Digital Memory

Labour Day at Jangkar Waterfall, Sematan, Sarawak, Borneo.

noreply@blogger.com (Wilson Chin) — Mon, 06 May 2013 07:19:30 PDT

It was Labor day, went to the Jangkar waterfall again with my friends. She's still very attractive and pretty.

Click to read More:

Jangkar Trip 2010
Jangkar Trip 2012 (with video)

Your Guide to Getting Epic in Ayia Napa

noreply@blogger.com (Wilson Chin) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 18:57:36 PDT

Ayia Napa, Cyprus, one of the hottest clubbing destinations in the world, and everyone’s invited. Yeah, this is no exclusive list - this ain’t Elton John’s Oscars party. Get online, have a browse through the Club 18-30 Ayia Napa getaways (http://www.club18-30.com/ayia-napa-cyprus) and pick out a package that’s right up you and your mate’s avenue.

Summers in Ayia Napa are mega hot. To personify the heats and the beautiful blue flag beaches, you’re looking at a monster mash up of Megan Fox, Mila Kunis and none other than Jessica Rabbit her very fine self. With guaranteed sunshine, and no COD MW4 to distract (yeah, not long off now lads!), your summer session with Club 18-30 is bound to be bang tidy.

So what you looking at?

Well, basically, non-stop party rocking. Booking with Club 18-30 will ensure that you have experts on hand to let you in on all the local secrets. These guys know the score, and will add some unforgettable extras to your package, which includes themed events, free bars, pool parties photos and the all-important Ayia Napa wristband.

Those themed events, be sure to embrace them, grab them by the balloons and run with them like Gump. You need this in your life. Silent arenas, glow parties, geek chic mayhem, Naparazzi and the absolutely infamous Linekers Boat Party and after party.

During the day, check in with your rep, but choose from two waterparks, a shed-load of stunning shorelines, watersports and pool parties. Chill when you can, because when you can’t it’s going to be pure clubbing carnage.

The bars are waiting boys, get on it. Like an actual car bonnet. You need to make this happen. Look online at Club 18-30 (http://www.club18-30.com/ayia-napa-cyprus) for the best deals on low cost Ayia Napa clubbing holidays for you and your chums.

Guess Post By: Katerina Crowder

Sunset scenery at Pasir Pandak, Santubong Kuching

noreply@blogger.com (Wilson Chin) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 21:52:31 PDT

Kuching does not have a lot of public beaches in Town, and the one that you can go is called the Pasir Pandak, at Santubong to Kuching road. That day was around 6pm, and when reached, the place was flooded with people.

I still remember that my parents used to bring my younger brother and I to the beach when I'm little, and I really like that feeling. My favorite time of the day is the dusk, where the sun is about to set, the sky turn to a softer warm color. When most of us starts to go home after a day of hardwork, on the way home just enjoy that fine weather, and the breath taking views of the dusk.

But am kinda disapponted that day, was expecting to have a very beautiful sunset but it was covered by some dark clouds. And this is what I get....oh well, better than nothing ;)

On one of the food stalls, the owner just put his pet cameleon in front. This has created quite a fuss around that place, as people come to take picture with this fella, touch it. Surprisingly this fella just stay there, clam, and eat its veggie.

Cheers,

Wilson

The Sunset Hunter...

Borneo, Sarawak From Kuching to Betong, Lubok Antu, Batang Ai (Ai River),and visit the traditional long house

noreply@blogger.com (Wilson Chin) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 09:32:14 PDT

If you look at the map, you will notice that Batang Ai is a huge lake with multiple rivers flowing into her. Batang Ai is at the Lubok Antu town. For Lubok Antu, is a district in Sri Aman division in the state of Sarawak. Its near to the border of Indonesia (Badau), and the people here mostly are the Iban, follow by the Chinese, Malay, and other Dayak people. And to drive from Kuching to Lubok Antu, you will need not more than 4 hours.

Before my friends and I went to Lubok Antu, we stop at a town called Betong for a rest. Betong it’s the 11^th administrative division in Sarawak, and it’s also famous for the rubber taping, the pepper, paddy, and oil palm plantation.

There is a rubber tree at Betong town center as a symbolic signature, and I also saw an old guy with just his pants on (half naked) standing at the middle of the street. My friend told me that this guy wears like this all year long, expect for Chinese New Year, then he will wear a red shirt. And he’s been doing so for several years already, and the people in this town know him.

I also visited the only Chinese temple at Betong, it’s the “temple of God” and I bring my Iban and Bidayuh friends into the temple too, they told me that’s the first time they ever visited the Chinese temple… tisk tisk… not bad. The top photographer Wilson Chin and Dragon.

Next destination it’s the Lubok Antu town. Batang Ai is near to the Lubok Antu town, and the form of Batang Ai is because of the dam which the Sarawak government builds during the 80s. The gov employ the Japanese to come and build the dam, and they work in shift rotation. That’s why the dam completed on time.

Before the dam, it takes days for the village people to reach from Lubok Antu town back to their Batang Ai long house by land. And now after the dam, the water flooded a large scare of land, which also shorten the distant for the village people to go back to their long house, and now it only takes a few hours, so there are huge different.

When you reach the Batang Ai (Batang River), the water is just calm. Every now and then you can see some ripples on the water cause of winds. The water is blue to greenish color, and there are also a lot of small humps (Small Island) here and there.

The boat ride is around 45 minutes, and along the way there are boats passing by frequently. This area is so remote as now we can only access it via boat. There is a resort here which belongs to Hilton, the Batang Ai longhouse resort. For tourist, this will be the place for them to stay, as for us we are going to the traditional longhouse.

The longhouse is called Mngkak Eengkari, and it’s a traditional Iban longhouse with 21 doors (21 rooms). The village people also build a few jetty in front of the long house for few purpose, to catch and raise fishes, to store the boat engine, petro, nets, and also serves as a resting hut whey the fisher man came back from fishing.

They are using two generators to generate electricity, operate at around 7pm generator no.1 will shut down at 9.30pm, and generator no.2 off at 10pm. After that it’s just the light from the stars. My friend and I went to sit next to the jetty hut at around 10.30pm. It was so quiet there, with just the sound of the nature like the forest, the bugs, frogs, and breeze. There are a few fire flies flying on the ceiling on the hut we’re at. This is just completely different from the city life; here they don’t have computer, no mobile coverage, no internet, and no fancy technology.

The one that I like most is the stars on the night sky, if the one that I love is there with me that time I will hold her close to me, and kiss her tenderly under the starts.

The peaceful life here will vanish in a few more years, as the longhouse chef told my Iban friend (and my friend translates to me) that the government now plan to take their land for some reason. They are also been prohibit from doing any kinds of tourism, agriculture activities on their own. All of these must go through the big guy in the office, in other words they need some permit to do so.

The chef told us that they like their life now, they just want a place to stay, food on the table, a place where they can retain their tradition. But the authorities use all kinds of dirty tactics to get the lands, and eventually use it as oil palm plantation or wood logging.

When seeing the kid wave good bye to us while we’re leaving, I felt that I come with a happy heart, but left with a sad feeling. I can’t do much on my own, but I believe if we all work together, all of these... the nature, the tradition, and the culture can be preserve. We don’t want our children in future only learn all of these in text book, but we want them to experience it in real life anytime they want to. Lets make Sarawak a nice place to stay.

What can you found in the Gunung Gading National Park - The Rafflesia Trail

noreply@blogger.com (Wilson Chin) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 20:18:30 PDT

The Gunung Gading National Park (click here to read my previous visit), so when your here, what can you actually found in this beautiful reserved park? Now let me share with you on my encounter when I go for a photo shooting trip with my friends.

