To the tip and back.

I spent three days at Kudat. We organized the Sunset Symphony – basically someone’s bright idea (which usually means, we do the dirty work) to invite the KK Orchestra to perform at the Tip of Borneo, in Kudat. It was the first time the orchestra performed outdoors so it was quite a challenge, logistics and all. Plus, some of the musicians were so annoying that I wanted to chuck them and their squeaky violins out the bus half the time.

It’s a three-hour drive (another hour from Kudat town to the tip itself) and I’m not a big fan of long road trips. Especially when it’s with difficult and fussy people. “Aiyah so hot lah”, “Why the bus so smelly one?”, “Are we there yet?”. You get the pic. If they think they’re tired, they have no idea what it’s like to babysit 80 whiny musicians who think life is unfair because caviar isn’t served on the bus. Ok la, granted there were a handful of nice musicians who bothered responding to our ‘Good morning’. Ah well, you win some, you lose some.

As in other events, I’m usually in charge of the media people, which is cool because most of them are my ex-colleagues anyway. I told them the only off-limits area was the front of the stage, so they could take shots from anywhere else. They took that literally because the next thing I knew, I had a line of cameramen standing on top of the sound and lights truck! Anything that gets the job done I suppose.

So there we were, at the northern-most tip of Borneo (if you look at the dog-shaped map of Sabah, it’s right at the tip of the left ear). I have to admit, the view there is spectacular. Standing on the cliff, you can see the meeting point of the Sulu and South China Seas. And, interesting historical fact, Magellan stopped here to repair his damaged ships. But the natives also say it’s a sacred site so we have to be careful whenever we hold events there. Basically, as a sign of respect, we’ll always have a native priest or priestess conduct the necessary rituals to appease the spirits a week before the event. They do some chanting, slaughter some chickens and chant some more. It might sound like a bunch of hullabaloo to some people but we know better than to mess with the natives and their beliefs.

Anyway, we worked under the blazing sun two days in a row. It was so hot that at times I felt like we were actually ON the bloody sun. Oh and did I mention our official uniform was black pants and black shirts? Why not just make us wear a winter coat while we’re at it? At night, it was the usual boozing/card games session, while the rest of us channel surfed (who am I kidding, the hotel we stayed in had a total of 3 channels so it was either Bintang RTM, Drama Minggu Ini or the SAME Chinese movie aired four times a day.)

Good to be home.

"The hills are alive, with the sound of music,
With songs they have sung, for a thousand years..."
- yeah they played a medley of 'The Sound of Music' favourites. Still ringing in my head.