Stories of me and myself

And it was quite an eye-opener. Do you know that lots of foreigners (especially ang-mos) volunteer there... some for many years? They take care of abandoned baby orang utans and nurse them and teach them till they are old enough to return to the jungle. Well, the positive side is that they are being taken care of.... negative side is that many of them do not really know how to survive properly in the wild, or take care of their babies as they were taken care of by humans.

And many a times, the dominant orang utan gets released into the wild first, as they need him to procreate. =)

That's a little orang utan demonstrating his acrobatic stunts. Apparently they love hanging like that...

This is the dominant male orang utan showing off his back view. You know, like how those body builders show off their bodies... front, side and back view? My student found him so sexy we claimed him as her boyfriend.... haha! To find out that male orang utans actually have multiple partners! I think she should just stick to the Probiscus ah-pei of a monkey. Heh.


This is the common MacRitchie monkey. He's grooming himself, combing his leg hair. Haha! I took a video of this vain bugger. Quite amusing. Look at how delicate he is!

And that's him posing, with his stylo-mylo hairstyle... like the US Marines! =) But sitting in a gu-niang fashion!


A revamped central market in Sandakan, the second largest town in Sabah, after Kota Kinabalu. It used to be the historical capital during colonial times, so colonial past is rather evident here. Anyway, the market looks clean and all... not much culture to talk about? Not as exciting as one would expect markets to be! Heh.

Lots of salted fish (giam3 hee3) ... many varieties...

Look at the heaps of dried shrimp (hei3 bi4) and dried anchovies (gang1 hee3)!

Sting ray. Hmm... and the cut-up version at the back. Wondering why the eye isn't there? Because the fishmonger (hmmm, I remember studying 'fishmonger' in primary school!) put his finger into the eye socket and lifted the sting ray to reposition it for my photo.
Anyway, BBQ stingray, anyone?

Look at how fresh they fishes are! So fresh that their fins are still pointed up! Oh man.... steamed fish!! Yumyum!!!

I love wet markets. I think that's where you see the local culture of the place. What they sell, what they eat, etc. I remember being in Sabah when I was little (I'm still little), and visiting a wet market. I entered the market which was all dirty, smelly and wet. There were women cleaning huge shells, digging whatever was in it, and discarding the shells. I was so intrigued I asked them to give me a shell for fun. They were shocked... but they gave me 2 anyway! Heh. And I also remember fondly playing with the little chicks and cupping their warm bodies in my palms, hoping I could bring one or two home. But of course not... Heh.

It's all so different now. No culling of chickens or whatsoever. And all hopes of showing the kids this version of the local wet market were dashed... replaced by the sanitized version of a market. Oh well.

Anyway, we made out way to the airport. We were to arrive at the airport at 230 for check-in, but we mistook the time, and thought we were flying off at 230! So we had lots of time to waste at the airport. So I introduced a game called "Spoons" to the kids, and we played it for a really long time. Quite entertaining, since the airport was bare. Heh.

So that's the end of the 6-day fieldtrip.

I'm so glad it was successful. Especially after months of planning and multiple obstacles in the way... we broke record. It's the 1st time in 4-6 years since the Geography fieldtrip managed to take off! So yes, I'm really quite elated. And the best thing is, we all had a fantastic time and experience! =)