The rainy season for almost 3 months already made it uncertain for us to go… unless we all have waterproof cameras then we don’t have to worry about the heavy rain… but still, the mountain will not be visible or clear when it rain and when clouds surround the mountain. But luck was with us on last Sunday… although it was raining the whole day on Saturday, I was surprised to see the sky so clear on Saturday night… I can see thousands of stars on the sky… no clouds… wow…

I woke up around 4.15am and immediately went to prepare for breakfast… all I have to do was make a cup of tea and put the hams and sausages into to microwave oven… I have fried the hams and sausages the night before… I packed the rest of the sausages to bring along for the trip. Disney picked me up around 5.15am and met the rest at KK. We stopped at Mc Donald, Jalan Sulaman to pack breakfast coz the others have not take their heavy breakfast… I bought a cup of tea which I did not drink… but I drank it on our way home around 1.30pm.

The trip was wonderful… the sky was a bit cloudy but it was actually very hot and I received sunburned on my neck. And it was for me to test my new Canon 7D which I just received on Friday after waiting for it for almost a week That camera is damm good… my old Canon 400D and 40D looks like dinosaur… All together we stop like five times at five different places to capture the mountain… the sunrise and the clouds surrounding the mountain is very challenging.

Along the trip, we stop at one hanging bridge and saw a family bathing and washing their cloths at the river… we took the opportunity to capture their life. It was great… I feel like going back there next time and do different way to capture their life… Then we stop at Kota Belud Tamu… this is my first time here… and it also a wow… then we had our lunch at the Kota Belud Pasar Tani… the food is damm bloody tasty… and I even got a shocked when we paid for the food… for four of us, the food is just RM16… that RM4 each… In KK it will cost us more than RM25… :O

Then on the way back, we saw funny stuffs too… like excavator bathing itself… I was frozen when I saw it… can’t even lift the camera and snap the moment… then saw an almost accident… a Viva suddenly did an acrobatic in front of us by doing 90 degree and luckily manage to recover while overtaking on a bend… on a bridge… Then lastly we saw a lion dance show at Mengatal Town…

And outdoor lighting is very important since it gets darker earlier than usual… driving home after work with the heavy rain is quite challenging since visibility is very short… and it will be worse when the road is without street lights.

I’m not really against the heavy rain… it’s much better than having hot weather or droughts… I always like rain… the normal rain… especially the rain in the afternoon, then the sun appears after that… it makes the ambient lights fantastic… usually the sunlight shining on the mountain… Mount Kinabalu… just amazing… the mountain will be so clear… coz there will be no clouds surrounding it… the direct sunlight shining on it just amazing… you can even see the instant water falls on it… :O

And tomorrow I have to go UMS… no, I’m not enrolling with any study courses or anything… I’m not interested studying anymore… I got some seminar to attend there…

Umbrellas and rain coats are important commodity at the moment… everyone needs them… of course hats are equally good… but for schools kids, rain coat is more suitable than hat or cap… not only kids but adults too… unless there are ladies out there who do not like wearing rain coat but prefers hat… then they can get Women’s Hats instead…

I hope the rain don’t get worse… it already worse in other parts of the country…. other parts of the world… the rain can stay as it is now… rain in the evening… and let the morning have sunshine…

Last Sunday, the rain was like… unstoppable… in fact it was raining since the day before, Saturday… lightning and thunders made it worse… it feels like we were in a war zone…

Blackout during thunderstorm is OK… but flood is a no no… news the next day, Monday, tells how bad were the floods… some roads submerged with waters… some houses flooded with 2 feet of water… land slides… etc… etc…

Pity to some of the kampung folks… not only water… but landslides just next to their house… next to their farm… some house which are submerged with water are in bad shape… kampung house… their animal shelters are not spared too… some lost their animals to the floods… the storage shed for keeping their harvest like paddy or animal feeds are not spared… wonder if they have used the DuraMax Titan Metal Storage Sheds 50131 the result could have been different…

The kampung folks will need lots of assistants from the authorities to continue with their daily life… small assistant to fix their animal sheds or harvest sheds… seems like kampung folks will only get assistants when there is by-elections… the government will campaigns and promise lots of development… lots of funds… all kind of funds… just to make sure they can win the elections… after election nobody knows what will happen… 

The weather is cooler nowadays… and today the sky is quite blue… and the clouds are majestic… the haze has been blown away… just look at this sky photo I took somewhere at Lido this afternoon…

On Tuesday, 15 December 2009, around 1.10pm, there was strong wind and black sky around Kota Kinabalu.

And to some lucky folks around Kota Kinabalu, particularly who are at Tanjung Aru or those who happen to be near the Kota Kinabalu coast line, experienced another rare opportunity to watch the spectacular water sprout… a dark funnel-shaped water connecting the sea and the sky for about 5 minutes.

The water sprout is tornadoes over water which swirl and spiral water spouts stretching thousands of feet high. It happens when there is a very dark cloud with flat bottoms and at the same time light rains begin to fall. Once the water sprout stop or break, the water it carried from the sea to the sky will be dropped which causes heavy rains… for a short period…

The sea water it carries up and drops as rain contain lots of salts… after all it is sea water… there is no point to have rain guards to protect your car… better go to car wash immediately to remove the salty rains from damaging your car… unless you don’t mind your car get rusty

I’m not sure when was the rain started, but when we came out from Karamunsing Complex after class and having McDonald around 9pm, the rain was quite heavy.

