But the view from the top of Mengkabong Hill was absolutely worth the hike. It's just a little unconventional to climb using the drain albeit it looks like stairs.
Bukit Mengkabong is situated on the right side of the road (if you are driving from KK to Tuaran) just before the Mengkabong bridge. It's not a very high hill, so it only took more or less 30 minutes to reach the top. I would say it's pretty much an easy climb except when the foliage is in the way, and there was a teensy part where the steps are really high.
Plus point is not only the gorgeous sunset, but also the view of Mt. Kinabalu on the other side.
We stayed till the sun almost vanished behind the horizon and that's when we saw the fishing boats coming back from sea.
Families waiting eagerly for fathers and brothers to return with the day's catch. It's a very nice thought.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Climbing Bukit Mengkabong
Friday, June 26, 2009
fishy fishy
Right, so I went "fishing" with Jim. More like "sat-in-boat-looked-at-stuff-and-provided-minimal-labour". Bet none of you have been under the Kingfisher bridge although you've lived here for years!!!
To begin with, the weather was SUPERB. The clouds were rolling in when we were starting out. I was like "OMG".
Got really excited at first, what with the one fish, couple of prawns and a mantis shrimp. Then the prawns just came pouring in...
But there was a jellyfish, some horseshoe crabs, and sea-otters too!
And yes, I'm yet again at a loss for words as there's only so much one can exclaim over sea turtles.
Mr Mantis
and half of the amount of shrimp we got :)
And yea, here's doing my part to welcome the freshies.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Sandakan Wednesday
At eleven in the morning -- a time where no wildlife will show up, even for goodwill. And it's not as if we haven't seen our share. Since Sunday my list now looks like this:
*meow*
Wednesday was our driving back to 'halfway point' day, so since we put up a night in Sandakan the night before, Claire and I decided to take in the town a bit. I realised that our sampling dates usually coincide with some kind of event which makes accomodation a bit of a problem. Like the last month when we were in Telupid, the Deathmarch was going on, so practically all the accomodation in that small town were full (all reads TWO places to stay).
This time, Sandakan is hosting the Sabah Games, while there are some other goings-on in Sepilok. Anyway, we gave up hotel-hunting and stayed in Swiss-Inn at Sandakan's Waterfront (which still had rooms).
YuLi, when I saw this, I was reminded of you :)
I've been to Sandakan for *lost-counted* times and yet I've never actually done any sightseeing. It's always been for work, with no extra time to spare. But this time at least I drove by and saw Agnes Keith's House and the English Tea House. And we decided to go look for 'pi dan kao' for breakfast.
'pi dan kao' = century egg dumplings
It's in one of those houses in the Chinese water village area in Buli Sim-Sim.
We next drove to Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre just to realise that we were one hour late for feeding time. So I yet again did not get to see orangutans and have to make do with BuBu till my next opportunity :)
And just for some unknown reason, Claire and I thought we'd visit the Rainforest Discovery Centre (RDC) and paid 5bucks to go 'jungle trekking'. Come to think of it, that was oddly random of us. It's like fishermen paying for a boatride, or natives paying to spend a night in a longhouse, that kind of thing.
And it's not like we don't get enough sun everyday when we work haha
But yea, RDC is not too bad a place for amateurs who have never been to the jungle before. There's a Canopy Walk, observation towers, hanging bridges, the works.
We had to climb a lot of stairs to get to the walk.
But the view, as always, is good.
I love the rainforest because of the really really tall trees.
And the canopy is always wondrous. One day I hope I get to try out canopy climbing...maybe with the GCP.
I've been driving long-distance a lot and I absolutely love it! I'll blog about driving one of these days :)
x's and o's!
Friday, June 5, 2009
And I'm wearing a Green shirt...
See, it's one of those times when I'm motivated to procrastinate again (though it's unfair really, I have been on un largo break from the office) so what I did was updated myself with random news. What I got was the country's seem to be going to crap.
Have a good weekend y'all!
Monday, June 1, 2009
Gayu Guru, Gerai Nyamai
And this is how you eat keropok (prawn crackers) -- with acar (spicy pickled cucumber)
Sebby was pretty affectionate on that day. I know the photo made him look as if he's attacking another kid with his four teeth...actually he was just attempting to smooch (I think). I feel extra close to Sebby..for one thing, we're of the same Chinese Zodiac (as if that has anything to do with anything haha) and for another, we have some stuff in common ;)