Leaving land below the wind..

Day 1 : http://travellogging.blogspot.com/2007/09/to-land-below-wind.html
Day 2 : http://travellogging.blogspot.com/2007/09/journey-on-land-below-wind-continues.html
Day 3 : http://travellogging.blogspot.com/2007/09/land-below-wind-journey-continues.html
Day 4 : People & culture. Tata Kota Kinabalu...

Guess it is time that we focus back to people and culture. If you thought Peninsular Malaysia is a cultural pot, think again. I find more truthful definition of peaceful co-existence in Borneo. People here are more friendly, more helpful, and more tolerant of each others' differences. Could it be that, as our material wealth develops, we loss humbleness and understanding? By the way, driving in Sabah is anything but stressful. Drivers are generally very patient (ie stopping for pedestrians, letting cars move into their lanes, etc). So it got me thinking. I sort of get into the conclusion that it's the drivers attitude that made the driving experience good or stressful. If all drivers are like KL'ites (honk freely, complain about other people's selfishness while staying in yellow boxes, double-triple parking, etc), how not to be stressful? How about we try to be corteous for a start. No point complaining; Action counts.

Time Log
9.00am - Walkabout Sutera Harbour Magellan Wing and breakfast at 5 Sails
10.00am - Embarked on search of Dongongan Tamu
2.00pm - Checked out and walk about Sutera Harbour's Marina Club and Pacific Wing
3.00pm - Phillipino Market, here we come
3.15pm - Stumbled upon Pasar Besar and Pasar Ikan Masin
3.45pm - Scouting for souvenirs
5.30pm - Waterfront last minute clicking
6.30pm - Dinner at Pulau Gaya Restaurant (Inanam/Tuaran)& return car
9.00pm - Tata Kota Kinabalu

Stock take:

• Souvenirs for friends and family - 3 packets of Sabah Tea and 2 packets of Tenom Coffee
• Own souvenirs - Seashells from Sutera Harbour beach, dried flowers from Kundasang market
• For record - Tickets, brochures and maps (a good thing to buy the most detailed map you can get, if you plan to drive on your own)

I shall be back!

Land below the wind journey continues...

Day 1 : http://travellogging.blogspot.com/2007/09/to-land-below-wind.html
Day 2 : http://travellogging.blogspot.com/2007/09/journey-on-land-below-wind-continues.html
Day 3 : Time for the wild life
Day 4 : http://travellogging.blogspot.com/2007/09/leaving-land-below-wind.html

I have seen quite enough of plants for now. Guess it's time to move on to the wonderful animals of the borneo. I had wanted to go for river cruises to watch fireflies and probosisc monkies at their natural habitat and orang utan sanctuaries to see how well are the lovely primates coping. But alas, time is not on my side. I have to make do with Lok Kawi Wildlife Park. But it is worth the journey. The animals are very lively, unlike the zoos I've been to. It was great experience face to face with the tigers.

Time Log
9.00am - Buffet breakfast
10.00am - Back to rest in the room
2.00pm - Lok Kawi Wildlife Park, here I come!
5.30pm - Tata tiger. Tata orang utan. Tata monyet belanda. Tatatata...
6.00pm - Stopped by abandoned jetty along the highway/trunk road.
6.30pm - Sunset at Tanjung Aru beach
8.00pm - Back to Magellan for a swim
9.00pm - Night marketsss within KK town centre
11.00pm - Ikan bakar at Hill Top
12.00am - Back to Magellan

Tribute to all the marine lives in Langkawi Underwater World sacrificed in the hands of the unscrupulous culprit that sabotaged the tank. May you have crossed over to a better place..

The journey on the land below the wind continues...

Day 1 : http://travellogging.blogspot.com/2007/09/to-land-below-wind.html
Day 2 : To explore
Day 3 : http://travellogging.blogspot.com/2007/09/land-below-wind-journey-continues.html
Day 4 : http://travellogging.blogspot.com/2007/09/leaving-land-below-wind.html

After half a day of heavy rain, sunshine finally came to its senses and decided to brighten the world and give the living being warmth. It was great starting the day with fresh vegetable soup cooked with veges fresh from the farms of Kundasang and a cup of hot tea. It was a great day!

