This is my digital castle.  Can you guess what it is?

I found a way to take this photo and make the light-green circles appear.  I used backlighting.  The green circles are actually semi-transparent which helped me a lot to create this picture.  This picture can’t look better without the semi-transparent circles.

I made my own lightbox for taking photographs, but it seems does not work with black background, because the black ground is not black at all.  Therefore I had to use white background.  This castle is the first product that came out from my lightbox.

I brought SiewPeng to Serian for the first time.  It is only a small town, but famous for its durian (king of fruits), therefore we can find at least 2 big durian monuments here.

We did not stop in the town except for buying drink, take the photo of this durian monument and went to 2 places near by - Ranchan Recreational Park and Danau Lake Garden.  Nothing special to see in Serian town.

Okay, let me make a few things clear about the word “Serian”, and I use my words to zoom out the picture and let you see the whole thing.  From wikipedia, I have learned that:-

* Serian Town is the capital of the Serian District.
* Serian District is on of the 4 districts within the Samarahan Division boundary.
* Samarahan Division is one of the 11 administrative divisions in Sarawak.
* Sarawak is one of the 14 states in Malaysia.
* Malaysia is one of the 195 or 196 countries on this planet called Earth.
* The Earth is one of the 8 planets in Solar System.
* …
* …

Want to know more? Wiki it yourself.  Then you will know that Bidayuh is the main population.  You will also know that what the other 3 districts besides Serian within Samarahan division are.  Tell me if you know the answer.

Durian on SiewPeng’s head. :p

Durian on my head too. :p

I should summarize all the posts that are related to Serian now.  A short trip to Serian has caused me to produce 9 posts for it (including this post).  As you may know, categorizing and focusing on a topic for each post is always my practice.

Here we go:-

1.  Serian Ranchan Recreational Park - Part 1 - Tree Tower
2.  Serian Ranchan Recreational Park - Part 2
3.  Serian Ranchan Recreational Park - Part 3 - Our Photos

4.  Danau Lake Garden, Serian - Part 1
5.  Danau Lake Garden - Part 2 - We Were Not Alone
6.  Danau Lake Garden - Part 3 - Baruk on the Lake
7.  Danau Lake Garden - Part 4 - Unsafe

8.  Took Wrong Turn but Found Paddy Field
9.  Visited Serian Town- the Town of Durian (This posts)

Hope you enjoy! :p

We saw a signboard telling us to turn left into Ranchan Park, and we turned into that road.  Actually the junction to Ranchan is still 1 km ahead.  They have put a misleading signboard.  We did not see the Ranchan park, but we saw quite a number of small paddy field here and there along the road.

Immediately, I found a safe place to stop my car (it is a narrow 1-1 lane road), and I walked down to take some photos.

The most attractive part was the bright and light green coloured young paddy.  The ground seems like has been highlighted by the natural highlighter.  They looked soft and gentle, and they danced in the breeze.

I believe that the villagers make use every single piece of the land that they could find beside the road, and they were very hardworking.

Silently, I took their photo from far away.  They look like a family.

Sometimes, we took a wrong turn or used the road that we have never thought of using in our lives, but we will always  find something new and interesting along the way.

First, I have to tell you that these are the pictures that I have taken in early August 2009.  I am not sure if they have repaired the broken facilities now.  I hope they have taken actions before it is too late.

I can’t imagine what terrible things could happen if one or a group of blinds were here without a guide (as I can always see at Rock Road or Ong Tiang Swee Road in Kuching, they can really walk across the road without any guidance.)  And I also imagine that a few children running on the bridge.  They all have the risk to fall into the lake.  What is the depth of the lake?  There is no sign which gives that information, therefore I don’t know.

From the staircase, we can see the water.  Some kids or even adults may not dare to walk through it.  Don’t laugh, there are also people that not dare to walk on the overbridge to get across a road.

The worse thing is someone has his key dropped into the lake or slipped her foot into the staircase because the staircase is not covered.

Look, there is at least one small hole.

I believe the hole will be getting bigger if it is not repaired.

Another question in my mind, how long has this been happening?  Since when the platform has been collapsing?  What is the reason they didn’t repair it as soon as they can.  Money?  Where have those rich people gone to?  My suggestion to the authority who maintain this lake garden is:- Use good quality material.

Since there are more than one place which are damaged, I guess it did not happen a few days before we visited there.  It must have happened months or even years ago.

I hope that the next time SiewPeng and I visit the lake again, we can walk on a properly built and safe bridge.

The shape of this structure looks like a Bidayuh’s Baruk.  It is a place for gathering for the nearby residents.  We saw there was a number of people doing something there, they were talking loudly, and we did not get close to them.

From this angle, the Baruk seems quite big.

I notice that many big huts in Kuching or even Sarawak are in the shape of a Baruk.  Another example is the big hut in Stutong Park, Kuching.  There is a building somewhere near waterfront Kuching next to the River Bank Suite which is built as a modern tall baruk as well (It is called the Khatulistiwa cafe if I am not mistaken) :p .

Look at the bridge above, if SiewPeng and I were riding a paddle boat, how can we get through the bridge?

How nice if someone can provide the pedalo / paddle boats service there.  They can actually attract tourists by doing just taking a little bit of action such as maintaining, and upgrading the lake garden.  Currently, this place looks plain except the huts in the middle of the lake and the bridge that are connecting them.

Another attraction of this park is the beautiful sunset.  The sunset position is at the mountain that is visible from the lake.  We were there at about 1:30p.m., we did not stay until 6p.m..  Next time, we will go there in the evening to take the photo of sunset there.  (I know about this when I googled about this lake, and I saw a beautiful sunset photo.)

How many roofed resting huts can you see in our picture above? And we were certainly not alone anymore.  Can you spot the other visitors of the lake as well?  They look so tiny in the picture.

Once again, we left our footprints, we have left “two and a half pair” of footprint.

If you understand Chinese, can you remember a song? - “WaiPoDePengHuWan” which means “Grandmother’s PengHu Bay“by LiuWenZheng?  There is a part of the lyric said the there are two and a half pair of footprint.

Yes, our umbrella is the “half pair”.

Look at the tiny red dot.

There was a boy in red shirt and red pants, fishing by the side of the lake.  He can tell his teacher, “My hobby is fishing.”  What a relaxed Sunday afternoon.

A man with green singlet was riding a bicycle on the footpath in the lake park.  He might have wanted to go to the shops or market to buy something, at the same time passing by the lake park.

Yes, we were not alone, besides the boy and the man, there were fish in the lake.  The breeze and fish worked together to show us the ripples on the surface of the greenish lake water.  Besides, the tiny dropped leaves added white / yellow dots to the lake.

If you are alone, do you dare to go to this lake garden all by yourself?

After we left the Ranchan Recreational Park, we went to the Danau Lake Garden (Taman Tasik Danau in Malay language) about 2 or 3km away from the park.

