Just last week, I was given the opportunity to travel & explore Sabah on a 3Day 2Night adventure trip; courtesy of well known Travel Specialist, Mayflower Holidays and tourism management pioneers Discovery Tours Sabah.Thanks so much!

I chose a good friend of mine, Jacquelyn as my guest for this trip 🙂

We camwhored along the way

Yup, 3 hours was a loooooong flight indeed

We chartered Malaysia Airlines (MAS) to get to our destination. Operation window seat – full force ahead!

Compulsory camwhore photo

Courtesy of MAS, we had an in-board meal as well. Now, that’s a really heavy breakfast! I chose the Nasi Lemak with *drools* Ferrero Rocher

Yum!

As I am very anal in getting a window seat whenever I fly, thank goodness I managed to get one! All for the love of photography yo! 🙂 I too, had requested a window seat for all my previous trips on a plane just for the sake of shooting

En Route to Sandakan

So now, Imma share my travelogue of the sights and sounds I’ve observed and experience in Sabah on my 1st day here!

Shot whilst waiting for my luggage
Sandakan Airport is really old skool huh?
🙂 classic

Whilst on the long 2hour journey to the Sukau Village, my tour guide Gary Solacito shared that ‘Sukau’ was derived from the Chinese word ‘gau su’ which means ‘tall trees’.

I was given an itinerary for the 3 day tour

He also put us to suspense by telling us to expect d unexpected during our lodge in the Sukau Village. When he said that, my eyes widened in fear. Could ‘unexpected’ possibly have a hidden meaning to it?

Lush palm oil plantation farms were abundant
from the airport to Sukau

The cave system

The 1st place he took us to was the Gomantong Cave aka Gua Gomantong. But before that, Gary brought us gurls to endure a long walk and jungle trekking in order to reach the cave.

We crossed bridges, stepped on puddles and climbed steps after steps

But never fear!
Adventure is our game

Needless to say, I stopped after every few minutes when there was something that caught my eye. And LOL thanks Jac, for snapping this candid of me!

When I looked up, I saw Orangutan nests atop those trees and macaques swinging from branch to branch. Fallen nature captivates me. Somet
hing like this :

It’s bent at 90 degrees yo!

I climbed one of the trees and I noticed that moss were widespread all over most tree barks. Hmm.. it’s expected as the rainforest is usually damp and full of moisture – perfect for growth of all species of flora.

Here’s how it looks from way up here!

When we finally reached the vicinity of the cave, I was enthralled by how serene and peaceful the villages lived their lives within their 4 walls of a wooden longhouse.

Furniture was made from bamboo!
I know how to build them too, thanks to the
training during my Girl Guides camping days 🙂

Gary also showed us the raw birds nest collected by the villages from the Gomantong Cave. This is the edible version – obviously after doing the necessary rinsing and cooking of course 🙂

Pretty cool eh?
Ya can’t get more original than this
The ones I know of prior to this excurtion are only the chilled
bottled ones sold here in the departmental stores

*deep breath*
Aight, it’s time to take a giant leap into the wonders of the pitch black cave! Darn. I think I forgot to lug my torchlight along. Let’s hope Gary brought his 🙂

OH BUT BEFORE THAT LET ME SHARE WITH YOU
MY UNFORTUNATE INCIDENT

ALL YOU PEOPLE WHO FOLLOWED ME ON TWITTER KEPT
LAUGHING AT ME WHEN I TWEETED ABOUT THIS!!! *roar*

Anyway

Dare you enter?

I was told not to leave my mouth open if I were to look up towards the ceilings of the cave. My gut feelings told me that if I were to leave it open by accident, there would be a rather nasty and vile taste of nature’s excretions.

Droppings from your friends
Yes they are all asleep during the day. Nocturnal!

My mouth was tightly shut when I shot this mind you

Very narrow walkway

Once I got inside, it was indeed dark as midnight. Thank goodness the sunlight shone in from outside helped me navigate my way through!

Otherwise, I would have to depend on the wooden barricade… which was colonized by :

these. T___T

No thank you. No thank you. No thank you. No thank you. No thank you. No thank you. No thank you. No thank you. No thank you. No thank you. No thank you. No thank you. No thank you. No thank you. No thank you. No thank you. No thank you. No thank you. No thank you.

If you’re wondering WHY there are so many roaches, it’s because the picture above illustrates it all. Don’t know what Guano is? Why, it’s faeces of a bat. Or for the lack of a better word – BAT SHIT.

Looks like sand right?
But it’s not. It’s SHIT.

Try collecting the SHIT of you and your friends and keeping it in your roo
m. In due time, your entire sanctuary will be infested not by furry friends but rather these :

ROACHES.

