Sabah – Day 6

On my last day in Sabah I went out to Mount Kinabalu, not to climb it, just for a look. The Japanese gentleman was doing all the hard work. I was just there for the ride –

It was another early start to get out to the mountain. Mount Kinabalu is 4095m and is still growing. It increases in height by 5 mm a year –


It is the highest mountain between New Guinea and the Himalayas. It was a welcome relief from the humidity of the coast


I just took the canopy walk in the rainforest at the foot of the mountain at Poring Springs. A swaying platform that allows you to walk through the canopy of the forest and get bitten by monster bugs that cause massive bleeding in my case –

There are also swimming pools as well as hot springs, the remnants of the original volcanic activity of the mountain and it also has a butterfly farm –

On to Kuching.

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Sabah – Day 6

On my last day in Sabah I went out to Mount Kinabalu, not to climb it, just for a look. The Japanese gentleman was doing all the hard work. I was just there for the ride –

It was another early start to get out to the mountain. Mount Kinabalu is 4095m and is still growing. It increases in height by 5 mm a year –


It is the highest mountain between New Guinea and the Himalayas. It was a welcome relief from the humidity of the coast


I just took the canopy walk in the rainforest at the foot of the mountain at Poring Springs. A swaying platform that allows you to walk through the canopy of the forest and get bitten by monster bugs that cause massive bleeding in my case –

There are also swimming pools as well as hot springs, the remnants of the original volcanic activity of the mountain and it also has a butterfly farm –

On to Kuching.

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Filling in time and being sheepish, Baaaa!

Copied from versailles_rose

You Are Yogurt

Modern and streamlined, you prefer a breakfast that’s quick and healthy. You live a fast paced life, and you get breakfast only when you’re lucky. And while you are strapped for time, you are still a hardcore foodie. You often eat the best that your money can buy. You figure you’re worth it.

What Kind of Breakfast Are You?

What Your Peanut Butter And Jelly Sandwich Means

Your eating style is gluttonous. If you like something, you’re going back for seconds… no matter how full you are! You don’t really have a sweet tooth. If you go for dessert, you tend to go for something light. Your taste in food tends to be quite eclectic and wide. You are an adventurous eater, and you like many types of cuisines. You belong to a class that’s all your own. You resist rules and traditions of any sort. You are a tough person who isn’t afraid to live life fully. There isn’t a lot that scares you. Precise and controlled, you can be a bit anal retentive when it comes to how you like things. You’re definitely a perfectionist.

What Does Your Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Say About You?

The Recipe For ozfille

3 parts Fascination 2 parts Success 1 part Magnetism Splash of Panache Finish off with a squeeze of lime juice

What’s the Recipe for Your Personality?

OK, a bit a porker at times it seems. *g*

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Filling in time and being sheepish, Baaaa!

Copied from

You Are Yogurt

Modern and streamlined, you prefer a breakfast that’s quick and healthy. You live a fast paced life, and you get breakfast only when you’re lucky. And while you are strapped for time, you are still a hardcore foodie. You often eat the best that your money can buy. You figure you’re worth it.

What Kind of Breakfast Are You?

What Your Peanut Butter And Jelly Sandwich Means

Your eating style is gluttonous. If you like something, you’re going back for seconds… no matter how full you are! You don’t really have a sweet tooth. If you go for dessert, you tend to go for something light. Your taste in food tends to be quite eclectic and wide. You are an adventurous eater, and you like many types of cuisines. You belong to a class that’s all your own. You resist rules and traditions of any sort. You are a tough person who isn’t afraid to live life fully. There isn’t a lot that scares you. Precise and controlled, you can be a bit anal retentive when it comes to how you like things. You’re definitely a perfectionist.

What Does Your Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Say About You?

The Recipe For ozfille

3 parts Fascination 2 parts Success 1 part Magnetism Splash of Panache Finish off with a squeeze of lime juice

What’s the Recipe for Your Personality?

OK, a bit a porker at times it seems. *g*

Read Full Post »

Sabah Days 3-5

The next day I was up very early to fly to Sandakan and then by bus to the Sepilok Centre to see the orang-utans –

This is a view of Mount Kinabalu from the plane –

When we arrived at Sepilok we listened to a talk about the project and what had been happening over the last few years. After applying insect repellent for the mozzies and divesting ourselves of bags, jewellery or anything (other than our cameras and hats) which the monkeys or the orang-utans might take a fancy to and try to steal, we started off along the boardwalk into the jungle. It was steamy and the boardwalks were extremely slippery and I spent most of my time trying not to fall over and didn’t manage to see that much wildlife. It’s difficult to see animals in the dense jungle anyway. We eventually got to the feeding station where the young orang-utans are fed fruit twice daily –