It’s a nice place to take potrait when the sky is clear and blue.  We went on a hazy day, and what we got is the white coloured sky.

There are a few roofed huts in the middle of the lake and each of them are connected with bridges.

It was a very quiet Sunday afternoon at the lake garden, we could hardly see anybody there except SiewPeng and me.

The wooden structures on the lake (the huts and bridges) has added the uniqueness to the lake.  They help forming a good element such as lines and pattern in my photographs.  I have added this place to my list of “Places to take outdoor potrait”.

An old hut in the shape of a boat, lack of maintenance, and the damage can be seen.

There is a small concrete to allow motorcycle and bicycle to pass through the mini road in the middle of the lake.

It can be seen from far away because the railing on the bridge was painted in black and white.

This structure looks like a bridge but it was built on land instead of above water.  I cannot understand why not they just continue the mini road or the walking path to the other side.  If the ground was muddy they could just remove it and make a concrete path.  ?!?

And there is a warning sign for this structure.

“This structures are not secure for carrying heavy load.  You are advised not to use these facilities in group of more than 2 (Two) persons.”  It looks funny.

The authority prefers to use the money to make this red ugly signboard instead of repairing the structure.  This is not the only signboard, we saw at least 2 or 3 warning signs for the bridge as well.

To be continued…

We were at the Ranchan Recreational Park’s entrance.

We were the explorers and started to walk into the park. This park seems to be a new place to me although I have been here years ago because it might have changed and I have forgotten how it looked like last time.

The trees at both sides of the path were shaking hands.  They formed a shape which looks like a door because the trees on both sides were falling towards each other.  We found a similar thing while we were jogging in the Stutong Park recently.  There was a monkey climbing from the branch on the left of the walking path to the right.  It can be a sky bridge for monkeys.

There are at least 3 or 4 bridges in the Ranchan Park which can become a great background for taking potraits.

This is a Chinese style bridge.  They used 3 types of materials to build this bridge:- Steel, wood and concrete.

A wooden bridge behind us.

The suspension bridge became our background.

We spent about an hour in the park, and the tree tower took us half of the time.  It is a nice place if you want to enjoy the nature.  It is also fun to swim or play in the stream but everyone must take note of the safety.

Next we went to the Serian lake, I will show you in the next posts.

It’s a rocky park.

We walked through this bridge, there are only four main poles in pink.

As you can see there are supports on the bridge all the way and no pole in the middle, it is a hanging or suspension bridge.

This bridge is not static, it was shaking and produced sound when we walked through.  Another group of people have waited us to get through before they used it.  One of the member ( a young lady) in that group felt scared and she was reluctant to walk across.

Recently there is an incident where a group of students camping near a bridge at Kampar and the bridge had collapsed while the students were walking on it and it had taken 3 students’ lives.  The government are now checking on all the suspension bridges across the nation.  I think this bridge in Serian Ranchan Part is not excluded.

There are ponds in the park.  Some of them are human-made so that it can form mini or even a micro dam.

We did not prepare our swimwear, we just walked around, taking photographes and enjoyed our food.

There is a short walking path in the park where it lead us into the deeper part of the park.  Nothing special there, except we found a group of youngster sitting there making noises.  They seemed happy, and enjoying their Sunday afternoon.

Were we running?  No, we were just walking.

The root of a tree has damaged the concrete walking path.

Big leaves are very common in any park in Malaysia.

This is the area when we reached the top.

Time for macro photography.

Another common things that can be found in the tropical forest.

We were on the bridge when taking this photo.  It is the leaves of a palm tree, viewed from top of it.  Yes, we stood higher than a tree.

The dropped leaves had fallen into the ponds.  Nobody was swimming here.

Someone left rubbish on the stone bench.  We had no choice but sat here to have our food while watching the water of the stream flowing.  We found that we were surrounded with rubish left by other visitors.

While we were having our food, we saw a cat meowing at us.  I thought it wanted some food too, but when I stood up and walked to it, it started moving.  It seemed that it wanted to bring me to somewhere.  But later it hid itself in a hole among stones ( a mini cave for it).

We found another b/w (black and white) cat.

Is there any message on the stone?

This is the way to the tree tower.

We found that there were at least 2 or more disclaimer signboards that tell the visitors that the authority is not responsible for anything (especially bad things) that might happen in the park.

It was a hazy day when we visited this park, and the weather was hot.  The waterfall and the stream seemed to have dried up.  We could even walk across the rocks (a stream when there is water) and did not get wet.  We will come here again and see if the waterfall is “working”.

Months ago, when there was haze in Kuching, we went to Serian Ranchan Recreation Park.  Serian is a small town which is about 60km from Kuching.  At that time, my car was just back from the workshop for replacing the broken timing belt.  I wanted to test my car for a longer distance instead of just driving around Kuching, and SiewPeng and I ended up in Serian.

Plus another 3km from Serian town, we reached Ranchan Recreation Park.  The most special thing here is the tree tower.

It is a big tree, and the tower is built with the tree as the natural piling in the center of the wooden structure.

SiewPeng and I were excited, we climbed up and took photo of ourselves there.

The head of the tower tree as our background.

The staircase were built surrounding the tree.

There are at least 3 or 4 stories before we reach the top.  It was not top of the tree, but top of the tower where we can have a wider view.

We kept on climbing the staircase.

Looking down the staircase.

Finally we reached the top floor.

We can see the telecommunication tower on a mountain quite far from us.

This is the top part of the tree.  They can make few more stories for the tower, but they did not.  It’s good because the beauty of the tree has been preserved.

Looking up at the tree from different angle.

We are surrounded by trees.

Let’s look downwards.

There is a hut on the ground.

I zoomed in again, and found a kid playing around.

I like the design of this tree, it is natural.  I will consider make one in front of my future dream house.

The tree is protected but we can still see writings on the tree.

We stepped our feet on the tower.

This tower was not maintained properly.  Luckily we have watched our steps otherwise we may have fallen down from 4th floor to 3th floor.  There is a big hole on part of the staircase.

This is the top floor (4th floor).  At each floor, there is a flat platform for visitors to view the scenery.  What I mean is, there is not only staircase along the way to the top, but visitors can stop at each floor.

The only thing that they don’t have is benches or chair.  Next time, we will bring our own.

We can see they had built a mini tar road  for motorcycle or bicycle in the park.

The tree seems like in a cage.

This may not be the best photo, but I like the lighting.

I found a round-shaped moss on a piece of wood.

This is the root of the tree for the tower.  Everything started here.  I will continue to show you more photos of the Serian Ranchan Recreation Park.

Right after we have visited the Kubah National Park, we made use of our ticket to enter this wildlife center without any extra charges, we still had the time, and we took a 15 minutes distance by car to reach here.

According to the map, we were actually taking a big round, but the direct path would be through the jungle which take hours climbing up and down.  Which one would you take?

Orang Utan is the main attaction here.

