Keith Ramtahal

A couple of weeks ago Sue heard that her good friend Keith was seriously ill in hospital and unlikely to survive.  He died a few days later on 12 January 2015.

His life-long partner Steve died in early 2014, a fact we only learned from the same friend that told Sue how ill he was.

He came to visit us in Borneo in 2012; this is a picture of him posing with bananas during a walk in the Saratok rice paddies.  We were worried about him then as he was drinking a lot and seemed frail and depressed.

I especially remember one afternoon during his
visit.  We were staying at our favourite hotel in Kuching and I was on the walkway outside our first floor room enjoying the view over the hotel's tropical grounds.  I looked down and saw Keith standing by the pool looking up at me.  He quickly shifted his gaze as if I'd somehow caught him out.  Which in a way I suspect I had, because at that moment  I thought I saw in his eyes a deep longing and sadness.  For what I'm not sure; lost youth or his "old self" perhaps?  "La bella figura" was always important to him I believe and illness and advancing age made it harder and ultimately impossible to achieve.  I think Keith carried a lot of sadness and I can only guess at how this must have been intensified by his partner's death and how hard his last months must have been.

I met Keith on several occasions over the twenty or so years Sue and I have been together, but I never really felt I'd got to know him.  By all accounts he was a fine person: teacher; academic; sensitive and caring friend; fashion lover and; fun guy to be with.  I don't think he had an easy passage through life, but he never complained about it.  I never dreamed that as I waved him off at Sibu Airport two years ago I would never see him again.  Goodbye Keith, you are too soon gone and I really wish I'd got to know you better.

The Road to Sandakan

Sue had to spend a couple of weeks in Kota Kinabalu ("KK"), the capital of what was once British North Borneo and is now the Malaysian province of Sabah.  Over the weekend we decided to travel to Sandakan on the far side of Sabah to visit her fellow Project Manager Suzanne and her friend Mindy.  Sue took a plane and I hired a 150cc motorbike from the good people at "Gogo Sabah" http://gogosabah.com/transportation/.

I had a great 300 kilometre blast up winding mountain roads to Mount Kinabalu National park then down the other side on a road that became straighter and dominated by palm oil trucks pumping black diesel fumes as they laboured to the nearest mill.  The town itself is a charmless frontier outpost at the arse end of Malaysia facing the Philippines, which it eyes suspiciously.  The Sabah hotel does however have one of the finest views in the world from its bedroom windows.

It rained for most of our two-day stay which we spent failing to get into the sights for which the area is famous - the orangutan and sun bear sanctuaries at Sepilok.  Still we had fun nattering with Mindy and ambling along wet rainforest walks.

On the way back to Kota Kinabalu I broke my journey with an overnight stay at the Sabah Tea Gardens, which offer accommodation in a tourist version of a Dusun longhouse.  The tea estate is in the high country near Mount Kinabalu.  The climate is very similar to the cool damp atmosphere of the Sri Lankan tea-growing country around Haputele, where we stayed two years ago.

Over breakfast the next morning I watched the most fantastic dawn unfold over the tea plantation and the neighbouring hills with the mighty Mount Kinabalu looming out of the clouds as they separated and coalesced.  I returned to KK later that morning to greet Sue with a sunburnt and grimy but smiling face.

New Year's Eve on the beach

After Christmas we drove back to Miri, stopping in our little town of Saratok for a few days en route.  Morgan, the British Council mentor who now rents the house that was our home for two years, kindly let us stay there while she was away for the holidays.  It was lovely to catch up with teachers Sue worked with and some of my old students.  While out walking around the rice paddy and palm oil plantations by the river, this lovely man gave me a bunch of the most tasty lychees I've ever eaten.  Kind of sums up the kindness and generosity of the locals.

Back in Miri our friend Kerry made the excellent suggestion of going to the beach to watch the sunset.  This we did accompanied by Kerry and Iain, another of Sue's mentors working in Miri.  Shortly after sunset we were joined by Iain's partner Sian, (another mentor) and their lovely daughter Ixsora.  Kerry also brought beer and wine and best of all a large bag of salt and vinegar crisps.



While there I snapped easily the best series of portaits I've ever taken of Iain and Ixsora stepping into the sea.

As you get older you begin to understand better the preciousness of these moments.