City of Fire

Well, folks, I'm back from an entirely tiger-free trip to that Bornean Paradise known as Kota Kinabalu.

Kota Kinabalu, or KK as it's known to us Borneo cognoscenti, is the capital city of Sabah, the other Malaysian state in Borneo. Unlike Kuching, KK is a sea-side town, squeezed into a valley that hugs the South China Sea coastline, a god's stone's throw from South East Asia's tallest mountain, Mount Kinabalu.

KK's name is the latest in a long-running and complex saga, interestingly. In colonial times, when Sabah was known by the rather obvious name of British North Borneo, the city was known as Jesselton, named after Sir Charles Jessel, who was Vice Chairman of the North Borneo Company. There is still a Jesselton Hotel on Gaya Street, which is probably KK's last throwback to those days of pith helmets and planter shorts.

But after the British burned the city down to stop the invading Japanese from getting their hands on it during the War, Jesselton became known for a while as Api-Api, or simply Api. Api is the Malay word for 'fire'. There are many theories as to why a seaside town would be named after fire. One of the most colourful relates to the late 19^th Century rebellion by the Bajau leader Mat Salleh, in which the British administrative office on the nearby Gaya Island was burned down.

Who knows? But one thing that is certain is that Api was quickly renamed Jesselton after the defeat of the Japanese in 1945, when the British Administration was restored. And after Independence in the 1960s, when North Borneo joined Malaysia as Sabah, the city became Kota Kinabalu, literally ‘Kinabalu city’ (or fort).

So there you have it. Look it up on the Wikipedia if you don’t believe me!!

Now, one of the many things I love about KK is the view from the plane as you come in to land. If you are lucky and the weather is fine, on one side you'll see the city, and the airport buildings, but on the other side you'll see the clear turquoise ocean. I must remember to suggest to Air Asia to play the theme tune to Hawaii Five-O on the speaker system whenever they approach KK airport. Because it really feels like you are coming into Hawaii. Da da da da DAH da, da da da da DAH....

Now what was Prof Madder doing in KK, you all scream? Well, it's like this. One of my many roles is that of Debate Club Adviser in my university. And, we went to KK to take part in the rather grand-sounding Borneo Cup Debating Championship.

The competition took place on the heartbreakingly beautiful campus of the University Malaysia Sabah, which deserves a whole blog posting to itself. UMS is a relatively new university in Malaysia, and is spread around a breathtaking array of lush hills and sparkling bays some way outside KK city.

Anyway, our contingent of debaters consisted of two teams and you’ll never guess what? We won the championship!!!! It was literally a case of ‘we came, we saw, we debated, we conquered’!

Our first team, consisting of three coolly arrogant young wags who remind me of myself in my youth, managed to wrest the trophy from our traditional rivals Swinburne University of Technology and University Malaysia Sarawak. Even the second team, made up of three girls, managed a quarter final place. I am so happy for them!!

So you can imagine that these six young debaters and myself are feeling somewhat damn pleased with ourselves at the moment!

Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!!!!