Please take time to watch the video that I have taken on Orang Utan.

If it is a human hand, the caption would be, “Help… help…!”

Another type of ape.

Deers.  (I guess)

Some of them have antler on their heads.  May be that’s an easier way to differentiate which one is the male and female.

We were given a map before we entered the wildlife center and were told that some places we should not go because some fo the apes were released to the nature and they might attack human.

I wondered if the ticket seller at the entrance who gave me the map have ever walked into the park.  She used a pen to draw this and that onto the map but finally ended up that we reached an area where it was not on the map and we could not find some sections that were labelled on the map.  We almost missed Orang Utan.  We had to walk on the road inside the park, and there was no proper signboard to tell us where to go, and the map seemed to have something wrong.

Finally, We forgot about map and put it aside, and we explored by ourselves.  Our conclusion about this park is:-  ”It is big but SMALL“.  Why?  It is big because we had to walk for quite a distance to see the wildlife (wasting time ), but the number of animals is small.  We were disappointed because there were not many animals there.  Another main reason, we were exhausted and tired to continue walking (after we have spent the whole day in Kubah Nationaal Park), we were just there for about 30 minutes and left.

It was just like a big house with no furniture, or a beautifully designed website with no content.

I hope the condition of this wildlife center can be improved especially on the signboard to show the direction, do not let any part of it to be closed down.

I like this pose.  Animal can kneel down to show respect too.

Another good example is a baby goat usually kneel down to drink milk from its mother to show respect.  It is grateful whereas not all human beings are like that.

If is quite challenging while taking photos of animal behind the fences.  First, the auto focus may not work properly, because most of the time it will focus on the fence instead of the animal.  Second, it becomes worst when the animals keep on moving which add the difficulty to manual focus.

Some of the pictures here are taken under manual focus mode, I should have shown you the pictures of hornbill ( a type of big bird that can be found in Borneo island), but all of them are blur because it was quite difficult for me to focus under low light condition and the hornbills were moving.

Leopard Cat.  Read the following for details:-

Some of the wildlifes were labelled properly with detail description, but not all.

If I am not mistaken, I have seen one of the description about the Orang Utan that says, “its hands are 10 times more powerful than human.”

Do and Don’t in the park.

We saw this signboard not far from the entrance and we are interested in some of the Waterfall.  They are all jungle trails which take hours.  We will try these trails next time.

Last weekend, we bought a bag of raw peanuts with skins (and a bit of soil as well) and we planned to boil the peanuts with their skins together.

May be the hypermarket had kept the peanut for too long, some of the peanuts has rooted.

Each of the peanuts is unique.  We cannot find any two with the exact shape and size.

Then came another plan, we planted them in our garden.  And before we did that, they all had a photography session with me.  This is not the first time I took the photos of peanuts, but this is the first time, I took the peanuts’ photos with roots.

Does it look like a worm?  It says, “hello” to you.

The skin was not fully opened, but the root stretched to get out of the shell.

This is the peanut family.  They have different shapes and sizes, like in a family there are father, mother, grandparents, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, relatives etc..

This is how they look before I planted them into soil.

Crowded.

Stay tune for their latest update.  I will take their photos at different stages.  This is a real one, not the virtual farm such as Farmville in Facebook.

He was called Mr Yellow.  He passed away on the 11th of August 2009.  But he will always be in our hearts!  He was a great companion.  He was naughty and mischievous but he was loved by all.  He also had a loud voice but that was also his weakness because we can easily know where he was hiding.  Hehe… Mr Yellow, we miss you.

This is a USB sound card.  It seems brandless, but it works.

If you have a sound card problem with your existing computer for example, you have a faulty onboard sound device or you have a notebook which replaces the internal sound card is not possible, this type of USB sound card is the easiest solution.

The PnP written on this device (in light blue) means it is Plug and Play.  Just insert it into USB port of a PC, under Windows 2k/xp and above, it will be detected and configured automatically.

Next connect mic or headphone or speaker to it.  The soundless computer is alive again.

The quality of the sound might not be the best among different brands, but I like its design.  The semi-transparent made the internal components visible.

[This is not an advertorial, I just want to let you know that there is always solutions when any part of your computer is not working properly.]

I was testing to shoot photo of the light from my torchlight and found that the label on my lense was shown in the torchlight.

Can you see 5.0-100 mm 1:28-5.7 USM?  There are actually smaller word in the photo, “CANON ZOOM LENS 20X IS”, but it can hardly be seen (too small).

Last night I chatted through facebook with a friend who have the same series of camera as mine, we share experience and I found that I have not written a review of my 8-months old camera.  Should I write it?  May be the photos that I have taken previously are all the reviews.

There are different types of reviews such as technical review etc., let me call mine, result-oriented review.  Read my posts from March 2009 onward for the reviews, because most of the photos from that day on are taken with my new camera.

Happy Sunday.

Finally I decided to publish this post, not to purposely dig out negative things about the event and our city but I hope that it can create public awareness about the behaviour of the public which has turned into a negative culture that may need to be changed.

First, the rubbish bin has not extinct yet, there are rubbish bins on the street.  We have no excuse that we can’t find one because we can always our take our own rubbish home and throw it into our own rubbish bin.  We are living in the 21st century, anybody live in a city or modernized world but don’t have even a small bag to store rubbish at home?  And think carefully what would you feel if each members of the family throw rubbish everywhere in a house?

Then there is no reason to throw rubbish on the street because this is a selfish and an irresponsible action.  The rubbish thrower only remember about his/her own convinience and ignore the public clealiness and hygiene as his/her responsibility.  If one person does it, it doesn’t seem to affect the beauty of the city, what if hundreds of people doing it at the same time, it can make a city looks ugly.  An ugly city reflects that the culture of its residents are ugly.

! ! !  These scenes shown in these pictures captured by my camera after the event ended should not have happened actually. ! ! !

But it happened.

Second, everyone of us have the responsibility to stop this practice.  Sometimes the human actions have similarity with the chain mail.  People around may be easily infected with the bad behaviour and keep on forwarding it to the people nearby.  If someone see that the person beside him/her throwing the rubbish on the ground, he/she will start having an excuse that someone else is also doing the same thing to reduce his feeling of guiltiness and easily forget the fact that the action might be wrong.

Another example, if you found parking spaces while you are searcing for one and you are very happy, but both cars on the left and right of your parking slots were parked out of the lines, what will you do?

1.  <most people will do this>  You may follow the trend to park out of the line as well.  But you never know that after the car beside you left, you are the one to inherit this illegal action to the coming cars which can be fined.

2.  If the space is big enough, you park your car according to the line on the parking lot.  You may temporarily cause the car behind you to horn at you because it seems that you have taken 2 lots of parking space, but you are right because after your neighbours left, the next cars that take up the spaces will very likely to follow the rules back.

Think carefully.  Of cause there is nothing absolutely right or wrong, but we have to minimize our own selfishness to maximize the public benefits.

