Previously on "Two Up and Overloaded" -
Marisa: We delved deep within the depths of the Sulu Sea to discover another magical side of East Malaysia. But now we're getting back on our KTM 250 Adventure motorcycle and heading to an area of the coast that has something truly special — a place where we get to do something that we had always dreamed about: ride a motorcycle on a tropical beach through the sand.
It seems awesome in theory, but there's a catch, actually, two consequences of doing this: sand and salt. But today, we're putting our trepidations aside and going for it. This is the story of how it all went.
Intro: Hey everyone! Nice to have you here. We are Tim, and Marisa Notier. I ride in the front. And I’m in the rear. We travel the world and we pack too much gear. Oh, all the places we’ll go! Through rain and through sleet and through mud and through snow. Oh, all the things we’ll see! We’ve been to a country or two. Or three! Oh, all the fun we’ve had! To have you along, would make us real glad. So give us a like, and hit subscribe to join us along our epic ride.
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Tim: So we had a lunch of more seafood, which was okay.
Marisa: "We" being I did, since Tim does not like seafood or fish.
Tim: Yeah, but I had teriyaki and some sort of vegetable. It looked meaty, and I'm glad that it was delicious.
Teriyaki vegetable?
Marisa: Yeah. Uh-oh, what happened?
Tim: It had fire in it!
Marisa: Oh.
Tim: And our host, Udey, was very kind, and we can't thank him enough. And he made our stay absolutely magical. And just because I don't eat fish is not a knock on all of his delicious food that Marisa was scrumpling up.
Marisa: Scrumbling?
Tim: Scrumpling, add a P not a B. Scrumpling.
Marisa: Yes, my lunch at this gorgeous little beachside resort cabin that we were at was fantastic, just like all the other seafood I had eaten there. This was fish today. It's really just whatever they catch of the day, and then that's what they're going to be cooking up for you. There's no set menu, they just give you what they found in the ocean.
Tim: Oh, and they also had rambutan.
Marisa: Oh yeah! Best fruit ever.
Tim: That's, yeah. That is the king of the fruits in Malaysia. A lot of people say it's durian, and it's like, "You are wrong, my friend! That is not correct." But rambutan, delicious.
Marisa: So we were about to head off on the motorcycle and go to the Tip of Borneo and on the way stop at a couple of places that our host there had recommended for us.
Hey everyone, so we are about to go to the very tip of the most northern point in Sabah.
Yeah?
Tim: Give me the brick please.
Marisa: So we started in the tip of Sarawak, which was Mile Zero, as you know.
Tim: Priceless.
Marisa: There we go. Thank you.
And now we're going to make it to the other tip of Borneo. This is called the Tip-to-Tip Route, and it is the most northern point here in the state of Sabah. It is called Kudat. Well, actually, we're near Kudat right now. The tip itself, though, has a monument to the separation of the two different seas that they have here. There is the South China Sea, which is all along that northern part of Borneo, and then here we are overlooking the Sulu Sea, which kind of wraps itself around the eastern side of Borneo along with the Philippines.
So we are really excited to get out there. It looks to be absolutely beautiful out, and it shouldn't be too far away. So we're packing up right now. Not everything. We're coming right back here tonight, but we're just going to take a little brief trip to get to that most northern point, tip-to-tip. Let's go!
You plugged in a couple of destinations on the map.
Tim: Ooh... Something secret?
Marisa: Bye-bye!
Tim: And we headed off, and we kind of followed the coast.
And you can see the ocean coming between all the trees.
Yes, we love Borneo. It has been really nice, really beautiful. Yes, yes, yes.
Press SKIP.
Marisa: Which one is SKIP?
Tim: All the way to the left. All the way to... No, yes.
Marisa: Oh.
Tim: All right. Thank you, lady.
And then we finally got to a point where I felt the urge to abandon the nicely paved road and to head onto the beach itself. Because it was just too stunning, and it was calling our name.
[Kelambu Beach - Malaysia]
Marisa: This was Kelambu Beach, and it was recommended to us. But getting there on the motorcycle itself, that was all your idea. And I'm so glad you did that because it was amazing riding a motorcycle on that pristine white sand bar to an island. Heavenly!
Tim: It was really, really cool.
And it wasn't populated with a bunch of people, or else I wouldn't have been riding my motorcycle around it. But depending on the tide, I think there's this big bar that goes out and then branches off to an island. And the view from above, it looks like a big broccoli head or a big tree, the Tree of Life coming out from the mainland. And yeah, we got to ride our motorcycle up and down. And we were in a stunning location.
Marisa: This was an experience to remember!
Tim: Yeah. Marisa got so excited that she did a cartwheel. And if you remember, her hand has had this possible micro fracture that she's trying to heal.
Marisa: Oh, my wrist! I shouldn't have done that. I forgot about my wrist.
But it's much, much better now. I forgot all about it at that moment.
Tim: She forgot about it. And she said, "Film me doing a cartwheel," and I said, "All right." And then she did it, and immediately she was like, "Ah,
my wrist. I totally forgot."
Marisa: Oops. But it was okay. It's okay. Everything is
cool.
Tim: Watch high five in action.
