Tamu in Sabah

As I look out from my 4th floor  hotel room balcony on an early Sunday morning, the street down below was starting to be bustling with activities. Every Sunday morning, vegetables, meat and food sellers gathered to  sell their goods on the street. The local authority have gazetted this area for the weekend trading  as long as I can remembered.  I can still recall when I was only 16 years old living in the boarding school, a ten minutes walk away, I frequently visited this place on Sundays to buy my breakfast because of the choices and low price.There have all kind of varieties such as the local cakes, nasi lemak, banana and potato fritters , fried noodles with young tau foo and pork in black sauce and many more on sales. You can also find beautifully crafted local handicrafts such as pots, rattan basket and attractive colourful beads jewelry. In Malaysia, This is known as "Tamu" and can be found in most town in Sabah on certain days. I guess it is similar to the flea market concept.

If you ever make it to Borneo Sabah, be sure to visit the famous " Gaya Street tamu" held every Sunday as early as 6 am in the morning till mid noon at Gaya street in Kota Kinabalu. Take a stroll here and you can find all kind of interesting things ranging from potted plants, hardware tools, local artist painting to food and local medicine.  Price are subjective as you can try your hand at negotiating to get a good bargain. Frankly speaking, I am not really good at that but my wife Liza is. It will be jammed pack with tourist and local alike hoping to discover new interesting things.