These pictures show that there are a lot of individual selfishness which most of them forgot that they had given a bad impression to tourists about their own city and their own ugly face which always attached to what they have been doing.  And they taught the bad habit to the people around them.

Finally, there is no excuse.  Some people may give unreasonable excuses such as it is the cleaners’ job to clean it up, or what is the purpose we hire the cleaner.  Some people may say that they follow the others to throw their unwanted rubbish in a centralised area which make the life of the street sweepers easier.  It sounds a bit logical in a minor scope but it is actually unreasonable.  Why?

1.  If the rubbish is left in an open area which it is visible to everyone, it creates a bad impression especially to tourists and it tells people around you to do the same thing as well.

2.  The authority can save on hiring the cleaners if there is a public awareness of keeping the area not only clean but tidy.  Then, the government can use of the money from tax payers in more beneficial ways.

***  Talking about the government, actually they have the responsibility to stop this negative culture as well.  From what I have found on google, some country apply the law of “pay as you throw” which can be very effective because instead of hiring cleaners, the authority can hire the “cleanliness police”.  Although they need more man power, but they can generate income from the fine that they might have collected.  They can hire part-timer and in this way, job opportunities are created.  It may take months or years to reduce the rubbish-throwing habit of the public, by then they can reduce the man power to save the cost of hiring the the cleaners as well as the “cleanliness police”.  However, corruption is the obstacle in making idea success.

Well, finally I announce that this is the last post of the Malaysia Day Celebration 2009.  You can get the list of posts from part 1 to part 10 here.

On our left hand side.

On our right hand side.

Crowd far away.  They were late comers and were not allowed to enter to the limited space like us.  And the crowd group at both sides were getting bigger.  They were clever because they did not have to wait for so long before the event started, but they did not get a strategic seat.

Did you see similar photo somewhere?  This is a typical photo style on a National Day celebartion.  And this time, I have the opportunities to take this type of photos.  The elements are a flag as a foreground, a kid turning her head back facing the camera, adults and the event scenes as the background.  Unfortunately, the kid was not looking at my camera.

Yayasan Sarawak building was just right behind the stage across a road.

The sky was still blue, they still haven’t finished setting up things.

The police station on my right hand side across a street.

The stages.  Many times, there were someone in front of me holding up his camera or her mobile phone while blocking my view, they all went into my camera.

Can you see there were a lot of flags on top of the “beam” of the stage?

The light in ball shape and the flag holders around it.

Wow…  This is my 11th post on Malaysia Day Celebration in Kuching on 10 Oct 2009 (Saturday) at Padang Merdeka or “The field of Independence”.  2.5 hours of waiting and 2 hours of the programmes on the stages had almost fully taken up all my camera memory card’s space (8GB but only left 100+MB).  And for the past two weeks, you can see I had only written about the Malaysia Day.

This will be the last time, Malaysia Day is celebrated on a working day.  Our government has announced a few days ago that starting from next year ( 2010) onwards, Malaysia Day will be a public holiday to commemorate the establishment of the Malaysian federation on the 16th September 1963 where Malaya, North Borneo (Sabah), Sarawak, and Singapore joined to formed Malaysia.

Let me list out all the posts:-
46th Malaysia Day Celebration in Kuching - Part 1
Part 2 - Before the Event Started
Part 3 - The Flags
Part 4 - Speeches
Part 5 - Dance from Sabah
Part 6 - Dance from Sarawak
Part 7 - Dance from Peninsular
Part 8 - The Marching Band
Part 9 - Stage Performances
Part 10 - The Media
Part 11 -  Surrounding Us (this post)

Should I make it a dozen?  I have got the 12th post about Malaysia Day 2009 ready but I am still thinking of whether I should post it because it is the negative thing of the event… …

He is the official videographer from RTM for Malaysia Day event.  He looked serious while he put all of his concentration in taking the video.  Occasionally, after he finished shooting someone, he paused his recording, nodded his head and smiled to the person he was shooting at.

Look carefully, he was also having a red 1Malaysia cap on his head.

Another Video camera from RTM (Radio Television Malaysia) which they put at one of the corners on the stage.

He always took video at a very close distance.  I guess that his video camera has a wide angle lense on it.

He was right in front of the performers on the stage, and he walked in between them even there was only a limited space.  His distance with what he was shooting could be as close as 1 meter only.

Besides, I also found that there were a lot of news reporters gathered in front of the VIP area taking the photos of the most important moments.

There is a idiom in Chinese says that, “Tang2Lang2Bu3Chan2, Huang2Que4Zai4Hou4.”

The meaning of this idiom is:-
     TangLang -  praying mantis
     Bu - is catching
     Chan- cicada (a type of noisy insect)

     HuangQue - canary (a type of yellow bird)
     ZaiHou - at behind.

The whole sentense means that the praying mantis is catching a cicada but it is unawared that a canary is trying to catch it from behind as well.

 The photograpers from the media were taking the photos of the VIPs, and I was taking the photos of them. And they might have not noticed me at all.

Yes, I like to take the photos of another photographer while he / she is talking photos.

Some of their tripods are taller than themselves.  I wonder how they were going to look at the viewfinder and press the shutter release button.  They must have used a remote control.

Again, this is my first time getting so near to a big group of media, and watching them doing their jobs.  The flash lights were flashing non-stop during the important moments which the pictures would have been published in their newspaper on the following days.

For VIPs, I believe they have trained their eyes to get used to flash lights.

Look carefully at the photo above, there is a video camera on a crane.  It can move freely in the sky.  It must be the video camera from the TV station.

The media was behind us, and I have to turn my head back to take their photos.

The college students have joined the media to take photos and videos.  I think they will use it for their school work.

I did not join.  First, I did not have a permit to do so.  I noticed that the staffs from media had a tag on their necks to identify themselves as a media from a news agent.  Second, I did not want to join the crowd among the media.  They might have to fight for a good and strategic location to be able to view the best scene.  Most importantly, I wanted to take the photos of the media while they were busy doing their work.  Muahaha haha… …  I might have taken more photos than anyone of them excluding the photos of the VIPs, which I am not interested.  :p

Besides the cultural dances from Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia, there were also youngsters in white, blue, red and yellow performing on the stage as a welcome to the VIPs and as the “background” for the singers :p.  They were also busy in between the programmes of the night where they appeared after a programme ended and before the next programme started.  They were also lined up to welcome the VIPs going up the stage for delivering their speeches.

Can I call them cheerleaders?  They looked similar to cheerleaders.

Watch the video above, they have different types of actions.

Remember I told you that we have a long wait before the VIP arrived?  This group of active youngsters were also waiting on the stages.   Before the ceremony started, they were bored.  Some of them took out their mobile phone and started texting, some of them were talking to their friends and laughing, some kept on looking here and there.

They were waiting, and we were waiting too.  Was this girl looking at my camera? Smile!

Waiting.

Still waiting.