Marisa: Yes.
Of all of Malaysia's gorgeous beaches, Kelambu Beach is often rated as one of its finest. And yet, very few people ever make it to this corner of Borneo. But once you do, you are rewarded with some of the most pristine beach views that we have ever seen.
I mean, this is what you think of when you think of paradise, right? And for a motorcycle rider,
you combine these two things, the heavenly beach and the motorcycle riding, and it is just a magical experience.
And because this beach was so wide, this peninsula sticking out into the ocean at low tide, we didn't touch the water at all. And so the bike, touching salt was not an issue.
Tim: And it was also not really deep sand,
because that's my nightmare.
Marisa: Correct, the sand was perfect to ride on.
Tim: It was. And the KTM 250 is very agile and maneuverable, so just everything was really, really nice.
Marisa: So after a little ride around the beach, we decided to head on to the next point that had been recommended to us, and that was a place called Secret Place and Cafe, which I think is a great name.
Tim: It smells like secrets. Oh, here's a vine. Watch out!
We're telling you about the secret place. Someone told us about the secret place. I don't know how deep they want this little secret to be hidden, but it's out there now.
Marisa: And there was a little jungle road that led to it. Yeah. So it did feel like we were stumbling upon this secret possibly. And there was also a bamboo gate to cross to get there.
Tim: Marisa had to open it up, which is always awesome. And then when she shuts it, she's got a crawl underneath in her space suit with her backpack on.
Marisa: Well, I could have shut it by going through it.
Tim: I didn't want to say anything. I was just on my motorcycle like, "This is cute." You could
go to the other side then shut it, but no.
Marisa: But I didn't, I didn't. Okay?
Tim: But it was awesome. Just Marisa doing a little army crawl underneath it.
Marisa: Secret Place.
[Secret Place Café -
6.9970˙ North 116.7300˙ East]
This place is a secret place.
Tim: Are you open? Okay.
But we get here, and there's a bazillion billion cats.
Marisa: Yes!
Tim: And that's how I knew I was going to be right at home.
What's going on, everybody? What’s going on? I must have died on that motorcycle journey because I am in heaven.
Marisa: Oh, you are. Look at the blue eyes. Wow, you're so Siamese if you please.
Tim: Yes, you're so sweet. Yes you are.
Marisa: Can we take this one?
Tim: Look at this. It's one-handed. Look. Just one handed.
Marisa: So many cats.
Tim: It's too many cats.
Marisa: Maybe...
Tim: No... I don't think I've ever said that. And I take it back. I immediately take it back.
Marisa: Just the right amount of cats.
Tim: Yeah, there were cats in dust pans, cats in garbage lids, cats in corners. Like, you walk in, and you're the kitten king, and they're all like, “Meow!”
And they had musical instruments that we were able to play.
Marisa: Yes, and you played the uke for a cat.
Tim: An audience of one, it was my favorite performance ever.
Marisa: That cat was loving it.
Tim: Yeah.
Marisa: And we had a little jam session.
Tim: Today's going to be the day!
Marisa: Nice!
Man playing guitar: Today is going to be the day that they're going to throw it back to you.
Marisa: By now, you should've somehow realized what you got to do.
Tim: Pretty good.
Marisa: And the coconut was great. We had these refreshing drinks, and that was a perfect little rest stop.
Tim: Yeah, the secret was exposed. It's on Google Maps.
Marisa: It is.
Tim: I knew we were leaving soon, so I started saying bye to all the cats, because it was like a 10 to 15 minute process.
Marisa: It was.
Tim: Thank you, brother. Oh, look at the rubbish kitties. Don't throw the kittens away. Don't put them in the trash.
Yeah, it was really, really, really, really nice.
Marisa: Next time on "Two Up and Overloaded" -
We finally make it to the end of the Tip-to-Tip Route, and find ourselves at the crossroads of two very impressive seas, the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea.
Tim: Plus, we take a road that everyone warned us not to go on.
That will all be in our next episode.
Marisa: So I hope you liked this video. If you did, please give us a big thumbs up and hit the
subscribe button below, and we'll be seeing you next time.
Tim: Stay safe, everybody.
Marisa: And if Patreon is your thing, we would love to have you along the journey with us. For as little as a dollar a month, you can sign up using the link in the description below. And you get all our videos a little bit early, ad-free, a couple of exclusive clips every once in a while, and a postcard sent to you from wherever we are in the world.
Tim: You get a postcard with a big noosed monkey on it, you get a postcard with some coconut trees...
Marisa: Yeah, they're all different.
Tim: They're all different. A huge shout out and a thank you to all of our current Patrons and everybody that's climbing aboard with us. We're glad to have you along for the ride, so a million
thank yous.
Marisa: We couldn't do this without you. Thank you so much! And we'll be seeing you next time.
Tim: Stay safe, everybody.
Marisa: Bye!
Tim: Peace.
That was a high-pitched, “Peace.”
Marisa: We just discovered that rambutan actually means the hairy fruit in Malayu, which makes sense.
Tim: It's hairy. I think it should translate to Space Monkey… Testicles. Equally good name. But this is prior to the knowledge of Space monkeys, so I understand their translation.
