Are you going for the New Year eve dip?

Sabah people believe that to bathe at the beaches at new year's eve as the clock strikes 12 at midnight will wash away all bad lucks and bring good ones. Will you be joining the huge crowd? If you do,be prepared to park your cars far away from the beach and walk a few km for the bath. Else you will be caught in the massive traffic jam and may take you longer than walking home! Happy New Year!

Abnormal increase of population rate

The Deputy Chief Minister of Sabah,Datuk Pairin Kittingan, is echoing the concerns raised by the human rights commission in Sabah that there is an abnormal increase of Sabah's population over the decades (69,790 in1970 to 3 millions today). He is worried that many illegal immigrants are been absorbed into the population becoming Sabah citizens. If this is true the original local citizens will be out numbered by illegal-turned-citizens. It sends chill down one's spine on hearing this. Then it will be quite possible that Sabah may have a Filipino or Indon Chief Minister one day! If this alient CM decided to break away from Malaysia and joined forces with dissidents from Acheh (Indonesia) and Zamboanga (southern Phillipines),to form a new country Sab(ah)indo(nesia)zam(boanga)-->SABINDOZAM,there will not be peace in this region any more! The Acheh diisidents signed the peace agreement with the Indonesian government recently not because they wanted peace,they are buying time to recover from the Tsunami disaster and waiting for the conditions in Sabah to be ripen. Conspiracy or my own fantacy?

UK Fun Fair comes to town

The UK Fun Fair has come to Kota Kinabalu,just in time for Christmas! There are many interesting,exciting things available,like the Big Wheel,the octopus,the merry-go-round,the Canyon Raft,the Bump-Bump cars.They are of high quality unlike the others which had come here before. They will stay here for 1 or 2 months then will go to Sarawak and the Phillipines. Check it out!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Sabah Medical Center

I copy the content of today's blog from a columnist in a local Chinese daily. It started me thinking so might as well post it here to share with those who do not read Chinese. The column says: The Sabah Medical Center originally had a very good locality near Kingfisher Park. No trafiic jams,on a hill top over looking the Yayasan Building (eh..Tun Mustapha Building),cool fresh air.Ideal for patients to rest and get well. It surprised everyone when it sold the building to the Federal government and moved to the present location near Damai.The road leading to the new SMC is narrow and congested.The situation will be worsened when the schools reopen soon---Tchung Tsin School nearby with its 1000+ students from affluent families,the traffic they bring in usually chokes up the access road. Imagine an ambulance carrying a critically ill patient trying to get through the bumper-to-bumper jam to reach the SMC! Moreover,the new SMC got only a temporary occupancy certificate of 6 months after much controversy when it first moves in. Why did they decide to move, and why not to a better place?

Gaya Christmas Carnival 2005

Starting 19th December,every night 7.00pm-10pm,the oldest street in KK,Gaya Street will be alive with the Gaya Christmas Carnival 2005 jointly organised by the City Hall and the Sabah Council Of Churches.The said carnival will last for 5 days,featuring carols,dances,cultural shows,singing.There will be stalls on both sides of the street selling food,handicrafts,house-hold products,etc.The objective is to raise RM20,000 for the various charity organisations. Please join in be merry and contribute to a good cause.

Borneo Games 17th-21th December 2005

After being dormant for many years,the Borneo Games is revived. The venue for the first revived Borneo Games is at the Likas Sports Complex,Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Come and cheer your teams. Anyway,it's school holidays bah!

Quiet Chrismas this year

Chrismas is around the corner,but I can't feel the excitement yet. Seems everybody is not ready to receive it . The streets and shopping complexes are not dressed for X'mas yet. Not many seasonal stuff are on display and you really have to look hard before you spot a X'mas tree in any of the shopping complexes.Even if you see one,it is small and not as colourful as before. We are going to have a quiet X'mas this year.

Sabindo Land Disputes

Land theives are getting bolder and bolder,they dare even steal government's lands nowadays! Lands officailly ear-marked for recreations and parking are quietly converted into commercial buildings (if they were not caught in time,that is) in the middle of the town. Friends used to tell stories about their lands passed down from grand parents were mysteriously possessed by strangers. I didn't believe them,I do now. Now that a direct order from the State Cabinet was issued sometime ago,but works are still going on at the said sites.Is there law and order in Sabah,or does anybody care? Some very stern words came out of the Chief Minister's mouth regarding this isuue,will it make any difference? Let's wait and see.

Air disaters on the increase

Did any one count how many planes crashed lately? The frequency of these crashes is really worrying the frequent air travellers.This may indirectly affect the Sabah tourism industry.Myabe people will prefer travelling by sea now.

Please post news about your organisations' events

Due to work commitment I might not be able to post as often as I wish the next few weeks. Please help keep this blog active,events organisers are invited to post your event schedules here. However,MLM and affiliate advertisements are not encouraged. I read about the unfair handling of the selection of MSSB gymnastic team today.The Sabah Sports Council claims that the Sports Committee in the Education Ministry had selected unqualified candidates as representatives,while 3 candidates with Junior Certificate(what is this?) were side-lined. It is really sad that young students are exposed to the crocked ways of the grown-ups at such an early age! My kid (she is in another sports) suffered the same fate 2 years ago.She was announced to be included in the State team by the working committee immediately after the selection tournament. After few months of intensive training,she packed her bag and was ready to go.On the eve of departure,I received a phone call from the school informing me that my kid was dropped from the team by the education department because there was a mistake. I called the education department and met a stooge from that department to find out what the mistake was (if there was really a mistake).He explained they rechecked the scores and found the mistake,which I could not accept.They should have spotted the mistake the very day of the selection tournament not after going through months of intensive training and be dropped. Even though that stooge from the education department apologized profusely,I had a very very strong urge to smash up his stupid face! Luckily my kid was a real strong girl,she cried only for one night.

