Category Archives: Myself

Leisure Diving at Islands off Kota Kinabalu City

I’m certified as a scuba diver since year 2008, but it’s a shame that I don’t dive quite often. I even stopped once for 2 years. When my friend Dodo invited me to join a diving group last month, I agreed without second thought. One of the best things living in Kota Kinabalu City (KK) is – we have dozens of dive sites located in Tunku Abdul Rahman Park (I prefer to call it KK Islands Park), which is only 15 minutes away by boat ride from KK.

Scuba diver friends onboard. At the right is May, my Sifu.

It rained heavily in the morning on our diving day. Luckily it stopped before 7am so we just proceeded with our plan. The diving team gathered at STAR Marina and we departed at 9:30am with Borneo Divers, which has a Dive Centre on Mamutik Island. My Dive Instructor, May, was onboard with us too. I confessed to her that I had given her back everything she taught me (which means I forget everything) LOL.

However, there was no time to bother with the butterflies in my stomach, after suited up and got our dive equipment loaded on-board, we headed to the first dive site at 11am. On the way, I was busy to recall all the steps in my mind.

I was the last one entering the water with my compact camera in underwater case (can stay waterproof up to a depth of 40 Meters). Due to the rain earlier, the water was a bit murky but the visibility is quite ok, about 6 Meters in average. Two Divemasters, Christine and Jonathan were covering our front and back during the dive. The following are summaries of my experience in 3 dive sites.

Dive sites of Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park. We covered North Sulug Reef, East Sulug Reef and The Rock

1. North Sulug Reef

Depth: 18-22M (Dive Time: 11:14am-12:00pm)
My first dive was quite terrible. It took me 2 minutes to equalize (relieve pressure to eardrums caused by increasing depth). Then sea water leaked into my mask, I couldn’t see things clearly half of time. I also couldn’t control my buoyancy effectively while busy setting my camera. All these are caused by lack of practices.

Anyway, we spotted two green turtles and a school of barracuda! There were school after school of yellowback fusiliers swimming close to reef to catch plankton.

Many table corals, sea whips and feather stars (marine animals that look like plants) were present. Though the variety and density of corals wasn’t impressive and I saw 5 to 7 Crown of Thorns (a cunning and thorny marine creature which preys on corals), this dive site has the most reef fishes compared to my next two dives.

Special thanks to Dodo for sharing her photos in this article. She is a hardcore diver who has done over 200 dives.

Slowly I got used to the water and able to navigate freely around the reef. The dive ended after 45 minutes and we went back to Mamutik Island for lunch.

2. East Sulug Reef

Depth: 9-16M (Dive Time: 1:20pm-2:04pm)
After lunch buffet and a short nap on the island, we started our second dive near Sulug Island again. To focus on polishing my rusted diving skill, I left my camera behind. This dive site is far more interesting than the first one.

The corals here is much more denser and it has become a good hiding place for numerous ocean critters. We saw a pair of mating nudibranch (also known as Orchids of the Ocean) on the coral rubble. In fact, you can find more wildlife underwater than on the land, and some of them are very bright in colors.

That day must be our lucky day. We saw a Hawksbill turtle swimming toward us. It seemed so relax and only a few Meters away from us, probably it thought we were just big fishes. The population of Hawksbill turtle is 10 times less than Green Turtle, so this sighting is really a treat.

I spotted at least two very big and old giant clams. If this park is not protected, there wouldn’t be any of them left due to overfishing. However, if a giant clam grows really huge, like over a Meter wide, many local fishermen would not dare to touch it because they believe there is a spirit dwells inside.

We dived along a long stretch of underwater coral garden. I noticed a coral was “flashing”. A closer look showed that it’s a big cuttlefish camouflaged as a coral. We would have missed it if it didn’t change colors. Divers have to be very observant or they would miss many cool stuffs. I believe we only spotted a few percent of the wildlife lurking in this reef.

East Sulug Reef has a lot of lettuce corals, mushroom corals and barrel sponges. Among them, I saw two Christmas tree worms retreated into their burrows, and orange-spotted grouper, angelfish, etc. Without a camera, I could dive more freely. Most of the time, I hovered between between a depth of 10 to 14 Meters, where visibility is better and beautiful corals concentrated.

3. The Rock

Depth: 12-13M (Dive Time: 3:25pm-4pm)
For the last dive, we explored The Rock just behind Mamutik Island. The corals at The Rock is as fabulous as East Sulug Reef but with more variety of soft corals. Too bad I don’t know most of their names. I will buy a guide book and learn to identify the marine lives so I will enjoy diving more.

The seascape here is a gradual sloping ridge. Ten of us dived gently along its side full with fringing reef.

Hard corals grow an average of 1 to 2 cm per year. Many corals in the marine parks of Sabah are estimated 3,000 to 6,000 years old. But they can be totally destroyed in a matter of minutes by destructive fishing method such as blast fishing (or fish bombing).

False Clown Anemone fish in Ritteri anemone

We saw two Magnificent Anemones with Anemonefishes (Nemo) living in them. Magnificent Anemone is very hard to survive in aquarium, so you have to see them in the wild.

Pink Anemonefish in purple Magnificent Anemone (Heteractis magnifica)

Even though KK Islands Park isn’t a world-class diving spot, it’s still a great playground, even experienced divers find pleasant surprises in every dive.

Everyone was really happy. The sighting of sea turtles and barracuda is already worth the trip. My interest on diving is reignited. I’ll do more dives regularly to perfect my skill and take more underwater photos in future.