This is a cameleon, saw this little fella running around the Rafflesia trail entrance. This little guy can jump and run really fast. Manage to take this picture while its resting on the stone.

spider...

and more spider...

and moreeeeeee spiders...

little ant trying to carry a dead beetle back home

A giant centipede, and millipede which can glow on its tail, the differences between a millipede and a centipedes is that millipedes have paired legs, while centipedes don't.

Due to the raining season, there are also a lot of fungus with different shape and looks.

Manage to encounter this gorgeous bird called the Diard's Trogon, and its locally common in lowland and hill forest throughout Borneo. They have beautiful voice...

The Rafflesia flowers... well not the blossom one, but the one which already dead..languish. I hope that one day I will be able to see a real one.

oh wait!!! lookie what we have here ;) my dear reader, you have luck, its the Rafflesia flower!

...

nah.. its just a replica.. tisk tisk..

New Method of Augmented-Reality Traveling Through Tourism Start-Up

noreply@blogger.com (Wilson Chin) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 07:28:10 PDT

Guidestock is a new way of interacting with a city and its sights through a cell phone application based on augmented reality. A combination of GPS navigation, guides recorded by real travelers and photos of city sights give you the experience of having visited a place. There is also an opportunity to record your own travel experiences using either web or app toolkit to create your own guide, which you can share with your friends by embedding it in your blog. Also, tours published inside the app can earn their creators money through a variety of royalty schemes.

Today Guidestock.com is launching a beta version of its online toolset for crafting audio tour guides, and invites travelers to take part. Check what the Guidestock CEO has to say about it.

“We are proud to help tourists note and share their amazing travel experiences in this wonderful new way. Our toolset gives you an opportunity mark your tour on a map from start to finish, highlighting city sights or specific places you would like to emphasize in your personal travel story, and the tool will automatically create a GPS-navigated guide for your tour. It is as easy as marking a route through a city on a printed map! Next you can add prerecorded narratives, and link them to corresponding tour segments.”

“The tool offers the ability to cut and mute your recordings, so they’ll readily fit a walk along the corresponding distance. If you have something else to say about a building, monument, or any other object, you can use ‘stand’ mode – the user will be notified that he should stop and listen, and the place you are talking about will be identified by its photo.”

This isn’t rocket science; record your travel experience on any audio recording device, take pictures of city sights, get to your laptop and visit http://www.guidestock.com. There, pinpoint your path on a city map, indicate interesting places along the way, add photos and your audio recordings, and press “Submit” The tool will automatically compose all your data in to your personal audio tour guide. Just name it, add a catchy description, and wait for your royalties to come in.

Guest Post by: Robert Hennessy

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Backpacker Inn, and the hardworking mummy (post 12 of 12)

noreply@blogger.com (Wilson Chin) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 04:50:39 PDT

After riding for the whole day, I’m tired as a hell. Went back to the bed and breakfast inn to rest, I rented a bed for RM25 per night. Its a big room with 7 double deck bed. That B&B inn has one lady in her 40s, she and 4 of her children stay in a room. She’s the cleaning cum admin, so from 8am - 4pm, she works here at the Labuan backpacker Inn and after that, she work in the oil and gas office from 4pm - 12 midnight. So hardworking right...

After 12 midnight, she comes back to the inn, and start to work from 12 midnight to next day 4pm. That night she was cleaning the room where I stay, and we had a little chat. At first she apologizes to me, cause one of her daughter keep on staring at me, and also make a lot of noise.

I said its ok, cause I always attract attention from the opposite sex due to my charm, and good photography skills (alright i made that one up... tisk tisk) I reply her that its ok, and base on my observation, that little girl maybe have this hyperactive symptom.

The lady said yes, and she’s starts to story to me how her child behave from baby until now (14 years old). And the reason she wants to work so hard, is to hope one day there will be a place to teach/cure/look after this child when she’s not around, and she manage to pay the fees for her daughter to stay there.

She hopes that her daughter will be just like any other girls, go to school, learn to take care of herself, growup, get married, raise kids. But now due to the little girl sickness, the lady might need to take care of her for the rest of her life.

For me I can’t do much, so I just told her some of the stories I meet back in Kuching. Like the story of Ah Hua. I wanted her to have hope that everything will be ok, because there are people which are few time unfortunate than her. After she listen to my stories, she starts to cry, and told me that she felt she is fortunate than them, and felt better now.

She’s a Malay, so I told her to pray more to Allah, and then believe in Allah will bless her and all her children, and they will have a bright future. Now she needs to accept that she have, and think positive.

From the conversation, again I can felt the love of a mother to her children. That love is unconditional, she willing to sacrifice even her life to exchange her children to be healthy and a good future.

My dear reader, if you haven’t spoke to your mum this lately, pick up that phone now, and call her, talk to her, and tell her that you miss her.

Till then, thank you for reading my post. My Labuan trip report ends here, hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it. Apologies for the poor english, I will read more and improve :)

Full Trip Reports:

Labuan Trip - From Limbang to Labuan by Boat (Post 1 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Chinese Temple, Buddhist Temple in the Labuan Island (Post 2 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Fishing at Sungai Kinta Benua, Kampung Beluloh (Post 3 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Beach that I visited (Post 4 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The University Malaysia Sabah, Labuan Campus (Post 5 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Peace Park (Post 6 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Creppy Abandoned Building (Post 7 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Bird Park (Post 8 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Chimney Labuan (Post 9 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Botanical Garden (Post 10 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Dataran Labuan and Labuan Museum (Post 11 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Backpacker Inn, and the hardworking mummy (Post 12 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Dataran Labuan and Labuan Museum (post 11 of 12)

noreply@blogger.com (Wilson Chin) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 04:22:04 PDT

The last place that I visited was the Dataran Labuan, is the Independence Square of the Labuan Town. It was a hot morning, Its central focus is a raised open-airstage with tall flag poles flying the flags of Malaysia. At the one end is the town's field. At the other end is a replica of the "Chimney" with beautiful landscaped gardens and fountains. It is a popular venue for some of Labuan's main events.

But that morning it was peace and quiet, only a few gardener there cleaning the place up, and tidy the place. I wanted to go visit the museum, and in the map it pointed right where I'm standing. But I just can't seems to find which is the museum building. So I asked them, they are very helpful, and starts to look at the map with me. And pointed a building just opposite the road.

(face palm), oh... I said "dekat saja" (very near). I walk forwards the museum, and just when I was about to enter, my phone alarm went on. Its a reminder that the boat will be leaving soon, I calculate my time to walk back the ferry terminal, it will take me around 15 mins. So if I go in the museum now, and walk back the museum, I might don't have enough time to buy stuff back home (labuan we can get tax free chocolate, fragrance, liqueur, and cigarette) I pause for a few sec, and decided to walk back the terminal. I will come back next time to visit this place. About the Labuan Museum, it displays the history and culture of Labuan. Its history covers pre-historic era of Labuan, Brunei Sultanate, British colonial days, World War II, Independence declaration of Labuan as federal Territory up to the establishment of Labuan Corporation. Sorry dear readers, no photos for the museum this time. Guess we have to wait next time then.... -- to be continue --

Full Trip Reports:

Labuan Trip - From Limbang to Labuan by Boat (Post 1 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Chinese Temple, Buddhist Temple in the Labuan Island (Post 2 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Fishing at Sungai Kinta Benua, Kampung Beluloh (Post 3 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Beach that I visited (Post 4 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The University Malaysia Sabah, Labuan Campus (Post 5 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Peace Park (Post 6 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Creppy Abandoned Building (Post 7 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Bird Park (Post 8 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Chimney Labuan (Post 9 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Botanical Garden (Post 10 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Dataran Labuan and Labuan Museum (Post 11 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Backpacker Inn, and the hardworking mummy (Post 12 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Botanical Garden (post 10 of 12)

noreply@blogger.com (Wilson Chin) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 04:22:18 PDT

I looked at my map, and I almost finish visited most of the tourist attraction. I reached the Labuan Botanical Garden at around 5pm, the park is already packed with people. Most of them went for evening jog.

