments and houses.  A frighteningly cursory look on my part revealed prices in the range of 122 to 272 Malaysian Ringit (US$34 to $75) per square foot for new apartments and condos; and townhouses priced anywhere between 85,000 and 338,000 Ringit (US$23,600 to $93,900), though I will not be held to those figures. 

Oh, and those prices are for Kota Kinabalu, the capital city - out in the smaller centres things will cost even less.  Always remember though, the jungles, both of them, await the unwary.  Don't venture into the rain forest without your leech socks, and don't flee the pressures of home just to come here and restart them!  Relax with your coconut after a satisfying $3 meal and enjoy the slow pace - maybe study Eastern philosophy and see what you've been missing.