Recommended Dive Operators

Sabah has so many high-quality diving spots all over the state. The nearest dive site could be less than 20 KM away from our home. If you don’t know how to dive, it’s like living next to a snowy mountain but don’t know how to ski.

You can find more about how to get certified as a scuba diver in my blog. To get certified or arrange a diving trip, I highly recommend the dive operators below:

1. Borneo Divers

Borneo Divers is the most established PADI 5-star dive operator in Sabah and has dive centres on Mamutik and Mabul Islands.
Tel: +60 88-222226, +60 88-221340
E-mail: information@borneodivers.info
Website: www.borneodivers.net
Facebook: BorneoDiversMabulResort
Office Address: 9th Floor, Menara Jubili, 53, Jalan Gaya, 88000 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

2. Downbelow Marine & Wildlife Adventures

Downbelow is run by a nice couple, Richard and Joanne from UK. They are very passionate about the nature of Sabah, and their service is highly rated in TripAdvisor. Downbelow has a PADI 5-star dive centre on Gaya Island Base Camp and a Dive Shop in KK Times Square.

E-mail: info@divedownbelow.com
Website: www.divedownbelow.com
Tel: +60 88-488997, +60 12-8661935
Office Address: KK Times Square, Lot 33-G, Block F, Kota Kinabalu, 88100 Sabah, Malaysia
Facebook: DiveDownBelow
Google+: +Divedownbelow
Twitter: @divedownbelow
Youtube: divedownbelow
Instagram: adventures_borneo

3. Asia Diving Vacation

Asia Diving Vacation was started by my old buddy, Jacob, who is an avid diver who loves to introduce divers to the best dive sites in Asia, for example, Layang Layang, Lankayan, Sipadan and even Maratua (Indonesia). You can join him stalking whale shark around the islands of KK.

E-mail: customercare@asiadivingvacation.com
Website: www.asiadivingvacation.com
Office Address: Duis Dive, 23, 3rd Floor, Block C, Damai Plaza IV, 88300 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
Facebook: AsiaDivingVacation
Twitter: @advonline

The fee of leisure diving (fun diving) day trip ranges from RM320 to RM360 (?US$90-103), which normally includes boat transfer, 3 guided boat dives, rental of scuba equipment, diving permit and lunch. Please visit their websites for detail on dive packages.

Dive map of Sabah and Labuan. You can download the pamphlet here.

Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Parking War in Kota Kinabalu City

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According to Nielsen Global Survey of Automotive Demand, almost every Malaysian owns a car, the third highest rate of car ownership in the world. Kota Kinabalu City (KK) has a population of over 600,000, imagine what it is like when half a million cars compete for 10,314 public parking lots (exclude private parking spaces) in and around KK every day.

Pic: No Parking, No Parking, No Parking… We mean it!

Inevitably parking has become a daily battle with local authority, ill-mannered motorists and even criminals. For my case, going to KK takes me only 20 minutes but finding a parking can take more than half an hour sometimes.

Pic: No-No Parking Zone = Yes? LOL

Yea city life is tough. In this article are just some trivia and interesting photos of parking in Sabah.

5 Most Annoying Parking Experience

Dealing with retarded and selfish people is unavoidable. Well, I’ll just laugh them off by looking at them in amusing way. Feel free to share your experience and photo in comment section too. 😀

“No matter how well you dress, how expensive is your car, how decent you appear to others… How you park and drive reveals the true you, when you think no friend & relative are there to judge how you drive other nuts on the road.”

1. “Reserve” a Parking Space by Object

Some people would attempt any mean to reserve a parking lot, for example, placing an object to “book” the spot. Public parking lot is provided on 1st-come-1st-serve basis, so it’s illegal to block others from using it. For shop / individual that needs this public space for their business (e.g. car washing, cafe), they must rent the space from DBKK (and the monthly fee isn’t cheap).

Decade ago, after you parked your car, a street kid would approach you asking for “protection fee”, or a foreigner carried a bucket of water offering lousy car cleaning service. If you refused to give what they wanted, you would find scratches on your car later. Luckily, it’s no longer happening in KK.

2. Jaywalking Pedestrians

Be careful in your reverse parking. There are always some idiots who are oblivious of the reverse signal and walk pass your rear while your car is moving. It’s a miracle that such morons can live more than 20 years old. I hope they won’t breed.

You can easily tell if a person is a loser by looking at the way s/he walks and cross the street. Stay away from them because they always blame others.

3. Non-Stop False Alarm

Out of the blue a car alarm could set off for no reason, its 200-decibel siren can go on for hour and the owner is missing in action. The repeating high-pitch noise is a mental torture to everyone living or working nearby.

They better stop using those hypersensitive alarm that is program to prevent mosquito from stealing their car, or nobody will bother to check, when the real car thief breaks in next time.

4. Slow Loris

While leaving, if I notice any car waiting for my parking spot, I’ll start my car and leave as soon as I can. But not everyone does the same. It is truly frustrating when someone dilly-dally (taking time to check their phone and touch up their lipstick, etc) before starting the engine and leave, though they can see you waiting.

Pic: Thinking outside the box is good. Parking outside the box is #fail #parking. In fact, traffic police can compound this car RM70 for improper parking.

I don’t mean to be sexist, but in my experience it’s always women. People will see you as a beautiful person if you are considerate and thoughtful, so you can save your make-up for later then.

5. Double-Parking

I can hear the loud YES in your mind. Do these selfish motorists think their fathers own the road?