The garden located very near to the town, with just about five minutes of car drive and you're there already. Back in Kuching, my residen park is only 3 min walking distance away from my place ;)

The Botanical Gardens is a recreational park with old trees and beautiful landscaping. And legend has it that a guy name Hugh Low, the Colonial Secretary for many years did much of the early work on that garden, many of the older trees were planted by him. And his house was completely destroyed during the war... pity guy.

Just when I was about to take a jog in the park, it starts to drizzling. Oh man... So i quickly head back to my bike, and ride back to my hotel. Therefore I didn't manage to take lots of pictures here, and I'll share with you on some of the pictures I took.

-- to be continue --

Full Trip Reports:

Labuan Trip - From Limbang to Labuan by Boat (Post 1 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Chinese Temple, Buddhist Temple in the Labuan Island (Post 2 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Fishing at Sungai Kinta Benua, Kampung Beluloh (Post 3 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Beach that I visited (Post 4 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The University Malaysia Sabah, Labuan Campus (Post 5 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Peace Park (Post 6 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Creppy Abandoned Building (Post 7 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Bird Park (Post 8 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Chimney Labuan (Post 9 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Botanical Garden (Post 10 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Dataran Labuan and Labuan Museum (Post 11 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Backpacker Inn, and the hardworking mummy (Post 12 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Chimney Labuan (post 9 of 12)

noreply@blogger.com (Wilson Chin) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 04:22:34 PDT

Situated on a rise at Tanjung Kubong is the famous ‘Chimney’, a 106 feet high red brick stack believed to be linked to the coal mining days of Labuan. The Chimney, 106 feet tall, was made from more than 23,000 pieces of red bricks imported from England. The bricks layering and works are typical of British style, and it was build in the 1800’s.

I parked my scooter on a shady place next to the entrance, and I look at the bike side mirror. Oh my face are so red!!! The Sun really did its job well by burning me slowly. But since I’m already there, might as well just go with the flow, so I did not enter the chimney museum first, but go visited the big old chimney.

The ‘Chimney’ was long thought to be nothing more than a ventilation shaft. However, recent findings revealed that there were no traces of smokes or burning to suggest its use as a chimney as popularly believed. Careful digging has revealed at least 12 layers of bricks beneath the surface. The structure sits firmly on a large tract of limestone rock containing rich kaolin or porcelain clay, which provided the strong foundation.

So i’m really impress on the people back then, they don’t have the technology that we’re using now, yet still can build a building which can last for decade. If you see our country now, some of the project they even not yet finish building it, and we already can see shit happens.

Ok ok, back to my story. So the ‘Chimney’ is still very much a mystery until today. Various hypothesis has been put forward to its purpose. Some said it was an unfinished mansion. While others said it was a light house beaconing passing ships.

In its heyday, a thriving settlement was built at the sea front area below the Chimney. It was then used as a bell tower to announce the arrival of ships to the residents below. It has become an intriguing riddle that fascinates locals and visitors alike.

Now after the Chimney, I then visited the Chimney Museum. So this Chimney Information Center’s building is located just next to the Chimney itself, and according to my research, its known during the British occupational period as Cool Point.

So now its functions as a site museum which will exhibit and inform of the history of Tanjung Kubong, especially the history of coal mining which began in 1847 through 1911. Inside the place they have a lot of pictures, mini models mining truck, workers, and equipments they used back then.

From the model that they build, I can see its really hard to be a coal miner. The environment you work is dark, hot, humid, dirty and danger. And I think even until today, the condition will be more or less the same. So pity these people, to survive... to have food on the table, this is the way of life.

But I got so tired, and almost every picture I took it turns out blur. So sorry guys, no good pictures here to share with you.

Up until now, I’ve been riding, visiting, walking non stop since that morning when I reach Labuan. I’m hot, I’m sweating, I’m thirsty, hungry, got sunburn... I need a place to cool down and rest. So far I’ve covered ⅗ of Labuan. I’ll just move on while its still bright.

-- to be continue --

Full Trip Reports:

Labuan Trip - From Limbang to Labuan by Boat (Post 1 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Chinese Temple, Buddhist Temple in the Labuan Island (Post 2 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Fishing at Sungai Kinta Benua, Kampung Beluloh (Post 3 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Beach that I visited (Post 4 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The University Malaysia Sabah, Labuan Campus (Post 5 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Peace Park (Post 6 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Creppy Abandoned Building (Post 7 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Bird Park (Post 8 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Chimney Labuan (Post 9 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Botanical Garden (Post 10 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Dataran Labuan and Labuan Museum (Post 11 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Backpacker Inn, and the hardworking mummy (Post 12 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Bird Park (post 8 of 12)

noreply@blogger.com (Wilson Chin) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 04:22:44 PDT

View Larger Map

My next stop is the Labuan Bird Park. The entrance fees is 3 bucks for adults and 1 buck for kid per entrance, and the ticket lady told me if this month is my birth month, I can go into the park for free “nice”!!!

Labuan Bird Park located on a 6.9 hectares of land with a futuristic looking dome structure complemented by a traditionally shaped timber building.

Strategically situated at Tanjung Kubong, 16km, North of Labuan Town, the park lies next to a century old, but historical and significant coal mining chimney which itself is tourist landmark. I will post about that in my next post.

I visited the Penang Bird Park before (click here to read), and don’t like it there. The Penang Bird park is expensive, boring, and the owner is rude and impolite.

Silver Pheasant

Long Tail Parakeet

Inland Collared Dove

Huey, Dewey, and Louie... wait a min, where's Louie?

Louie is that you?

Its time for some haircut..

Labuan Bird Park is home to many species of Borneo birds only likely to be encountered deep in the forests of Borneo. There are plans to collect a good percentage of the 580 species of birds found in Borneos diverse habitats.

In the park, it also have a playground which is for kids to play. And I start my visit by entering the Bird Sanctuary Area, it has 3 geodesic domes. And inside the dome, they planted a lots of trees, flowers, build cage to keep some of the birds separated.

My dear reader, when you are inside the dome, there will be birds flying above you, and be careful cause they will drop ‘bomb’ from above. For me, the ‘bomb’ nearly hit me -_-” luckily I know kungfu, and can avoid.

Just next to the dome, they have a aviary houses which avian birds of all species, it also serve as an information center. But sadly its not well maintain, as the stuff are old, dusty, and no one was there to look after the stuff when I visited. I wanted to visit the toilet to pay my water bill, but the door was locked too, so how am I going to pay my water bill?!?! directly on the plant nearby?

They have 3 ostrich there, and they are really huge!!! Taller than me, I tried to trow some food for them (the leave I pick from nearby) but they don’t want to eat it.. sigh..

What I like the most if the Myna Birds, as they can imitate human voice. Some of them knows how to say Hello, how are you, I love you, and a few simple Chinese word. One of my visit to Bintagor (click here to read) my friend raise it too at the back of his house. So if you have a Myna Bird, what will you teach the bird to say?