Time Log
7.00am - Good mornin' sunshine
8.00am - Breakfast of yesterday's leftover (vermicelli + vege soup)
9.00am - Pandanus trail and botanical garden in Kinabalu Park
12.30pm - Checked out and straight to Kundasang
1.00pm - Nasi Lemak at Kundasang Cafe
1.30pm - Kundasang War Memorial
3.00pm - Head to next destination
3.45pm - Reached Poring Hot Spring and climbed up to Poring Canopy Walk
5.00pm - Feasted at Rainforest Restaurant in Poring Hot Spring Park
6.00pm - To head back to KK via Kinabalu Park
6.30pm - Getting dark, stopped by at Fairy Hotel to take scenic photos
8.45pm - Reached Kota Kinabalu town and seafood feast at Port View
11.20pm - Stroll along waterfront
12.00am - Checked in to Sutera Harbour Magellan Resort

I have video some parts within Kinabalu Park. If you like to watch them, you can go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdfZF8rf-7U

I have also video the sights on Poring Canopy Walk at the site below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztVpKcUfalQ

For those that could not download flash player, and hence can't see the photo slides, no worries.. I am putting up my photos on another site. Will inform you when it is ready.

Till I see you on my 3rd day in KK. Ciao!

To the land below the wind...

DAY 1 : Arrival
Day 2 : http://travellogging.blogspot.com/2007/09/journey-on-land-below-wind-continues.html
Day 3 : http://travellogging.blogspot.com/2007/09/land-below-wind-journey-continues.html
Day 4 : http://travellogging.blogspot.com/2007/09/leaving-land-below-wind.html

I have never been to Borneo. And with my kind of luck, I was so worried what kind of "surprises" lie waiting for me in this mystical land. But I have to go, the wind is calling.

Time Log
4.30am - Took a cab to KL Sentral
5.15am - Aerobus took off
7.00am - Airasia skybus took off
9.00am - Reached KK Terminal 2
9.30am - Breakfast at Kah Hiong Ngiu Chap
11.30am - Hired a car (Wira) and head straight to Kinabalu Park
1.30pm - Rain starts, stopped by at Pekan Nabalu for guarded lunch
(guarded by 2 dogs on both right and left side)
2.30pm - Reached Kinabalu Park and checked in to Summit Lodge(raining)
4.30pm - Rain stopped, drove up to Kundasang to buy vege for dinner
5.30pm - Came back and cooked a big pot of vege soup with vermicelli
(rain starts again)
8.30pm - Started fire and get ready to turn in for th night

Hope you like my photos. These are taken on the first day. I have more coming for my 2nd, 3rd and last day in Sabah.

Hope you like the music : Sinding Rumamai-Ramai by Aldro John Gaisah (Suara Buluh Perindu 1).


Kinabalu Park : The tap water in Kinabalu Park is shivering cold. But most importantly, these are straight water, as in the water did not go through the chemical treatment like KL. So what?
(1) Making tea with these water offers sweeter fragrance.
(2) Very difficult to wash off the lather from our soaps.

The Putrajaya Floria 2007

In conjunction with 50th National Day Celebration, an international floral festival is held and intended to be held on annual basis from 2007 onwards. I have attended the 2002 Floriade in Netherlands and had expected something similar being done here in Putrajaya. Unfortunately, I was rather disappointed to find that the planning and information is not well executed.
First of all, there were no proper map and information on how to go to the Floria destination. Eventhough website is created and advertisements were published in newspapers, the publicity is insufficient.
Secondly, the place is not well laid. Knowing that Malaysian weather is hot and wet, the floors at certain areas were wet and muddy after rain, making our walk quite an unpleasant ones.
Thirdly, I feel that the management seemed to indicate lack of understanding over plant exhibitions. For instance, plants need sunlight and watering. Noted the indoor plant deco were dark and dry. The flowers were dried up and the fruit deco has already growing mold. I may have went there the last day, but all these should be taken into account if the management wants to make it an international event.
Nomatter what, I am glad I went. Found many avid photographers there focussing and clicking away. Learnt a trick or two on how they manage the lighting and exposure.
Among the few exhibits I love are as below:

Heaven & Earth
Indonesian Entry

Japanese Entry

Yellow Orchid Arrangement

Rose Arrangement

Golden Chrysanthemum

USA Entry

Outdoor Daisies

Taiwanese Entry

I have not had a digital camera when I went to Netherlands Floriade in 2002, but you may find some photos in the sites below:

http://www.palacio-cristal.com/FotoAlbum/Fotos/2002/2002-09-29%20Floriade/index.html

http://iacoma.cs.uiuc.edu/~paulsack/europetrip/floriade/

http://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/tuduce/poze/Holland_2002/tn/floriade13.jpg.index.html

I am not trying to glorify other countries achievement, but we should always learn from others and improve. I believe in "Malaysia Boleh".

