Borneo's Upside down house

A few months back, Sabah unveiled its latest tourist attraction. Rumah Terbalik (Translated as Upside down house) is located along the Tuaran - Tamparuli road. (Click to go to the official site).

A few months back, me and a few buddies did an impromptu trip to see this upside-down house. The journey from Kota Kinabalu didn't take very long. We arrived there at about noon, and the crowd was still manageable. We quickly proceeded to purchase our tickets and waited for out turn to get into the house. The ticket were priced at RM10 per person. While waiting for our turn, we decided to monkey around and take some photos beside a car that was also turned upside down in a garage.

 :::... Monkeying around the upside down car in the garage...:::

  :::... Monkeying around the upside down car in the garage...:::

 

:::... Am I strong or what? Hahaha...:::

 
Finally, it was our turn to enter the house. Quite disappointing that we were not allowed to take any photos inside the house. Strictly no photography allowed inside the house. The whole tour of the house took about 15 minutes. Internally, all the furniture were placed upside down as well. It was quite a sight. The beds, washing machine and lighting were all upside down.

Upon exiting the house, we went over to the souvenir shop. There was quite a number of items on sell, mostly related to the upside down house. They also had a cafeteria, which was a welcomed sight as the day was very hot and dry.

Personally, I feel that we should have been allowed to take photos inside the house. This would made the attraction more interesting. Well, I guess the owner must have his reasons for not allowing any photography within the building.

  :::... Group shot in front of the upside down house...:::

 :::... Souvenir bought as a remembrance. Its a fridge magnet  ...:::

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High Blood Pressure

Recently, I did a random test for my Blood Pressure. I had previously known that my BP is categorized as borderline high. However, during the recent visit, I was shocked to find out that my BP was at 190/130 (if memory serves well). I was told to go on medication immediately. I was prescribed the following pills. It is a 30 day course, and after that, I will have to do a check again. If it is still high, then I would have to go on a higher dose.

 :::... My Prescribed Medicine ...:::

:::... My Prescribed Medicine ...:::

After the initial checkup, I did a search on Wiki and found the following link (Hypertension). Both my doctor and the website recommends a change in lifestyle and a change in diet. So far, I managed to do some minor changes in my lifestyle. However, I feel that it is still lacking. I really need to start something that can keep my high BP in check.

Keeping that in mind, I have decided to sign-up for a gym membership. There is a gym that is close to my home. The gym is situated in 1 Borneo Shopping Mall. I'm not sure on the charges, but from the looks of it, the gym is quite big and has lots of machines. The other plus factor is that there are not many people there, which I feel is good so that I would not make an ass out of myself. I will post more on this gym once I have paid them a visit and find out the fees involved. Hopefully it will not cause big dent to my wallet.

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Pulau Sapi, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

For those who don't already know, I live in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Sabah is situated in East Malaysia and is blessed with wonderful natural wonders. We have beautiful beaches, stunning virgin forests and abundance of wildlife.

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit one Sabah's famous islands. This island is called Pulau Sapi (Literally translated as Cow Island). Pulau Sapi actually part of the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park. There are a total of 5 islands under the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, namely Pulau Gaya, Pulau Manukan, Pulau Sapi, Pulau Mamutik and Pulau Sulug. More info on the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park can be found on the Sabah Tourism Website. 

 I went there with a few other friends during one of the public holiday recently. Our journey began from the Jesselton Point Jetty. The journey to Pulau Sapi took about 10 minutes by speedboat. The weather on that day was perfect for snorkeling and relaxing in the sun.

:::... On our way to Pulau Sapi ...:::

:::... White sandy beach ...:::

:::... Pulau Sapi ...:::

Due to the fact that it was a public holiday, the crowd on that day quite huge. Nevertheless, we found a spot that was perfect to lay our stuffs and proceeded to prepare for our snorkeling excursion. Before leaving the Jesselton Point Jetty earlier, I bought an underwater casing that was being sold at one of the shops there. According to the seller, this casing would be perfect for snorkeling and taking underwater photos. I have always wanted to try underwater photography and this would be the perfect opportunity to test this out. 

I had my worries that the pouch will fail when submerged underwater and will cause my camera to spoil. But then, the urge to take underwater photos put to rest the doubts I had. I wasted no time in testing the pouch underwater. Below are some results from my underwater photography experiment.

:::... Underwater shot of myself ...:::

:::... Sandy seabed and dead corals ...:::

:::... Seaweeds floating in the ocean ...:::

:::... Dead looking corals on the seabed ...:::

:::... Colourful fishes swimming around ...:::

:::... Last shot before my camera died ...:::

My initial fears of the pouch failing came true. The photo above is the last photo I managed to capture before water began to seep into the pouch. Not much went in, but enough to cause the camera to stop functioning. Plus, I was using it in a saltwater environment. No guessing what saltwater can do to an electronic equipment. Upon seeing water seeping into pouch, I quickly got out from the water, hoping to salvage the camera. Sadly, no matter how much I dried it, it wouldn't come to live. Luckily the memory card was not affected. I still managed to salvage some photos from the camera.
We stayed on on the island until about 4.00pm. We had made prior arrangement for the boat to pick us up from the Pulau Sapi at 4.00pm. 
Overall, I would say I had a good time. Although I lost the use of my camera for this trip, as a whole, I would say I enjoyed myself. Can't wait for my next trip to the islands in the near future. 

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Restart / Reboot / Resume

Hey there people. Guess who's back to blogging. Been quite sometime since I have blogged. Kinda miss the feeling of blogging. Well, this is not my first blog. I have two other blog that I have quite sometime ago. Haven't been updating them for a long long time. Basically, the previous two blogs were about my passions. One of them was about fishing and the other was about my photography.


Crazyfisherman - The Chronicles of a crazy idiot, hoping to catch the elusive big one.
This is was first blog and most successful blog.  started to write this blog while I was still in KL and was actively involved in fishing. In this blog, I would write about the trips I took, the stuffs I bought, the places we went and anything related to fishing in general. Sadly, this blog came to its natural death once I moved to Sabah. Don't get me wrong, I still love to fish. Most of my gears are still with me and I good working condition. Many have said that Sabah is heaven for fishing, and I don't deny the fact. Sadly, I don't have any fishing kaki over here. Most of my friends here are not really into fishing. I still think about fishing once in a while, and I do have the urge to just go out to the sea and cast my line. Guess I will just have to sit back and wait for the time to come. 


Crazy Project 365 - A Photo A Day
I started this project in 2010.  Initially it was doing fine. I found time to take photos and upload them daily. However, towards the middle of the year, I couldn't find the time and inspiration to continue with my posting.
Fast forward to 2011, I started to continue the project. This time, it lasted even shorter. Lasted for about 3 months before I gave up. 


Its not that I have lost interest in fishing and photography. I still do photography, but more of a part time basis. I am act as a second photographer to one of my friend who does wedding photography here in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. I will write more on that in my upcoming posts.


So, what to expect from this blog? Well, I don't have a specific topic to write about in this blog. As opposed to my other two blogs which has specific topic written about them. Here, I am going to write about my daily activities. The place I go, the things I did, the people I meet. 


Anyway, hope to have something to write about in my next posting. 

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