Saw this old tool of the trade at the Frankincense Cafe and it brought back some memories ...

A basket full of goodness. A man carries a load of rice and yam wrapped in leaves or linopot to be served at the Tamparuli Kaamatan fest.

The ''real'' Tamparuli noodles in Tamparuli. Yumz is the word!

Seafood haven

As their land where the South China Sea and Sulu Sea converge at its northern tip, Sabah fishermen have always returned home with bountiful harvests.
It is no wonder that the state has developed a reputation as a seafood mecca.
And it's easy to see why. Freshly landed fish prawns, fish, crabs and all manner of shellfish are not only in the realm of seafood restaurants but can be found grilled and ready to serve in open air markets.
But be prepared to dig deep. The grilled tiger prawns on display at this stall in the Kota Kinabalu market were going for RM20 each.
As the saying goes, good things don't come cheap...

A tale of two bridges

Tamparuli is like one of the many smaller towns around Sabah. It started as a small settlement where traders and indigenous farmers meet regularly at the tamu to barter trade goods. A township evolved as shops and markets were built in the area.
It is also the last town travellers heading up to the Kundasang highlands or to Kiulu, now known as one of the white water rafting sites in Sabah.
Coming back to the bridges. Other Sabah bloggers have written about these structures, among the most informative is this piece by Ben Godomon.
This is my take on the low lying bridge. I was talking to an Englishman who had worked in Sabah many years ago. He was talking about the low lying bridge and said "only an Irishman could design something like that."
I asked him why he said that and his reply was that only a person of Irish descent would design a bridge that was impassable after a heavy downpour due to floods.
It was interesting to see the disdain some Englishmen have for their Irish counterparts reaching a small town in Borneo

Interesting reading.

This is for those who always felt that Malaysians are finding themselves between the devil and deep blue sea.

A hazy period.

The dense primary rainforest at Gaya island off Kota Kinabaluis shrouded in a haze that enveloped the state capital.
Air quality and visibility dropped as a burning smell permeated throughout the city.
The haze is said to be due to open burning as part the opening of large tracts of land in Borneo.

New found fame in death

DVDs of dubious origins featuring the music videos of Michael Jackson are once again the "hot sellers" following the singer's death on June 25.

It reaffirms the notion that an artist or artiste is usually worth more in death. But the intense media spotlight on Jackson, his sudden demise at the age of 50, his children and family and seemingly bizarre lifestyle, has created a new and young fan base.

Seldom is there an entertainer whose popularity transcends so many different generations.

A goodbye note

I'm sitting here watching your remains in an ornate box, seeking therapy by typing out at 2am some of the thoughts churning through my mind since that Sunday.
Thoughts of what drove you to end your life.
And thoughts of that message you sent out on June 29 to those listed as your so called ''friends'' including me. Looking back, I now realise it was a plea for help.
A plea I should not have ignored and should have known better as someone you called 'uncle.'
For that I seek your forgiveness and pray that you have found peace.
Like the rest of your family, I will continue on with my life with a hope that I will be more sensitive to cries of help in the future.
May you rest in peace.
Farewell for now Joedee.
May 25, 1966 - July 12, 2009.

Getting rare

A lone hut dots a paddy field in Penampang district that is fast becoming the suburb of Kota Kinabalu. The new road linking the city to Donggongon town bisects what used to be lush paddy fields.
As building space runs short in Kota Kinabalu, surrounding districts like Penampang and Tuaran are where the new houses and shopping centres are built.



The paddy fields are are filled up like this area in Penampang and in less than two years a new housing area comes into existence.

A recent report stated that Malaysia is losing about 3% of its agriculture land, primarily paddy fields to developments like housing estates and shop houses. If this continues, will our children end up living in concrete jungles?

A gift from the heart

The house went quiet and my 6-year-old daughter was no where to be seen.
After much calling, she appeared clutching a basket filled some yellow flowers that grow profusely outside the gate.
She said she plucked the flowers as a gift for her mother who was sported a big smile upon receiving them.
Such is the priceless value of a gift from the heart.

A fishy tale

I was at the Lido market earlier today and my jaw just about dropped to the very wet and dirty floor when I came across this scene. It must be the season of the giant grouper fish locally known as karatong.
This one according to a fish monger tipped the scales at about 120kgs and came with a hefty price tag as well - RM4,000.
Believe or not this fish was already taken.


Earlier on, another fish monger cleaned a smaller karatong that weighed about 92kgs and cut it up and selling its filleted flesh at about RM58 per kg.

And this is the head. I wonder how many servings of fish head curry can be had from this one.


As I returned home I recalled the first fish monger's remark that this type of fish is becoming more difficult to come by. I wonder if pictures like these will one day be the only evidence that creatures this size swam in our seas.

In my element

A laptop and a cup of coffee are tools of the trade.

A man and his toys

Sabah's Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk
Masidi Manjum has become among the first members of the state cabinet to
tap into the online social network Facebook.

Masidi who signed up for a Facebook account just over a week ago has so
far 200 “friends” in the network that he said was a way
for him to keep tabs on what ordinary folk were thinking or talking about.

“This is a way for me to keep my feet firmly planted on the
ground. There is a danger of losing touch because positions we hold could
isolate us from the man on the street,” Masidi told The Star here
yesterday.