The centre was opened in 1964 and rehabilitates orphaned and injured orang-utans


And the cheeky monkeys try to join them and snaffle some of the food on offer –



Here is one young orang, just hanging around –

And one poor little one who looked very sad –

For those interested in the Sepilok Centre and its work and maybe even volunteer, click on this link –
Sepilok Orang-utan Project

I had lunch at a hotel in Sandakan and while waiting for my transport to the airport for the return flight saw some be-medalled officer, his bejewelled wife and his squad of spoiled offspring sweep up in a limousine and swan in accompanied by a bevy of junior officers, goons and a mountain of luggage. I was told he was some Minister in the Malaysian Government. On the flight back took another shot of Mount Kinabalu –

After I got back after a long day I couldn’t resist another sunset shot –

The next day I went in search of a hotel to make a booking for the next day on one of the remnants of British colonial rule in Sabah, the train of the North Borneo Railway. I wandered around the markets. Not particularly inspiring and to the few remnants left of the British presence in Sabah. There is not much left as the retreating British razed the old town, Jesselton before the Japanese arrived and the Allies bombed the area intensively when retaking it. The city was rebuilt and re-named Kota Kinabalu.

A relic of the old town is the Atkinson Clock Tower, one of the few structures to survive the bombing –

It was completed in 1905 and was named after the first district officer of the district, FG Atkinson who died of malaria, aged 28 who worked for the administrators of the British North Borneo Company –

I spent the rest of the day by the pool, just lazing around and the next day went on the North Borneo Railway for a trip along the coast to Papar. It was built by the British to provide transport for the produce of the British planters in North Borneo in 1896. I forgot to bring my camera yet again but there is a website for the company which may interest the train buffs among you, along with pictures of the area through which the train runs –
North Borneo Railway

To Mount Kinabalu

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Sabah Days 3-5

The next day I was up very early to fly to Sandakan and then by bus to the Sepilok Centre to see the orang-utans –

This is a view of Mount Kinabalu from the plane –

When we arrived at Sepilok we listened to a talk about the project and what had been happening over the last few years. After applying insect repellent for the mozzies and divesting ourselves of bags, jewellery or anything (other than our cameras and hats) which the monkeys or the orang-utans might take a fancy to and try to steal, we started off along the boardwalk into the jungle. It was steamy and the boardwalks were extremely slippery and I spent most of my time trying not to fall over and didn’t manage to see that much wildlife. It’s difficult to see animals in the dense jungle anyway. We eventually got to the feeding station where the young orang-utans are fed fruit twice daily –


The centre was opened in 1964 and rehabilitates orphaned and injured orang-utans


And the cheeky monkeys try to join them and snaffle some of the food on offer –



Here is one young orang, just hanging around –

And one poor little one who looked very sad –

For those interested in the Sepilok Centre and its work and maybe even volunteer, click on this link –
Sepilok Orang-utan Project

I had lunch at a hotel in Sandakan and while waiting for my transport to the airport for the return flight saw some be-medalled officer, his bejewelled wife and his squad of spoiled offspring sweep up in a limousine and swan in accompanied by a bevy of junior officers, goons and a mountain of luggage. I was told he was some Minister in the Malaysian Government. On the flight back took another shot of Mount Kinabalu –

After I got back after a long day I couldn’t resist another sunset shot –

The next day I went in search of a hotel to make a booking for the next day on one of the remnants of British colonial rule in Sabah, the train of the North Borneo Railway. I wandered around the markets. Not particularly inspiring and to the few remnants left of the British presence in Sabah. There is not much left as the retreating British razed the old town, Jesselton before the Japanese arrived and the Allies bombed the area intensively when retaking it. The city was rebuilt and re-named Kota Kinabalu.

A relic of the old town is the Atkinson Clock Tower, one of the few structures to survive the bombing –

It was completed in 1905 and was named after the first district officer of the district, FG Atkinson who died of malaria, aged 28 who worked for the administrators of the British North Borneo Company –

I spent the rest of the day by the pool, just lazing around and the next day went on the North Borneo Railway for a trip along the coast to Papar. It was built by the British to provide transport for the produce of the British planters in North Borneo in 1896. I forgot to bring my camera yet again but there is a website for the company which may interest the train buffs among you, along with pictures of the area through which the train runs –
North Borneo Railway

To Mount Kinabalu

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The Wild West

I guess Leunig was inspired by the acts of thuggery over in Geraldton in WA on Boxing Day –

That poor man and his family, the massive and violent over-response to a request to go away and stop stealing drinks from the family’s esky is totally bizarre. I can’t believe people will kill someone over such a stupid thing.