Pic: hogging two… no, three parking spots

Double Parking happens everyday, everywhere in KK because of lack of enforcement. Since our Uncle Police is always busy escorting VIP convoy, I’ll be more than happy to lend a hand. If they give me the right to issue summons to these cockroach motorists, I’ll do it for FREE. Double parking is simply an act of selfish and laziness. If we are willing to park further away, we never need to double park.

Photo Source: Sabah hitzFM Facebook

Come on lah, if you must double park, at least leave a phone number on your dashboard, so the “victim” can call you to move your car away. It’s so irritating to honk a long time but the owner is nowhere to be seen. I would be lucky if the car didn’t have its handbrake on, so I could push it aside.

Not everyone is kind to write you an educational note. One day you will get karma for bad parking, like this video (frankly I also feel the impulse to do the same thing). I know this is wrong, but sorry I have no compassion to what happened to that car. This is a good message to those suckers who like to double park.

I did ask Uncle Police how to deal with double parking. One of them says we can call 088-310273 (traffic police in KK) and a traffic police will issue a RM100 summon to the motorist who blocks your car. Unfortunately, we can’t request them to tow away the stupid car, unless it obstructs the road.

Leave Nothing (and Nobody) in your Car

Isn’t it a common sense not to leave anything in our car to prevent break-in? There have been news like burglar stole a quarter million of cash left in the vehicle. As there are so many fools in KK, I did seriously consider thievery a better career.

Many locals still have the attitude like “Oh, don’t worry, it’s just a briefcase with office documents, nothing valuable”. But to thief, this might be a treasure chest with laptop, wallet or phone inside. They are even willing to smash car window just for a few coins, like what happened to my friend, who cried, “You only want the coins mah, I give you lah! Why broke my window?”

In another case, a car of my female friend broke down. A group of “friendly” people came to help. She was so happy and thought she was hot, then she found that her wallet and handphone on the dashboard went missing.

Pic: reserved parking lot with tickets, look fair.

I also heard many cases that people left their car unlocked for only a few minutes then their car was hijacked.

Losing money or your car is bad enough, but the worst thing is when your car disappears with your child. I guess you still remember the shocking news of You-You, a 3-year-old boy who was abducted in the car left by his father at a petrol station in Kampung Air last year. The car was found but the boy vanished until today.

Negligent parents can be sued under Child Act if they leave their kid in the car. Just for a few minutes of convenience, you would regret for life. Sadly, history teaches us that similar tragedy will happen again.

Park at your Own Risk?

Some private car parks put up a “Park at your Own Risk” exemption clause at their entrance or have it printed on parking ticket. Based on Consumer Protection Act 1999, if car park operators charge you for using their parking space, they are liable to any damages to vehicles parked in their premises.

For many years consumers had been fooled by car operators this way, until 24 Apr 2009, a magistrates court in Penang ordered a car park operator to pay a lawyer RM1,668 for items stolen from his car parked at an open air car park near Komtar. Knowledge is Power indeed.

“Park at your own risk”? Let’s listen what these Malaysian lawyers say.

If your car park operator refuses to take responsibility for any damages to your vehicles while parked in their premises, you can complain to Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism (MDTCC). You should also lodge a police report for your loses, and document the incident (e.g. photos, parking ticket).

Pic: I sincerely hope this is not your car. It’s really a nightmare. Stop feeding pigeons, they are city rats with wings.

However, you should avoid making your car a promising target, leave nothing in your car. Probably the car park operator would compensate for your stolen items and broken window, but you won’t get any profit either, it’s troubling both sides only.

Ladies’ Parking

Car park is a dangerous place for ladies. I know one shopping mall in KK has malfunction CCTVs, they never fix it and they always fail to prevent the repeating crimes. Their security guards are also no useful than scarecrow.

Abduction has been happening in car parks of Peninsular Malaysia and the victims were robbed, raped or murdered (or all of the above).

Pic: Ladies’ Parking Zone in 1Borneo Shopping Mall

Some car park operators have demarcated a “Lady Only” parking zone for female drivers. Anyway, you should take charge of your security. Be vigilant and don’t let your guard down. Once you get on your car, lock the doors immediately. If we don’t care about our safety, no others would.

Coupon Parking System of KK

Do you like the new Coupon Parking System (CPS) introduced by DBKK in Oct 2014? Well, I guess nobody is happy until parking is free. 🙂

At first I didn’t like the idea of “scratch and park” prepaid ticket. In fact, this DIY approach eliminates my need to keep track of all unpaid parking tickets (tedious!). It works better for me this way.

Pic: I hope there is a better way to display the parking coupons, it looks so untidy on the dashboard.

My only complaints are – the system uses too many paper, and sometimes it’s hard to estimate how long I would park at a place. I learnt from a news that DBKK has 6,951 green, 3,081 yellow and 282 red parking lots. Out of curiosity, I did a simple calculation and estimate DBKK can make RM1.8 million of revenue from parking monthly, WOW!

However, don’t take this as an official figure ok, they may not make that much because many people disregard parking fee. Some of my friends never pay a cent for many years and nothing bad happens to them (that’s a saving of a few thousands!). In the past, DBKK tried different fruitless measures such as wheel-clamp and blocking the road tax renewal. In short, they can’t do much about it (please correct me if I’m wrong). The only problem I see is – you may have problem to sell your old car if the potential buyer doesn’t want to take over your mess (parking debt and penalty).

FYI, you can check your “debt” online with DBKK at ecompound.dbkk.sabah.gov.my. It’s your call whether you want to challenge DBKK. For me, I just pay for peace of mind.