They stood up and got ready, the VIP was coming.

They started performing.

They had different types of actions.

I noticed that they were divided into groups, some of them always had to look at the person in front and follow the action.  Sometimes they were slower by half a second before they can follow the action of the person in front.  May be they had limited time for the rehearsal, however they still performed well.

Males on the left sides of the stages.  I guess the man in the red shirt was their leader.  The rest of them always turned their heads and followed his actions.

The flag team was ready to go up the stage.

Our Malaysia flag’s colours:- yellow, white, red, blue.

Sometimes, they went up the stages while the singers were singing.  And they became the background for the singers.

They may not be 100% perfect, but I could see that they had put in a lot of effort, especially as a large group of people.  It was not easy to synchronize everybody’s steps and actions, unless they have trained for at least months.  Good teamwork!

If you were the person in the photo above and reading my blog here, I would like to send you your photo.

They were marching towards the stage.

Watch the video below.  You will notice that the picture above was taken when I was recording the video.  Sometimes I like this feature on my camera, but sometimes I don’t.  It can spoil my recorded video with a 2 seconds pause each time I take a photo.  That’s why I have a rule for myself when shooting video:- I do not use this feature when I shoot dancing performances on the stage.

The commander was leading the band.  I always like to see a commander throws his stick into the sky and turns it.

This lady drummer looked serious but funny.

Watch the video below and see if you can sense it.  I saw this similar scene (the way the lady hit the drum) somewhere in a battery advertisement on TV, a cartoon character with the batteries were hitting a drum as well.  The funniest part is the way hitting the drum.

Hey, if you were this lady and read these paragraphs, don’t be angry, okay .  You have done a good job to entertain everyone and make the ceremony a success.  I can send your photo and video to you too.

Lined up on the stage.

Big horns.

Another song.  Did you notice that another group of people on the stage were waving the flag.  As I told you, there were 6 stages, so the area was quite big.

Generally, this is a good marching band performance because they are entertaining although most of them looked serious.  I wonder if they were allowed to laugh or smile while doing their performance or they must be serious all the time.

The third dance of the night was performed by the dancers from Peninsular Malaysia (or Semenanjung Malaysia in Malay or it is also known as West Malaysia).

We have forgotten the name of this dance, the only thing we know is that they were from across the South China Sea from here, West Malaysia.

They were in half red and half white.

They kept on turning and turning, and suddenly… …

One of the ladies had been lifted up by the rest of the dancers.  Amazing.

I noticed that the 3 dances, Sabah, Sarawak and this one all had something in common, they share this similarity in their dances.  They put up their arms, and looked like accepting something from the sky.  Did they try to show the patriotism by having this action?

The costumes here show the multiculture of West Malaysia.   I guess the man with the dried grass was representing Orang Asli (original peoples) in West Malaysia.

Chinese Kungfu.

Let’s watch the slideshow that I have made from the photos that I have taken.  I did not take any videos for this dance because I was busy taking photos until the dance has ended.

Same group of dancers, but this time, they had a colourful cloth in their hands.

They kept on waving their colourful cloths in their hands, and kept on walking around, making a circle etc..

They are still performing Kungfu (Chinese martial arts).  It was a great idea to use a white cloth and create a shadow on the stage.  When the correct lighting was used, a person wearing a cap holding the white cloth can be seen as a shadow.

A long cloth in white, red and blue were pulled across the stage.

Similar to the previous two dances, the second half of the dance performance was added with songs from local singers.

They were in 4 colours that are the same as our Malaysia flag:- blue, red, white and yellow.

Get closer and look at their expressions.

This is the whole stage that we could see from where we sat.  Look at my left and right hand side, they were people taking photos and videos as well.  Sometimes they blocked my view.

Did you notice that on the left and right of the main stage, they were also stages with dancers.  As I told you in the previous posts, there were 6 stages, but most of the time, I focus on the middle front stage.

Again, I know nothing about this dance, if you know what it is about, please tell me okay?

Welcome to Sarawak!

The cultural dance performers representing the Sarawak state in Malaysia welcomes everybody who was on the spot witnessing this meaningful event that day, the celebration of Hari Malaysia (the Malaysia Day).  If I am not mistaken, the costume that she was wearing that day is the Iban traditional costume.

The performance portrayed costumes and daces of the different cultures and races in Sarawak.  We must say that they have really put in a lot of effort to make everything possible that night.

Almost all the audiences put on their red caps that has a 1Malaysia logo on it.  The patriotic spirit was so strong and could be easily be seen every where.

Accompanied by the wonderful music, the performers gave out their very best that night.  They must have gone through a lot of hard work and endless practices in order to dance as gracefully as they could be.

There was always a smile on their faces even though I’m sure it must have been pretty hot on the stage.  Not to mention the traditional items that they had to put on to fully show the specialty in each different culture.  Let’s give them a big round of applause.

The warmth and unity between different races and cultures were so strongly felt.  It was a feast to the eyes to be able to see these cultural performances because you don’t get to see them every day or whenever you like it.

And the feeling of unity is still being felt in our hearts every time we look at the pictures that we took and the videos that we recorded that night.

As a matter of fact, let’s feel the warmth and unity together through this video that we have captured.

The music started with the beginning of a famous song in Sarawak, Puteri Santubong (Princess Santubong).  Santubong is one of the most famous mountains in Sawarak. You can listen to the complete version of the song here.

If you listen carefully, the song actually tells a story about the princess. However, we still can’t figure out the whole picture of the story through the song lyrics because we don’t know the language well.  Nevertheless, it’s a nice song to listen to so hope you’ll enjoy it.  You might have heard it on TV before because we did.

There’s the smile again.  They are very good indeed.  Another round of applause for them again.

I hope I’m not wrong.  I think this is the Bidayuh’s traditional costume.  Am I correct?

I am not sure about this one.  Could anyone tell me?

Here are more pictures from the cultural performance.

He was wearing a hornbill as a decoration on his head.  Look, the feathers are big in size.  Some of them are in black and white stripes.

Performers representing the Chinese culture.

Some of their clothes are made of natural materials.

We’ve seen something similar to what this performer was wearing during our visit to the Sawarak Cultural Village.  If I am not mistaken, that is the Orang Ulu’s traditional costume.

Can you name the different races in the picture above?

Working hard and giving their best.

During the performance, there was a singer who delivered some songs about Sawarak, entertaining the entire audience.

Coming up next, is the dance performance from Kuala Lumpur representing the whole Peninsular Malaysia.
Jangan ke mana-mana! (Don’t go anywhere!)

One of the most important highlights of the Hari Malaysia (Malaysia Day) events were the cultural dances.  This year the organizer has made arrangement for 3 dances from 3 main regions in Malaysia - Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia.

Beautiful ladies in their traditional costumes were performing their beautiful traditional dance.

