"A mountain of mist and rain"
... Dr Willem Meijer - botanist

"One hour it is there, the next nowhere-lost in the cloud world."
Tom Harrison - curator of Sarawak Museum 1947 to 1967

The swirling mists and puffy clouds constantly change the scenery and visages of Kinabalu yet its beauty endures. This morning, Mount Kinabalu is blocked by clouds. I can hear the pretty bird sounds, but the birds themselves stay hidden.

At this time of the day, birds emerge and and have their breakfast too. They fly around and look for insects to eat, especially flying moths. Swallows have difficulties in picking moths on the walls because they might knock their heads on the walls.

Some swallows have developed their minds to overcome this problem. These clever swallows will fly near to the walls to disturb and frighten the moths. Once the moths fly, the swallows then catch them in mid air.

SK. Pinausok Primary School. What a peaceful charming school for children living in Kundasan Town.

Kundasang located between Kinabalu Park and Ranau town center. This town is renowned due to the wholesale vegetables market along the roadside. Numerous stalls selling bulk of cabbages, tomatoes, carrots, corns and roses at a cheap and price. Besides, you may also find tropical plants like orchids, cactus and trees at the market. Besides, Kundasang is also Sabah’s main tourist attractions due to cold refreshing climate and located at the high hills. Many chalets, home stays and hotels was built to cater huge demands from local and foreigners. Kundasang is an alternative accommodation to Kinabalu park due to more cheaper price. This town is only 6km or 5 minutes drive from the Kinabalu park and 10 minutes drive from Ranau town center.

The Fascinating Insects in Aristo Resort

Aristo Resort of Kundasan is like a living museum of Sabah Moths.

We came back to Aristo Resort a day later and spend another 2 nights here. During the few days stay we saw a rich variety of moths and other insects. We devote a separate page specially for the moths of Kundasang. Those share the same interest in insects can click here to THE FASCINATING INSECTS OF KUNDASANG

Kinabalu Park has 4 species of moth that are endemic and live no where else. This include the Hypocometa titanis species.

Taxonomy = The process of describing, naming and sorting organisms

In 1965 a team of  three-student from Cambridge University made an expedition on  Mount Kinabalu where they trapped and identified moths. Specimens from the expedition are looked after at the Natural History Museum.

40+ years later in 2007 a second team from University of York repeated this same survey of  moths in Sabah in the same mountain area.

The result is astonishing to those who care for Sabah's natural environment. The study indicated that the populations of moths living on this mountain have moved uphill by more than 60m over the last 40 years. This is a warning sign to Malaysian that global climate change is already affected the distribution of tropical insects in our country.

The 2007 study in Mount Kinabalu showed that  the moths had to move further up the mountain to find the cooler environment they preferred. On average the populations of moths occurred 67m higher than they had 42 years earlier.

This is to say that these beautiful moths we saw these few days in this Aristo Resort are moving up from 67meters below as the climate getting warmer over last 40 years. If global warming carry on like this, out children and grandchildren 40 years later coming here will not see these insects we are seeing today. But they may find new batch of living creatures that moved up from the low land.

Jeremy Holloway : ‘When I visited the mountain in 1965, climate scientists were talking more about the planet entering another Little Ice Age rather than being worried about human activities causing global warming.’

Jeremy Holloway is a moth expert from the Natural History Museum of UK. Holloway helped identify more than 150 species of moths collected from the two expeditions. He produce 18  books on the larger moths of Borneo. The books cover 4500 different species with a quarter of them new to science.

Read detail story from  Natural History Muzium :  http://www.nhm.ac.uk

Natural History Museum has a collection of 9 million moth and butterfly specimens from around the world.

Fogs are coming from the right hand side. A few cows can be seen chewing on the green juicy grasses at the right. Walking down the hill are Uncle Fook Foong and Aunty Alice. We are leaving the mountains and travel toward the sea where Kota Kinabalu city is. Tomorrow at this time we will be at the airport where Uncle Fook Foong family say good bye to Sabah and return to Kuching City.

A long stretch of market with simple wooden stalls, covered with corrugated sheet or cloths. In the distance we see layers of hills and mountains.

We passed by Kinabalu Pine Resort shortly before we arrive the above  rows of wooden shops.

Landslide in KK-Ranau Road

We reached this landslide area again. This time, the workers have removed the earths that covered the road, so we drove through the road easily and continued our journey downhill.

We finally reached flat land of Tampaluli Town about 12:30p.m. A few kilometers further we reached Nirvana Memorial Park in Tuaran.

Nirvana Memorial Park, Sabah Tuaran
.....where our ancestors rest in peace.....

It is easy to locate our ancestors' burial place because only their graves have two big bright umbrella standing.