Summon

Have you paid your long overdue summon? Or Uncle Police will knock your door and invite you for a cup of bitter coffee.

In the past, they always offered amnesty period with deep discount to those motorists who refused to pay the fine, making good citizens who paid on time looked so stupid. This time, instead of giving discount, they will give stubborn people a handcuff.

FYI, you can check your PDRM (police) and JPJ summon online at MyEG. It took me only 2 minutes to register and login to check, it’s free and worked perfectly.

Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

My Blogging Journey and Malaysia Social Media Week

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Year 2015 is my 10th anniversary on blogging. When I reminisce the past, I’m amused by how much the world of blogging has changed over the last decade. After I quit my job in 2005, I was so excited to read from a magazine that said blog would be a world-changing platform, and bloggers could make a lot of money out of it.

Therefore, I started this travel blog (i.e. MySabah.com). Did you know that 80% of Malaysian bloggers write about either travel or food? At that time, there were a lot of bloggers jumped on the bandwagon too. To avoid stiff competition, I focused my niche topic on travelling in Sabah. We blogged almost every day about everything and placing ad banners all over our websites, wishing for thousands of clicks and tons of cash flowing in.

However, after many months, most of us received a cheque of only two digit earning. One by one, people stop blogging. I’ve seen many bloggers come and go, and some of them produced great content, which is sad.

Pic: The moment of truth. Is Blogging just a waste of time?

Every now and then I would hear marketer or consultant started their presentation with cliche opening such as, “There are over 2 billions Internet users, so you must sell on the Net.” It’s just a marketing gimmick, which is almost as silly as saying, “We have 7 billion people on earth so everyone must open a shop.” Well, you know I know, that is impossible to reach everyone online or offline. Anyway, cyberspace makes it easier provided that we know how to reach our target audiences.

Pic: If I was only after for money, I would have quit many years ago, after seeing no result from many months of hard-work. I believe most bloggers go through the same struggle in the beginning and share the same sentiment. Albeit the setbacks, I’m glad I didn’t give up.

There is a joke which says, “To become a millionaire travel writer, start with 2 millions.” Don’t get me wrong. Blogging does make money. However, majority of successful bloggers make money indirectly from their blog, for example, by writing sponsored posts, publishing book, providing training, consultancy and digital marketing services, selling products related to their blog, after they build their reputation and traffic online.

“The currency of blogging is authenticity and trust.” – Jason Calacanis

Pic: Sharing is Caring. Photo by Vanessa from The Island Drum, one of my favorite speakers.

Luckily my passion on blogging is not solely driven by financial incentive, I always have the genuine interest to promote Sabah, my beautiful homeland a.k.a. the Land below the Wind. Now I have built a steady income stream from blogging and it’s still growing. Now my blog has over 800 articles (with millions of page views), 30,000 photos and 200 videos (over 4 million views), covering most destinations in Sabah. Some of my articles got over 10K shares on social media and my works are published on many books and magazines. I’ve been focusing my blog on introducing least-known attractions. If I blog more about popular destinations, I can triple or even quadruple my traffic (income), something I’m looking forward to do more this year.

“Don’t focus on having a great blog. Focus on producing a blog that’s great for your readers.” – Brian Clark

Pic: I always blog in late night. This is how I feel after clicking the “Publish” button. LOL

Nowadays it’s no easy task to be a travel blogger. Besides good knowledge in your niche, you also need to be good at HTML, writing, photography, SEO, social media, digital marketing, video making, etc. But the hardest of all is the time and level of self-discipline it takes. I have to turn blogging into a habit or even a lifestyle. But thinking of the positive side, even if your blog doesn’t do well, you still learn a lot of new things.

Pic: Asking for sponsorship? In early days, bloggers were not being highly appreciated. People thought we were amateur and air-headed attention seekers who blogged about something controversial or to complain about others.

Pic: The attitude of business owners have gradually changed today. More companies say Yes to bloggers. Blog is now making a comeback in business world and becomes a crucial component of Content Marketing. No matter how fast technologies evolves, people are always hungry for quality and useful content. Many businesses want to offer great content and blogging service is very desirable. I’m very sheepish in asking for sponsorship, so I’m very grateful to those who see my value and support me.

“The term ‘Professional Blogger’ is no longer an oxymoron.” – Luke Langford

Malaysia Social Media Week

Blogging has stood the test of time and is widely and formally accepted as a media in Malaysia. In Sabah, we have Best Online Media Award by Sabah Tourism Awards to acknowledge the best blogger. In national level, Malaysia also presents Bloggers and Social Media Awards to outstanding bloggers in Malaysia Social Media Week (MSMW) in various categories annually.

The coming Malaysia Social Media Week 2015 will be held on 21-25 Apr 2015 in Berjaya Times Square Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. I’ve joined it once and strongly recommend this grand event to aspiring bloggers and social media marketers. Companies are advised to participate too, as there are lot of ideas on digital marketing being shared. To users, your business does not exist if they can’t find your website, photos, videos and stories online. They google you before they buy from you.

Pic: presentation slide by Murni Amalia Ridha / Mumun from Indonesia (www.Indohoy.com)

During the conference, you will see many international bloggers like you and me. It’s encouraging to know that they do the same thing like you and achieve great results. You could be the next one in spotlight. If you are a music lover, you should join a live concert at least once in a lifetime. Same to blogger, you should attend a conference if blogging is your passion.

Pic: David Hogan shared his blogging tips during MSMW conference. His Malaysia Asia website is one of the most successful blogs in Malaysia.

