Author Topic: Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia 馬來西亞沙巴 (Jan-2009)  (Read 48753 times)

Offline chin

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Re: Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia 馬來西亞沙巴 (Jan-2009)
« Reply #10 on: 01 March 2009, 03:03:22 »
My kids riding horses on the beach.


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Re: Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia 馬來西亞沙巴 (Jan-2009)
« Reply #11 on: 01 March 2009, 03:04:19 »
These lotus seem only bloomson in the evening until early morning only.




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Re: Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia 馬來西亞沙巴 (Jan-2009)
« Reply #12 on: 01 March 2009, 03:06:00 »
Today we took a local tour to see the famous rain forest canopy walk. Inside the tour bus were lots of post cards of the famous local touist traps.


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Re: Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia 馬來西亞沙巴 (Jan-2009)
« Reply #13 on: 01 March 2009, 03:07:52 »
A stop to see and photograph the famous Mount Kinabalu. We could still see the top of the mountain at this time, but very soon it would be completely covered by clouds.




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Re: Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia 馬來西亞沙巴 (Jan-2009)
« Reply #14 on: 01 March 2009, 03:09:03 »
Arriving at the park.




Offline chin

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Re: Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia 馬來西亞沙巴 (Jan-2009)
« Reply #15 on: 01 March 2009, 03:12:32 »
I was actually very disappointed at the canopy walkway. It almost looked to me like a cheap tourist trap. The line was long, and we were not able to actually stop and spend the time to see the top half of the rain forest. There were not much explanation either. Perhaps it would be better to charge more but have a better quality experience?!


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Re: Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia 馬來西亞沙巴 (Jan-2009)
« Reply #16 on: 01 March 2009, 03:30:32 »
Our tour guide said that he would try to find an opportunity for us to see Rafflesia - the largest flower in the world. Supposedly the largest ever recorded was almost 1 meter in diameter. The flower is a parasite, and could take years before blossom. And the flower would last only a few days. When blossom, the flower would give a foul smell.

Our driver told the tour guide that he knew one Rafflesia was blossoming the day before. A few minutes after we left the park with the canopy walk, we saw a large by simple sign on the roadside advertising the Rafflesia blossom. There was a small van on the road side charging equivalent of HK$45 each person to see the flower. The flower was about 30 meters into the jungle, with a small trail hacked through the trees.

This one was about 50cm in diameter? Compare the size with the bamboo and grasses.



A close up photo of the flower. The small black mushroom like thingy at the top left corner is the bud, we were told.

After seeing the pictures, my dad asked if the flower could be a fake one to fool touists. I guess it could be but with my 20 million pixels resolution digital SLR camers, I could see the very fine details of the flower petal, and I would think this one has too much detailed to be a cheap fake.



Another picture taken by Grace with her digicam.


Offline chin

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Re: Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia 馬來西亞沙巴 (Jan-2009)
« Reply #17 on: 01 March 2009, 03:35:46 »
Before going back to the hotel, we got the chance to stop in a botanical garden. The garden is inside a national park bigger than Hong Kong.

This plant has leaves that is asymmetrical.


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Re: Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia 馬來西亞沙巴 (Jan-2009)
« Reply #18 on: 01 March 2009, 03:36:29 »
Another interesting formation. The new leaves seem to have roots?


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Re: Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia 馬來西亞沙巴 (Jan-2009)
« Reply #19 on: 01 March 2009, 03:47:04 »
This plant is called Paphiopedilum Rothschildianum. The guide said it's very rare, worth how many tens of thousand GBP, and told us stories of people smuggling this out of Malaysia but got caught in London, etc...

But I guess the smugglers were successful afterall.... because...

After came back to Hong Kong, I showed my orchid growing/collecting friends these pictures. They told me that it's Chinese name is "拖鞋皇" (Slipper King) and a very popular "原生種" (means not artificially cross-bred with others to form a new bred.) This is not rare but hard to keep because it needs to be wet.

[I recently went to my friend's orchid show and saw a smaller relative of this flower. The Chinese name is 拖鞋蘭 or Slipper Orchid. See #9 in http://chinman.com/index.php?topic=92.0]