Zooming while shooting… … … … It is done in Photoshop. :p

How many colours are there on their costume?  Red / orange, pink, yellow, blue, white, light green, black …

Let me show you the video, may be you can tell me the name of this dance.  The MC has mentioned about its name but we have forgotten.

Switch on your speaker so that you can listen to the music.

Turning the camera horizontally and vertically while shooting.  … … … Again, done in photoshop. :p

This lady did not dance on the stage but stood on the red carpet which was connecting the VIP area to the stage in the middle of the field.  She was so close to us, 90 degree on our right hand side.  She moved forward so that the VIPs could see her dance clearer.

They wore special-shaped hat, and they had long finger nails.

Basically what I know about this dance is almost zero, so let’s enjoy looking at the photo below:-

They were full of actions.  Were they fighting or doing something?

They were moving left and right across the stage, my camera lenses were also following their action.  The world is like turning.

What was he holding?

The movement of hands while dancing.

The dance ended with all of the dancer raising up their arms to shoulder level.

I have taken some more photos which I found that I should put them in a slideshow so that you can see their action.  Check it out on the video above!!!

Later, there were two singers appeared and sang the songs.  The dancers were still on the stage continued dancing, until the song ended.

Hope you enjoy!!!

Next, the dance from Sarawak during the Malaysia Day celebration will be coming soon.

First speaker, Minister of Information, Communication and Culture Y.B. Dato’ Seri Utama Dr. Rais Yatim. (left)

Second speaker, Chief Minister of Sarawak, Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri (DR) Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud. (right)

Third speaker, Prime Minister of Malaysia, Y.A.B. Dato’ Sri Mohd. Najib Bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak. (Center)

The performers on the stage moved themselves and changed their positions in order to welcome each VIP to go up to the stage to give their speeches.

Frankly speaking, not everybody like to listen to a speech.  We were same too especially when our stomach were hungry after waiting there for so long before the ceremony started.  However, our prime minister speech was the most interesting which woke me up to listen about what is the meaning of One Malaysia.

Prime minister Najib wake up the stage, welcomed by students in red shirts holding small Malaysia flags.

They continued waving the flag.  We could see that Najib was accompanied by another VIP and a few bodyguards.

… …  They kept on waving the flags until Najib stood still in front of the mic.

While Najib was talking, the big screen on the stage showed the facial expressions of others VIP who sat behind us.

The most interesting part of his speech was that he explain the meaning of 1Malaysia:-

1.  When we pronounce the words 1Malaysia, we should feel proud being in a big family of Malaysia regardless what race we are, where the main purpose is to promote unity.

2.  The word “1Malaysia” also means that Malaysia is the No.1 best country in the world, which motivates all Malaysians to be more confident moving towards our vision and mission.

I have read from Najib’s 1Malaysia website, which tells that there are 8 values of the 1Malaysia concept.  You can read it here.

Prime Minister Najib finished his speech with a loud applause.  Again, he was welcomed along the way to return to his seat.

Again, they kept on waving the flags until Najib was seated.

In between the speeches, there were singers singing the patriotic songs.

Look at the lyric on the screen, the MC invited us to sing along and wave our flags together.

Let’s listen again the this popular patriotic song. Malaysia Satu by Faizal Tahir.

Ku teguh berdiri tiada lagi ragu atau gentar
Ku terus berani melangkah maju terus ke hadapan
Satu impian nyawaku pertaruhkan

Genggaman tanganmu,
semangatku terus membara janji ku pada mu,
harapanmu ingin ku laksanakan

kau adalah ilham pada mereka yang ingin berjaya
Kau terus berjuang demi membawa perubahan
satu impian oh berjuta harapan

Genggaman tanganmu,
semangatku terus membara janji ku pada mu,
harapanmu ingin ku laksanakan

Satu Malaysia,
kita inspirasi pada dunia Nama kan dijulang,
kita menjadi kebanggaan
Satu wawasan bersama bergandingan..

Genggaman tanganmu,
semangatku terus membara janji ku pada mu,
harapanmu ingin ku laksanakan

While the artist was singing, the performers on the stages start doing their jobs - waving the flags and moving their body again.

Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri (DR) Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud was the second speaker.

Y.B. Dato’ Seri Utama Dr. Rais Yatim was the first speaker, who was welcome by youngsters in yellow 1Malaysia shirts.  They put their hands in the way to express the meaning of welcoming.  They had made good use of body language.

They did the same thing when Y.B. Dato’ Seri Utama Dr. Rais Yatim returned to his seat.

I have learned a lot from this event about the way to invite VIP to go up to the stages.

Salam 1Malaysia.

… … to be continued.

The national anthem was played two time, as I mentioned earlier, the first time was played when the ceremony was started, and this is the second time when our “Jalur Gemilang” was raised.

Let listen to a patriotic song called “Jalur Gemilang”.

They were also waving the flag in front of the VIPs but behind us.  I have to turn my head backwards to take this picture.

This is the first time in our life time, standing in the middle of the crowd, and waving our Malaysia flag.  We followed the tempo of the music and waved the flag left and right.

We have never joined a celebration like this such as “Merdeka Countdown” / National Day Count Down before.  In our mind, we had labeled such event as noisy, crazy, and risk of getting hurt in the crowd.  We have taken our risk this time.  Luckily the crowd did not shout crazily.  We only shouted the word “Merdeka” for 7 times and “Satu Malaysia” for 3 times.

I think we were lucky because our area was in front of the VIP and they have limited the number of people.  That’s why it was not really crowded and noisy from people’s shouting.  The loud sound was only from the speakers.

Have you seen so many people in front of you waving the flags?  We have never, and this was our first time, very exciting.

SiewPeng helped me to wave the flag while I was taking photos.  I did not take photos all the time, after I have taken enough photo, and before the song ended.  I took my flag back from SiewPeng and I waved it to proudly enjoy the spirits of patriotism.

The interesting part of this photo is the lady looked at her flag while waving it.  I should have shifted my camera to the right to take the complete shot.

Now everybody was standing up, turning backwards and facing the VIP area, I was actually looking at the stage direction.  They were actually sitting in front of us.  I noticed a number of kids were sitting in their parents’ arm, were also waving the flags.  Their parents hold them in their arm, so that the kids could see what was happening.

There were empty space behind us, it was later filled by the students from a famous college.  They were also waving the flag.

The flag carriers were waiting under a tree for their turn to go up the stage waving the flags.  They were carrying the flags of different states in Malaysia.

… … to be continued.

Since weeks ago, we saw the banners on the road about this celebration which supposed to be held at 7 p.m. on the 10th of October 2009.  At about 5:30 p.m., there were traffic jams everywhere.  We tried to go there but all of the roads to Padang Merdeka (The Field of Independent), Kuching were closed.  Luckily, I found a parking lot 2 streets away, and it took us a five minutes walk.  We reached there at about 6:15 p.m., but we waited until 8:30 p.m., only then our prime minister came and the ceremony started.  It’s really a long wait. We can’t understand why they stated the time so early.

