Swordie Bloggie

This is the best diet pill you can find in the wild!!! It is super strong, once you eat it, you will throw up until you loose all your weight… just kidding… ok, let me introduce you to Petai or in its scientific name, Parkia Speciosa.

This is a ‘back posting’… during our way home on the 24 October 2008 in our Journey Around Sabah – Sandakan Region, we stopped at one of the stall along the road somewhere in Ranau. I bought some petai coz I do eat them… not raw but cooked with sambal

Petai also know as sataw, twisted cluster bean, yongchaa, yongchaak, zawngtah or stink bean… yea a stinking bean! If you never come near to it before, most probably you will faint if you ever come near it… when the beans are pealed from its cocoon the strong aroma will fill the space.

The smell is stink and taste super bitter… once you eat them, your pee will smell the same They said, eating petai brings lots of benefits, especially when eaten raw!!! No way can I eat them raw though. But anything taste bitter always brings lots of benefits to our health… which good medicine don’t taste bitter?..:D

I also bought some local durian called ‘dalit’. Dalit is very different from durian especially its spike. Dalit spikes are more sharp, thinner and longer unlike durian’s. Dalit’s flesh are also not white like durian but red or yellow depending on the species. Dalit can be found in the jugle wild… but some are planted in the orchard. Dalit are more expensive than durian too coz they are quite rare.

This is another post about Tempurung Seaside Lodge. We stayed here for one night on the 16 December 2008.
Our colleagues here at Kuala Penyu supposed to make a reservation for 2 rooms for 3 of us. But because of miscommunication they book for 2 persons

When we arrived, the Tempurung Seaside Lodge staff greeted us and took us to our room… for two persons he said… wait a minute… two rooms and for 3 persons lah…

After some discussion, we settled for the family room, for the three of us… which is great.

The room has one double bed and two single beds… really great for family coming for vacation here. The beds are enough for father, mother and 3 or 4 kids… or spare it for baby bedding if you have baby with you With the huge size room, the floor still can accommodate another 3 or 4 heads…

Like I mentioned in my previous post, water supply is not a problem. Bathroom is OK but with a very low shower head… at my eye level, so I have to bend a bit to wash my head, but should be fine.

No air-con but with two ceiling fans and sea-breeze only… window with no grill but with mosquitoes net.

The sound of the wave hitting the beach is very soothing while trying to sleep…

OK, will talk more about Tempurung Seaside Lodge again next time… with photos and videos, hopefully.

Feeling very hungry now… work till 6pm just now at our Beaufort office… going to eat at the restaurant at the end of the hotel block… same like last night Lazy to walk far…

If the Tempurung Seaside Lodge management reading this, please chop-off the coconut trees… it really blocking the nice view from the top…

Just to refresh about the delay of our Journey around Sabah… our vehicle was having a minor problem because its fuel filter needs replacement. The mechanic suspects the filter is contaminated with water… we can only travel with the jerking vehicle at 40km/h.

I was so exhausted waiting for the whole thing to get fixed… added with the extra heat… yes, Monday weather was extra hot.

Because of the unnecessary delay, we changed our plan and headed straight to Las Vegas instead to enjoy ourselves… to play roulette, poker and jackpot at hotels las vegas… just kidding…

We actually landed ourselves at Tempurung Seaside Lodge at Kampung Tempurung, Kuala Penyu. This place is so cool… beautiful beaches… just like the Mild Seven advertisement A great place to relax, vacationing or to escape from city life.

err… have I mentioned that I was surfin at 3.5G with celcom broadband?

The rate is $135 per head… yep they count by head…  inclusive of room, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Before coming here, my colleague warns that they rely on rain water! Shoot… what happen if there is no rain? Yesterday’s weather was so hot, no rain… I can’t live without fresh water… I guess if the water runs out, I have to learn how to live with salt water… yea, sea water… :O But they actually have plenty of water… not sure whether it comes from the main supply pipe or rain… probably from both sources… but the water is clean and the tap is running strong.

The restaurant and office viewed from the highest cabin.

Anyway, our journey was great… the roads at Sabah’s southern region are in low land… that’s why there are always flood news from this region… not many hill climbing roads… but just a low climbing roads. The stretch is also the road heading to Brunei and Sarawak… and we can go to Labuan if we want to it’s so close… yay…

The cabins view from the back.

The common area at the cabins.

The restaurant at night.

OK, I will talk more about Tempurung Seaside Lodge later. We only stayed there one night. Currently I’m in Beaufort… at a lame hotel There is no great hotel in Beaufort.