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Sabah Days 1-2

Here is the long interrupted travelogue of the last few weeks of my trip last year –

After a very long and uncomfortable flight from Cape Town to Hong Kong, I took the bus from the airport to the hotel in Yau Ma Tei. After a long wait I finally got a room and had a shower and went out for my afternoon in Hong Kong and subsequently forgot my camera. I took the subway down to Tsim Sha Tsui, had a browse around Harbour City and its malls and then walked past the KCR Clock Tower and the Peninsula Hotel and around the waterfront. There is a pavement area with stars in it representing all the stars of the Hong Kong Film Industry in part of the walk. The day was foggy and overcast so there was no point in going up to the Peak but decided to go over to the island anyway. I got the ferry from the Tsim Sha Tsui pier across and was surprised to see a sea eagle fishing in the harbour. I wouldn’t have thought it was likely that wildlife still existed in such crowded place. The roads on the island were even more jammed with traffic than on the Kowloon side and I can understand why people stick to the malls rather than walk in the streets. I had thought it was crowded and busy twenty years ago, but now it is suffocating. I saw an orderly protest going on in a square beside a tiny handkerchief of a park (Chater Park), supervised by the police but it didn’t look like many of the mainly older people were going to cause a riot, I don’t why they bothered to attend. I gave up on the streets and re-entered one of the maze-like very confusing malls and after visiting a book shop to restock on PO’B books took the ferry back to the Kowloon side and then took the subway back to the area around the hotel and wandered up the main drag, Nathan Road and had something to eat and went back to the hotel for an early night as I had be up at 5:30 am to get to the airport for my flight to Sabah.

A rather uneventful flight to KL and then to Sabah and then oh God back into the awful heat and humidity that I experienced in Mauritius when I got off the plane in the capital of Sabah, Kota Kinabalu.

This is the view of Kota Kinabalu harbour from my hotel window taken the morning after my arrival –

In the afternoon I went to a village or rather a display village, Monosopiad Village –




We saw typical dances and the chief dancer and lead guide explained to us the traditional lifestyle of their ancestors – head hunting and the reasons why they collected heads, the use of the blowpipe, their former spiritual beliefs and some of the delicacies such as sago worms and was offered one for a taste which I declined –



All the members of the Kadazan people are now Christians but they still take responsibility for maintaining the house of skulls where the skulls taken by their ancestors in battle are kept –




Views at sunset of the harbour and the South China Sea –

Into the jungle to see the Orang-utans, the Men of the Forest.

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Sabah Days 1-2

Here is the long interrupted travelogue of the last few weeks of my trip last year –

After a very long and uncomfortable flight from Cape Town to Hong Kong, I took the bus from the airport to the hotel in Yau Ma Tei. After a long wait I finally got a room and had a shower and went out for my afternoon in Hong Kong and subsequently forgot my camera. I took the subway down to Tsim Sha Tsui, had a browse around Harbour City and its malls and then walked past the KCR Clock Tower and the Peninsula Hotel and around the waterfront. There is a pavement area with stars in it representing all the stars of the Hong Kong Film Industry in part of the walk. The day was foggy and overcast so there was no point in going up to the Peak but decided to go over to the island anyway. I got the ferry from the Tsim Sha Tsui pier across and was surprised to see a sea eagle fishing in the harbour. I wouldn’t have thought it was likely that wildlife still existed in such crowded place. The roads on the island were even more jammed with traffic than on the Kowloon side and I can understand why people stick to the malls rather than walk in the streets. I had thought it was crowded and busy twenty years ago, but now it is suffocating. I saw an orderly protest going on in a square beside a tiny handkerchief of a park (Chater Park), supervised by the police but it didn’t look like many of the mainly older people were going to cause a riot, I don’t why they bothered to attend. I gave up on the streets and re-entered one of the maze-like very confusing malls and after visiting a book shop to restock on PO’B books took the ferry back to the Kowloon side and then took the subway back to the area around the hotel and wandered up the main drag, Nathan Road and had something to eat and went back to the hotel for an early night as I had be up at 5:30 am to get to the airport for my flight to Sabah.

A rather uneventful flight to KL and then to Sabah and then oh God back into the awful heat and humidity that I experienced in Mauritius when I got off the plane in the capital of Sabah, Kota Kinabalu.

This is the view of Kota Kinabalu harbour from my hotel window taken the morning after my arrival –

In the afternoon I went to a village or rather a display village, Monosopiad Village –




We saw typical dances and the chief dancer and lead guide explained to us the traditional lifestyle of their ancestors – head hunting and the reasons why they collected heads, the use of the blowpipe, their former spiritual beliefs and some of the delicacies such as sago worms and was offered one for a taste which I declined –



All the members of the Kadazan people are now Christians but they still take responsibility for maintaining the house of skulls where the skulls taken by their ancestors in battle are kept –




Views at sunset of the harbour and the South China Sea –

Into the jungle to see the Orang-utans, the Men of the Forest.

Read Full Post »