Wishing all a Happy New Year 2011. May you have a bright year ahead.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
Male Common Rose / Gewöhnliche Rose {swallowtail butterfly}
Family: Papilionidae Subfamily: Papilioninae Genus: Atrophaneura Subgenus: Pachliopta Species: Atrophaneura (Pachliopta) aristolochiae (Fabricius, 1775) Common Rose / Gewöhnliche Rose The Common Rose is a small member of the Papilionidae family of swallowtails, in the genus Atrophaneura {red-bodied} and sub genus Pachliopta {the roses}. It is extensively distributed across South and South East Asia. The wingspan is 9.0 to 10.0 cm across, black with white and red spots, with tails on the hind wings. (the males do not have the white spots nor red spots on the upperside of the hind wings.) Its larvae feed on creepers and climbers of the genus Aristolochia and they sequester toxins such as aristolochic acid in their bodies. They are inedible to vertebrate predators like birds and reptiles.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
may is harvest festival month in sabah {sumazau -traditional kadazan dance}
Sumazau performance at Monsopiad Cultural Village. May is the month of the Harvest Festival, a month-long celebrations of the Kadazan-Dusun and other indegenious races of Sabah. It is a joyous month!
ancient jars (tajau) at the house of skulls
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Old tajau (jar) at the House of Skulls, Monsopiad Cultural village. The 2nd from left is the Panding Tiga, a 16th century ceremonial jar originally from Thailand. Dried hisab palm leaves ward off evil spirits.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
in·de·pen·dence /n/ ~self–sufficiency, self-dependence, self-reliance, self-subsistence, self-support.
"Help the blind to help themselves." "The Sabah Society for the Blind (SSB) established to help those with little or no sight to optimize their opportunities by providing specialist staff, information and technology resources to meet individual needs."Jesselton Hotel at Gaya Street.
Monday, November 15, 2010
shoulder bag
Street accessories... I imagine it will be interesting to just sit at a cafe and see what people are carrying on them. That's a project for another day.
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handicrafts at gaya street.
Handicrafts at the Sunday market, Gaya Street, Kota Kinabalu.
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Flickr Tags: handicrafts,Gaya Street
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
rain clouds over likas bay
Rain bearing clouds over Likas Bay, Kota Kinabalu. Photographed from a boat at sea, off Pulau Gaya.
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The buildings at bottom right is the old Sabah port, now developed into a leisure place called Jesselton Point. "The Peak" condominiums are in view on the hill. Sure enough, it rained within minutes after I reached the jetty at the waterfront fish market.
Monday, October 25, 2010
butterfly art
The Great Mormon Swallowtail { Papilio memnon } photographed at Kipandi Butterfly Park.
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Sunday, October 24, 2010
malay lacewing {cethosia hypsea hypsina}
Malay Lacewing at Kipandi Butterfly Park.
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A beautiful butterfly with wings of orange and red surrounded by broad black borders. The wings are scalloped, giving the hind-wings its sawtooth-like edges. The undersides are orange and red with white fasciae and black spots forming an intricate pattern. This photo was taken at Kipandi Butterfly Park which is 36 km from Kota Kinabalu City and 700m (2,100 feet) above sea level. It shows a lacewing on the lantana. (There are quite a number of subspecies with different patterns and colours.)
Wikipedia: Genus cethosia . Butterflies of Singapore (blog): Excellent information here .
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
houses on the sea
A scene from the "floating village" of Pulau Gaya (Gaya Island). Sources on the internet also call the community here as the Bajau (indegenous group) gypsies. A mix of Bajau, Filipino and Indonesian communities is probably more accurate. For long an eyesore (and issue of public, environmental and political interests), this water village has been shrinking over the years. Many of these houses have been dismantled, while a few are being rebuilt. Mass relocation is certainly a daunting task. And just nearby, on the same island, are two excellent 5 star resorts.
Pulau Gaya is the largest of five islands that are collectively known as the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park (est 1974), and it is about 3 km from the mainland. The other islands are Manukan, Sapi, Suluk and Mamutik. Non of the other islands have these villages. Pulau Gaya is also known to have the most type of dipterocarp trees that can be found in Sabah's rainforest. Wikipedia info on Dipterocarpaceae.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
my squirrel :D
Lucky looks down from the mango tree.
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There are no squirrels in my garden. She provided some entertainment. 
Monday, September 13, 2010
Great Mormon Swallowtail
The Great Mormon Swallowtail { Papilio memnon }. Photographed at Kipandi Butterfly Park.
The Great Mormon Swallowtail { Papilio memnon } is a common South-Asian butterfly and is widely distributed in 13 subspecies (4 male and 9 female forms). This is a large butterfly with contrasting colors. The wingspan is 12 ~15 cm (4.7 ~ 5.9 inches). The male never has a tail, and is deep blue to black. It may or may not have red streak on the forewing. The female may be tailed (alcanor) or tailess (butlerianus, polymnestoroides). The upperside forewing is ground colour sepia with greyish white streak. The upperside hindwing is blue-black with 5 to 7 yellow or white discal patches. It is polymorphic and with mimetic forms. ( Excellent information is available on Wikipedia.)
This photo was taken at the Kipandi Butterfly Park, 36 km from Kota Kinabalu. It shows a male fluttering and tugging at the lantana. The butterfly and flower were vibrating quite vigorously.
