Road Trip to Crocker Range (3): Tambunan

So we continued our journey after Keningau. We drove all the way for about 45 minutes along the Keningau-Tambunan Highway. At first we wanted to go to the viewing tower but we didn't know where was the right way to the top of the hill... there were no signboard after we saw one at the roundabout. We have drove for 15 minutes and the road was getting smaller and remote. So we turned back and asked the villagers. When we found one back to the entrance, he said we were on the right track. Well, too late, we decided to head to town for lunch. 

There were not much of choice for food in Tambunan actually... I asked a lady where does she have lunch usually, she said Tambunan doesn't have any nice food and she does not have any favourite kopitiam there. So in the town centre, we walked around to survey approx 5 kopitiams and decided to go back to the first kopitiam. Most of them sell almost the same thing... mixed rice, or order fried rice or fried noodle, that is all. The shops were quiet, only a few people chatting and smoking inside the shops. 

Then we continued our journey to Mat Salleh Memorial. This place wasn't easy to be noticed because This site was used to be the home or fortress for Mat Salleh, who led a rebellion against British North Borneo Company in the late 19th century. Mat Salleh is a Sabahan Hero according to our local history book. There erected a stone structure to mark the site of Mat Salleh's fort, and there is a long display board that tells the rebellion story

 of Mat Salleh. 

 We continued the journey, and travelled all the way to Mahua Waterfall along the highway. The road was getting smaller, sometimes up hill and down hill, about 30 minutes later, we reached our destination. The entrance fee for this waterfall is only RM3 for a Malaysian adult. We took about 5 minutes to walk through the 500metres walkway before we reached waterfall. The park was well maintained with its paved walkway, handrail, bridge and toilet facilities. It was very convenient indeed. There were lots of bees or giant flies around the picnic area... I guessed it was due to the trash left by visitors that attracted so many insects around... I was holding a banana and immediately surrounded by the flies or bees and got stung!

Waterfall view from the picnic deck... there marked the ancient water level of the pond on the wall. 

Waterfall view from the middle of the pond... wonderful view, the water was very chilling and relaxing. It's a hidden gem of Sabah Forests. 

The water was freezing cold!! I just dipped my feet in the water for a while then quickly pulled them out.. Not only that, the water was so clear that some people brought their crystals gems and cleaned them here. I guessed the positive energy of water can cleanse the crystals. I rinsed my face with the cold water... ahhhhh.. so refreshing...

Anyway it's still a very pleasure walk in the waterfall... the park was surrounded by so many huge and tall trees, shady and peaceful. I liked this place very, very much but we got to leave the park as the sky was dark and I wanted to leave before it rained. Hope we can spend longer time in the park.

As we exited the park, I used the toilet at no charge. It was pretty clean and well-maintained compared to some worn out toilets I have been to elsewhere.

Overall, I'll rate Mahua waterfall 4 out of 5 stars for its natural authenticity!

Road Trip to Crocker Range (1)- Rafflesia blooms!

So it was Hari Raya weekend and we have 4 days holidays in a row. Due to no ferry ticket available on Saturday, we had to take a day off on Friday and leave Labuan. This time we have decided to travel the interior Sabah via Papar-Kimanis-Keningau highway through the famous Crocker Range Park. I have learnt about Crocker Range in Geography in school days. Now it's time to visit her!

After having lunch in Keningau Town, we drove all the way back to Manis-Manis Rooftop Borneo Resort which is located in the Crocker Ranger Park, around 1000m above sea level, with 20 minutes drive from the Town. There's an entrance fee RM3/person to enter the Park before we lodge in. We were not sure where was the reception after we passed by some huts, then we finally found the reception right at the cafeteria. We chose to stay in a chalet with RM224/night after promotion 30% less from the original price RM300/night. The chalet was clean, come with a king-size bed, and antique feel.

We unloaded our luggage and rolled on the bed for a while, then daddy rushed us to quickly get ready to visit the Crocker Nature Centre before it closed at 4pm. It's just walking distance from our chalet but we drove there as the sky looked gloomy. Once we reached, the staff told us that Rafflesia was blossoming on its second day. Since it wasn't far from the centre, we quickly walked down the stairs but in plain sandals, not sports shoes! I was so worried with this attire as the steps were getting wet and slippery, and we were carrying a baby with us!

In less than 10 minutes while descending, we saw a Rafflesia bud not far from our track, it was pinkish ,wrapped tightly in a black colour skin, with the size as large as a cabbage. 

