Travel to Malaysia: Santubong

The coast is an hour's drive north of Kuching and presents a startling illustration of two worlds.

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THe Santubong River, a distributary of the Sarawak, breasting its way past Suntubong Mountain, to whose far slope we're headed.

There's a fishing village here called Santubong.

A boat heads out to sea.

The harbor.

The village accommodates the tide.

House on large lot.

On relatively high ground, a cemetery.

A green thumb.

The village's commercial center.

Interior of store.

Clinic.

A mile down the road, the sandy beachfront is allocated to someone with money.

Don't want the hassles of a beach-front home? No problemo: condos for sale.

Targeting locals, not.

What have we here?

You'd be forgiven for guessing a gated community, but it's just a hotel, with security.

So here you have it, the tropical beach of international tourist brochures. Could be anywhere and for practical purposes is no longer on the same planet as Santubong.