Day 267 – Come here, especially if you don't want to...

No, my yesterday's love toward Malaysia was not a fluke. The system continues to work and I continue liking everything about this country. Except for food: unfortunately, on Borneo food isn't very good, unlike in KL, Langkawi and Penang. Oh well, I guess having it all is not in the stars for me here.

Mamutik

I woke up with a terrible migraine, but decided to brave a boat ride to the island of Mamutik that I had been waiting for since the very beginning of our trip - just because this name is cracking me up. As usual, I didn't regret my decision. This island is the epitome of peace, and, miraculously, the headache immediately disappeared as soon as I lay down under the needly shade of a pine tree (unfortunately, only to return later on in the day, but still, it was a welcome break and I touched my thanksgiving stone, gratefully).

Tribal crepes

The Sabah region of Malaysia is famous not only for its eco-touristic beauty, but also for the fact that it still is home to 32 indigenous tribes. The cultural village Mari Mari (near Kota Kinabalu) is designed to introduce you to the tribal life through participation in all the rituals and traditions. Originally, we didn't want to go to the village at all: we are all exhausted from all the sight-seeing and weather and heat by now, and on top of everything it started pouring on our way there. Unfortunately, turning the van around wasn't an option and, frustrated and hating group tourism, we obeyed to our sorry fate. As it often happens in life though, the village turned out to be an awesome experience. Even the rain didn't spoil the fun we had, and the three hours we spent baking chicken in bamboo sticks, making fire without matches, frying crepes, listening to music, dancing and just walking around in the darkness of the scary mysterious forest went by like 20 minutes. In the end, nobody was ready to leave the hospitable people of Mari Mari (translated as "Come here") and tried to prolong our stay there by eating the dinner veeeery slowly:).

The moral of today is: if you strongly resist something, it's a sure sign that you have to do it - there's a huge chance life will surprise you with its tremendous awesomeness one more time (just out of spite, I guess:)).

P.S. Back in the day, there used to be warrior tribes called "Head Hunters". They cut off their enemy's head as a trophy, and put a dead crocodile (symbol of bravery and strength) in front of their tribal house to show off the victory. It would be cool if head-hunting agencies used a crocodile as their universal logo.