We walked through a small section of muddy track, my shoes were almost stuck in it cause I was heavy. Then we found the blossoming Rafflesia! It was our first time witnessing the flower in such a close distance. Then it's camera time, nonstop. 

The flower in the picture above is Rafflesia Keithii, named after Sabah Forest conservationist Henry George Keith. This flowering parasitic plant has five petals, with small irregular shapes of whitish spots distributed on them. In the middle of the flower there is a center column with orange colour thorn-like anthers attracting insects such as flies to pollinate.  While we found the flower was already closed to 4pm, we did not smell any unpleasant rotting flesh odour like described in the book. Another reason was we were at a higher altitude with a colder climate. R. keithii was reported to have intense odour at noon, particularly on hot days. Another species you can find in endemic Sabah is R. pricei. 

Let me quote the cause of Rafflesia rarity from Rafflesia Centre:
One of the causes of the extreme rarity in Rafflesia is its double habitat specialisation. First, the host plants (Tetrastigma spp.) occur only in certain habitats (for example, riparian or riverside forests) and secondly, the plants are narrow specialists on only specific species of Tetrastigma, creating 'double specialisation'. This makes Rafflesia doubly rare.

Rafflesia keithii's bud takes 12 to 16 months to blooming. One reason blooms are so rare is that many buds die before they flourish. The causes of this mortality are uncertain, but may be linked with the host vines's inability to provide support and vital nutrients at crucial times, direct predation by animals like rodents and infection by parasitic wasp larvae. (Garbutt & Prudente,  2006. Wild Borneo: The Wildlife and Scenery of Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei, and Kalimantan, pg 45-46)

So, we were indeed very, very lucky to be able to catch the blossom of Rafflesia that day.

So we were back to our lovely chalet. This is the outside view of Banyan chalet. 

The interior of our room, attached with bathroom and water heater. No air-conditioning needed as the night was very cold. No wi-fi available in this resort, but we were still able to connect weakly from our mobile data. However, we just put the phone aside and enjoyed the family time playing with Forrest, who was busy discovering this new place. The downside of the bathroom was the tape water was cloudy and yellowish. 

When I was about to get my clothes for a bath, I saw my foot was attached with a little dark patch of mud from the jungle trekking just now. But I soon realised it was my darkest fear when I was in the forest: it was the unforgivable leech!!! I screamed for help like mad, shook my leg trying hard to get rid of the leech, failed, then jumping off the ground while taking off my pants. It was detached from my foot. Then my hubby slowly shook the pants when the leech dropped on the ground. That was the most unbearable fear I had since childhood and the more I fear the easier I got hooked by leech. Lesson learnt: must wear a proper footwear into the jungle next time. 

 So here was the wound.. keeps bleeding. Little Forrest was puzzled with my reaction just now. Have to calm him down and show him what was my wound and leech about.

 So it's dinner time. We ordered chicken chop with rice for RM22 only. The entire Cinnamon cafeteria had only us as guests. So it took about 20 minutes for them to prepare the meal. To our surprise, the meal portion was huge! We just enjoyed ourselves at the cafeteria very much. It has free flow coffee and tea from 8am to 9pm. 

The next morning we got up at 6 to catch the sunrise. It was nice but the sun seemed to rise behind the mountain so we couldn't catch the yolk but yeah get to see the sea clouds from the observation tower just in front of the cafe. Then we packed our luggage and checked out. Breakfast was included in our package so we can choose our choice of breakfast in advance. 

This is the operation hour of the Crocker Range Park Nature Centre. There's handful info about Crocker Range Park as a Biosphere Reserve exhibited in the centre. Some wildlife models and local ethnic groups traditional arts and crafts are displayed too. 

The sea clouds view from the cafe. Down there is Keningau town. 

On another note, our photo had won the best photo in Manis-Manis Rooftop of Borneo Resort Facebook Photo Contest. We won another chance to visit Crocker Range again! 

For more info: 

http://www.manismanisresort.com.my

http://www.sabahtourism.com/destination/crocker-range-park

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keningau

Timeless in Brazil 2: Greatest architectures of all

Yesterday we visited several buildings in  São Paulo, today I'll show you more interesting places that you 'must-go'. 

