The team

The river crew that took us to the long house, plus fellow travellers (except Jim- who knows where he went).

Hong Kong light show

Every evening at 8 the buildings on the Hong Kong shore light up like Las Vegas.

View of Hong Kong

From Peak Tram.

Jim under fountain

In Hong Kong Park.

View of Hong Kong Harbour

As we enjoy our welcome drink and nuts at the Intercontinental Hong Kong.

Jesselton

So Sarawak had a white raja, but how did Sabah end up connected with the British?  Seems it was run by a British company, the British North Borneo Company, founded to capitalize on the bounty of Borneo similar to the British East India Company in China.

After the WWII, when much of North Borneo was destroyed, the North Borneo company decided it was not profitable to rebuild, so it turned over governance to the British government.

As a nod to the British, we had lunch at this English tea house- fish and chips- excellent- very fresh.

Next to the tea house was the home of Agnes Keith, an American woman who married a Canadian who was Commissioner of Forestry for the North Borneo Co.  She moved to Sandukan in 1934 and wrote a book about her experiences.  When the Japanese invaded, she, her husband and her 2 year old son were put in a prison camp, first in Sandakan and later at Kuching.  They survived.

We are now in the Kota Kinabulu airport, waiting for a flight to Hong Kong.  Kota Kinabalu was founded by the British and was originally called Jesselton.

Sandakan prison camp

The Japanese, in 1942, decided to build an airfield at Sandakan. They brought 2500 British and Australian POWs from Singapore. The field was never completed at least in part because of sabotage by the prisoners.  This is a piece of equipment, originally British, that remains at the sight of the prison camp, part of which has been turned into a memorial.  As the war turned against the Japanese, they decided to move the prisoners to an area near Mt. Kinabalu, Renau, some 260 km away.  Only 6 men survived the death march.  They survived only because  they escaped.