A day at Beaufort before departing
On the day before we leave the town, my foster father decided to bring us jalan-jalan (walk around) at Beaufort. It is a town further north of Sabah, just an hour away from Bongawan. Beaufort is famous for limau manis (citrus). Despite the green skin and orange flesh, this fruit is actually very sweet. We explore the town a bit while my foster parents was doing their prayers at the mosque. First we went to the market and bought no other than limau manis. Turned out some of them are sour. ;(
On the last night at Pekan Bongawan, a cultural night was held. All the villagers were invited and some came with their best outfit. The most appropriate clothing would be Baju Kurung but I didn't bring any. After the usual prayer and speech, there were singing, Gambus performance and Malay dancing. The villagers tried to pull the participants to dance along. All of us ended up on the dance floor entertaining the villagers with our poor dancing skills. lol. The villager who guided me dancing wouldn't let me leave until he approves my skills. Sweat! In the end, everyone was very exhausted but having fun.
The morning on the day of departure, my foster mother's brother brought me to a fishing trip. There's a river in Pekan Bongawan that head out to the sea. Most of the villagers have a fishing boat and a simple jetty made out of tree trunks. Fishing is one of their past time. I was really excited because he showed us a big freshwater lobster he caught the day before. Let's hope that we will be that lucky today! It took 15 minutes to get to his usual fishing spot. The river is bigger than I think. After patiently waiting for 10 minutes, we caught our first lobster. Then, one hook on to the bait after another. And wala... we caught 5 lobsters and 2 fishes! We decided to call it a day before noon. Before we went back, he took me to the river end that meets the sea. The waves are really strong and it's dangerous to go out to the sea. Hehe.. I even tasted the water to see if it's salty. It's not.
These lobsters are different from the normal big red lobsters. They are smaller in size (but bigger than prawns) and the claws are blue in colour. They are seldom sold in the wet market. My foster mother was surprised when we got home with so many lobsters. She filled a big vase with water and keep the lobsters alive. After removing the shell and claws, she deep fried them for lunch. Fried lobsters... yum! I have to say it taste like normal prawn but FRESHER. It's the experience that counts. :p
After a great lunch, it's time to leave this place. My foster mother packed a lunch box for me... not forgetting to give me all the leftover lobsters. She didn't wanted to attend the closing ceremony because she was afraid she'll cry. At the closing ceremony, each participants gave a photo frame with their picture taken to their foster family before giving them a hug. All of us later queued up, greeted and thanked each villager. Many were filled with tears. All of us took a group photo before leaving this town that we called home for 5 days.