Did you notice the Post Office or POS near you is changing its face? It seems that all the POS are having major renovation… a more modern and corporate looks. I believe this is the first time they change their looks since a very long time ago… probably since the 70s.

The POS near my house has changed it looks but I have not taken its photo yet… only while it was still being renovated a few weeks ago. And I really like the new look of the ‘new’ POS.

The one I really like is the front door… the huge clear see-through glass door. Printed with huge fonts on the glass door is the Post Code. Previously their door is a small two leaf glass door and heavily tinted. I don’t really like it tinted since I can’t see if the counters are busy or not from outside or from across the road.

Penampang Post Office during renovation stage.

And because of the new looks, on my Journey around Sabah this time, I tried to find the Post Office nearby to get a snap of the front door… to get the District’s name and postcode… and to proof that I was here

And I can also see a couple of modern gadgets inside like PCs and kiosks. The kiosks are probably for purchasing POS accessories (envelope, stamp etc.) or for withdrawing money… looks like the POS systems are getting better and advance.

Kuala Penyu Post Office with the huge Post Code (Poskod) printed on its new see-through glass door.

You may be wondering why anyone will still need POS since email is there and emails are free. Well, you still need POS to deliver your package and greetings card And probably you will be able to do internet browsing or cash withdrawal soon within its cool room.

OK… we are still stuck waiting for our vehicle to get into the service line… we are trying to jump queue since the service centre is fully booked… we are trying to get inside contacts to get into the line… wish us luck…

While waiting and hoping for that… I just want to share my experience with iPhone…

Apple iPhone created a craze around the globe when it was launched… although the size is quite huge, it still not bad when holds on your palm. I have the chance to play with iPhone recently when my boss asked me to configure its WiFi and his email in the iPhone.

I’m reluctant to accept iPhone… because why should I change since I have been using Windows Mobile PDA phone for more than 2 years and it serve fine with me… first with HP iPAQ HW6965 then HTC TyTN II… both with real keyboard and not with software keyboard. iPhone is using software keyboard.

Maneuvering the menu at first is quite difficult… must get use to the sliding thingy although I’ve tried the slider or shift in the HTC before but I’m just not comfortable with it. The iPhone response is fast… yea very fast!.. very impressive… much more responsive than my Windows Mobile PDA phones.

The 5 megapixels camera is super clear… the quality is as good as my Sony DSC-T200 8 megapixels camera. Holding the iPhone is very confortable… the width is just nice… and the thickness is thin… yes so thin with such power under its hood.

At the beginning iPhone and also other model of phones are locked to some operator only. But today, unlocked cell phones are easily available. Unlocked cell phones are much better than locked since you can do more things with it… and you can sell it back easier at higher price. You can have unlocked iPhone here in KK, but most of the time the seller will say it is ‘under water’ phone… meaning the phones are smuggle in and you will not get proper warranty.

With all the great things about iPhone, although after having fun with it for a couple of hours… I still prefer to continue using Windows Mobile PDA phone… and my next dream phone is the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1.

Wow… manage write that long post… with all the stress but with freedom from office work

Damm… our vehicle is having a minor problem right now but it is causing a major delay. We have just filled it with diesel… and now it started jerking after some distance journey.

According to the mechanic it is caused by the main diesel fuel filter. The filter has been contaminated with water causing the diesel fuel pump not working 100% perfect. The water must have mixed with the diesel fuel!!!

It is well known that new vehicle using the new generation of diesel fuel pump is very sensitive with low quality diesel… the fuel pump will start protesting once it detected a slight mixture of water in the diesel fuel. There are news or story about Toyota or Nissan owner has to replace their fuel pump… and this new generation of fuel pump is not cheap… it can cost more than $10K… yea that spell more than ten thousands… and it is not covered in the warranty!!!

We can’t continue with our Journey Around Sabah… we were on our way to Tenom… we have to turn back and now we are stuck still in KK… This is a real bummer…

And now, our official workshop said they don’t have stock or spare for the fuel filter!!! Double damm for that… How the heck is that you can’t have a single spare for that important part while having a fleet of the same vehicles? Haiyooo… demand too high is it?

Now we have to run here and there to fill up forms so that we can proceed to service the vehicle at its ‘real’ workshop at Inanam!!! If like this, I’m not only getting stress but going to loose some weight… yea no need weight loss pill lah if like this…

OK, the most important is we are going to have a safe journey… I have to be positive with this.

On our way back from Kudat on last Friday, 28 November 2008, we stopped at a few stalls along the way. Traveling around Sabah by road is a great experience. We can see great scenery… almost still in its original natural habitat.