Pic: photo with Murni Amalia Ridha / Mumun (middle) and David Hogan (right)

You can even connect with your favorite speakers / bloggers and learn from them. Sometimes a small change in mindset and approach can improve our results significantly. Please don’t blog alone in your room. Meet other bloggers to get inspired.

Pic: Pham Hoang Mien (www.hanoigrapevine.com) from Vietnam

The conference and workshop of MSMW cover various topics in blogging and social media. Photography is also a hot topic. You would discover new tools, connection and opportunities for your platforms. Being diligent is not enough if we don’t have the right strategies.

MSMW is not only about blogging. Key players of online media, advertisers, technology corporations, etc. will come to speak at the summit. You may follow the Facebook of MSMW for update.

Pic: Blogie Robillo (Philippines) from www.dabawenyo.com. I really like his name. He has a travel blog about Mindanao.

Who knows you might find new meaning that reignites your passion and take your blog to next level.

Many give up right before the tipping point. Just keep blogging if you enjoy it, good things will definitely come along, money hopefully.

Photos taken in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Uncle in B2.0: Borneo Bloggers + New Media Dialogue

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B2.0, an annual conference for blogging and micro-blogging communities of Borneo, is what I have been looking forward to. In fact, this is the 3rd time Borneo Colours and M.E Malaysia organizes this event. I remember I joined the 1st KK Bloggers Gathering in year 2007. After 5 years, blogging is not dead, instead, blog becomes even more powerful with the rise of Social Media and Mobile Devices. Now blogging is part of everyone’s life and no longer a hobby reserved to tech-savvy youngsters, and everyone is a blogger in some way.

Pic: Daniel Doughty, the founder of Borneo Colours, the largest community portal of Borneo

Uncle on Social Media

I’m a Generation-X approaching middle-age (LOL). I went through the era of fax and Internet. I wrote letters to keep a long-distance relationship. I read newspaper in breakfast. I valued human touch and didn’t understand why someone have more Facebook friends than real friends. I didn’t get it.

Source: Geek.com

However, I became an advocate when my organization (Sabah Tourism Board) decided to reach more audiences by “Words of Mouth” marketing via Social Media. Then I started to witness the power of Social Media platform to complement traditional media, after Sabah Tourism entered Facebook, Twitter and Weibo (as China blocks Facebook). It’s astonishing to see how a post can go viral, getting hundreds, thousands of shares and likes within hour. Even my personal blog gained 30% more traffic after I made it more social media friendly.

The Rise of Social Media

Though I was invited as one of the special guests in B2.0, I came with a heart to learn, to share and to network. After the fun ice-breaking activity by Johan Amilin, we had our panel discussion on The Rise of Social Media.

Pic: ~~Badass~~ Guest panel of Rise of Social Media, MC by Jack. It’s me at the far left, trying to act cool, actually my palm sweated XD

I was sitting next to the very influential food blogger, Thanis Lim from Brunei, his honest review can cause lousy restaurants to close down, and the most active Sabah Twitter, Pajel @ KKCity, whom I personally call the spy of KK (Thanks for tweeting about road blocks bro :-p).

Pic: I looked so serious, next time I should smile more. Thanis was probably thinking of what’s for lunch.

We shared our experience on various topics such as self-moderation, making money and getting more exposure on blog and social media. I’m full of gratitude for the support from the following organisations, who give Borneo bloggers a stage:

Acer Sales & Services � the first company to launch the full suite of Windows 8 product with touch capability
Sponsorship and massive support from DiGi.
Borneo Colours and M.E Malaysia for organizing the event.
Ministry of Resource Development & Information Technology
Nuffnang Malaysia
Canon
Bombers Burger
Film Production of Sabah
Creative Lasso

What we said were quoted quite extensively (including my broken English) in Daily Express on 3 Dec 2012. Oh My Manglish! *embarrassed* Thanks Neil for polishing up a bit on my part.

What was Not Being Said…

The panel discussion was short, so I couldn’t talk too long or I would hijack the whole session. :-p I hope the audiences got my points presented in summary form.

I have seen so many talented bloggers and vloggers in Sabah. For their creativity and achievement, they can make a very good living (and fame) in modern countries such as USA. However, in Sabah, it’s sad that most of us are only barely surviving. Doing things we are passionate about and earning good income is the dream of every bloggers. Unfortunately, very few can sustain a full-time blogging career.

Therefore, Bloggers can’t just sit there waiting for sponsorship and traffic to flow in, we have to reach out, and Social Media makes this easier. Sometimes we just need to be proactive and ASK. Below are a few advice to increase our expo$ure:-

Write good content to make people share: Our content should be either (1) Useful, (2) Interesting, (3) Funny, (4) Cool / Funky, or even (5) Controversial. Emotion is the Key. Nobody will share content that doesn’t make them WOW or Angry. e.g. 43 Food You Must Not Miss In KK
Niche & Positioning: focus on topic that we are good at (or interested in).
Install Social Media Sharing plugin in your blog.
Approach potential sponsors and propose a project. Tell sponsors how you can help promoting their business, instead of letting them to figure out what to offer you.
Contribute content to traditional media such as newspapers and magazines. Get an interview.
Besides Blog, extend our territory to different Social Media channels such as YouTube and Instagram.
Search engine is still a very important source of referrers. Google “SEO” for tips.