Carpe Diem!

I believe nothing describe watching fireworks better then "carpe diem". It took the contestants ages to prepare for the competition. The spectators braved through rain to seize the moment. All but for 30 minutes of fireworks display.

Is it worth it? Every single second of it. Watching them from tv or afar can never understand the euphoria of witnessing explosion of stars right above you. Putting up all these photos are simply a tip of the iceberg, but I just want to share with you a glimpse of what I saw. If you are interested in watching the video of the first Malaysia International Fireworks Competition, you can click on the link below:
http://videos.thestar.com.my/default.aspx?vid=358

Or it can also be put in this way:
"Ehipassiko"
- as in "Come and see for yourself" in Pali language.

I am proud to be a Malaysian

I have recently gone on a city tour with 2 foreigners from Afghanistan and Laos. We went to most of the tourist spots in Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya. Both of them are full of praises for Malaysia. They love Malaysia for different reasons. The Laotian loved the high rise buildings and all the great infrastructures that KL has. The Afghan loved the fact that we managed to maintain the greeneries within the city. When they told me again and again that "You have a very nice country", my heart just melt.

Bridges at Putrajaya.

I used to question if there is really a need to spend millions and billions on infrastructures, but I finally understood Tun Dr Mahathir's aspiration. The infrastructures are not established for egoistical reasons, but it is a symbol that represents Malaysia's pledge to be a developed country. I never expect the infrastructures to have such huge impact on the foreigners. But when I found out that they actually look up to our buildings with hope, I saw a glimpse of our nation's hope too.
The only sad part is when we were strolling around the city, they too found that Malaysian's mindset has yet to catch up with the infrastructures. We are still lacking in basic thoughtfulness and courtesy. As we are approaching 50th independence, I wish that the younger generation do not forget the hardships that our country has went through to come to this stage. I also hope that our mentality will mature more holistically. Happy Birthday Malaysia!
p/s: To Saiyid and Thi, you do not have to say thank you to me. It is me who should say thank you for reminding me how lucky I am to be a Malaysian. Thank you!

Honour in meeting a good samaritan

No no no... the person in the photo isn't the good samaritan. The photo is simply the great beginning of our journey to a tyre puncture in the middle of nowhere. This was how it began...

We went to Langkawi for a part leisure and part explorative tour. We hired a car at a bargain price. Happily we drove all around the island without a map. Just go along and stop whenever and wherever we feel like it. We kinda know that hired car tend to have inaccurate fuel tank indicator. Hence we had a good sense of pumping the petrol and apply some mathematical skills to estimate the total amount of kilometres we could make at certain amount of petrol. So far so good, and we applauded ourselves for our "wisdom". As we travel along the coast, the steering wheel felt heavier by the seconds. We started to feel a mild wobble in the car. Oh o! We knew what it was before we even got down the car. Sigh... well little hitches like this isn't a problem for both of us. We are experienced tyre changers. That was what we thought, until we checked the boot. Wowho... No tools except for a half filled spare. Don't panic, we could always call the agent. He said he could make it in an hour's time. An hour? Along this lonely winding road?I saw a Nissan coming. I started flagging for the car. Ben said no one will stop for us. Before he finish his sentence, the car cruise to a stop in front of us. A middle aged guy came down and walked to us smilingly. Why is he smiling? All the CSI horror took over my mind - scary. But we were desperate. We told him what happened. Without skipping a beat, he went straight to his car and took out the tools. Relief...nope! The tools doesn't fit our car's tyre screw. He assured us to relax eventhough the sky looks like it is going to get dark and rain pretty soon. He asked us to stay put, while he drove to get the required tools from his relative. He came back later with the right tools and helped us change the tyre. He never stop smiling and chatting with us. After everything is completed, he started packing and put the tools back into his car. I asked Ben if we should pay him some money. But how much? He is driving a Nissan, are we gonna pay him ten twenty bucks? As we were walking towards him, we were thinking his demand might be higher than what we have. As we reached him, he turned around and shaked our hands. He never said a word but shoved a souvenir into Ben's hand. And from that day onwards, we do not call bananas as bananas, but we call it a good samaritan's gift.
Mistakes learnt:

1. Check that the car you have just hired are equipped with all the necessary tools.
2. People from the city cannot underestimate the generosity of people outside the city.
3. Mosquitoes in the forests are very much larger and stronger than their town cousins.