He said Facebook was thus a forum for him to discuss various issues even
petty ones with his “friends” in the network.

“Sometimes it is these trivial matters that could have great
implications,” said Masidi who prefers to update his Facebook
account via his Blackberry mobile phone.

He said his youngest daughter Farhana, 17, encouraged to sign up for
Facebook which has also become a showcase of his amateur photography skills.

Masidi who has eight digital cameras, the latest being a Nikon D5000 said
his travels around Sabah as a minister had presented numerous
opportunities to photograph the state picturesque locations and its people.

“Nothing gives me greater pleasure than showing tourists the
pictures I’ve taken as way of promoting Sabah,” he said in
adding that his favourite subject was Mount Kinabalu in whose shadows he
grew up in his native Kampung Karanaan in Ranau district.

“There is something about the mountain that is almost magical.
Each time I take a picture of it, there seems to be a different facet of
it,” said Masidi in noting that his camera equipped Blackberry
phone contained more than 50 pictures of the mountain.

Old faithful

Plying through the remote back roads of Sabah travellers are likely to come across Land Rover four wheel drive vehicles like this one.

First introduced to North Borneo by the British colonial administration more than half a century ago when paved roads were too few and far in-between major towns, these vehicles definately proved their worth transporting people and goods into Sabah's moutainous interior.

With Sabah becoming a partner in the Malaysian federation, the Land Rover continued to be used extensively. Rural folk realised how dependable the vehicles were and many bought them in used or second hand condition.

So fond are rural folk of the Land Rover that they have given these vehicles unique monikers, one of which "garabak (wagon) Siam." I absolutely no idea still as to how the Thai component got into that name.

Rural rhythms

I came across this lady and her brood of four while on an overnight camping trip at the upper reaches of the Kiulu River along the Crocker Range. 

This Kadazandusun ethnic family were just returning home from harvesting fruits including bambangan (a type of mango, usually to be pickled or used for cooking) and naturally growing vegetables such as wild ferns locally known as pakis.

After carrying the heavy load for more than a kilometre to the family simple wooden house, she would carefully pack the produce and hitch a one hour ride in a van or four-wheel-drive vehicle to sell them at the weekly tamu or traditional farmers' market at Donggongon town in Penampang district. Just like what her parents had done.

For some of Sabah's rural folk, their rhythm of life remains unchanged.

Into the sunset

The sun broke through the clouds as I was about to board a flight from my east coast hometown of Sandakan to Kota Kinabalu revealing this glorious scene.

The scene, I suppose, also serves as visual metaphor for the Fokker 50 aircraft which is flying into the sunset as it is being replaced by the ATR72-500 turbo prop aircraft after about 20 years of service in Malaysia Airlines' domestic air services particularly in Sabah and Sarawak.

Whenever I look at a Fokker 50, I reminded about how one crashed into a squatter colony near the old Tawau airport in Sept 1995.  It is something that I hope never to write about again.

Under threat

I've always believed that any appendage to a wild animal is almost certainly a death sentence to it, as in an elephant and its tusks, a rhino and its horn or a deer and its antlers.

When I took the picture of this rhino hornbill at the Lok Kawi zoo, I recalled what a friend told me. Apparently some people believe that the eye catching horn on this bird has "medicinal" properties.

It is supposed to be a cure all for everything from asthma to stomach ailments. With such a perverse belief, it will be no wonder if this creature could eventually face the same predicament as its four-legged namesake. Wildlife experts reckon there are no more than 50 Sumatran rhinos left in the wilds of Borneo.  

Crop revival

On a recent trip to Sabah's northernmost town of Kudat, I followed my nose to a row of old wooden shops where I spotted these two gentleman packing a sack of dried cocunut flesh that I assumed would eventually be used to extract its oil.

Coconut has been the agriculture mainstay of Kudat district for decades with thousands of hectares planted with the crop. But like in many other parts of the state, coconut groves are giving way to oil palm plantations. After all, palm oil is now one of Sabah's main economic mainstays.

But coconut may be making a comeback thanks to the advent of virgin coconut oil. More about here. So perhaps these gentlemen will still be packing more dried flesh of coconuts for years to come.

My workhorse

Five years ago, I jumped on the four-wheel-drive pick up truck band wagon when I bought a Ford Ranger. It has become something of a Swiss Army knife for my family and I.

Like the famous Swiss switchblade knife which is also a fork, nail clipper, compass, spoon, fork and the list goes on, our truck has been very much a multi purpose tool.

For daily use it is a school bus for my three kids and taken me to some remote locations in Sabah for my work. It has also been used to transport everything from bags of cement, stones and sand, bricks, wooden planks, tiles when my house was being renovated. 

And then there are the occasional holiday excursions for the family. With this truck we have been back to my hometown of Sandakan, Kudat, Sipitang, Ranau-Kundasang and lots more places.

We have also used it to shift furniture and much of our belongings when we moved house as well as stuff for my missus' shop. And it done all this in return for regular maintenance and the occasional tyre replacement.

Like a Swiss Army knife, our Ford Ranger will be part of the family for many years to come.  

I wonder if I can now claim some sort of endorsement fee from the nice folks at Ford Malaysia?