There are stalls selling handicrafts, fish, crabs, vegetables, herbs, birds, fruits and many more by the local peoples staying along the roads. It’s great to see these people doing their business happily. I don’t think they care how much they make in a day. Imagine, they are able to survive without money because they can eat what they planted, what they catch at the river, what they hunt or collect from the jungle… and share or barter trade with their neighbors. For us, I don’t think we can… we need money to pay our bills, loans, buy foods… everything need money… money… but money. Without money, we can’t eat.

One of the stall we stopped by is the one selling corn (jagung)… they are selling two types of corns… jagung pulut (pulut corn?) and jagung manis (sweet corn). They sell the corn fresh, still with its stalk. They also sell ‘pangang’ or barbecued corn. I bought two bundles with 5 corns on each bundle… one bundle ‘manis’ and one bundle ‘pulut’. I also bought some of the barbecued corns and we ate some at the stalls. Imagine if they have popcorn machines, they might even sell pop corn right at their stall… and we will be enjoying eating popcorn in the middle of nowhere minus the cinema The barbecued corns taste very nice… sweet and hot… coz they are fresh from the oven

Yesterday, after we pass the Kundasang Tamu ground, we saw something quite interesting. Kundasang Tamu ground is located at the foot of Mount Kinabalu. But nowadays, Kundasang is not a cold place anymore like before… the hills surrounding it are all ‘bald’, not much more natural trees… one reason why this place is warmer. Driving along the Moyog is much cooler with the thick cloud surroundings the road. The picture on the right show how it looks like from the Kundasang Tamu ground… on the left should be the Mount Kinabalu (not in picture)

OK, back to what we saw… this ‘kancil’ is more than a ‘kancil’… it carries all kind of food products on top of it and some other stuff inside it… including trays of eggs. We believe they bought these goods at the town to be sold back at their village. Well here, most of the villages are very far from the town and transportation is not always available for the villagers to go to town to buy their groceries. Normally they, the merchant, will make a small area below their house… and turn it into a small shop… it is a home business.

And this one was captured at Telupid district, near Sandakan. This one is for sure a real home business… they do their business and sleep at their stall… probably live there too. Some of them have small room and kitchen at the back of their stall. Sometime it is their house… life far away from town is really interesting. In, near or far from town, everyone need to survive… need food. Tell me what you can see and find in the picture?

My destination for this week Journey around Sabah is Sandakan Region. I will be visiting our offices at Sandakan, Telupid, Beluran and Ranau. The journey is very tiring and right now I’m in Kensington Hotel, Sandakan. This hotel is new… only about 3 months old. I don’t think it has many rooms since it only has 2 floors and located in shop lots. Environment is clean and quite… coz the area is still new

And every time I go for travel, I carry few things with me. Other than travel insurance which is included in our service benefits, these few items are necessity… tooth brush, tooth paste, shaver… and of course soap… but soap normally provided by the hotel including some other stuff like shampoo.

Normally I just pack these things into a plastic bag. But this time is different… I bought a Darlie Travel Kit which I believe they just introduced. The kit includes a small tube of tooth paste and a tooth brush. The travel kit bag is big enough to fit my shaver into it which make my packing easier

Currently I’m here at Keningau on another different route doing Journey Around Sabah… will be here until Friday.

We started our journey from Kota Kinabalu yesterday, Monday, 22 September 2008. Our original plan was to do our task at Tambunan first and stay overnight at Keningau.

But because of the weather looks, we decided to do delivery only for that day. First delivery was for Tambunan then we proceeded to Sook, and then continue to Nabawan.

We arrived at Nabawan before 2.00pm and decided to complete the Nabawan’s task.

Testing on the Celcom broadband… can’t get connection at Tambunan, Sook and Nabawan.

After completing our task at Nabawan around 3pm, it started raining heavily together with strong wind. Our colleague at Nabawan said this weather never happen before… at least for a long time. In fact it did not rain for sometimes already.

I guess we brought the rain and wind with us… it always like that. Everywhere I go, it will rain heavily if the place did not rain for sometimes

Today, Tuesday, we went back to Tambunan to do our task there, then proceeded to Sook after that.

The journey is quite tiring… but what can I say… I must enjoy it… it’s nature everywhere, love it

Nothing but nature everywhere… with majestic fog along the Penampang – Tambunan road… or better know as Moyog. This place, Moyog, should be preserved since it’s the only place I can see the river water is still crystal clear… awesome… we were driving with the windows down… natural air-cond
 
 
 
 

Beautiful Tambunan… green everywhere…
 

Heavy rain on our back from Nabawan to Keningau on Monday…