I dare say it was the longest walk I’ve ever taken along the bridges of the cave because with each and every step you make, you’re bound to hear an audible SQUISH of a hundred cockroaches below the soles of your shoe.

Long way to go!

But hey, no worries! It was all for the sake of experience. Now, I don’t get to explore caves filled with bat dung, birds nest, roaches and bats every other day right? And neither would you.

GIRLS MUST NOT FEAR ROACHES!
*looks at mom*

Civilization spotted! I had the chance to make friends with a caveman the caretaker of the cave too.

See the roaches on the barricade!! 🙁

And I went into his little hut where his humble bed
and other day-to-day utensils lay

When we more or less had enough of roaming about the Gomantong Cave, Gary showed us the way out. Yes I managed to keep my head straight while walking upon the bed of roaches.

Finally

The cave expedition was over and the 1st thing that greeted me as I exited the dark cavern is captured in the above photograph. The kampung scene that reminded me of Lat comics 🙂

We made our way back on the trail before we
adjourned to our place of accommodation

After another long journey, our ride halted to a stop in front of this wooden house.

I was told that this was where the villagers shopped for groceries

Pretty fly! 🙂 I bought my junk food from there too

From where we stopped, Gary led the way and we walked into a very shady area with lotsa cabins on stilts! I reckon we were getting nearer and nearer to where we were going to reside for the weekend

And I was right!
Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Our hosts for the weekend was Discovery Tours River Lodge, located in the Sukau Village of Sabah. What I really fancied was that the Kinabatangan River, the longest river in Sabah, was directly beside it.

I liked that this lodge was a very eco-friendly one and there was definitely no need for air conditioning! 🙂 By logic, what is the need for air-conditioning if one’s intention was to come out and embrace nature?

The scenic view from my cabin!

The rooms was really cosy and perfect to fit the both of us (and maybe more if we had packed our friends in our luggage!) It was fully equipped with beds with clean sheets, a bedside table, a dressing table, mirrors, an attached bathroom with a water-heater available yay!

We were delighted to find insect repellants in the drawers too.
Now, that will come in handy!

After the hotelier put our luggages and other belongings down for us inside our room, we made our way to the lobby which double functions as a dining and rest area too!

Our ‘kampung-style’ home made lunch dishes
The Odobo chicken is very popular among the locals

Speaking of the lobby area, we hung out there very often with the friendly staff, like Cesar the Manager, M the Chef, Gary and our various Boat Captains and either watched TV or played cards with them before bedtime every night.

Anyway, our boat ride arrived just after lunch;
signaling that it was time for our day river cruise!

As safety precautions, our captain and Gary insisted that life jackets had to be worn at all times. Take a lesson everyone! 🙂

I agreed, despite the fact that the thick spongy life jacket
made me look at least 20pounds heavier 🙁

We were preparing for take off along the 560km long Kinabatangan River! The vast river awaits us 🙂 I was told that we were going to spot wildlife there too, if we were lucky!

Shot whilst everyone was busy preparing

If you remember well or have followed me on Twitter, you would’ve already read live updates of this escapade

Soon after, the speedboat roared the start of our journey and we set off in high hopes of witnessing wildlife for the 1st time not in zoos nor encyclopedias – but in their natural habitat.

We entered the Menanggul Creek, one of the most
popular creeks amongst a myriad of others
branching out from the Kinabatangan River

When there were no animals in sight, we felt a little dejected and began to entertain ourselves instead. Hmmm…

Though the weather was mercilessly scorching, we showed no signs of restlessness nor fatigue. But ooops, I think I forgot the sun block though. Blimey! 🙁

Full speed ahead!

Yeah, my cap almost flew off due to the
insane knots of the strong wind

Gary shared that this Menanggol river connects villages from main Kinabatangan River and that it was well-known for Orangutan nests, crickets, hornbills, proboscis monkeys and ficcus.

Come out, wherever you are!

Suddenly, the captain of the boat stopped and pointed at a rather ordinary tree branch. I raised my eyebrows wondering what could be so outstanding of something so common. Until I looked closer.

A MONITOR LIZARD CAMOUFLAGING ITSELF!

Let’s go nearer.
I hope it won’t bite

Its eyes were somewhat comical, as though
perturbed by our sheer fascination towards it

Next up was the Wagler’s Pit Viper. It is extremely venomous so be cautious!

We were in luck as we caught sight of 2 animals for the day! Hey this ain’t a zoo nor a conservatory – animals won’t sit and wait at display windows for you to take pictures of them. In the wild, ya gotta hunt and search hard for them! 🙂

Man made bridge for the Orangutans!