Friday, September 3, 2010
old wooden shophouses at kinarut town
Kinarut is a town located about 17 km from Kota Kinabalu and just a few km from Putatan. It is one of the stops for the North Borneo Railway {out of commission for upgrading works}. A small town with just two rows of wooden shophouses and two rows of new concrete ones, the population here is 15,716 (circa 2006) consisting mainly Bajaus and Dusuns.
Kinarut is one of three places in Sabah with "kina" as part of its name. The word probably comes from the early connection with the Chinese. "Cina" is Malay for chinese. The other two are Kota Kinabalu (which derive its name from Mt Kinabalu, the highest mountain in South East Asia) and Kinabatangan River (the longest river in Sabah).
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Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Arundina graminifolia {the bamboo orchid}
Subfamily: Epidendroideae Tribe: Arethuseae Subtribe: Bletiinae
Genus: Arundina Species: A. graminifolia Common name: Bamboo orchid.
Photographed at Kipandi Butterfly Park, 36 km from Kota Kinabalu. They line the surrounds of the parking area there, and along the walkways and hedges in the park.Genus: Arundina Species: A. graminifolia Common name: Bamboo orchid.
{Some information is available on Wikipedia} The bamboo orchid is a species of orchid and the sole of the genus Arundina. This tropical Asiatic genus extends from India, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, South China to Indonesia and across the Pacific Islands. It has been introduced in Puerto Rico, Costa Rica and Panama. This is a terrestrial multi perennial orchid with reedy stems, forming into large clumps growing to a height between 70 cm and 2 m. The flowers are 5 to 8 cm, lilac / white with a purple lip. They bloom in summer and autumn. They are almost extinct in Singapore, but in Borneo, they grow abundantly in the rainforest.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
fishing boat returns {bw}
This commercial fishing boat is ready to berth at the wharf. Not a big boat, and I like the chugging sounds of the engine. Many of them have been retired from service and turned into charter boats for sports or overnight fishing. Current rates are lucrative and they are easily operated by two crew. Many years ago, I went on a boat like this one for a 24-hour fishing trip. Being on the open sea and fishing at midnight was memorable.
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Tuesday, August 24, 2010
la mer
"Si vous ne trouvez pas votre amour sur le rivage, il vous suffira d'aller au delà des mers."
"Se você não encontrar seu amor na praia, você só tem que ir além do mar."
"If you can't find your love on the shore, you will just have to go out beyond the sea."
{Thanks to Gislaadt Art and flores do meu jardim for their kind help with the translations. }
la mer.. ~Charles Trenet~
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Monday, August 9, 2010
Friday, August 6, 2010
Engine braking II {B/W version}
View from the passenger seat on a trip from Keningau town in the interior of Sabah. The route descends the slopes of the Crocker Range, parts of which are rather steep. It is foggy and misty in the late afternoon.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
evening at tamu putatan
Dusk at tamu Putatan, a township about 15 km from Kota Kinabalu city. The sun had gone down, the kerosene lamps were lit.
Friday, July 23, 2010
another day, another story
...another day, another story. Photographed at the waterfront bazaar, Kota Kinabalu City.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
early morning at the fisheries wharf
Most of the boats have berthed and their catch unloaded. This one had just been given a wash. The stalls and crowd are behind me and to my right. This is a busy place from midnight until early morning.
Monday, July 19, 2010
the many rooted coelogyne {coelogyne radicosa}
Coelogyne radicosa. Common name: The many rooted coelogyne. Photographed at Kipandi Butterfly Park.
This orchid is found in Thailand, Penninsular Malaysia and Borneo in montane forests at elevations of 1,000 to 1,300 meters above sea level. The successively opening flowers are about 5 cm across.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Malayan tiger { panthera tigris jacksoni }
Malayan tigers ( Panthera tigris jacksoni ) at the Lok Kawi Wildlife Park. Malayan tigers are found in the southern and central parts of Peninsula Malaysia. Recent counts showed there are 600-800 in the wild, making it the largest tiger population other than the Bengal and Indochinese tigers. It is still an endangered sub-species.
This is perhaps the smallest extant sub-species of tiger. Its stripe pattern is similar to the Indochinese tiger but its size is closer to the Sumatran tiger. The average weight is 120 kg for adult males and 100 kg for females. Male Malayan tigers are around 237cm in length from head to tail and female Malayan tigress around 200cm in length.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
passenger seat view- to Ranau town
View from the front of a coach as it heads to Ranau, after a trip to Poring Hotsprings.
Poring Hotsprings is about 1 hour (40 km) from Kundasang, the nearest village to Kinabalu National Park. The journey from Kota Kinabalu to Kundasang is about 88 km and takes about 2 hours by coach.
ethnic fabric and designs
Ethnic shawls, scarves, sarongs and mats. I like these, and she looks beautiful in that ethnic-influenced dress. Photographed at tamu Donggonggon.
A 'tamu' is a weekly market. It is both a market and a social meeting place. And Donggonggon is a township just 10 km from Kota Kinabalu city. The community here is mainly Kadazan. They hold their tamu every Thursdays and Fridays.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
sumazau {Kadazan traditional dance}
At the Monsopiad Cultural Village. A sumazau in progress... seductive dance. More photos in my set here.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
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