Unless our blog has thousands of visitors per day, Pay-Per-Click Ad won’t be very promising. Even if the traffic of a good blog can be low, it attracts high-quality visitors who are more likely our target customers. With such advantage, you can sell your OWN product / service in your blog, whether you are a restaurant owner, eBook writer, wedding photographer, estate manager, IT consultant… Don’t be so obsessed with one-hit-wonder viral content or number of fans, they worth $0 if they are not your target market and won’t buy anything from you.

Special Guests of B2.0

I’m so glad to meet Jack, Monica and Angeline, the team behind Everyday Food I Love, a food blog that always makes me drooling. Besides, I also learnt a lot from the following cool speakers and special guests.

Very informative talk on Image Sharing Madness by Reeda Malik (AnakBrunei). I felt like an old man when he mentioned some image sharing apps that I never heard of, and when others kept nodding their heads when asked if they were users.

Reeda also played a video “The Stolen Scream” about a man who found his photograph was displayed everywhere without his knowledge.

My photos in my blog are also being “stolen” countless time. You will be surprised if I tell you who are those copycat… These million-dollar companies never thanked me, and they even removed the copyright stamp of my photos. When being caught, they would blame their poor designers who got no budget for image stock.

Next was the talk on Social Media Gamers by Tristan Lee Riven of Team Sprocket.

Team Sprocket is developing a new game “Shiftling” that will be released in 2014. Can’t wait.. I got a poster of the game with the autograph of the team members (Tristan, John and Minho). Does the dress look familiar? They use a lot of Borneo elements in the game design.

Rise of Mobile Applications & Nuffnang X by Sue Ann Tang

She rise a red flag in my mind when she said only 1% of mobile users read blog on mobile phone. For me, blog is the best platform to publish content, as it can accommodate large quantity of text, photos, video, etc., unlike social media which has short life-span and length limit. I’ll install their new NuffnangX app and see if that can help me to promote my blog on mobile devices.

A thumb-up to Tai for his talk on In Support of Social Media, I totally agree with him that we should challenge the norm, the standard. Being conventional is just BORING.

Then he showed us a very funny video made for the Gila Internet Sales of DiGi.

It was so hilarious that I watched it again and again later at home.

Kathleen Lee from Microsoft introduced new Acer laptops with touch-screen capability supported by Windows 8. Oh dear, NOW, should I get an Iconia tablet or DSLR as my Xmas gift? I want BOTH lah.

Moses Wong (Film Production Sabah) and Jared Lee (Grim Film) giving a talk on YouTube Generation & Social Media Unveiled. They are the people behind the viral video Sabah Hakka Style, which got over 800K hit. I’m so proud that Sabah has such talent.

And their short film “The Long Distance Relationship” was so touching that I saw a few guys wiped their tears after watching it.

It was a day well-spent and I was really happy to be there. I guess the happiest blogger is Chan Hing Chin, who won an Acer Iconia tab for getting the most Likes for his creative entry. Congratulations!

Pic: One for the album. A group photo of B2.0 to end the convention.

See you Next Year! 🙂 Hope all bloggers will have more success stories and interesting experience to share next time.

Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Lottery Rock makes you rich

5 Replies

A car accident always causes traffic jam on the road of Sabah because many cars will slow down to copy the car plate number for buying “4D”. 4D means 4-digit lottery games (also known as Cash 4, Pick 4, and Play 4 overseas. Local Chinese calls it “??”), the favorite lottery type of Sabah people. You just select a 4-digit number from 0000 to 9999 then bet on it. Though most Malaysians hate mathematics class, 4D is the coolest number game for us.

Yes, we all knows that the chance of winning is slim. More likely it’s money wasted but somehow it’s a nice form of mental entertainment, and hey, for RM1.15, you can’t even buy a coke, so it’s not really a big lost. In many cases, we will shout at the result in delight “OH XYZ, I only miss by one number!” and smile to one another, as if we are one step closer to our dream. Some don’t play lottery and say “not buying is winning”. Well, if you never try, for sure the next million-dollar jackpot winner is never you. “No try No luck”.

Sabahans are so obsessed with 4D that if you tell them, “I saw a ghost last night.” ALL of us will reply spontaneously, “Did you ask him for 4D number?” So funny.. Anyway, some gamblers do summon the ghost for numbers.

Would you ask a ghost for lottery number?

For unknown reason, Chinese thinks that windfall is controlled by spiritual world. If your luck comes, a hidden force will hint you via different channels, for example, plate number of a car in accident, numbers appear in your dream, and any number shown up in unusual occasion.

When I was in Beaufort town, the locals told me that there is an amazing “Lottery Rock” (Chinese calls it “???”) that answers the prayer of gamblers, and some of them really won lottery. Based on very limited info, I tried to look for this rock which is located between Beaufort and Sipitang. After asking two villagers during the search, finally I found it a few KM before the junction to Weston town.

FYI, this rock is about 27 Kilometers (KM) away from Beaufort. When you head to Sipitang from Beaufort, just pay attention at the left side of the road after you pass by SK Maraba school and see the “25 Sipitang” signage. You will see a boardwalk shortly, like photos above.

Below is the location map of its exact location:

View My Sabah Map in a larger map

The shaded boardwalk will lead you to the golden Lottery Rock. This is an impressive big structure for an “unnamed” god. Even the God of Earth usually gets a 2×2 feet altar. To repay Lottery Rock for helping them to win lottery, the gamblers build wooden shelter, boardwalk, cement foundation, floor tiles, etc. for it.

I started to see scribbling of numbers the moment I walked in.

They even paint the Lottery Rock with shiny golden paint, so don’t get mistaken that it’s a gold rock ok, LOL.