Driving was quite difficult… the rain was too much and too heavy… my wiper can’t clear the rain drops on the windscreen… it was too much… although I have put it on the fastest speed.

I have to drive very slowly… but although it was a very heavy rain… I’m glad it rain heavily… in fact I’m hoping for it to rain… just small rain… throughout the night… but well the heavy rain was only around KK I guess… because when I reach near Donggonggon, the rain subside from there… it was only small rain in Donggonggon.

I enjoy driving during rain… coz it will be cooler, less smoke, nice ambient sound… and last night I was thinking if I was driving a motor home, I can just park at the roadside and enjoy the rain… coz I was quite tired… was tired for the past few days… always feel sleepy… probably I was bitten by tsetse mosquitoes But here, having a motor home is something alien… probably like District 9 and probably owning a motor home will cost lots of money for the motorhome insurance

Anyway, the haze was reduced tremendously this morning… I hope it’s going to rain again tonight…

We started our journey around 11am in few cars… in my car was Ahaz and Mike. Four cars started from Karamunsing and the rest are from donno where…

We reach Salut around 12:35pm… lol that was a very slow journey… but we were snapping photos along the way but unfortunately the weather was too hazy… the rain are gone and now we are full with haze… since the past 3 days!!!

The first thing we did was to get good table location in the floating restaurant… yes the restaurant is floating on the sea

We took the corner of the restaurant where there is a power outlet. The second thing was to setup the WiFi for our LAN party.

Third is to wait for the rest to arrive and to order the food We had lots of prawns, the favorites dish… steam and fried with butter… steamed fishes… clamps, not sure what type… rice… and some more dishes which I don’t know the name coz I was not involved in ordering the foods… I was only busy taking photos

When the foods arrived, everyone swam into the dishes… it was like 1.40pm already… everyone was hungry like mad buffalo or kalabau…

I guess some should have taken appetite suppressant before they came here coz I believe some of the dishes did not reach us… those sitting at the other end of the long table… But we still had enough to make us all full

We did not bother with electronic gears the moment the food arrive… the AP, cables, power adapters, notebooks etc… coz the foods and our gadgets were almost mixed together on the same table…

While I was washing my hand after my food, suddenly a Happy Birthday song was played in the restaurant… I thought one of the tables is having a birthday party… maybe the Japanese or Korean table, Ahaz said they are Korean, ok

The washing sink was near the Korean’s table. Then the Koreans are looking and pointing at me, and clapping… I look at our table and everyone was singing and looking at me… holy crap… you all really made the BIG surprise!!! I never thought you all plan for this… my birthday is 2 days away lah… and all of you were talking like having something on the day itself… on the 6 August and not on the 4 August… 6 August is our GI Joe outing bah… GI Joe screening on my birthday… yuhoooo…

Anyway, THANKS guys and gals… love the Secret Recipes’ Chocolate Cake… if I knew someone brought Chocolate Cake, I would have not whack the prawns…

I will make the photo album of the trip soon…

But for now… take a look at the pictures …

The beautiful clouds are gone too…

I’m very sad coz there is no more rain or cloud…

When I’m sad, I will say WHY?…

If there is war… war in the Middle East… or anywhere… I want the rain and cloud to take it away with it… and there will be PEACE to mankind…

The top picture shows the morning sky along Penampang Bypass Road today. See the difference?… there are no more cloud… I hope the sadness is gone too… gone together with the rain… gone together with the cloud… aahhh…

Since there is no rain or cloud today, it is a bit hazy and a bit hot… but still OK… bearable…

If there is no rain tomorrow or Sunday, I will send my car for washing… cleaning… I wanna give my car a pressure washers coz I have not wash my car for the past three weeks… three weeks you ask?… well probably I’m too lazy… I have to be kind to my car now… I must wash it tomorrow…

The dirt are quite visible on the body surface… luckily my car is not black… it is silver, so the whitish color from the sandy dirt on it is not that much visible although they are quite thick. And luckily no one write something on my car’s dirt…

I’m still sad and confused… WHY?… WHY?… and tomorrow… and the day after… I have to take my exam… I have not studied… should I study tonight or play games?… play the Mafia Wars?… Oooo well… we’ll see that tonight… Oooo no… I have exam for two days… I can’t send my car for washing tomorrow… WHY?… WHY?…

And because I felt a bit low for the past few days… I feel very low… low with energizer battery… but maybe nobody notice it coz I look physically fit

So today I bought my supplement at Karamunsing… hopefully it will make me clever and make me pass for the exam…

I guess it was not only raining in KK/Penampang, I’m sure the whole region is raining because during the golf live telecast of the Enjoy Jakarta Astro Indonesia Open at Cengkareng Golf Club, Jakarta Indonesia, it shows rain.

But, suddenly just before 5pm on Sunday, the sun shined.

When it rains, I like taking photo of water dripping.

Along Bundusan Road on Saturday

Rain at home

Heavy rain showering the ‘bambangan’ flower which are just blooming… soon there will be loads of banbangan fruits

Took this along Penampang Bypass Road on Sunday when the sun suddently appeared. The photo a bit dark coz I’m not used to take photo of the sun. The sun is on the top left side.

The bambangan tree around 6pm on Sunday… very bright yea…