Anything that exists has a reason. Though most girls would not agree with me, bugs are cute animals, especially the flying cockroach. Whenever I walk in the jungle, I will try to look for bugs. Some bugs are colourful, some got many legs, some are soft, even some are poisonous.

Below is a photo of a Whip Scorpion (also known as Malay Scorpion). Look at its tail and you will know why it gets this name. To people who lives in Malaysia village, this is a common bug. If you walk near the wood of country side at night, you would see them. I don’t know what is the function of its whip (tail). Probably it uses it to whip its preys brutally until they die, so “SM”…

Moth is another bug that always amazes me. Don’t know if you still remember my photo of the moth that has Teddy Bear face on its wing? This one looks like a dry leaf. I guess it will evolve into a “real” leaf after million of years, since it likes to be a leaf so much.

When I was a little boy, I used to look for those small little grey Pill Millipedes (as small as a pea) under the rock. Once alert, they will roll their bodies into ball shape. They don’t have long legs, don’t have spikes, don’t have poison, don’t have foul smell, don’t have camouflage, etc. to escape from predators, but they are “live fossil” that successfully survive for billions of years. When they turn into a ball, they will look like a medicine pill, which doesn’t look delicious, so the predators are not interested in consuming them.

The Pill Millipede I saw in Tawau Hills Park is very big. This is the only “leggy” bug that I dare to touch so far. Touching centipede, tractor millipede, caterpillar…? No way..

Photos taken in Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Besides Tanjung Aru and Waterfront, now Kota Kinabalu has another nice spot to enjoy sunset. It is just behind Wisma Merdeka and Hyatt Hotel.
Please enjoy it while it is “free”. Who knows one day someone wants to “privatize” the place and charge you entrance fee.

Though it is newly open, it has already become a hot spot for locals to hang around during the sunset hour. The fish statues are the favourite photo-shooting spots. People like to sit on them to take picture, so I better photograph them before they wear out.

The sunset view is nice there. I wanted to get some sunset photos, but the weather has been uncooperative lately.

The photos here were taken in the morning. That’s why there was nobody around. And I was lucky to include egrets in my photos when they felt safe to wander around. I also played around with different angles and composition. The cloud formation was interesting too.

When the weather turns good, I will come here again to get some sunset shots… Wait for my sunset version then.

You can click the thumbnails below to see bigger photos:

Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

I got less than 2.5 hours to update my blog. Here are some photos of Dragon Boat Race 2008 taken on 15 Jun 2008. Haha… so late.. Now I am trying to post backlogged old entries as fast as I can, coz new photos still keep coming in. On that day, I found a few Chang’E (Moon Goddness in Chinese legend) there. Probably they are bored with moon cake and wanted to try some rice dumpling instead.

Many Chinese believe that the origin of “Duan Wu” or Dragon Boat festival and dragon boat is to remember a great patriot poet (also a government minister) named “Qu Yuan” who loved his country so much. He was extremely depressed and helpless to see his corrupted country was invaded by foreign force, so he committed suicide by jumping into the river. The people heard the news, so they threw the food into the river to feed the fishes, hoping that the fishes would not eat his body and also an offering to his spirit. They also splahes the water with paddles and beat the drum, trying to scare away the fishes.

But the Duan Wu festival had already long existed before that tragedy. The festival is more closely linked to religion ritual practiced by the people to (1) worship the dragon, or (2) avoid diseases in mid-summer. There are many other theories as well. When the China historians were still debating whether the rice dumplings were for the Dragon or Qu Yuan, South Korea has gotten UNESCO to acknowldge Duan-Wu Festival as the “Intangible Heritage” of Korea. Goodness, it is our (Chinese) turn want to jump into the river, such a tragedy.

Hope people will always remember who is Qu Yuan. If you ask others what is Dragon Boat Festival about, many would tell you this is the festival “to eat dumpling”, and Lantern Festival is the festival to eat moon cakes. As a matter of fact, many festivals and celebrations have lost their traditional meaning today. Christmas is the most affected, as it has only becomes an excuse for shopping and party, the time when many got drunken and got laid, totally forget who is Jesus, even my Christian friends also really concern about the lost of identity of Xmas.

The capsize… probably the dragon was angry.

Someone was bored… I like this shot coz the meaning is so obvious.

Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

1Borneo soft opening on 8 Jun 2008? Oh dear, I am blogging old stuffs again. Since so many have blogged about it, at first I wanted to skip this one, well… it is a waste to leave all the photos buried forever in my hard disk. OK… whole Sabah knows that 1Borneo has opened. Known as the largest hypermall in East Malaysia, though its size is nothing if compared to other shopping malls in our neighbouring countries such as Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines. Personally I am a bit disappointed for not seeing any BIG bookstore (e.g. MPH, Kinokuniya, Borders) in the mall. Hope they will open one soon.

Click Here to see more photos of 1Borneo Soft Opening >>

Overall, the opening was a success as it attracted a lot of people (someone even left her daughter behind). I didn’t have money to shop, so I went there only for the fashion show and Hong Kong celebrities. In fact, I had lost my heart on blogging events coz now Ahmad, Ali, Ah Kao… are doing the same thing. The reason I started MySabah.com is to show special and unique photos about Sabah. 2 Years ago, not many doing that. Nowadays, whenever I went to an event, I would see fleet of bloggers and photographers shooting the same pictures, from the same angle. Hmmm… as it is no longer unique, I better do something else… But I will still do it if I am free.

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Fashion show is used to be one of my favourite photography subject. However, I can never be a good fashion photography coz my len always focuses on the pretty faces and sexy figures, not the merchandises, haha… In its pure concept, fashion is a good thing coz people always pursue perfection in appearance and lifestyle. However, today it turns into something heavily commercialised and carry an equal sign with luxury. I can’t see the logic of buying a thousands dollar handbag, made of death animal skin, and proudly think that we have something very “trendy” to store a few items. Ya, men will never understand how come such “low-tech” products can be more expensive than their high-end gadgets such as computer, iPod, DSLR, which are far more advanced and can do a lot more. In Asia, a person doesn’t need to be creative, just follow what thousands others wearing, then it is FASHION, no matter if it can look really ugly on him/her, but if only 1 person wearing it, it will be a joke.

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Many thousand years ago, the king in China also lived like a normal citizen. They used wooden chopstick and rice bowl, ate what their people ate daily. One day… the king said, “Hey, I want a pair of ivory chopstick.” When he got his ivory chopstick, then he thought, “Isn’t it funny to use ivory chopstick with a lousy wooden bowl?” So he got a gold bowl, later he bought more and more expensive items to match his luxury meal tools. He then started to tax citizens heavily and got forced labour to build him a huge palace. At last the people overthrew this kingdom bcoz the king had became so greedy, corrupted and wasteful.

So it is the same story to guys. Don’t think that it is over, when you finally spend one month worth of salary to buy a branded expensive handbag to your beloved wife. Very soon she would be unhappy about the dress, the shoes, the make-up… that she bought from pasar malam. Greed is a black hole… Many have ended up becoming credit card slaves.

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No company is stupid enough to invent a light bulb that is so durable and can be used for life, coz the customers will only buy from them ONCE. Same to dress and accessories, to encourage consumers waste more money on them, they invented something called fashion to “expire” these items though they are still usable (and NEW!).

Why I talk east talk west today? Probably didn’t blog for too long. Hey, there was a model that looked like Amber Chia. See photos below and see if you can differentiate them? May be very easy for you lah, but hard for me, who seldom read fashion magazines. She is the same model I saw in Warisan Square launching? Probably Amber Chia got a sister called Diamond Chia or Golden Chia, I don’t know lah..

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The mall was so crowded. I went for lunch at 3pm, and it was a long queue in front of every restaurants. After watching Kung Fu Panda, I checked out the next highlight at 7pm — performance by 6 Hong Kong celebrities (i.e. Bobby AuYong, Ella Koon, Akina Hong, Michael Tong, William So and Angela Tong). Judging from the responses from the crowd, Angela Tong and Bobby AuYong got the most fans. At first I worried that the stars would be unhappy about our “cold” response (you know lah, the hungry Sabahan audiences who always want to eat and no strength to clap hand one). I worried too much then. Not only that, the audiences at the back also quarrel among themselves when the audiences in the seating zone stood, blocking the views of people behind. Never know that Ella Koon is also a Hakka moi. When she spoke Hakka to us, I thought she had practiced it beforehand. There were thousands of people there. And I was standing in the no-seat zone, about 50 feet away from the stage, very hard to take photos as many people in front blocking me. But still have a few good collection in my gallery.

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Photos taken in 1Borneo, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

I read the post at Wei Chuen’s blog. Though it’s not my car and I don’t want to get involved in someone else argument, I feel panas reading this. I really hate this kind of people.

Think that nobody else knows what you had done and you can easily get away with this? You are probably wrong…