The peacocks just run freely inside the park, but when I tried to get closer to them they will run away. I was hoping that they will show off their beautiful tail feathers, but the don’t.

Hey, what'da ya looking at!!!

Full Trip Reports:

Labuan Trip - From Limbang to Labuan by Boat (Post 1 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Chinese Temple, Buddhist Temple in the Labuan Island (Post 2 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Fishing at Sungai Kinta Benua, Kampung Beluloh (Post 3 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Beach that I visited (Post 4 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The University Malaysia Sabah, Labuan Campus (Post 5 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Peace Park (Post 6 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Creppy Abandoned Building (Post 7 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Bird Park (Post 8 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Chimney Labuan (Post 9 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Botanical Garden (Post 10 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Dataran Labuan and Labuan Museum (Post 11 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Backpacker Inn, and the hardworking mummy (Post 12 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Creepy Abandoned Building (post 7 of 12)

noreply@blogger.com (Wilson Chin) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 04:22:56 PDT

While I was happily riding my scooter along the coat line, I passed by a small town. Not much people here, and the wired thing is there are a few building, but some of them looks like been abandoned.

When I drove by the Wisma Kosan Labuan, its a huge commercial building. But why do they abandon it?

The buildings belongs to the Datuk Haris Salleh, he was the sixth Chief Minister of the state of Sabah, in Malaysia. He was also the president for Parti Berjaya. He held the Chief Minister's post from 1976 to 1985. During his tenure, he was known to have controversially ceded the island of Labuan, which used to be part of Sabah, to the Federal Government, making it the second Federal Territory in the country.

But during his tenure, a few incident happens, and I guess the building which he owns had also suffer form the same fate like him.

Another abandon building was just across the Wisma Kosan Labuan, so out of curiosity I parked my scooter under this creepy old tree. Oh man~~ its really huge, and imaging if your here during night time, you will be freak out by this fella. It looks like its opening the arms, and want to grab you...

Before enter into the creepy building, I was attracted by the paint art on the wall. These people are quite talented tho : /

I mange to find the entrance into the building, and upon entering I heard some noise. I got shocked for a while, I turn left nothing there, look at my right side, nothing there either. Then "bam bam bam" again, oh shit!!!

I suddenly think of the Chernobyl Diaries movie that I watched. Can this be a place like that? No wonder these place don't have much people, it must had some catastrophic nuclear accident before, and the authorities covered it....

As my tough run wild, I then saw two cats chasing around $!@#$$%(*&%$ what the hell !!! So it was them all along.

I then start to roam around the place, it looks like a theater. There is a stage in front, and steps formation of path way for people to sit on.

The place are full of dirt, and rubbish. Usually this place will be utilize by the people who is on drugs. I then keep on exploring the place, hope to be able to find something related to drugs. But didn't manage to fine any... however, when I went to the back stage, I saw this...

Its a wash room, where on the basin I saw there are women panties. It really gives me the goosebumps when I saw it, it might be black magic? or some rape case happen here before? or people just make out here? I didn't stay long, I guess I better head to my next destination...the place until now is still a mystery for me.....

Full Trip Reports:

Labuan Trip - From Limbang to Labuan by Boat (Post 1 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Chinese Temple, Buddhist Temple in the Labuan Island (Post 2 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Fishing at Sungai Kinta Benua, Kampung Beluloh (Post 3 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Beach that I visited (Post 4 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The University Malaysia Sabah, Labuan Campus (Post 5 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Peace Park (Post 6 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Creppy Abandoned Building (Post 7 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Bird Park (Post 8 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Chimney Labuan (Post 9 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Botanical Garden (Post 10 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Dataran Labuan and Labuan Museum (Post 11 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Backpacker Inn, and the hardworking mummy (Post 12 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Peace Park (post 6 of 12)

noreply@blogger.com (Wilson Chin) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 04:23:06 PDT

View Larger Map

Now class, today we will learn some history about the Peace Park in Labuan. Its situated near he Kampung Layang-Layang, again near to the beach.

The Peace Park was built as a memorial and renunciation of the horrors of war. It is dominated by the memorial mound which is surrounded by landscaped gardens and pavilions. Small ponds with stone bridges and park seats are all Japanese-inspired. A bronze plaque commemorating the Surrender is mounted on a stone slab near the entrance.

On September 9, 1945, the Japanese officially surrendered Labuan to the Australian. The commander of the Japanese 37th Army, Lieutenant General Masao Baba was flown to the shores of Layang-layangan Beach in the Tachikawa K154C (HICKORY). And in a small wooden shack under the shelter of the coconut trees some 50 meters South-west of the Surrender Point, the handover signing ceremony took place.

He surrendered his sword formally to Major General George Wootten, commanding officer of the Australian 9th Division, under the witness of Group Captain C.W Pearce and Squadron Leader J.S St Heaps of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in Sydney, Australia.

To show that they are genuinely sorry for the trouble their forefathers have caused, the Japanese decided to build the Peace Park next to the Surrender Point. The Peace Park pays tribute to the ones who have sacrificed their lives in Borneo during WWII. It is also a memento of friendship between Malaysia and Japan, and a promise of peace and harmony for all mankind that such war-like cruelty will not happen again in the future.

The Peace Park was heavily funded by the Japan Shipbuilding Industry Foundation, chaired by Ryoishi Sasagawa, as well as by families of the dead and comrades in arm from some industrial firms. On April 14, 1984, Mitsunori Ueki of the South Pacific Memorial Association Incorporation in Japan handed over the Peace Park ceremonially to the Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Harris Salleh. Till this day, funding still comes in abundantly from Japan to keep the Peace Park in good shape.

With serene waters under arched bridges and around shaded gazebos that embrace the large raised mound with two outstanding curved walls that is the centre of attention in the Peace Park. At the entrance of the Park stood a distinguishable stone slab, and on it carved clearly to echo till the end of time – “Peace is the best”.

Cheers,
Wilson
No more war!!!

Full Trip Reports:

Labuan Trip - From Limbang to Labuan by Boat (Post 1 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Chinese Temple, Buddhist Temple in the Labuan Island (Post 2 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Fishing at Sungai Kinta Benua, Kampung Beluloh (Post 3 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Beach that I visited (Post 4 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The University Malaysia Sabah, Labuan Campus (Post 5 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Peace Park (Post 6 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Creppy Abandoned Building (Post 7 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Bird Park (Post 8 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Chimney Labuan (Post 9 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Botanical Garden (Post 10 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Dataran Labuan and Labuan Museum (Post 11 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Backpacker Inn, and the hardworking mummy (Post 12 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The University Malaysia Sabah, Labuan Campus

noreply@blogger.com (Wilson Chin) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 04:23:17 PDT

I visited the University of Sabah before when I was travel to Sabah. And this is another University of Sabah, the Labuan Campus.

The top Photogapher. Wilson Chin

Was expecting to be able to see some young university girls, but very disappointingly no students are around that time... silly me, its almost Chinese New Year that time, so I guess most of the students are back for the holiday already.

I asked the guide if I allow to take picture, so they only allow me to take the pictures at the hall, and I'm not allow to go further up as well. So not much interesting thing happen here.

I then continue on with my journey, and next stop is to the peace park, where we can learn some history about the Labuan island.

