TROPICAL ISLE AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA..

Late afternoon on Friday 28^th September, the 14 of us boarded the plane from KK LCCT Terminal 2 bound for Tawau.  The 45 minutes flight felt like 15 minutes for I was just about to doze off when the crackling sound of the announcement to land came out breaking my reverie.  My last trip to Tawau was like ages ago and that was for work related trip.  I was looking forward to visiting Tawau again as it would also give me the opportunity to visit my sister and her family of whom I have not met for a long time.  But that would come later as we first had to travel to Semporna to stay for the night before the trip to Sipadan Island.

The 2 vans were waiting for us upon landing at Tawau airport. The driver told us that the journey to Semporna would take about 1 1/2 hours though it later felt like forever.  The journey was mostly on flat land and in between dozes I managed to glimpse vast oil palm plantations.  We were told that we would be staying at the Dragon Inn in Semporna and when arrived, we were pleasantly surprise as the inn was built on the sea which looked like  a floating resort.
 

walkway of the Dragon Inn

.. no time to shop...*sob*

The following morning we woke up early to catch the boat to the islands. After breakfast, we headed for the jetty where the Chairman of Sabah Parks, YB Dr Joachim Gunsalam (now Datuk) and his family were waiting and travelling with us.  Incidentally, this trip was sponsored by Sabah Parks as part of its offer to the Reigning Unduk Ngadau and the Committee who will in turn promote these local tourist destinations.

cloudy day

the other boat... 

children of sea gypsy

the sea is their playground...they can stay underwater for a long time and

catch fish with their bare hands.

the lady tourist was crossing the bridge to get to the other house, saw us watching and gave us a little dance ..hehe

 ..friendly diver tourists at Mabul Island with friendly locals

the other boat.. it was racing  with our boat ...:)

We had earlier been worried as the weather forecast had forecasted a scattered rain and thunderstorm.  But the weather couldn’t have been more perfect.  We set off into 2 boats and out into the open sea we went. The water was a little choppy and the ride was quite rough that at times when the boat hit the large waves, it would bob up and down giving out that loud thud that it felt as though the boat would split into two and my breakfast threatening to spill out.  We finally arrived Sipadan Island after like more than an hour of a see-saw ride. ..phew! Sipadan Island is a small rainforest covered tropical rising from a depth of more than 600 meters from the bottom of the Celebes Sea. It is touted as one of the best diving spot in the world!  

my first glimpse of the famed Sipadan island

to the turtle hatchery

.. out to the open sea releasing the day old baby turtles

 ..Go, baby go!!

of the hundreds released, we were informed that only 70% will survive. 

Others will get eaten by sea predators..

awww... 'sweet young things' - that's Elsie and Mell

                   And  the not so young ladies...

Opps can't remember who they are...hehe

We were received by the Sabah Parks Representative who went on to tell us a little bit about the island. The island is now protected and inhabited by army and Sabah Parks Staff only.   In its effort to preserve the island’s pristine state, the Park since 2005  has ordered all the onsite dive resort operations to move out  and has also limited only 120 divers on the island daily.  

Sabah Parks showed us their turtle hatchery place. This is part of their program to rehabilitate and protect the endangered leather turtles from extinction by collecting the eggs laid by the turtles, placing them in the hatchery and to later release them to the sea.

Some of us later went snorkeling as diving would take a lot preparation of which we were not prepared at all.   We had fun snorkeling saw various types of sea creatures but we unfortunately did not have time to venture and explore more of the place.  In the background, I thought I heard the Sabah Park Ranger warning us not to step on the corals as a piece of coral can take years to form.  Oopss,  sorry but I think I had accidentally knocked onto some when I lost my balance as I tried to remove water that had seeped into my goggle.  In the process, I stumbled due to the weight of the life jacket, teetered over and I felt a sharp pain in my legs. I had grazed my legs on the prized corals! 

..the present from Mr Coral..  :).  I was not alone having this.  We were later given first aid treatment by the Park.

We later said goodbye to the island and left for Sipadan Mabul Resort where we were to have our lunch.  Sipadan Mabul Resort which overlook the turquoise blue sea is nestled in a coconut grove on the south-east of Mabul Island. After our lunch, we headed home with a stopover at majestic Kapalai Resort and the stunning Bohey Dulang Island.

 'bye Sipadan

..did I say Mabul Island is nestled in a coconut grove...

a stopover at the beautiful Kapalai Resort

.. price to stay at this stunning place is beyond reach for ordinary folks like me.

Government servants are given special rates though....lucky 

 above : Kapalai Resort, floating man-made Sandbox...