Kwangzhao Division, Po On District

Wong Shin Chinag
Born : 1887 December 17th
RIP : 1939 March 3rd

Pang Len Yin
Born : 1889 September 27th
RIP : 1979 September 9th

(This tomb) Reestablished on 1999 December 22nd

Sons : 
Syak On, Syak Kee, Syak Choi

Grandsons : 
Fook Nyan, Fook Tong, Fook Yee,
Fook Foong, Fook Lok, Fook Shen,
Fook Vui, Fook Nyau, Fook Kiam

Kwangzhao Division, Po On District

(This tomb) Reestablished on 1999 December 22nd

Lee En Kiew

Grandsons :
Syak On, Syak Kee, Syak Choi

Granddaughters :
Nyuk Lan, Sui Hiong, Sui Yun

 

WONG Shin Chiang 1887-1939

China was in the mist of the Boxer rebellion  against the Qing Dynasty and thousands and thousands of Chinese left the troubled mainland to the oversea for a new and batter life.

Around 1905-1906, among the many laborers arrived Kuching was a young man with  “pony-tailed” landed by ship via Singapore. With him was his mother.

 

Life was hard as a farmer in Kuching so with some hard earned savings of about $ 2-00, the young man soon caught a cargo vessel to search for a batter living in North Borneo “The Land Below the Wind”. He landed in a town called Jesselton.

Life did make a great turn for Wong Shin Chiang in Jesselton. He soon found a clerical job in the Borneo Railway Company where he work till his sudden illness and passed away in 1939.

He is our Great Grandfather.

PANG Len Yin  1889-1979

A young educated lady age around 21, daughter of a Chinese “German Basel Mission” missionary, set sail to Sabah to marry our Great Grandfather Wong Shin Chiang.

The story began when WONG Shin Chiang's time arrived when he would like to find a wife and settle down. Arranged marriage was the norm during those days. Words passed around and  eventually made known to a Mr Pang Vui Chau who had an older sister in China. Eventually a match was made. .......what following then became the history of the Wong family.

She is our Great Grandmother.

Lee En Kiew

Following a young man with  “pony-tailed” from China to look for a batter life in North Borneo was his mother Lee En Kiew.

Very little is know about her. No record of her date of birth and death.

Like most girls in China those days, she received no school education.

She is our Great Great Grandmother.

Wong Fook Foong family

From the left to the right: Alice, Fook Foong, Teresa.

Shopping complexes in Kota Kinabalu city are all in festive mood. Christmas songs pumping through speakers at each corner. Christmas trees are decorated to the full… 1Borneo is not exception...

We reached 1Borneo around 4:00 pm. The shopping mall is crowded with lots of peoples going through the shopping complex for the Christmas decorations. This big shopping complex is as big as the famous 'Mid Valley' in Kuala Lumpur. The building has a lots of  branded shops, souvenirs shops, food & beverage restaurants.

There are also promotion events going on inside the shopping mall that attract a lots of peoples to watch & enjoy. A huge crowd gathered at center podium with curiosity when they experienced "snowing" in 1 Borneo. Kids were excited and  screaming…."Snow! Snow!…"

It was the snow machine at the 4th floor blowing out white foam. These white foam created illusion of real snow in Christmas Season. It look like snowing on the decors at the podium. The effect itself is real enough.

Santa Claus is walking around cheering kids, taking photo with kids… including adults… and giving away candy. Yin got 2 candy from Santa. She share with me one.

Too many people and once the kids is out of sight,  its really hard to find each other, so we decided this tallest Christmas tree as a place to meet each other.

1Borneo Hypermall

 

1Borneo shopping mall was so crowded with adults, teenagers and children that we can hardly walk around the mall easily.

A popular toy shop here called 'Toys are Us' can have good business this time of the year.

Clowns giving balloons to children, Santa Claus giving candies to children. Three Clowns, Santarina (or white angel) and a Santa Claus can be seen entertaining kids. Laughters can sometimes be heard.

Miss Jiwan was the Santarina.

She told her friend "......Since the job was available why not just take it?........."  So she became the White Angel Santarina  along with clowns and magicians the day we visit 1Borneo.

Christmas is very merry after all.

 

 

Traffic Congestion

After visiting the giant 1Borneo, we continued our journey to Langkah Syabas Beach Resort at Kinarut Town. Langkah Syabas Resort is just next to Seaside Travellers Inn.

We paid Rm2.00 for car park in 1Borneo. This receipt (left) indicated that our car arrived at 3:14pm and left at 5:21pm. But out of the duration of 2 hours and 6 minutes we wasted 20 minutes in 1Borneo carpark. First upon arrival we wasted 10 minutes turning round and round  looking a vacant lot. No parking officers to help direct to a empty place. Then upon leaving we wasted another 10 minutes to settle their bill. We can not pay at the gate like in other car park  but had to reverse back to park the car again then walk to look for their payment counter then return to our car to leave. Why can't they just rearrange the parking system and have the payment boots set up at the departure gates? 1Borneo is the largest Mall in Borneo with  successful business companies. But the local management companies has yet a lot more to learn and improve.

On our way there, rain starts falling heavily. To make matter worse, a traffic jam happened in front of us. Hundreds of cars are lining up impatiently.

We reached our destination in two hours, much later than what we planned. It was already night time when we met Aunt Stella and Uncle William in the resort.