-- to be continue --

Full Trip Reports:

Labuan Trip - From Limbang to Labuan by Boat (Post 1 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Chinese Temple, Buddhist Temple in the Labuan Island (Post 2 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Fishing at Sungai Kinta Benua, Kampung Beluloh (Post 3 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Beach that I visited (Post 4 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The University Malaysia Sabah, Labuan Campus (Post 5 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Peace Park (Post 6 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Creppy Abandoned Building (Post 7 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Bird Park (Post 8 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Chimney Labuan (Post 9 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Botanical Garden (Post 10 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Dataran Labuan and Labuan Museum (Post 11 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Backpacker Inn, and the hardworking mummy (Post 12 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Beach that I visited (post 4 of 12)

noreply@blogger.com (Wilson Chin) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 04:23:29 PDT

The Labuan island surrounded by beaches, and I just follow the map, and visited most of the famous one. And also visited some which is not mark in the map. One thing good about riding the scooter is that I can go into any turns I want easily.

I didn't realize the weather is hot, not until I felt something is burning on my both arms. And by the time I knew, I got this sunburn on my arms already.

Jalan Kiamsam, The Labuan Crude Oil Terminal

I am riding down the Oil And Gas industry zone, this is at the south of Labuan island. The Labuan Grude Oil Terminal is there, not much to see there expect the building for the O&G industries. One my way out of that area, I saw this small road which lead to the beach, so I ride in. Saw another bike parked there, after 5 mins the owner came back. We say hello to each other, and the guy told me he was taking a dump there, and now he want to go back to work already...hmmm, its good that he told me that, and I'll try to watch my steps.

The University Malaysia of Sabah, Labuan Campus

That building is the University Malaysia Sabah, the Labuan Campus. Opposite the university they have this beautiful beach with blue and clear sea water. The strong breeze keep on blowing towards me while I rest there, and my face are cover by sand. There are also rest stop which they build under the pine tree.

I remember back when I was a kid, we have a pine tree at the back of our house. My brothers and I sometime will collect the dry leave of the pine tree and burn it. It was fun back then...

Jalan Sungai Lada, Taman Anggun.

This is another beach which is not mark on the map, as I was riding along this village, saw a lane which lead to a beach, so I went in.

This is my favorite spot among the others which I visited, I saw there is a big tree, and a swing is tie on the tree branch. The fishing boat parked next to the swing, and there is a chop tree which now serves as a small table. I sit at the swing there, and enjoy the windy breeze. The breeze are blowing gently on my face, and I don't feel hot at all as I'm shaded by the trees.

This is the life, a beautiful hangout place just a few steps away from your house. You can come here to enjoy the sunset everyday, take pictures. At night, can come here to watch the starts with your friends and family. I want a place like this!!!

The Layang Layang Beach, at the Peace Park

There is a park called the Peace Park, this place was built as a memorial and renunciation of the horrors of war. It is dominated by the memorial mound which is surrounded by landscaped gardens and pavilions. On September 9, 1945, the Japanese officially surrendered Labuan to the Australian.

To show that they are genuinely sorry for the trouble their forefathers have caused, the Japanese decided to build the Peace Park next to the Surrender Point. The Peace Park pays tribute to the ones who have sacrificed their lives in Borneo during WWII. It is also a memento of friendship between Malaysia and Japan, and a promise of peace and harmony for all mankind that such war-like cruelty will not happen again in the future.

It was really hot that time, I just took some picture on the park, and then look for a tree shade, and hide under it. So the pictures above is the scene that I saw during my visit. There is a fresh water river which link to the sea, and a few fisherman boat dock there.

Something which interest me is that on the ship deck, they numbers each of the deck wood which I don't know why, and have no one to ask. If you happen to know why they do so, please leave a comment below. Thanks ;)

The Batu Manikar Beach, at Jalan Pancur Hitam

To conclude my beach tour in Labuan, I went to this UN '08 Beach, the Batu Manikar Beach. The sunset was around 6.35pm that day. While waiting for the sun to set, I bought some fried banana at the Malay stall to eat. Saw a puppy was running on the sand, and roll its body on the sand.

Tried to lured the dog with my food, but it didn't fell for it...damn!!!

Not much people here, I guess they must have too many choices here... tsk tsk, not like back in Kuching we have limited choices. There are a lot of seaweed been sweep on shore, I tried to look for jellyfish or starfish but can't find any.

I like to go to the beach very much, it clams me down when listening to the wave, and enjoying the windy breeze. Hope that one day I can come back here again.

-- to be continue --

Full Trip Reports:

Labuan Trip - From Limbang to Labuan by Boat (Post 1 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Chinese Temple, Buddhist Temple in the Labuan Island (Post 2 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Fishing at Sungai Kinta Benua, Kampung Beluloh (Post 3 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Beach that I visited (Post 4 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The University Malaysia Sabah, Labuan Campus (Post 5 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Peace Park (Post 6 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Creppy Abandoned Building (Post 7 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Bird Park (Post 8 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Chimney Labuan (Post 9 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Botanical Garden (Post 10 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Dataran Labuan and Labuan Museum (Post 11 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Backpacker Inn, and the hardworking mummy (Post 12 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Fishing at Sungai Kinta Benua, Kampung Bebuloh (post 3 of 12)

noreply@blogger.com (Wilson Chin) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 04:23:39 PDT

View Larger Map

When I checked back the Labuan map, I notice this maybe is the only place where they have fresh water. The name of the river is called the Kinta Benua River (Sungai Kinta Benua). And there is a restaurant on the riverbank, from the look of it, not much people will come to a place like this. Nothing special, no special attraction, only river and trees.

I walk closer to the riverbank, and saw two guys there fishing. I went closer and chat with them, they told me that they are there since morning. And one of he guy also showed me his catch, and it was a big white fish. They called is Siakap fish.

Then I bid good bye and continue my journey. In this area it has a vast of high land, and the people here plant a lots of fruits and vegetables. I stop by at one of the stall, that stall is a place where they will collect all the vegetables from the people there, and sell it. Its somehow related to the agriculture department of Labuan. I saw they have this deep fried banana, and Malay kuih. I then realise I haven't eat anything since this morning, so that's consider as my lunch.

Start my journey again as I then proceed to the west side of the Labuan island, and there will be a long stretch of beaches to see. So see ya..

-- to be continue --

Full Trip Reports:

Labuan Trip - From Limbang to Labuan by Boat (Post 1 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Chinese Temple, Buddhist Temple in the Labuan Island (Post 2 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Fishing at Sungai Kinta Benua, Kampung Beluloh (Post 3 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Beach that I visited (Post 4 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The University Malaysia Sabah, Labuan Campus (Post 5 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Peace Park (Post 6 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Creppy Abandoned Building (Post 7 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Bird Park (Post 8 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Chimney Labuan (Post 9 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Botanical Garden (Post 10 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Dataran Labuan and Labuan Museum (Post 11 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Backpacker Inn, and the hardworking mummy (Post 12 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Chinese Temple, Buddhist Temple in the Labuan Island (port 2 of 12)

noreply@blogger.com (Wilson Chin) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 04:23:49 PDT

When I start ride my backpack scoter around, one thing that I notice its this small island has quite a number of Chinese temple.

The Chinese temple opposite the backpack hotel that I stayed, this is the “guang fu gong” a direct translation will be huge wealth palace 广福宫.

Then I came to this Guan Yin Pusa Association “观音寺” (Buddha of mercy) the guy in the picture is the person who look after the temple. This temple is on top of a higher ground, and I saw a huge lizard at the back of the temple where the bushes are.