 God's spectacular creations...

the soft gentle breeze and wide crystal clear open sea

 as far as your eyes can see

 under the clear blue skies

 ..the Bohey Dulang Isle..note the cyan coloured waters

Hope someday to join a Photography Safari at this island..

sea weed  - a pure marine-packed collagen

..still young giant clams.. 

..the Sleeping Lady Isle, sleeping peacefully. 

could not help noticing the twin peaks ... hahaha..isn't she gorgeous!?

goodbye Bohey Dulang.. hope to visit again someday

We arrived Semporna almost 5:00 pm and headed direct to Tawau where the Tawau Kadazan Community there accorded us a grand dinner reception.  

ISLAND IN THE SUN, A BEFITTING GOODBYE TO SEPTEMBER...

Yesterday is dead and gone. Goodbye September. You were good to me. Well not perfect but still good enough and I've got a lot to be thankful for really.  As the saying goes, nobody wants to be in pain, but you can't have the rainbow without the rain.  But oh, hello October… please, pretty please, be good to me. 

I’m still flushed, a present from the merciless sun. There are some reddish glow on my nose, my cheeks, angry red marks with a burning sensation on my shoulders, my neck and my arms so badly tanned.  Looks like the 50 SPF lotion couldn’t help much against the burning sun and protecting me from the tan effect.. arghh.  Knowing my skin, it will take several months for it to get back to the original tone.  I am not very fair-skinned by nature and have always been envious of those fair-skin ladies who will burn yet get back their normal colour in no time. With this newly acquired but certainly not welcomed tan, looks like this would be my lament for months to come. 

Folks, this is the testament of my glorious weekend rendezvous of island-hopping on the breathtakingly beautiful isle Sipadan, Mabul, Kapalai Resort and Bohey Dulang situated on the east coast of Sabah.  With God's grace, the weather that last weekend of September was perfect and I had the most wonderful time. So burnt skin or not, I would do it again in a heart’s beat! 

Thanks to the Chairman of Sabah Parks, YB Dr Joachim Gunsalam for according me and my UNK gang the fantastic opportunity! Sabah Parks is a statutory body under the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment. 

Ok, will talk more about the trip later.  Meanwhile, allow me to show off some pictures of the trip... :). Cheers!!

 our ride

..spot me..

Sweet Young Things..

.. the group pic

releasing the baby turtles to the sea..

.. a closed-up 

lovely Jo and moi at Maldives...errmm.. .at Kapalai Resort

..EVEN A HAPPY LIFE CANNOT BE WITHOUT A MEASURE OF DARKNESS..

..even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. So take things as they come with patience and equanimity..

Location: Langkah Syabas Beach, Kinarut, Sabah

THE LEGENDARY NUNUK RAGANG CIVILIZATION..

According to Aki Sapikit Kabindong of Ranau, the legendary Nunuk Ragang Tree was quite consistently told in stories to located at Sabah's heart centre and at pibuntulan (the confluence) of the Kogibangan (left) and Kawananan (right) rivers that merged to form the Liwogu (deep and calm) river that further feeds into the greater and mighty Labuk river before emptying into the Labuk Bay. However, over the years the river courses and point of confluences have been constantly changing and as such the Kadazandusun Cultural Association (KDCA) has decided the Nunuk Ragang Heritage Memorial monument to be sited off road to the right at Km 54 Ranau-Telupid-Sandakan Highway just after the main Liwogu Bridge.

Picture courtesy of Nikko San

Completed by KDCA on September 23, 1995, the Nunuk Ragang commemorative heritage building is uniquely conceptualized in the imagery of the legendary trunk of the giant Nunuk Ragang (ficus) tree. In 1996, the KDCA started to celebrate the Annual Nunuk Ragang Moginakan Festival in conjunction with the annual Anniversary Celebration of the installation of the current Huguan Siou (Paramount Leader) of the Kadazandusuns, Huguan Siou Tan Sri DSP Joseph Pairin Datuk Kitingan who was installed as Huguan Siou on July 1, 1984 at Kg Tuavon Penampang.

The Kadazandusuns accept that their major past has been lost in their own unwritten history. The current generation of Kadazandusun has only the tail-tale of their oral history on the legendary Nunuk Ragang civilization and Bobolian's (Priestesses') revelations of Kinoingan and Sumundu's (creator couple's ) divine intervention in the genesis of the Kadazandusuns, which form the foundation of the Kadazandusun traditional world views, cultural values, beliefs and justice system in the Adats.

Although vague being a legend, the entire Nunuk Ragang legendary civilization accounts from numerous Kadazandusun ethnic and speech communities throughout Sabah do confluence as formidable foundation of their belief that they belong to common ancestral origin long before written history. Legendary Nunuk Ragang civilization is thus still the main reference point for the current generation of Kadazandusuns in their desperate attempt to demystify their past origin, identity and destiny as a multi-ethnic community.

