Karambunai – captivating and frustrating..

Our 5 days in KK were very well spent- 4 days golf and one day sight-seeing.

The  first game was at KK’s nine-hole walking course which is well preserved – nice fairways, greens and tee-boxes. I enjoyed the round as much as the bets. I always feel a little bit of bet goes a long way. It just makes one try harder not to lose.

Anyway, whoever lost the first day had chance to recover the very next day. We played at Sabah Golf and Country Club. I would rate SGCC as one of the toughest courses I have played. This time although I did not lose that many balls, I lost all my bets. But the course was immaculate and I thoroughly enjoyed playing on the beautiful fairways.

Then it was Karambunai on the third day. This is a very interesting course. Initially, you might feel consumed by the fascinating layout of the course, the scenic lakes and Mt Kinabalu at visible distance, then slowly but surely the ambience changes.

You get the jitters when you have to hit the ball over a huge pond, probably the length of 100-120 metres on your 3^rd shot. This happened at the Par 5 Index 1. In my attempt to play safe I drove 3 balls into the water. When i recovered from the pond my next shot found the bunker, then continued to the next bunker. The rest is history. I eventually hole out for 13! It was a really frustrating Par 5 for me.  My playing partners faired slightly better, and were happy even with 11 and 12.

But what was even better was the chance to play there again on our last day. Since it is Ramadhan, Karambunai has a special offer for the first 20 golfers at 80 ringgit p.pax. So we booked the first tee-off at 6.30am. knowing that we must be done by 10am and be ready to get to the airport for our flight home.

That morning we were up at 4.30am and we arrived at Karambunai before tee-off, for another round of captivating golf.  We did improve on our scores and I must say it was a dramatic finish at the final hole.  I was one down and I squared the match and that was instant happiness.

In all playing Karambunai seems like an adventure and very satisfying regardless of  bad scores.  It is one course we hope to come back again….someday

And as for our sight seeing, the highlight was dipping our feet in the Luanti River, some two and a half hours drive from KK. Now the fishes have really grown since the last time we were there. They are too monstrous for the faint-hearted and their bites are no more nibbles. They bite! But I enjoy it!

And of course a good vacation also means good food. On the first night we treated ourselves to a very nice Chinese dinner in one of the best seafood restaurants in KK.  With some recommendations we had a few of their popular dishes which included a special soup boiled and served in a whole melon, cod fish that was cooked in two ways – half fried and the other half steamed. Then we had big prawns, shelled and cooked in a special sauce, slightly cheesey I thought. My favourite was perhaps the herbal kampung chicken. The mixed vegetable was fabulous too and so was ostrich meat, pan-fried in ginger. This was my first taste of ostrich meat and i already like it. And by the time we finished all that dinner, we were ready to retire.

Thus theres no secret to a great golf vacation. All it needs to happen are 3 basic ingredients –  food that makes one salivate,  golf that makes  one stretch and friends who make one laugh.