When we reached there, we were given a red cap each with 1Malaysia logo on it, and the sponsor’s company name behind.

The stage was on the left hand side, and the VIP seats was on the right.  We sat in the middle on the ground.  They had laid the gray plastic carpet on the grass because it was a bit muddy.

The VIP area.

They were still working on the gray carpet, and put the red carpet as the walking path for the VIP.  It was already 6:30pm, we wondered if they had enough time to finish their work, because we thought that the event would start at 7pm.

We were wandering around, they had setup the big projector.

The students carrying flag lined up.

We stood here, in front of the police line, we were not allow to enter yet.

Some of them were sitting under the giant tree, and … waiting.

The other side of the field which was opposite us.

A man from the band were taking photos of the Hari Malaysia Celebration.

Besides, I also saw the police officers took photos with their colleagues too.  The young ladies from the flags team did the same thing.  And I saw some reporters wearing a tag on their neck labeled with the word “media” holding big DSLR cameras with flash attached on them getting ready to perform their jobs.

The performers went up to the stage and did some warming up exercise.  They were in yellow, red, white and blue.

The band was getting ready too.

At about 7 p.m., a person-in-charge called the public especially for those who had children with them to enter beyond the police line and sit in front of the stage.  He waved his hand and asked us to go in as well.  Therefore, we had a chance to watch the ceremony and VIP at a very close distance.

Can you see the guy pointing his finger in the picture above?  He was guiding the crowd from both sides of the field to sit on the gray plastic carpet.  Just a short while later, he stopped the rest of the people from going in.

After finding an empty space to sit onto, we saw three or four foreign tourists sat beside us.  (look at the last picture at the very end of this post.)

We had got a Malaysia flag as well.  We were having a short on-the-spot rehearsal.  The MC told us when we should wave the flags, and asked us to be prepared and ready to be shown on live TV in good looking.

These foreign tourists left the places after a short while.  We guess they had waited for too long.  We kept on waiting for more than 1 hour until 8:30 p.m..

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Be patient, I will show more photos on the cultural performances.   I show you the pictures above with the title of “Before the Event Started” because I found that it is important to know that how many efforts of hundreds or even thousands of people have been working together before they can make this event successful.  A night before the event, we saw they had their rehearsal.  Since we were very near to the stage performers, we heard them saying, “Follow the position last night…”

There was a wooden or bamboo ladder for him to stand there to wave our Malaysia flag (Jalur Gemilang).

We had attended the Perayaan Hari Malaysia or Malaysia Day celebration which was usually be held on 16 Sept every year, but it has been postponed to 10th October (last Saturday) evening due to the month of Ramadan in Islamic Calendar when the Muslim were fasting.

Let’s listen to the very popular 1Malaysia song. - Malaysia Satu by Faizal Tahir.

Malaysia Day is NOT the National Day or Independence Day.  Malaysia Day is the date of forming of Malaya, Sarawak, Sabah and Singapore (back then) on Sept 16, 1963, whereas our country National Day is the date of commemorating the independence of the Federation of Malaya from British colonial rule on 31st August 1957.

This year the celebration is held in Padang Merdeka (the field of independence), Kuching Sarawak.

We were lucky because we have got a seat between the VIP seats and the stages.  It was very near to the stage and we could see everything clearly.

We could not see the arrival of our Prime Minister Najib on the spot, but we could see it from the big projector screen.  I have taken this picture indirectly from the screen.

This is the first time we see our Prime Minister in real and short distance.

The reporters from different medias were busy taking photos or videos.

This event was broadcasted live across the nation, we were not sure if our face has been captured on TV and viewed by all Malaysians.  We were really excited.

Again, this is our first time experience joining the crowd in such a big event.

Three man in white uniform carrying the flag.

As the start of the event, our National Anthem “Negaraku” and our Sarawak State Anthem “Ibu Pertiwiku” were played.

At some point of the ceremony, the firework sprayed out from the top front part of the stage, and followed by the dance performance from Sabah, Sarawak, and Peninsular Malaysia.  I will blog about the dance performances in the coming posts, so now I will skip the detail part.

Again, we could only see the VIP stood the flag from the big tv.

There was an award giving ceremony.

The Prime Minister Najib was still giving the awards, and the reporter were busy taking photos.  From a short distance away, we were sitting facing the stage.  At this point we had to turn our heads back to look at the direction of the VIP seats for watching the award giving.  But most of the time, we were blocked by the reporters, so we preferred to look at the big screen.

We saw the camera flash light blinking non-stop.  Wow… amazing.  Their eyes must have been trained to get use to it.

They were carrying the ladder, interesting things happen later. look at the very first picture above.

A man was standing on the ladder and the rest of them hold the ladder up and moved towards the left hand side of the stage.  The man then climbed up the ladder and waved the flag, at this time, the beautiful fireworks were played.  This is one of the most important moment in the event.

Our Prime minister has led us to shout the patriotic word “Merdeka” which means independence for 7 times, and “Satu Malaysia” which means one Malaysia for 3 times.

They waved the flags on the stage.

This man was also on the ladder, but with a flag of the Sabah state (if not mistaken).

Look carefully.  The man in the red shirt was sitting on the shoulder of the man in the blue shirt, so that he can stand taller and wave the flag with full spirit.

Ladies carrying Malaysia flag lined up on the stage.

All the dancers, performers returned to the stage in a large group together before the ending of the ceremony.

Don’t worry, there are 6 stages which can fit all of them in:- Center upper, Left Upper, Right Upper, Center Lower, Left Lower and Right Lower.

This is the dancer from West Malaysia.  As promised, I will blog about it in the coming posts.

If not mistaken this is from Sabah.  Correct me if I am wrong.

Prime Minister Najib was getting ready to leave after the performances.

I was busy taking photo too, but I did not go nearer to the VIP area because I am not from the media.  I enjoy taking the photos of the media shooting the VIPs.  They looked funny.

The most unexpected thing was we were allowed to sit right in front of the stage which allowed me to take a lot of photos (videos too) of the cultural dances clearly.

Stay tuned.  I will tell you more about it.

A long way ahead.  Is it really long?  A two hours of interesting movie can be a blink of eyes, but 2 minutes of queueing at fast food restaurant seems like years.  Especially when you are famished!

Natural Frog pond.

The entrance of Rayu Trail.

The entrance of Waterfall Trial, which we have taken.

We thought we were alone in the jungle, but this map appear in the middle of the jungle.

Can you see the climber was trying to block our way, but we greeted  and bowed to him, and he let us go.

The yellow words says that,”Take nothing but photo.”

Stingless sweet bee nest.

Our Shadows while we walked down the hill.  Can you tell what was the time by looking at the shadows?