When I probed further, Gary told me that this bridge was made to increase chances of survival for the orangutans as it aids them to conveniently move from one side of the river to the other to locate food.

The bridge was made possible with the efforts of the
Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Project!

Come evening, we headed back to our lodge for their complimentary dinner. M cooked up some of his signature dishes for us! 🙂 Yeah don’t ask me why his name is just ‘M’. My guess is that his given name is prolly a mile long so he just shortened it to ‘M’.

Dinner
was fab! The local food here is just scrumptious A change from city food 🙂

Hmm.. since we didn’t have much luck in the afternoon, we decided to cruise Kinabatangan River again in search for nocturnal animals instead

Fireflies!

When Jac and I looked towards the sky, it was nothing short of a breathtaking sight. In all honesty, this was the starriest night I have seen in my entire life.

In the city, every night was a usual dark sky with specks of stars inconsistantly distributed but the skies here in Borneo was completely engulfed with shiny bright stars. I don’t have a photo of the sky but yeah, you totally have to come to Borneo and witness it yourself!

Our voyage along the Menanggol Creak was a very cooling one, due to the night breeze. I was amazed at the ability of the 2 young captains whose very trained eyes spotted various nocturnal animals from a mile away. We spotted a few civets, lotsa buffy fish owls and a regal 3 metre long reticulated python and more!

As the photo above, I only shot the Blue Eared Kingfisher because I couldn’t resist the temptation to whip out my camera to shoot. You know what they say about taking pictures in the jungle at NIGHT do you? 🙁 *superstitious jess alert*

For the spirit of the tiger in you!
We sure do need that if we wanna go hunting
in the jungle again tomorrow

Our 1st night ended with much merry making while watching a documentary of Proboscis Monkeys in Borneo

Catch more adventures of the 2nd and 3rd day of my Sabah holiday and discoveries coming up soon! 🙂 More photos and videos awaits you!

edited by Jackie

And needless to say, I had one helluva night with all of you buddies.
Thanks again, for your presents and especially your presence.

One of the surprises from the boyfie

Thanks for the:

• 2 Secret Recipe whole cakes boyfie & NigelT
• Body Shop Satsuma traveling set Kel, NigelS, David, Jen, Yat, Joshua, Stanley
• 50mm prime lens & white Doodollz plushie boyfie
• liquor bottles boyfie & Chris
• hairbrush Greg & Jacque
• bookmark & eyeliner Diese
• Anna Sui mascara Wennie
• slingbag Jordan
• Devillish cushion Jeff

-___-

Anyway since the be-early birthday celebration is over, I’ll just sit back and count the days to my real birthday. The 1st of July. That’s when I’ll be leaving my teenage years and turn 20.

How I wish I own my own house already. Then I’d wish for all my walls to be painted black with glow in the dark furniture as my next birthday gifts.

Hmm.. since Paris Hilton has a bimbo-ish Chihuahua on a leash and Megan Fox has a Decepticon in a box, can I wish for a pet too on the 1st of July?

< br />

An adorable black bunny!

Pfft. Since, I can’t get a black cat (mom forbids me to) I reckon a black bunny will do just fine. Black birds are okay too… just don’t get me a crow. Gross!

Or a beetle.

When they finally reached, there was nothing else but big smiles plastered across their faces. Little did they know what the night had in store for them.

Suddenly, they heard a feeble sound in the far background. It was within earshot, however faint. That audible sonance manifested gradually, stirring and perking every ounce of inquisitiveness in them.

Jessica couldn’t help but to be skeptical.

She reckoned the source of that constant sound is believed to be coming from the bottom of where they stood. It grew louder and amplified beyond all things possible. Measuring at 130 decibels, it was almost deafening.

A ray of light shot up following the ear-piercing sound of calamity. They shielded their eyes in horror and braced themselves for the unseen tragedy that might befall on them.

Prepare for a ride of horror

The incandescence did not do the three of them any good. Almost likened to a werewolf at midnight, Ken began to experience rapid and ghastly changes.

He grew massively to the size of an ogre and went completely ballistic

Zhao was trembling in fear as this giant monster tore the balcony apart. But never fear! Jessica brandished her shooter and emitted blinding flashes directly towards this monstrosity.

She should have known better than to attempt to take down this creature with her bare hands. Unfortunately, the raging monster had reflective elements embedded in him. All those deadly rays were shot back towards Jessica instead.

The tables were turned.

The radioactive rays were too much for a young lass to handle. Mustering all her courage to withstand it, her efforts were proven futile. She succumbed to the unidentified burst of doom.

Affected by those rays, she was electrocuted before them

Ken and Zhao were clueless and wondered what their next step would be in saving their fellow photohunter, Jessica. They pondered for hours whilst Jessica was busy annihilating the rest of planet earth.

Completely with no idea on how to save the world

Jessica took to all the major cities across the globe and with her destructive hands, she reduced them to nothing but debris.

Target : prepare for absolute termination

All that’s left now of the world are only the greeneries blessed by Mother Nature. Admist the pitch darkness, there was only a glimmer of hope left in them to salvage what they could from her destruction.

Still standing tall

Before the whole of mankind vanquished eternally, more photohunters came to their rescue. With their supersonic turbo-fused shooters, they shot away and emerged victorious!

Roaring ahead of the game

Running down huffing and puffing down the track back to their car, distance was their only barricade to safety.

Thank heavens
the trio managed to escape that sinister hill in one piece

It’s a one way route back home!

Real characters and real names were involved . However,
this story is purely an original tale of fiction by Jessica Tan.

Now, rest your head and go to sleep folks
It’s time for bed

Your haunted bedtime story is now over
🙂

OMFG. My title for this blogpost sounds terribly wrong on all levels. Only the twisted minds will get it. Argh.

When you’re all worked up and brain-dead from the busy city life, an escapade to the great divine is what you need. Heck, not like I’m achieving Nirvana or anything but,
Loreal gave me an awesome experience in a cottage placed right-smack in the middle of a forest reserve.

A coach came to ferry the whole lot of us off to the deep depths of the jungle. They even have their very own ride. Pretty cool, no?

It was a flippin’ long ride, if I have to say so myself. God bless iPods. I brought buddy Zhao along with me. Hey, it’s always better to bring a pal along.
-cough- Company works too, lest the iPod gets busted.

Okay, the journey was really long. Like, very long. I could prolly finish a 2 whole other blog posts by the end of the ride. The whole lot of us were practically the only ones on the highway other than one or two other vehicles; yeah it was THAT secluded.

The last time I actually vandalized something in public was when I was 15 : my school bus stop (whoops. Gimme a dimerit point then) and the public telephone booth. Uh-huh. Did some tiny graffiti of my name… and I’m not ashamed. *grins* Hee.

Random doodles at it’s finest.

I was also given a test tube upon arrival. I’ll tell you why soon 🙂

Lotsa local celebs & socialites were present for this grand media launch too. Serie Nature, as it is aptly called. This is because every product under this line comprises only 100% natural ingredients – kickin’ em chemicals away!

Behold the awesome product line

All its main ingredients were tomato lycopene, rice proteins, green oils, avocado, white clay, peach milk, fig and ginseng.

I actually stalked this child everywhere he went just to shoot a portrait shot of him. Trust me, he was uber camera shy.

But I managed to shoot him in the end
when he least expected it

Refreshments were served as well. I liked how each lil snack is in sync with the relevant product; with the similar ingredient, that is.

My favorite of ’em all.

AND JUST BECAUSE IT’S MY FAVE,
I’LL SHOW IT TO YOU AGAIN

Whooop-dee-doo!

Unfortunately, the other snacks -cough- leaves a little to be desired.

Okay, NOW I’ll tell you what the test tubes were for. With every booth visited, a teaspoon of grinded powder will be added and labelled to our test tube.

Here’s a lil video I made of my test tube and the surroundings of this forest reserve just to let you guys see it for real.

Now this whole thing was some awesome sh!t. I’ve tried & tested their shampoo and hair mask – I must say it’s pretty good! Love the natural scent too. Kudos!

I bet they loved it just like I did

Yup, seriously. Nothing happened especially around town. Many other condominiums, buildings, malls and other sky-scrapers were still standing strong in their ultimate radiance.

Only the KLCC twin-towers showed enthusiasm, likewise the plethora of peeps who gathered to witness it. There were actually people camping out there just to watch the whole KLCC turn into pitch darkness for an hour, and finally illuminating again.

People picnic-ing in the dark

So you really wanna see for yourself how it all went, right here in KLCC during Earth Hour? The whole thing was pretty lengthy, if I do say so myself. So I stitched them all up consecutively for your viewing pleasure.

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL
what did you do?

We played with shutter speeds and experimented on the various effects it can create. Hey, to the fellow photobugs, why don’t you try too? 🙂

This was shot in pure darkness
with an aperture of f/3.8, shutter 1/1.3 & iso 1600
It looks like a painting on canvas!

So… what were you doing during the Earth Hour?
If you were squeezing your zits under a bright pendaflour light, I swear you have just breeched the unwritten law of Earth Hour.