Got any lucky number in mind? Just write it and make a wish.

Don’t limit yourself to 4D numbers. You may try jackpot numbers too. I guess Lottery Rock can read numbers in Chinese?

Since Lottery Rock has magical power, I believe it can understand your request in Malay language too.

You may see words like TOTO, Magnum, Lotto88 and STC (Sandakan Turf Club). These are the names of lottery companies. To make the job of Lottery Rock easier, it’s nice that some specified the company and even the draw date. Otherwise you will have to buy the same number from 4 companies, just to be safe.

The surface of Lottery Rock is full of 4D, 6D and jackpot numbers. I was told that whenever someone win big prize, he/she will repaint the rock with different color. When the rock surface is out of space, people will write the numbers everywhere in the hut. Do take note that if you win the lottery but you break your promise to the rock, you will be hit by bad luck, in serious case, death.

Even the small rock next to Lottery Rock also benefits from its fame.

See the termite nest next to the rock? People believe termite nest is a sign of presence of god.

You may watch the short video below to take a tour:

Click Here for wider video

When I was busy in photo-taking alone, I saw smoke coming from the rock and I heard something moving behind the rock. I felt a chill on my spine.

Phew… it was just a chicken behind the rock.

And the smoke was coming from the burning incense. Look at the 6D and 4D numbers in the container.

Actually the chicken was enjoying the biscuit, the offering left by the gambler for the rock. The left eye of this chicken is blind.

There are other offering such as betel nuts and leaves.

However, those offering accumulate and rot, turning this place into a smelly dumping ground.

The notice sign reads, “To show your respect to the god of rock, please keep this place clean and don’t litter after worship. Thank you for your cooperation.”

Ok, you might be curious, how did an ordinary rock become a popular magical rock?
Someone say, in the past, to construct the road between Beaufort and Sipitang, a group of workers moved away a rock that obstructed the way. However, later they discovered this rock came back to its original location. There are many taboo in construction industry, they believe this rock is occupied with spirit and shall not be moved. When a termite nest appeared next to it, people think this rock may bring wealth, so they prayed for winning lottery. And some did win, the rock becomes famous, so more and more people worship it until today.

Though I was hanging there for less than an hour, there were already two cars stopped by to visit and worship this rock. One of them told me that a number “5311” written on the rock won 2nd prize, by his friend the previous day. That’s why he also comes here to worship the rock. I checked the newspaper and he was right. If you pay attention to all my photos above, you would have noticed that 5311 appears 4 times in different spots.

Ok, as I was there, why don’t I also try my luck? I bought lottery tickets for 3 numbers, I never win a lottery in my life, please wish me luck. XD

Photos taken in Beaufort, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Mt. Kinabalu Stamps

1 Reply

Last week (April 9) I bought the stamps of Malaysia World Heritage sites coz Mount Kinabalu was one of them. I got the first day cover, miniature sheet and post card (all shown below). Actually I had stopped collecting stamps since e-mail replaced postal mails. Though the e-mail is delivered in lightning speed, the mail inherits the coldness of technology and is lack of personal touch. Collecting stamps sounds like an out of fashion interest, so I was surprised there were stamp collectors already waited there before the post office opened. Without doubt, no young faces.

Collecting stamps was used to be my hobby during the old school day. I was so crazy that I went to a stamp stall in Gaya Street at 7am every week, coz the seller had very good collection of stamps. It was like a treasure hunting and until today I still can’t find the similar hobby that offers the same thrill. The old North Borneo stamps are my favourite, may be their old-style wood like pattern, in contrast to the colourful watercolor stamps today. Few years ago, I even went to eBay to bid for stamps. Well, probably I just wanted to get a feel of my old day happiness.

Stamp is like mini document that tells story about the past and present of a country. We need to know how to take care of the stamps. For example, we are supposed to move the stamps with tweeter instead of finger, because the sweat and oil on our skin will oxidize the stamps and make them turn yellow.

Though I seldom shop for stamps, I would be happy if anyone gives me some old Sabah stamps. The rare red cross and Japanese occupation stamps interest me the most, but they cost over thousand per set now.

The purpose of world heritage site is to protect and conserve the locations with history and scientific values. However, from what I read on the news, Malaysians see it as a $$$ business for tourism instead. Very fast the friendly contractors and developers will propose to build resorts and stuffs there.

Above are old North Borneo stamps about Mt. Kinabalu, the angle very different from today version right? I guess the pictures were based on the view from Beaufort. The modern stamps of Mt Kinabalu are usually the view from Kundasang and the top, which is not so accessible during British colony time. One of them is over 100 years old. The newer set is also about 50 years old. Hmmm… their designers are very lazy too, keep on reusing the same picture.

Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Oh Brunei

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I didn’t know that Brunei was claiming Limbang (of Sarawak) as part of their territory, until I read the news last week. I have gone to Brunei multiple times coz of some IT projects of my ex-companies. However, I was only given 14 days of visitor pass upon arrival to Brunei. This posed a problem coz my assignment needed 3 weeks to complete. To apply for extended stay from Brunei immigration is very troublesome, you need to go to their office in city and have a local to be your guarantor.