As a summary of a few posts related to our trip to Kubah National Part, let me list out the related posts:-
1.  Trip to Mount Matang (Gn. Serapi) - Nov 2007.
2.  Mushrooms at Kubah National Park.
3.  Natural Elements at Kubah National Park.
4.  Trees and Leaves at Kubah National Park.
5.  Along the Way to Waterfall, Kubah National Park.
6.  SiewPeng and Colin at Kubah National Park.  (this post)

Hope you enjoy them.

Not far from the starting point, we saw this signboard, this was not our destination, because we have been there for a few times. Our destination this time was to go to the waterfall somewhere in this jungle.  But we have to take this route and climb up to 900 feet above sea level instead of reaching the top at about 2500 feet.  Then we took a turn on our right to enter the waterfall trail for another 1.5km.

There were actually 2 lanes for this road, allowing vehicles (especially 4 wheel drive) to go up and down, because the TV, FM and telecommunication transmitter is on top of this mountain, but half of the roads were covered by leaves from trees, and there left only one narrow lane for vehicles.

We kept on walking and stopping to take photos, and to take breaks in between too.

We were still walking.  It seemed to be a long long way to go.

Somewhere on the way going up on our left hand side, we found a small path to go down to a stream through some rocks and muddy soil.  We did not walk down because the path seemed slippery and dangerous, I just took a photo beside the road and it looks like a mini waterfall.

This stream is actually getting across the road underneath the ground from our right to the left hand side of the road.  So we were standing above a hidden bridge actually.  We were standing on an invisible bridge, it is part of the road, and it functions as a bridge as well.

We saw a warning sign that reminds the visitor to be careful.

We reached the Natural Frog Pond, but we did not see even a frog.  Why?  Read the words on the sign board and you will know the anwer.

If you cannot read from the sign board, let me type the words for you:-

“Frogs only come out at night and they are most active an hour after sunset. During the day, they hide amongst the leave litters and crevasses away from the sun and hungry predators.

The pond is among the easiest place to see the frogs. You can also find them along the streams, amongst the trees and on the ground.

Male frogs call to attract females. Some inflate their vocal sacs to make these calls. The louder the call, the better the chances of getting a mate. Each species has its own distinctive call. Can you differentiate them? You might be lucky to see the frogs mating. Humidity, rainfall, temperature and even the phases of the moon are said to affect the mating rituals which can take the whole night.

Caution… Watching frog is always fun with friends. However, the platform can only hold 10 adults at one time and can be quite slippery. Can you guess who or what made this pond?”

Finally we stopped walking up the hill and reached the starting point of waterfall trail.  We took a right turn into the trail and started the jungle trekking.

At the entrance we found this signboard and it highlights 4 special natural elements that can be found in the jungle:-

Stingless-bee nest
* This is the only bee species that not sting.
* They play an important role in the ecosystem by pollinating flowers.
* Also called “sweet bee”, you will know why.
* Nest are built deep insides the hollow of tree trunks away from predators like the honey bears.

Giant Aroid (Alocasia robusta)
* An enormous herb that rises from an underground tuber.
* Food for some wild animals such as pigs and porcupines.
* Some species are cultivated for their tubers and stem.
* Prefers damp and shady area.

Screw Pine (Pandanus sp.)
* Pandanus are normally found in open, wet areas.
* The species is called mengkuang locally, and is used for making mats, baskets and hats.
* A scented species is cultivated for its fragrant leaves, popularly used to flavor food.

Strangling Fig tree
* Are found throughout the forest and can easily be recognized from their often basket-like trunks.
* Fig is considered a keystone species providing food for many animals.
* It is believed that evil spirit lives up in these trees.

It is not always that we have this properly built path to walk onto.  Some parts were muddy, but most of the time we stepped on the roots of the trees which were covered by dried leaves.

After we walked for 225 meters from the entrance, we found a junction which join another trail.  The haunted tree is not far from this junction at the Rayu trail.  On our way back, we just took a few steps to the Rayu Trail and decided to used the Serapi Summit Road which is faster.

We reached the waterfall but we were disappointed.  At about 300 meter from the waterfall, we could smell some smoke which created by someone barbecuing there.

I had no mood to take the waterfall pictures at all because when we reached there, we saw smoke covering the waterfall.  Yes, a group of people were having their ‘marvelous time‘ there.  We saw them cutting wood to setup fire.  It was illegal, and they could be fined RM5000.  We were tired, and we wanted fresh air, where did the fresh air all gone to?  I did not take any photo and we took our way back after staying there for less than 5 minutes.  Our mood was spoiled.  We wanted to complain about their action to the staff in-charge so we tried to walk out of the jungle as fast as possible.  But later we were tired and we had slowed down.

When we reached the staff office down the hill after one hour, and told them about what we saw.  The staff thanked us for providing them information and said they would go and have a look, but we saw him went back to his seat and continued talking to someone.

Since we have spent RM10 each person for the ticket to enter the national park, we can also enter the Matang wild life center which is 15 minutes drive from Kubah National Park without any extra charges.  It was already 2:30pm and it would be closed at around 4 or 5pm, so we hurried and made a move towards there.

About one hour later after we have reported the incident to them, we were still around that area (at the Matang wild life center) and we found a helicopter on the sky, we guessed they were searching for the open fire at the waterfall area, but not sure if they had done their job.  But I am sure it was too late, the nature destroyer might have gone with their tummy full after 2 hours of the marvelous barbecue.

The conclusion was we were disappointed because we did not see the clear waterfall.  And we cannot understand why someone can do such things in a national park, since the rules and regulation stated that doing so will get a fine of RM5000.

I gave an X-ray for the leaves by using backlighting photography technique.  The light pass through the leaves and show their bones.

The fern gave its shadow on the leaf.

Look at this picture, it tells that the jungle is so big, and gives the feeling that it is very tired exploring the jungle.

However, We were not tired while exploring the waterfall trail because I stopped every few minutes to take photos.  :D

It seems that the jungle might be complicated - a “multi layer” tree.  Do they do “multi-layer marketing”?  Yes, they might be, in their food chain or ecology cycle.

This is a headless tree that looks like an elephant leg.  On our way return we took a different trail, but it was just a few steps from the junction, we saw this tree, we turned our head back.  Why?  Not because it look scary or haunted, but we wanted to have a cold drink as quick as possible and we have taken the route that we took earlier.  :p

Side lighting.  Can you see an elephant leg?

Nothing special?  It is small in the pictures, but it is big in real life.

Let me get closer and I have got the following.

The trees has pimples, or are they secret codes or something mystery?

The climbers has climbed all over the branch of a tree.

The curly aged climber can be as hard as a tree but it has a strange shape which makes it does not look like a tree.

Look at the blue coloured “tombstone” stated that it is 400m from the beginning of waterfall trail, and we still had 1200m to go before we can reach the waterfall.  The curly climber is exactly at the 400m.

We walked through a wooden bridge at some point in the trail, and found nobody except us in the jungle.  We heard a type of bird call that similar to human’s voice.  Finally we saw someone came toward us.  We will tell you something that we found at the waterfall in the coming post.