São Paulo Se Metropolitan Cathedral
São Paulo Cathedral has a Neo-Gothic styled structure, built in 1913 and completed after four decades. Despite having a Renaissance-styled dome, the São Paulo Metropolitan Cathedral is the largest cathedral in  São Paulo and it's considered by some to be the 4th largest neo-gothic cathedral in the world. Located in
Praça da Sé (Se Square), there is a Marco Zero monument (ground zero) in front of the cathedral. Marco Zero is considered to be the center of the town. The hexagonal prism coated marble represents the geographic center of the city, where all distance measurements situated on signposts stuck to it are established. During the evening I visited this site, there were religious group of people performed mass in front of the cathedral (It was closed on Sundays). However, while admiring the building, beware of the pickpockets and street people who would come and ask you to buy toys or for money.

The Great São Paulo Cathedral 

 The São Paulo metro or rapid-transit system is the largest in the city and in Brazil. It was built in 1970s with length of 74.3km. Due to high population of this city, its traffic is terribly congested too. So, it's best to visit the city with metro.

Avenue Paulista
A famous and an important avenue in Sao Paulo metropolitan, Avenue Paulista is home to headquarters of a large number of finance and art institutions. There are banks, stock exchange, branded shops, TV and radios antennas, the landmark MASP, and of course, people. Since it's an important center of business and finance, the expenses in this area is rather high! Note that the avenue is also famous for its Gay Parade which held in May/June. According to wiki information, the city has 2.1 millions of opposite sex couples and 5,700 same-sex couples. Though it has more than 70% of Catholic Christians, Brazil is a secular state, and the LGBT people enjoy most of the same legal protections available to non-LGBT people. According to the Guiness World Records, the Sao Paulo Gay Pride Parade is the world's largest LGBT Pride celebration, with 4 million people in 2009.

The busy and famous Avenue Paulista

Oi!! I'm calling from the space!

The municipal collaborate with Telephone company 'Vivo' to run a decorate public phone booth campaign. Their creativity are shown in each phone booth along the Avenue Paulista.  In Brazil, people use colours to portrait art brilliantly. I especially enjoy seeing each piece of art that could be found everywhere in the avenue. 

A collection bin to collect recyclable items. It tells you what is recyclable and what is not. 

There's a nature urban forest right in the Sao Paulo city, it's located right next to the Avenue Paulista where a  road is dividing the forest. Not bad, they have a green lung in the city!

Sunday market where people sell many cute and nice handicrafts. Brazil is famous with their minerals, stones and gems. 

 Ibirapuera Park
Open since 1954, Ibirapuera is the city's largest and most popular park. Its buildings are designed by the famous architect Oscar Niemeyer (born in Rio de Janeiro, a Carioca, he designed Penang State Mosque in Malaysia too!) and landscaped by Roberto Burle Max (Yes, a Carioca, he's the one who designed the landscape for KLCC Park in Malaysia, and the famous Copacabana black and white promenade!!). In the midst of its eight pavilions, three lakes and many streets and lawns are the Museu de Arte Moderna (Modern Art Museum), the Pavilhao da Bienal and the Oca. Many people likes to do outdoor shows and sports mournaments (like marathon) there and the park is full of runners on weekday mornings. On Sundays, people will picnic with families, some foreign workers would also spend their off day at the park too. No wonder I have the feeling to relate it with our KLCC park when I was in the park!! I admire Brazilian artwork so much now.

Pedro Alvares Cabral, 'discoverer' of Brazil, began the age of Portugal occupation in Brazil. 

Monumento às Bandeiras, commemorating the pioneers from São Paulo who opened up the interior - a magnificent work by Victor Brecheret with imposing and heroic figures

Mercadao Municipal 

The Municipal Market, known affectionately as the Mercadao or 'Huge Market', opened in 1933. The towering roof is dotted with skylights and glass tiles that provide natural lighting. There are also 55 stain-glass windows imported from Germany. Originally, the market was supplied with fruit and vegetables that arrived by boat from local farms via the Tamanduatel river. Currently it employs about 1,600 people and some 300 stands. These sell 350 tons of produce to about 14,000 customers per day: fruits, vegetables, food and spices from all over the world, the tobacco stands, the huge variety of seafood, meat and fish, tea, drinks, and many more. The Bar do Mane, renowned for its Italian mortadella, prosciutto and roast pork sandwiches. 

friendly worker let me tried this sweet custard apple fruit -释迦果

roast pork and cheese sandwich!

 Today's content is rather random with buildings again, next post I'll write about the people.
(To be continued)

Timeless in Brazil 1

One good thing about being in a foreign country is you'll get to know about different cultures and history from that country. 