ANS Exhibition

Arkib Negeri Sabah is currently holding an exhibition about the history of Sabah at Palm Square,4th Floor, Center Point Sabah. Many rarely shown old photographs and document of great historical significance are in display there. I urge you to pay a visit to the show,better still if you can bring along your children.You will have a better understanding of the Sabah's history.

Sabah government and police sued by businessman

A young businessman from Sabah is suing the government and the police for wrongfully bringing him to the courts,and then acquitted.He is demanding for damages amounting more than RM4 millions. What has become of Sabah courts nowaday? It has been turned into the playground for the rich and powerful!

The missing accused of Sabah courts

The Sabah High Court Judge remarked that there is an alarming rates of accused jumping bails and wanted the police and the Public Prosecutor office to explain. The Attroney-General in turns blamed the court for granting bails to the accused without studying the backgrounds of the accused and the severity of the cases involved. No wonder the crime rates in on the rise too! I also observed a new trend in Sabah courts recently.There too many cases of accused being acquited (buang case). Some cases are extremely serious ones,like murder,drug-traffic and possesion of fire-arms.Who is to be blamed for these cases?

Welldone Sabah tourism operators

The Malaysia Tourism Award Night was held on 19th August. Participants from Sabah has won 9 first places from 51 categories.This is really good,meaning we almost sapu 1/5 of all the top places! keep it up and bring in more tourists.

Civic minded drivers wanted

As stated in my post Friday you will see many reports on road accidents on Monday. This morning news report regarding an accident involving a patient-carrying ambulance.This got to be the top! According to the report,the ambulance had its siren on full blast,yet somebody not only did not give way to the ambulance but also rammed into it causing it to land on its side.What kind of driver is that? Didn't his school teache him civic? I guess civic classes not only needed to be taught in the schools,but also needed in driving schools where the driving instructors should teach their students road manners and civic mindedness.

Have a safe weekend

It's Friday,eve of the weekends! I can feel the excitement floating in the air. Parents please remind your kids that weekends is for relaxations not to get into troubles.Stay away from drunkardness,drugs,fights and illegal racings. It's always sad to read on Monday morning the bad news about injuries due to fights,accidents,etc ocurred during the weekends.... The car companies are promoting "zero" deposit policy to push their sales,and this has helped to worsen the situation. Those young dare-devils on motor cycles who are saving up to purchase a car,sudenly find that they do not have to save and wait for a long time till the day they can own a car comes.They can do so right now! So they have their own Kancil overnight,but they have not changed their habits while on the highways.To change from motor cycle riders to car drivers.They drive as if they are still rideing their motor cycles,cutting in and out of lanes,going on full throttle..This is the reason the increase of accidents involving Kancils and other smaller cars lately. I dread reading news on Monday and after public holidays.

Minimum Rates For 5-star hotel rooms next year

The government announced that the minimum rate for a room in a 5-star hotel/resort will be fixed at USD 80.00 starting next year. This draws a lot of objections from hoteliers and the tourism induxtry.They fear this move will have a negative effect on Malaysia's tourism industry.Sabah will feel this effect particurly strong,bacause tourism plays a significant roll in Sabah's economy. Our tourism industry's selling point is to offer first class facility at second class fares.We will lose this competitive advange over the neighbouring countries with the new ruling imposed. Our neighbours can compete with us in prices but not in facility quality.Comparing apple to apple we are much cheaper. We hope the government will change their mind on this. Sabah Tea Adventures Race has successfully completed. Top places in all categories are won by local participants beating competitors from Italy,Germany,The UK,Australia,Phillipines,Indonesia.....Sybas! There will be an orchird exhibition this month,please be on the look out.

YB Chong Kah Kiat Officiated Hand Crafts Center

The handicrafts center housed at the Wawasan Plaza is officiated by the Minister Of Tourism,YB Chong Kah Kiat on 12th August 2005. This center boasts of 23 stalls all selling genuine Sabahan native hand crafts. He said that foreign tourists love to buy our local hand crafts as souvenirs but were misled by the tour guides to buy Phillipino crafts at the Phillipino stalls in the past. He hoped this sad case of mistrust will end with the opening of this center. He also urged the stall owners to play their part by displaying quality products. (There was a handicrafts center similar to this at the Karamunsing Complex.Why was it a flop? Due to the betrayal of the tour guides or due to the tidak-apa attidue of the stall owners themselves,or both?) The Sabah Tea Plantation Adventures Race has started today.Over 110 participants are fighting the many prizes up for grab.More and more foreign participants are taking part now.It's a real good sign!

Land Below The Winds

Visit Sabah-land below the winds(The Trade Winds that is) while it is still beautiful before human's greed destroys it.