Story 1106 – My First Step onto the Land of Sabah
After nearly a year of moving from one job to another, the time had finally come for me to begin a new chapter in Lahad Datu.
As I handed my resignation letter to the HR Manager, he paused and asked,
"Where are you heading next?"
"I'm joining a palm oil mill in Lahad Datu, Sabah," I replied.
He looked at me with genuine curiosity.
"Lahad Datu? What's there?"
More than two decades later, I can still hear those words as clearly as if they were spoken yesterday.
What was there in Lahad Datu?
The truth was—I had no idea.
I had never set foot in Sabah. I had no relatives, no friends, and no acquaintances there. In fact, I had never even visited East Malaysia.
To make the journey even more significant, I had never travelled by air before.
On 16 March 2004, I boarded my very first flight—an AirAsia service to Kota Kinabalu—before connecting to Lahad Datu on a small ATR aircraft.
The airport was modest. Stepping off the plane, I was greeted by a simple wooden terminal. Beyond it lay little more than a road and a roundabout.
An elderly driver was waiting for me in a single-cab four-wheel drive. We travelled along Jalan Jeroco, navigating nearly 90 kilometres of gravel road before finally arriving at what would become my very first palm oil mill.
It was my first...
- Visit to Sabah.
- Arrival in Lahad Datu.
- Experience inside a palm oil plantation.
- Step into a palm oil mill.
All I had with me was a single backpack.
What I could never have imagined was that this leap into the unknown would shape the next two decades of my life.
That one decision led me to spend 20 remarkable years in Borneo—building a career, gaining invaluable experience, forging lifelong friendships, and discovering a place that would eventually feel like home.
Sometimes, the greatest journeys begin with nothing more than faith, a backpack, and the courage to step into the unknown.
That's my story for today.
No comments:
Post a Comment