The fastest way is leaving Brunei and go to nearest immigration gate of Sawarak (Malaysia border), then enters Brunei again to get a new pass (for another 14 days). It sounds funny but it works well and many Malaysians do that. Hey, many Bruneians also go to Limbang to buy beer (no tax if buy 1 dozen only). In my case last time, Limbang is the nearest gate, which is only an hour drive away from Brunei city. So I left Brunei via its immigration gate in Kuala Lurah, took a short walk to Limbang to enter Sarawak, then entered Brunei from Limbang again. The whole process took less than 30 minutes and I got 4 chop on my passport, i.e. Brunei(out)->Sarawak(in)->Sarawak(out)->Brunei(in). The photo above is the area between Sarawak (right side) and Brunei (left side). If Brunei people go to Kota Kinabalu (6 hours drive passing through Brunei, Sarawak and Sabah), they may get 10 chop!

Brunei is a country in many ways similar to Malaysia, but also very different. For example, I hardly saw a Proton or Perodua car on the road, needless to say, a land without Sang Kancil. If any, the car is from Malaysia then. Their petrol is about 50% cheaper than Malaysia, and imported cars are 30 to 50% cheaper than ours. Probably that’s why there is no bus there, since everyone can afford a car. The road is so good that I feel safe digging my nose while driving over 100KM per hour, and can skip seat belt like most of the Bruneians. And Brunei people don’t know what is income tax. They live a very relaxing life, with lot of money. The Bruneians I met were gentle and not so demanding as Malaysian customers. It is a peaceful place where a small crime can make a news headline.

Brunei is so near to Sabah that the KK flight can reach there before our seats are warmed. The value of Brunei currency doubles Malaysia Ringgit. I guess most Sabahans know that we can use Singapore dollar like Brunei dollar with 1 to 1 exchange rate in Brunei. At first, due to lack of confidence, I always asked at the check-out counters, if them accepted Singapore money. The cashier just took the money from my hand without saying anything. I looked so silly to ask.

With all the factors sum up above, Brunei is a nice place to work and stay. Hey, working there 1 year you get salary equivalent to 2 years of Malaysia’s. But the moment I stepped in Brunei, I missed Sabah. I believe most Malaysians, who work in Brunei, would agree. Last time my client provided free meals for me. I ate halal food for so many days that I feel there is a songko (muslim) hat on my head already. Even though the food tasted good, the protein from fishes and beef couldn’t satisfy me, I started to crave for pork. I missed Cha Sao (叉烧) and Sao Yu (烧肉) so much.

Pork… I want Pork…

Pork… Pork… Pork…

Chinese restaurants in Brunei (muslim country) do serve pork, but they do not display Cha Sao and Sao Yu so openly, like in Malaysia. Luckily it is not too hard to locate a Chinese restaurant around, and finally I found what I wanted. The thing surpises me was they think running a restaurant is a lower-class job in Brunei, so most of the restaurants are opened by Malaysians.

Pork is very important ingredient in Chinese food. That’s why the Malaysia mooncake nowadays tastes like shit, after the manufacturers decided to go halal by replacing the pork oil with something else. Same as the hotel food. Many friends come to Sabah simply say NO to hotel food. The hotels have many attempts to make Chinese food tastes like real Chinese food. Well, it is still very different from what I am used to. No offense to Muslim friends, it is just one man poison is one man meat.

Many also subscribe to Astro TV in Brunei. I am not sure if their version is a bit different, coz I noticed some sexy scenes disappeared from the movie that I had seen in Sabah before. This also applies to their movies. I am already quite unhappy that a Malaysian so-called 18SX movie is actually a so heavily censored version, but I didn’t even see a kissing scene in Brunei TV and movie. They are so “clean”. Well, these are their lifestyle in the eyes of Sabahans. Brunei is a great place anyway, bye bye!

Leech Bite

3 Replies

In making of this blog, I had walked over 50KM of jungle trail but never bitten by a leech (surprise!). Personally I am quite afraid of leech, as if it is a slimmy monster that can crawl into my brain. Anyway, my passion on photography still makes me to explore area potentially lurked with army of leeches. One day I was taking photo in Botanical Garden (behind Liwagu Restaurant) of Kinabalu Park.

When I was busy shooting photo, I saw a leech crawling on the camera toward my eyes. Luckily I discovered it earlier, otherwise it would land on my eye. Quite a surprise coz I never expected to see leech in a garden where many people walking around. It is a small ground leech. I used a stick to relocate it to an open space for photo shooting.

The ground leech sensed my body heat and came to me in joy. As you can see in the photo below, it is a very tiny leech. Then I had a “crazy” idea of donating some blood to it. My friends probably thought that I was nut.

Even though leech scares me, I know it can do very very little harm to me. I decide to overcome my leech-phobia by letting it to bite me. I placed it on my arm. It crawled a bit then stopped. When I saw its head turned into pointy shape, I knew it was looking for sucking point.

The leech bite was less painful than a mosquito bite. In fact, I didn’t feel it. I was curious how much blood it could take, so I put a 50 cent coin next to it for comparison. In 10 minutes, its body size doubled.

After 15 minutes, its size tripled and showed no sign of quitting its dinner. I wanted to go for my dinner, so I just detached it with finger. It was very easy to be removed (probably it is small). Only a tiny wound left on my arm.

During blood sucking, the leech released a chemical that prevented my blood from clotting. The leech was gone, but my wound kept on bleeding for 2 hours. Imagine if you are bitten by 10 leeches, the mess they left behind will be quite a “scary” view, though it doesn’t hurt at all. I heard that the cigarette ash can stop the bleeding.

Anyway, this reduces my fear of leech by more than half. May be next time I can try Tiger Leech, which is about 15 times bigger than Ground Leech. If you think this is a big deal, try to look at this guy, who tried leech 30+ times bigger than Ground Leech! *me faint from fear*

Photos taken in Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo