Stories of me and myself

We headed off to Kampung Air (Water Village) - temporary housing on the water, to do a study. They are known as "Sea Bajau" people who migrated from Philippines. The living ocnditions are not as 'terok' as you would imagine. They had electricity and clean water... Their lives seem carefree and all... they even had Play Station! Haha! And they could jump into the water for a swim anytime!





Next, we headed to the beach. For fun. Too bad we aren't studying "Coast" anymore... or we could study the wave velocity and all. Anyway, we did treasure the opportunity to have some fun.

After this, we did a urban study of the city of Kota Kinabalu. I made them compare between the different retail sectors - of the high-class and the middle-class. Since the Kota Kinabalu is so absolutely tiny, we had driven around it several times already! So we ended up eating ice-cream and shopping after a short comparison. Haha!

Remember how I brain-washed the students into expecting low standards for food and accomodation? Well, it was a good idea... cos lunch was totally out of our imagination! From last night's pathetic burger and mineral water.... we had zi2 char4 style - fried calamari, assam fish head, lamb chop, chicken, kang kong, you tiao tofu, crab and corn soup, lots of rice and a big plate of fruits! 2 sets of this for 2 round tables of 7 and 6 pax each! And you know what? My table full of 6 girls (including myself) walloped EVERYTHING! Including the neighbouring table's fruits! Unbelievable huh?

After lunch, we headed for Kota Kinabalu National Park. Along the way, we chanced upon this postmodernist structure, so we got off to take photos. Heh.

It rained! And so the temperature dipped as we travelled up to highland. But that also meant that we didn't get a good view of Mount Kinabalu along the way as it was blocked by the huge clouds.

See the mist? We could even blow and got "smoke" coming out from our mouths! Haha! Cheap thrill. Imagine all of us doing that!

I made the tour guide bring us to farms / gardens, etc. And so we had the chance to see the flowers and strawberries. Now to show off my photographic skills. Haha! No lah... just that the flowers were really pretty... so much so that it was irresistable to capture their photo!

Sea Cucumber!!

Have you ever seen such a gigantic hibiscus?!!

I had planned to do some Economic Geographic study... like where in the world do they get their fertilisers.. where they sell their flowers to, etc. But to my disappointment, the flowers are grown for people to admire! And the strawberries are sold locally in Sabah. And the fertilisers are local too! Argh. But at least we had a good time amidst the flowers, and chasing ducks and chickens. Heh.

So next we headed to the fruits market. I love these kinda roadside atmosphere. Heh.

Potaotes for wall paper, anyone?
Or cucumbers??

Or how about carrots? =)

More fruits? Snake fruit, avocado, oranges, mangoes, mangosteens, etc. We bought a pomelo, buah langsat, jambu (water apple), and mangoes. Heh. Fruits galore! I like!

And to end of the healthy tour of fruits and vegetables, here's the most popular goreng pisang! Hot and dripping with oil! Heh.

We ended up at Poring Hotspring that night. I shared a bunk if 6 beds with my students. And it was a long debrief that night... we talked about Social Polarisation, Informal Economy, Economic Geog, Urban Studies, etc.