A Trip to Tambunan

So, we went to Tambunan, a valley town that is located in the Interior Division. It was quite small but beautiful nonetheless. The 80KM journey from KK to Tambunan will take you around 1-2 hours, with the road winding through the Crocker Range. Our reason for going there was really to go to Mahua Waterfall, but we did spend a night there in a homestay. 

The paddy fields of Tambunan, a beautiful quaint town

The statues of Tamadon and Gombunan at Pisompuruan [Untiy) Square. It was from their name and act of bravery that Tambunan got its name

Mr Stephen and Mrs Flora, the owner of the homestay

In front of Crocker Range Park

 The forest of Crocker Range in Mahua Sub-station

 Mahua Waterfall

Mahua Waterfall is a part of Crocker Range Park. The waterfall was so dazzling! The landscape was magnificent, with the impressive rock formation and vegetation-infested walls. Still, the water was too cold! It was like we were taking a plunge somewhere in the Arctic Sea. If your body has a fat layer as thick [or rather thin…] as me, you ought not to dip yourself in the water for too long, unless you want to suffer from hypothermia. Heheheh~

メイド·カフェ·ライフ

The gang! Amirah, Rachel, me, Grace, and Syed

Love x3 ice cream... cute bowl! 

 Me and Grace with our drinks. She drank Kirameki Special

 Love x3 ice cream

 My sweet drink... Kiramilky Syrup

Maid café [メイド·カフェ] is a norm in Japan, but in Malaysia, it’s new thing. Perhaps, KL has lots of it, but how about KK? Actually, this city has one, and it’s at Star City.

I went to that café yesterday to have some refreshments with my friends. The café’s name is Kirameki Café [キラメキ·カフェ]. It was little, but quite kawaii~! Heheheh~! It felt as if we were somewhere in Akihabara, Tokyo. Why? Some teenagers were playing Yu-Gi-Oh card game [and they played it with calculators to count their marks, their attacks, their power… like a real Yu-Gi-Oh anime!], some were playing PSP, some were playing Beyblade, the walls were filled with manga drawings and anime posters, manga/anime characters collectors’ dolls, manga magazines, Jpop songs playing as the BGM, and of course… the maids! They said “welcome home, master” [お帰りなさいませ、ご主人様！ Okaerinasaimase, goshujinsama] to us! Muahaha~!


Yesterday was also a special day since Kirameki had two special maids, Ritsuko and Tiffany. They were… err… boys… crossplaying as girl maids. Yeah~! Crossplay is a norm in Cosplay – girls dress as boys, boys dress as girls. ^^

Anyway, it was fun! Ah~ my dream of eating in a maid café, accomplished~! Now, let’s go to Akihabara!

Glücklich

Yayyy~! I’m going! I’m going! I’m going!

Where?

To the

Vienna Boys Choir Concert

in Universiti Malaysia Sabah!

I’m ecstatic! Hurrah~!

From Tamparuli to Tuaran

I think Malaysians, even in Peninsular Malaysia are quite familiar with the Sabahan folk song, Jambatan do Tamparuli. Here the lyrics:

Pak pak kang ku doh

Sumunsui doh jambatan

Jambatan doh Tamparuli

Bakasut tinggi oku

Sumunsui doh jambatan

Jambatan doh Tamparuli

Pak pak kang ku doh

Bakasut tinggi oku

Silaka nodi kasutku

Naratu lo jambatan

Tinggal poh doh sutakin

Nowid ku di numuli

Ontok di hari 3

Tamu lo Tamparuli

Mingusuk poh hilo kadai

Mogihum doh kasut tinggi

Why the song? It’s because I had visited the famous suspension bridge! Hooyeah~! It was a beautiful bridge. My dream of crossing it is now fulfilled. Ah… that feeling~! Muahaha~

After spending some time there, we stopped at a roadside stall for awhile and for the first time of my life, I tasted Polymesoda expansa a.k.a. lokan, a type of mollusc that grows in muddy estuary. You can choose to dip them with belacan or spicy sauce. They were quite nice! Juicy and tender~ Not too chewy!

My friends and I then went to Tuaran Crocodile Farm. As many as 1000 crocodiles live there, though to be frank, I think we only saw ‘some’ of them. The farm is also the supplier of Crocodylus Porosus’ [salt-water crocodile] skin… so, that is why it’s called a farm. Besides crocodiles, the farm also displays a lot of other animals. It’s a good place for families to visit. If you’re a student, do show your student card and you’ll only have to pay MYR4 instead of MYR10.

So, that was my Tamparuli to Tuaran adventure! Sabah really has lots and lots of nice places to go! Go on! Have your own adventure!

Big Book

Superheroes' Snakes and Ladders 

 Our table

People came as soon as the exhibition opened its doors 

 Assembling the heroes' logos

 Yummylicious, the Big Book from another group

 That was a real BIG book

 Villains

 Home-made pita kebab~

With Mdm. Janet Moinin, our lecturer for Literature for Children and Young Adult

The BIG BOOK EXHIBITION 2011 will surely be the thing that I’ll treasure in my life. Of course, creating the book, and the costumes, and the décors required a lot of stuff, and organising the exhibition was tough, but in the end, we managed to pull ourselves through. We had fun [even if it was tiring] presenting to you guys our books and all the other things we had made, and playing games, and having the KEMAS Kindergarten’s kiddos to come over to visit our exhibitions.

I just want to say my gratitude to all who came to the exhibition. Without you, BIG BOOK 2011 would not be a success. Thanks a bazillion!

More photos here and here

Signal Hill

These are the sceneries of beautiful Kota Kinabalu from the observatory tower at Signal Hill [or Bukit Bendera], the hilly [duh~] green lung of the city. I like the place… the lush greenery, the awesome vista overlooking KK.

It is located just beside old KK city centre and is one of the few places of the former Jesselton where forested environment prevails. The little yet historic Anderson Clock Tower can be found at the foot of Signal Hill, though that place is not the original place where it stood before.

In recent months, there have been talks and court cases on developing the site for commercial purposes. I think it is pity if a place of natural heritage and a historic landmark is sold for something that can be built somewhere else. Why do we need to be so gluttonous and don’t care about our environment and history just for the sake of petty things like hotels and shopping malls? KK has enough malls and hotels. There are still a lot of lands left for these kinds of developments.

These kinds of greedy people should get new brains and think about the consequences of the things they’re doing!