Apart from the Rio+20 and World Youth Congress report, I would like to share a bit of my journey in Rio and Sao Paulo. This time, I'll take you to Sao Paulo and have a look for its enriched history, architectures, people, art and culture. 

The  São Paulo City

São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and Americas, with more than 10.6 million people residing in the city and it's the world's seventh largest city by population.  São Paulo is also one of the ten largest metropolitan areas on the planet with its strong regional influence in commerce and finance as well as arts and entertainment. The metropolis has significant cultural, economic and political influence both nationally and internationally. Today we will go through briefly several magnificent sites that show the depth of this big city. 

Skyscrapers

The first impression about the São Paulo city is its skyscrapers. Since I'm staying in a high-rise condominium, I could view the city with its magnificent view - skyscrapers in East, West, South, North, it's everywhere! No hills or forest as seen in Rio de Janeiro, this city is really, really big! 

Sao Paulo City stretched to the far far end.

Museu do Ipiranga

This huge neo-renaissance-style palace, whose Baroque gardens take after Versailles, opened in 1890 on the site where Dom Pedro I declared Brazil independent of Portugal. The huge, 125,000-piece collection ranges from 16th to the mid-20th century. It includes sculptures, paintings, documents and weapons, and so on. The great hall features the famous painting Independencia on morte, by Pedro Americo. In front of the museum is a beautiful Baroque-style garden, with fountains where people jog, walk their pets, play skate boards and sunbathing in there. Further in front of that garden, is the monument to Independence in the Independence park. Daniel the marvelous traveller said there was once a very, very huge Brazilian flag located in the center of the park, but somebody, with some capability, stolen the flag. We have no idea how could he/she/they do that. 

Museu do Ipiranga, a huge neo-renaissance-style palace.

Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo

MASP, as it's called, contains the most valuable collection of paintings in Latin America. The current building was designed by Lina Bo Bardi and constructed in 1968 with concrete and glass. The box-like structure is supported by four pillars, creating a 74 meters span. The 5500-piece collection includes paintings by Van Gogh, Cezanne, Monet, Manet, Renoir, Valezquez, Goya, Rembrandt, as well as collection by Edgar Degas. It is also considered a landmark of the city which is located at the famous Paulista Avenue (like Bukit Bintang in Kuala Lumpur). The art museum, institutes and library in MASP played important roles in shaping and conserving the Brazilian art!

MASP, a box-shaped building

 Estadio do Pacaembu

This stadium is also known as Municipal Stadium of Sao Paulo. They have a football museum in the lower ground floor beneath the stadium where football fans can find historical photographs along with visits to the playing field, sport center, the great hall, the radio and TV broadcasting booths. It's a place for Sao Paulo football club fans to go on weekend on any matches of their favourite clubs. Basically, most of the Brazilian have their own cup of tea, since there are soooo many sport clubs in Brazil. So, Daniel the marvelous traveller said he preferred Corinthians Paulista which based in Sao Paulo, second most famous team in Brazil and have 24-26 million fans. The winning club in national championship could represent in the national team in international sport events like World Cup! 

This is the stadium! Pacaembu!

Edificio Italia

The 42-story Edificio Italia is one of the tallest buildings in Sao Paulo, at 165 meters. It is designed by the famous architect Adolf Franz Heep, and has the highest observation point in the city. Like KL Tower, it has Terraco Italia restaurant on the top two floors where we can view the Edificio Copan and sunset. However, there are charges to enter the restaurant and so we just take some photos from the 33rd floor. 


 Edificio Copan
Designed by Oscar Niemeyer, the building opened in 1966, fifteen years after the plan was first drawn. It's the greatest example of modernist architecture in Sao Paulo. Its signature features are the serpentine structure  and the horizontal lines. The Copan is one of the largest reinforced concrete structures in the country.

Teatro Municipal

Opened in 1911, this eclectically-styled 1464-seat theater was designed by Francisco Ramos de Azevedo's after the Paris Opera House. It is the home of several municipal music and dance companies, including two orchestras (a full-scale symphony orchestra and a smaller one dedicated to experimental music), a string quartet, two choral groups, and a ballet company. Note that there are many ancient buildings in Sao Paulo city center, Se, they are all well maintained. This municipal theater is still well function and maintained. Look at the sculptures on paints on this building, they are especially delicate and distinct. 

Youth dress in punk gathered in front of the theater for some activity. 

Today we have seen buildings of neo-renaissence-style, ecletic style and modern style, tomorrow I'll show you other magnificent buildings and places in this city!

To be continued. =)