This Chinese temple is called the “清水祖师” a direct translation will be the Shimizu Patriarch. What unique about this temple is that it has a very huge pillar outside, and on top of the pillar it’s the Buddha of mercy.

This is a huge Chinese temple, with a total of 3 stories. When I’m there, the people there are busying hanging the red lantern for Chinese New Year. For this place, what so unique about this temple is that it has a Hell Temple. The entrance will lead you down to a dark basement, and its very dark inside with just one dim bulb. On the walls it has carving on the scene when bad people go to hell, and punishment made on them. It really give me the goosebumps when I went inside.

I reach here coincidently; it’s more like I’m kinda lost my direction that time and just circling the place around. When I went into the temple, its very dark. I step out, read the sign again “Ying Fu Dian” “阴府殿” means hell palace. No wonder its dark!!! Since I can’t see anything, I just went off. And just when I’m about to leave, I saw another lizard again, another giant kick ass lizard. I saw a total of 2 lizzards in Labuan.

This is the biggest among all, and this is a Buddhist Association. Buddhism will come here and chant together, and do charities work to benefit the society.

-- to be continue --

Full Trip Reports:

Labuan Trip - From Limbang to Labuan by Boat (Post 1 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Chinese Temple, Buddhist Temple in the Labuan Island (Post 2 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Fishing at Sungai Kinta Benua, Kampung Beluloh (Post 3 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Beach that I visited (Post 4 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The University Malaysia Sabah, Labuan Campus (Post 5 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Peace Park (Post 6 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Creppy Abandoned Building (Post 7 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Bird Park (Post 8 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Chimney Labuan (Post 9 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Botanical Garden (Post 10 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Dataran Labuan and Labuan Museum (Post 11 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Backpacker Inn, and the hardworking mummy (Post 12 of 12)

Labuan Trip - From Limbang to Labuan by Boat (post 1 of 12)

noreply@blogger.com (Wilson Chin) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 04:24:05 PDT

View Larger Map

If you browse the map, you will notice that Labuan is located near to the Borneo Island. Apparently it’s not part of either Sarawak or Sabah, but it’s the federal territory in East Malaysia. The capital for Labuan is called Victoria, and the island has a lot of oil and gas companies so to name a few like Halliburton, Carigali,

Shell, Schlumberger and etc. If you are at Limbang like me, the boat is the only way to get there.

One thing good about Labuan is that it’s a duty free island. You can get liquor, fragrance, and chocolate with a duty free price. So is cheap… a chocolate lover like me, this is heaven.

The fees now are cheaper, forth and back trip cost RM29, cause the government subsidies a part of the fees. Back then it was RM60.

The boat is a fully air-condition express boat; you can get your ticket right in front of the Limbang custom office. The depart time is 8AM, and after you get the ticket, you need to get the ticket stamps by the custom officer.

It’s a 2 hours boat trip to Labuan, and the journey starts at the Limbang river, the Limbang river are heavily polluted, and the color of the river are dark chocolate. So whoever wants a free coco drinks, you can get it here

Then, the will boat sails towards the Brunei Bay. So my dear reader, if you are running a mobile data, please makes sure that it’s temporary off. If not the roaming internet bill will eventually kill your wallet. After the Brunei Bay, only then the boat entered the South China Sea.

Around 10AM, and I’m there!!!

After all these years, I think I didn’t come back here for more than 10 years. Last time I came I’m still in secondary school, and we come here for the cheap beer and bar girls.

I then get a map from the information counter, and start to look for that Labuan Backpack hotel address. Been trying to get in touch with them online, but fail to do so.

I also rented a scoter to roam around the island, so let the adventure begins :D

-- to be continue

Full Trip Reports:

Labuan Trip - From Limbang to Labuan by Boat (Post 1 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Chinese Temple, Buddhist Temple in the Labuan Island (Post 2 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Fishing at Sungai Kinta Benua, Kampung Beluloh (Post 3 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Beach that I visited (Post 4 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The University Malaysia Sabah, Labuan Campus (Post 5 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Peace Park (Post 6 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Creppy Abandoned Building (Post 7 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Bird Park (Post 8 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Chimney Labuan (Post 9 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Botanical Garden (Post 10 of 12)

Labuan Trip - Dataran Labuan and Labuan Museum (Post 11 of 12)

Labuan Trip - The Labuan Backpacker Inn, and the hardworking mummy (Post 12 of 12)

Lambir Hills National Park, Miri, Sarawak, Borneo

noreply@blogger.com (Wilson Chin) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 05:08:24 PDT

I’ve climbs quite a lot of mounts in Kuching, like the Santubong, Matang, Sentah, Gading, Singai, and etc. Some of the mount was really challenging when going up to the summit, but non of the mounts are as tough as the Lambir Mount. By far that’s the toughest one I’ve ever climb!!!

When we go hiking on mountain trails, normally its just ascend, then descend. But if your at Lambir, its not consistent, you may ascend at start, then descend until the foot hill, then have to ascend again. Just when we tough its flat trail ahead, it surprise us with some hidden trails, some rope climb, some river crossing, or ascend a steep and long trail.

I was at Lambir Hills National Park on the start of Feb 2013, that’s just when my long Chinese New Year Holiday started. It’s a place that I always want to visit, so I asked my younger brother “Jye” to come along. He likes jungle trekking like me, so both of us make the perfect team.

We started our journey at around 7.15AM from Miri town, and it took us nearly ½ hour drive to reach the Lambir National Park. We paid RM10 each for the entrance fees, and off we go. Here I would like to highlight about the entrance, there are two. One it’s at the back of the hostel (1.5 KM to a checkpoint), and another one it’s at the main entrance at the front of the park HQ (2.2 KM to the same checkpoint).

The differences are 0.7 KM, but this can save you a roughly one hour of very tough walking distant. My brother and I don’t know about the short route, so we just ascend by using the main entrance.

Upon entering, we’re welcome by a bridge, which link us to the other side of the hill. At first it was still an enjoyable walk, I lead and my brother follow. At the Lambir park, there are 7 - 8 recorded waterfall. Along the way there are also lots of small waterfalls which are not recorded in the map.

Then we reach a suspension bridge, and just not far from the suspension bridge we reach the first waterfall. We stop by for a while to take some photos and video, our goal is to reach the Lambir Mount summit. So off we go after a short break.

Along the way, we encounter two waterfall, they have no names. On the map they only marks as Waterfall 1, and Waterfall 2.

After that, we need to hike up on the concrete staircase, and then we reach another waterfall. There are no signboard on it, so not sure what is the name. Then, we pass the famous Latak Waterfall, to save time, we did not visit Latak waterfall. I told Jye that we just come back next time for this waterfall.

The Latak waterfall it’s the most visited waterfall in Lambir Park here, the water is clear, and cozy I can see why people like it here.

Jye are quite happy, as he keep on stopping and ask me to take picture of him on various wired stuff along our way.

Till a wooden old bridge onward, we start to feel tired. We walk slowly to conserve our energy, and after 30 mins, we reach a junction one is to the Lambil mount, another one to the Nibong waterfall about 100m. We visited the Nibong waterfall, and took some picture, the trail to the waterfall are muddy.

On one of the stop we saw 3 park rangers repairing the damage rest stop. I asked them how far it is to reach the Lambir Mount summit, and the respond they gave are quite shocking! They advice us to hike the short trail which is to the Pantu Hill, roughly about 2 hour. If we were to go to Lambir Hill, it will take us around 5 – 6 hours.

Then I look at my brother, with my eyes open wide. 5 – 6 hours, are you kidding me??!! So they guys said if we hurry, we might be able to reach back the park HQ on time, which is around 6pm.

