About Tongod

The place,

One and only,

Nestled amidst wilderness,

Green and panoramic,

Of natural beauty,

Delightful.

That is to sum up Tongod in just few words. But in all honesty, I’m still discovering Tongod and things that it offers, day by day. Thus, don’t rest solely on my version of Tongod. Because it’s my personal view. It’s just that I think that it would be fair for me to include my brief personal outtake on Tongod as many of those who googled the word ‘Tongod’ would stumble across my blog. So here it is;

LOCATION:

Tongod is a district smack in the middle of Sabah. So if you point your finger at the middle of Sabah’s map, you got yourself the location of Tongod. Tongod consist of numerous small villages; Purutawai, Kiandongo, Sogo-Sogo, Tongodon, Talibu, Lilingkuon and so many other small villages. Most of the villages are located by the river banks, true to the nature of the native people, the Sungai (river).

POPULATION:

I would not even try to estimate the population in Tongod in term of numbers as I am not well informed regarding that point. However, based on my personal observation, I would say that the majority of the population here are of the Sungai people. Besides that, there is also quite a number of people from the Mangkaak tribe and also the Dusun people. In addition to that, due to the current trend of huge companies ravishing the forest in pursuit of lands for oil palm plantation, don’t be surprised if you occasionally found yourself surrounded by illegal immigrants from East Timor, Philippines and Indonesia. In a way, Tongod can be considered as a melting pot of some sort.

CLIMATE:

If you are a Malaysian, chances are, you would be used to the kind of weather that we have in Tongod. Thus, I want to take this chance to inform you that despite being located right smack in the centre of Sabah, the climate are rather quite disappointing. The weather can be terribly hot during the midday and foggy cold hours before dawn. It was not really the kind of weather that you would first expect when you found yourself surrounded by hills and greeneries. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that a lot of the greens of the forest has been replaced by the greens of palm trees.

AMENITIES:

Within the last couple of years, a lot has improved in Tongod. The most apparent and prominently important improvement is the road. The road condition has changed so much that the journey that took almost three hours in the past has already been cut short to less than one hour. Besides that, we also have a fully functioning government health clinic (Klinik Kesihatan) with one dedicated doctor and a number of MA’s, nurses and staffs. As Tongod is a full district, it also has a District Office led by its very own District Officer. A Mini Post Office has also been built and is due to open soon. In addition to that, Tongod also has several Celcom Broadband Centres (Pusat Jalur Lebar) which provide a very good wireless internet connection to the people. Last but not least, for the past 3 months, Tongod has been blessed with the 24/ 7 electricity. Gone are the days of the generators.

ALAS…

I’d want to say that, alas, Tongod is not for the faint-hearted. That may be very true in the past, but those are histories. Tongod is a beautiful place to live for everyone. For so many reasons; the place, the people, the surroundings, and Me!   

Tongod River: it's really beautiful during dry season

School canteen on the left, hostel on the right

My beloved SMK Tongod

Sorry, I forgot to rotate this pic before uploading, but it still shows how beautiful Tongod is, rite?

Breaking Fast @ Buka Puasa @ Iftar @ Sungkai 2010

Here in Tongod, good food doesnt come easy. If you wanna cook elaborate meals, it usually requires weeks of planning, and that's why most of the time we choose to have only simple meal. But last week, I was lucky as I got to go to town to buy some ingredients for our special day of breakfasting. Here's some pics of them dishes:

Our breaking fast menu, more description below

My first attempt on Dried Squid in Spicy Peanut Gravy, tastes a lot better than it looks!

Nasi Lemak with Sambal Bilis, Sambal Kacang Sotong Kering, Hardboiled Egg, Cucumber and Papadom

Our desert for the day, my modified version of Creme Caramel: I put a slice of canned peach inside, and trust me it's really yummy!

That's all for now, sorry for disappearing for quite some time. Cheers!

The Recent Flood in Tongod

 

"Even the dogs need savin' when the flood comes"

I've been writing just literature for quite a while and I guess to be true to the purpose of this blog, I should share with my fellow readers the happening in Tongod. Last January, we were hit by the worst flood incident in 19 years... So, here's some pics for you guys to see...

This is the picture before it all went bad... at this time it has been alternately raining and drizzling  non-stop for 3 days

Early in the morning, the house on the background were submerged at the end of the day.

The light blue house on the other end of the bridge is my house. Lucky we got to this side earlier, or else, we could've stranded for few days.


Students were evacuated from the hostel to the higher ground

"The river's a monster...."

"Extreme water polo. Anyone?" Yes, you got it right, that's the top of the goal post

"Not my kind of car wash"

 Two days after the flood...

A class of its own

I just want to share my experience conducting a lesson out of the classroom. I did it few weeks ago and it was not really planned carefully. It was one of the days when the attendance were just beyond acceptable, only 10 out of my 27 students turned up for class that day. I wasn't really in the mood of giving another lecture on "the importance of going to school"... especially knowing that it was a 'menugal' season (sowing paddy), hence the lousy attendance as most of the students are out in the paddy field helping their family. To add on to my frustration,  it was one of the hottest days in Tongod. I knew at that moment that I would not be functioning well if I were to conduct my lesson in the class. Thus, I came up with the idea of conducting a lesson by the river... or what people in Tongod refer to as the 'karangan'. So... of we went to the river....

 

It was a friday afternoon and the breezy environment under the shades of the trees... in short, it was just nice. A perfect spot to conduct a small class of students.

The students were also definitely enjoying themselves. They had fun conducting their discussion before presenting it in groups. We were not doing any heavy discussion though, it was more of an incentive for the students for being in school.

The scenery was definitely a bonus. And this will definitely not be the last time for me conducting a lesson here.

Breaking Fast in the Dark

Just a short update. Want to share with you a picture I took on Wednesday when we had to break our fast in the darkness of the night. We had about 24 hours of power disruption thus, we also had our Terawih prayer with only the candles' light glimmering around us. It was pretty romantic and for sure it's a memorable one.

 

And here's a picture of students having 'moreh' after terawih...

Generator Generating Fire

 

Wednesday, 2nd September - Tongod, one of the three generators supplying electricity to the villages around Tongod has burst into flame. At around 1.00 pm, there was a disruption in the power supply all around Tongod. Power shortage is not uncommon incidents, therefore it did not raised any alarm amongst the villagers. However, shortly after that, the disruption was followed by a loud bang, heard as far as 500 metres from the scene. Black clouds of smokes filled the sky. It was chaotic for a while. Motorcycles, cars and pickups all rushed towards the scene for close encounters. One of the Sabah ElectricSdn Bhd's employee , Mr. Rufino, 28, who was currently on duty during the tragedy, suffered from 1st degree burn on his right arm. Apparently, he suffered the injury when he attempted to prevent the other two generators from catching fire as well. A very heroic act indeed. Due to the fire breakout, schooling session for the  day was resumed under a very uncomfortable environment; sweltering heat during fasting month. Fortunately, this problem was handled in a very professional and efficient manner by the District Officer, within 24 hours, the temporary mobile generator was brought in from Sandakan City and Tongod came back to life.