It is from Nunuk Ragang that the numerous Kadazandusuns ethnic communities first got their ethnic descriptive identities.  Today, Sabah is Malaysia's most diversely populated state, wherein numerous ethnic labels are often arbitrary and confusing, defying simplistic demographic statistical enthnic classification. The constitution of the KDCA enumerates the Kadazandusuns to comprise some 40 sub-ethnic. Incidentally, Yours Truly belongs to the Liwan tribe, supposedly the largest of all the sub-tribes and traces of the Tangara tribe from my father's side . However, most of the definitive indigenous communities of Sabah have in recent times self-determined their generic identity as Kadazandusuns and has since then undergone a process of transformation and progressive unity in diversity under the KDCA, Sabah.

Sources: KDCA Nunuk Ragang Publication 2012

                Research done by Dr (H) Ben Topin, a well-respected member of the KDCA.

Priestesses of a certain Kadazandusun sub-tribe 'blessing' the Huguan Siou

Kadazandusun maiden..

 

Bobolian or Priest

The Kadazandusun Paramount Leader, Huguan Siou Tan Sri DSP Joseph Pairin Datuk Kitingan (left) being greeted by members of the KDCA during the commemoration of his 28th year installation as Huguan Siou on the 8 July 2012.

BADLY DAMAGED BUT LIFE GOES ON...

I've been wanting to post these images of the once beautiful but now earthquake-ravaged Christchurch for quite a while now, but was sidelined by other matters. Somewhow, I felt that my visit to this beautiful country would not be complete if did not snap the ugly side of it too.. not by its choice but by force of nature, a natural disaster no one had foreseen.  Two years had gone by since that first terrible natural disaster struck the once serenely beautiful Christchurch, leaving in its wake many damaged properties and lost lives that made the city almost unrecognizable.  Christchurch would never be the same again. Still, life has to go on and it is now in the process of rebuilding.

..trails of damages..

 Our arrival in that city around midnight did not really show us the extent of the damage done at first, but the miles and miles of uneven roads of which our taxi driver told us were the results of the earthquake were keenly felt. I asked him whether there were any signs at all of the coming of the earthquake and was told that there was none whatsoever. He said that everything was as normal can be, and he jokingly said that if ever they did expect earthquake to strike at all, it would be in Wellington.. 'touchwood' but never in Christchurch!! I was told that tremors could still be felt every now an then but so far not strong enough to cause any real damage.

..but life has to go on...

some areas remained untouched..

The car that we used to drive us around the south island.

TEA WITH THE 'QUEEN'

When we received an invitation to have tea with the Sabah Governor's wife, everyone was like.."Really?" and of course the response was 'we are honoured and delighted to accept'. For never in history have the team been invited to Istana Negeri for tea.

The State Level Unduk Ngadau Chairperson, her Deputy and I have been to the Istana Negeri several times in the past for courtesy calls where we would formally extend invitation to the Governor's wife to crown the State Level Unduk Ngadau Kaamatan. But this would be the first time that I get to visit the Istana after the appointment of the new Governor, Tuan Yang Terutama (TYT) Datuk Seri Juhar Mahirrudin which was on 1 January 2011. The previous TYT's term expired on 31 December 2010.

..Mart, our most-abled make-up artist adorned the girls in their finest..

It was a pleasant surprise therefore that a week after the crowning of the new Unduk Ngadau 2012 on 31st May 2012, TYT's wife, Toh Puan Datin Seri Panglima Hjh. Norlidah binti Datuk R.M. Jasni was keen to invite us plus top 3 Unduk Ngadau 2011 and top 7 Unduk Ngadau 2012 for tea at the palace. On the 8 June 2012, we adorned the girls in their finest traditional costumes complete with make-up and hairdo and bundled them in a posh rented MPV to make their grand entrance to the Palace. My team and I decided to use our 'uniform', a modified costume inspired by the traditional costume of the Rungus tribe.

..our 'uniform', a modified traditional costume of the Rungus tribe..

with the regal Toh Puan..  

At precisely 2.00 pm, half an hour before the appointed time, we were ushered by the palace usherettes into the grand hall of the beautiful Palace where we took the opportunity to snap few photographs. Toh Puan came in at 2.30pm and we couldn't take our eyes off her. I knew from photographs taken here and there that she is beautiful but to see her up close and personal was a delight. Not only endowed with classic beauty, she was graceful, regal, soft spoken, humble - to me, an epitome of beauty. When she speaks, her smiling eyes sparkles and her conversation sprinkled with her magnetic smiles.

We were later brought to a large dining hall and treated to a sumptuous hi-tea. I noted with quiet amusement that all of us were in our best behaviour. And why not, we were after all having tea with the 'Queen'...

Our Chairperson (left) and her deputy with Toh Puan