So we proceed on, I told Jye that we’re here for the highest mount, not some easy 2 hour Pantu Hill trail. If we miss out this chance, we’re not sure when will we come back here again.

We bid farewell to the rangers, they also wish us good luck, and asked us to be careful cause is been a while since there are people climb the Lambir mount, the trail now are in their worst condition, no maintenance work had been carry out for long time.

When we’re crossing an old wooden bridge, one of the handle was full of tinny white fungus. I told my brother that this can be eaten, and he fell for it… what an idiot K

We’re been walking for almost an hour, and was really tired. Luckily we reach a rest stop. We quickly sit down and rest. We can't drink too much, because both of us just bring one a liter water each.

I keep track of our time tightly, so we just took a short 5 minutes rest to catch our breath. And off we go again. Along the way, I start to explain to Jye on the various flora that we encounter.

We saw this brown fungus, and on the top it carries some water. I use my finger to dip on the water, and pretend that I link my finger to taste the water. Then I told Jye to try it too, that stupid kid actually fell for it again. K

Dear readers, here I would like to informed you that to reach to the summit of the Lambir Mount. You need to cross three river like this with no Bridge!!! Yeah, no bridge. You can either take off your sport shoes, or like us we cross by using the falling tree branch (watch my video on how we cross the river).

There are paint indication on the trees opposite the river, so that's where we need to go. We only notice this after scouting the place several minutes. Jye lead the way, at first there are two tree branches, when Jye try to cross the first one, it broke into half. And all the ants inside the branch fell into the water, then we saw the fishes start to swim near the falling branch, and eat the ants.

Jye tried again by using the second one, and he’s able to do so. But need to be very careful, the branch are slippery, we might fall into the river if we lost our balance.

Off we go again!!! We have been on the trail for 3 hours. In our mind, we only wish that we can reach the summit fast. We also lost count on how many hill that we climb, and how many have we descend.

This is another river which don’t have any bridge. The trail are poorly maintain, I would say no maintenance at all. When we reach here, its very difficult for us to find where to next??!! So it took us quite some time to look for the next tree marking for direction.

I couldn't tell you how happy we are when we saw this. It proved that we are on the right trail, and in the same time it also tell us that we still have 2.2KM to go….. so far we’ve been hiking for almost three hours. We only dare to drink a small amount of water each time we rest.

Jye told me that he’s hungry, I replied him that we cannot eat the food yet. Cause we bring sausage, fried chicken, and more sausages. All these food are salty, and it will only make him thirstier. Frankly speaking, I also didn’t expect this, I only tough that it will be a walk in the park, so this time I did not bring any sweets, chocolate, energy drinks, or extra drinking water.

And then we saw these giant ant nets. I told Jye, ants have high protein, so if he is hungry, he can eat the ants first.. tsk tsk…

Look at this picture; we are not looking at the tree in front of us. But we are looking at the mount far in front of us. That’s where we are going, and that’s still a longgggggg way to go. Now I start to ask Jye why do we paid money to come here to suffer…hahaha :D

The time now is 11.30am. we still very far away from the summit, and I’m start to get worry that we might don’t have enough time to descend. Here is another place which have no clear direction marking. We have spend quite some time here looking around for the marking on the trees. And we’re just going circle in that area.

I remember when I hike the Rayu Trail at Matang, I also saw this kind of tree too. And the way that it circle the tree are more or less the same.

From this point onward, it starts to get really tough. There are lots of steep wall to climb, some we even need to use the rope to help us climb up. I am really tired, barely can walk another step again. But I want to reach the summit, so I did what I normally do when I’m tired, just force myself to walk one step forward, follow by another, then another…. with very slow speed. This actually works, remember your goal in the first place, and never turn back.

The trail are … well I would say that it don’t have any clear path to walk. The trees and grass has cover the trail, and its really hard for us to walk. There are very sharp leaves along the way, we don’t have knife with us. I blame this to Jye, as I already remind him so many time to bring the knife, but in the end he still forgot.

Yeah, wet and humid place like this with almost no pollution, there will be this cute little thing. The leeches!!! I got a few bites on my ankle, and toe. Same goes to Jye, and this is his first time got bitten by leeches, so its quite a good experience for him. Look at this fat leeches, sucking Jye's blood, now with a fat belly.

I constantly ask him to check on his shoes, to make sure that no leech trap on his feet, and mine too.

I got so tires, that I cannot take any more pictures, the both of us just walk up, we also stop talking to each other for about 45 mintues, so there are a 45 minutes of photos gap. I have no more energy to lift my bulky Nikon, and took picture, or make any video.

The time now its 12.40pm, and we finally saw this sign saying “Bukit Lambir” (Lambir Mount). Its been near to 5 hours from the park HQ this morning, and we finally made it!!! hurray!!!

The view on the very top of the Mount Lambir, this is what we come here for! This is what we want! This is it!

Me and Jye and the Lambir Summit as our background, Jye got so hungry I ask him to eat my share of the lunch.

Its very windy up there, on the summit, there is a concrete mark state that this mount had been measure by the Sarawak Survey Department. I’m so happy that the sky is clear, I took a lot of panoramic picture on top. And I made it!!!

The usual plants that I saw on the summit are pitcher plant. I can say almost every mount summit that I’ve been to, there are pitcher plants there. And here at Lambir, they have the mini pitcher plant.

========================

After the Climb

So there you have it my friend, the story of me and my younger brother Jye concurring the Lambir Mount. We use 5 hours to reach to the top, and when we descend, we have to go through the thing we encounter before.

We also finished our water, and I just drank the water on the stream, cause I saw its clear. Jye also do it when he saw me drinking it.

The feeling when descending, is that I cannot feel my legs at all and I even feel tired when walk on flat surface. We walk very very slow, and took a lot of rest every 10 to 15 mins.

We manage to reach the park HQ at around 5pm, and the first thing that we do its buy two 1.5 liter of water at the canteen and finish it off in one go.

The next day, and the day after that both of our legs are still pain. It took us almost 4 days to recover. But we’re glad that we reach the summit.

=========================

Facts about Lambir National Park

Lambir Hills National Park is 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of Miri in Sarawak, Malaysia, on the island of Borneo. It is a small park, at 6,952 hectares (17,180 acres), and is composed largely of mixed dipterocarp forest, with some small areas of 'kerangas' (heath forest). The park is 150–465 m (490–1,526 ft) above sea level.

Lambir Hills National Park is probably the world’s most complex and diverse forest eco-system. Experts have found what appears to be the greatest level of plant biodiversity on the planet. It is not only plant life that is diverse and plentiful at Lambir - 237 different species of birds (at the last count), flying squirrels, wild pigs, gibbons, many different types of monkey, various species of deer, and untold insects and other invertebrates, all combine to create Lambir’s rich biological kaleidoscope.

Created by Google My Tracks on Android.

Name: 03/02/2013 8:05am

Activity type: off trail hiking

Description: Mount Lambir

Total distance: 10.97 km (6.8 mi)

Total time: 4:53:42

Moving time: 3:56:05

Average speed: 2.53 km/h (1.6 mi/h)

Average moving speed: 2.79 km/h (1.7 mi/h)

Max speed: 11.70 km/h (7.3 mi/h)

Average pace: 23.76 min/km (38.2 min/mi)

Average moving pace: 21.52 min/km (34.6 min/mi)

Fastest pace: 5.13 min/km (8.3 min/mi)

Max elevation: 489 m (1604 ft)

Min elevation: 74 m (244 ft)

Elevation gain: 755 m (2478 ft)

Max grade: 40 %

Min grade: -5 %

Recorded: 03/02/2013 8:05am

Cheers,

Wilson

I reach Lambir Mount Summit!!!

Is All Inclusive Worth It?

noreply@blogger.com (Wilson Chin) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 17:45:33 PST

Many people sing the praises of all inclusive holidays as a cost-effective way to spend your holiday. After all when you book into an all inclusive hotel you’ll get all of your meals, snacks and drinks included. That’s breakfast, lunch, dinner, perhaps an afternoon tea here and there, and alcoholic drinks - along with soft drinks for the little ones of course. On top of that, some all inclusive hotels will also throw in free or discounted usage of their on-site facilities or activities too, whether it’s complimentary spa treatments, access to the nearby golf course or discounted archery lessons.

If you intend to spend most of your time in or near the hotel - perhaps lazing by the pool and sitting on the nearby beach, give or take the odd half day’s excursion - then an all inclusive holiday is probably worth it. You’ll save bags of money once you get there, perfect if you’re on a tight budget or if you’re just there for a bit of straightforward sun, sea and sand.

But on the negative side, it can detract from some of the wonderful experiences you’ll have if you book an alternative board basis. What if you book all inclusive and then decide, when you get there, that the local restaurants are pretty cheap - and you’d much rather eat out at night than dine in the hotel? By then it’s too late. Of course you can skip the hotel meals and dine out every night if you fancy it - but it seems like a waste of money when you’ve already paid for all inclusive.

There are pros and cons to all inclusive, and whether you opt for a package break - such as one of the many Thomas Cook vacations available - or go your own way by booking your own hotel and flights, you’ll have to face this decision sooner or later. It all depends what you’re likely to do when you get there. So do your homework. Check the traveller review sites to find out what the hotel restaurant is like and how it compares to the local eateries, and find out what the cost of living is like. Just a few hours’ research could be the difference between a good holiday... and a truly great one.

Guess Post By: Katerina Crowder

The Miri Lutong Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Wilson Chin) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 17:43:11 PST

View Larger Map

The Miri Lutong Beach, I went there with my brother one evening. Miri have a lots of public beach, and my brother told me that this is the most clean and prettiest among all. A lot of people will go there evening with friends and family, as I saw some people play kite, building sand castle, and swim. My brother and I also dive into the arms of the sea, and embrace the cold sea water. The sunsets at around 6.35pm, and we stop swimming and take time to enjoy the nice sunset view.

Get my Malaysia Passport, and I'm ready to go Home

noreply@blogger.com (Wilson Chin) — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 22:02:29 PST

I'll be on travel next month back to visit my parents. Haven't been home for 3 years, and I miss them so much. I'll be going to Brunei as well, so I need to renew my passport.
For a Malaysian passport the stuff that I need are:

1. Two Passport size portrait pictures
2. One photocopy of my Malaysia Identification Card.
3. RM100 bucks for a 48 pages two year passport.
4. Waiting time is 2 hours for me to get my passport once I made the payment.

With a Malaysia passport I can travel to almost any country expect Israel.

I went to the Malaysia Immigration department, Sarawak Branch office. Morning around 8am. They build a new parking space for public.... this place exist before, just now they have enhance it with tarmac.

I didn't know I need a photocopy of my Identification Card (should do my research before this), so I went to the photocopy shop down the office and paid a bloody expensive 20cents for just one copy of my IC. Come back to the office again to submit my application form.

Then, I need to pay RM100 for my passport before they send my application for process.

Then I went back again in the afternoon, get my number and collected my passport!! yeah, I'm ready to go home :)) xoxo

2013 First Kick Charity Dinner at Zozo Catering, Kuching

noreply@blogger.com (Wilson Chin) — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 20:55:30 PST

Yesterday night after I finish my work, went to help out with one of the welfare team. A restaurant called Zozo Catering (link here) is having their annual dinner, and they also sponsor dinner for the patients at the Sarawak General Hospital.

I went there to help on escording the patients, taking pictures, and .... eat :" )

The shop owner not just sponsor dinner for the patients, but she also sponsor mini hamper, and red package for them. What a generous person :) Hope in the new year of 2013, their business will blossom and gain even higher profit.

This is the venue there they held the dinner.

Two of the volunteers, Richard and You Xi.

We start to serve the food for the patients, and my goodness the food are just simply delicious.

A cute little girl was curious, and keep on looking at me. So I just play the peek-a-boo with her, and she likes it. She has a pairs of beautiful eyes.

Cheers,
Wilson

Different Types of Cruise Holidays

noreply@blogger.com (Wilson Chin) — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 06:09:10 PST

Every cruise operator and liner offers a different experience, whether it's the range of destinations you can visit, the onboard entertainment, the cuisine or the list of facilities. But the variety goes much further than that. Before you've even selected your perfect itinerary or chosen a ship, there are other considerations - such as do you prefer to fly or sail from the UK? How long do you want to travel for? Will you combine your cruise with a land-based stay? And so on.

Cruise holidays follow many different formats and even within the same operator, you'll find a fantastic range of choice.

So what are the main types of cruise holidays?

First off, fly cruise is one of the most popular formats. As the name suggests, you combine your cruise with return flights which means you save time on sailing from the UK, and it allows you to get to your first destination much more quickly. This in turn cuts down the amount of time you're at sea and means you can potentially visit more destinations within the time frame. And because of its popularity, you're likely to find plenty of fly cruise deals too, which helps to make your holiday a little easier on the pocket.

The other option is to sail from the UK. There are various reasons for this - partly it appeals to those who don't want to fly, which opens cruise holidays up to a wider audience. Also it helps to keeps the costs down which makes this style of cruising a little more competitive.

Then there arecruise and stay holidays. For those who want to make the most of their cruise and enjoy an extended holiday experience, this could be the perfect solution. With a cruise and stay, you'll combine your sea-based cruise itinerary with a stay in a land-based hotel. It can take a variety of different formats - for instance, you could have a straightforward week on a cruise followed by a further week in a hotel, staying in your final port of call. Or you could take a Caribbean cruise and, on the last day, fly to New York for a further few days in the city. It's your choice.

Which type of cruise holiday tickles your fancy?

By: Katerina Crowder

Matang Kubah's Rayu Trail, Sarawak Rainforest Exploration

noreply@blogger.com (Wilson Chin) — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 05:02:48 PST

The details of my Rayu Trail

Created by My Tracks on Android.
Name: Rayu Trail to Matang Wildlife Center
Total distance: 6.29 km (3.9 mi)
Total time: 3:36:38
Average speed: 1.74 km/h (1.1 mi/h)
Average moving speed: 16.32 km/h (10.1 mi/h)
Max speed: 17.73 km/h (11.0 mi/h)
Average pace: 34.42 min/km (55.4 min/mi)
Average moving pace: 3.68 min/km (5.9 min/mi)
Fastest pace: 3.38 min/km (5.4 min/mi)
Max elevation: 394 m (1292 ft)
Min elevation: 26 m (87 ft)
Elevation gain: 2763 m (9066 ft)
Recorded: 17/09/2012 8:06am start, 11.42am ends.

Then lastly, enjoy the picture that I took during my trip. It was a fruitful day, as I can see different kinds of flora and fauna. Some highlight are a frog which is smaller than my finger, an iguana blending its body colour on the tree trunk, huge rattan next to the tree, and the feather of wild bird.

Matang Rayu Trail, Sarawak Rainforest Exploration, a set on Flickr.

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