How Great Thou Art

I made an early trip down to KK today to return the Celcom Broadband modem to get my refund (which by the way, will only be returned to me after 4 months, whee -_-) and had a long walk around the city. When I finally got back to Padang Merdeka to get back up to the mountain *sigh*, I noticed that the usual bus/cab area was blocked out and there were loads of police.. Only until I was in my van and talking to the local in front of me who mentioned "Tak tahu jam berapa Najib datang" ("don't know what time Najib comes") did I realize that our not so dear Prime Minister was to visit the place.

"Whot?"

My first impression of Mr. Najib was not a pleasant one, during his pre-Prime Minister days (chewah talk like I know him). It relates to one Abdul Razak Baginda, who was a talk show host for one of those videos I watched for my Biotech subjects in class once. I remembered the face and name because the name "Baginda" sounded rather catchy.

Abdul Razak Baginda: Yeap, that's me

This all pieced together when I came across this case:

"In an earlier case, a company the opposition claimed was linked to Razak Baginda, an adviser to Mr Najib, was paid juicy fees for services provided over a contract for the purchase of French submarines. A Mongolian woman, said to have worked as a translator in the negotiations, was shot dead and her corpse destroyed with explosives in 2006. Mr Razak was put on trial over her killing, along with two policemen. The case has dragged on for months and seen various odd goings-on, including changes of judge, prosecutors and defence lawyers at the start of the trial. A private detective signed a statutory declaration implicating Mr Najib, retracted it the next day, saying it had been made under duress. Calls by the victim’s family for Mr Najib to testify were rejected. On October 31st the judge ruled that the prosecution had failed to make a prima facie case against Mr Razak."

(November 6th 2008, The Economist)

This was the "Mongolian woman"

Pretty huh? I decided to use a different picture than the usual plane frontal-passport-style photo that just looks depressing. I'm sure she'd appreciate it, since she was quite a fashionable young lady.

"As Najib has repeatedly declared his innocence of any involvement in the Altantuya C4 murder case, he must act decisively to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry to lay all the swirling allegations about his involvement in the murder case which are haunting and hounding him, his administration and the nation’s good name, to rest once and for all – whether about the accessibility of C4 explosives, the disappearance of Altantuya immigration records, the exchange of SMS messages or the disappearance of private investigator Bala Subramaniam after making public a very damaging statutory declaration about Najib."

(Malaysia Today, 9th April 2009)

The late Shaariibuugiin Altantuyaa, who was murdered and blown up with a C4 and until now, never avenged. But, vengeance is the Lord's, and I believe someday what is hidden will be made known. I'm listening to a version of "How Great Thou Art" by Carrie Underwood, and it's splendid. It assures me that God is in control.

As the man who made known to me Najib's coming spoke those words, I sense an undertone of condemnation, very much contrary to the respect due toward a Prime Minister. I don't blame him.

New Toy

As it is immensely cold here (as long as you don't move), I often resort to working out to keep warm when my jacket no longer does the trick.

Meet my new Punching bag bed.

Every time the place gets too cold/work too stressful, punchapunchpunch.

Movies to inspire punching workouts: Undisputed 1-3

For warmth,

Furry Turtle

Day 10

"Allllll by my-selfff,

don't wanna be,

Allllll by my-selfff.. anymore"

Hello. I write from the reception area of Mesilau Nature Resort, Mt. Kinabalu (~2000 m a.s.l.). Now that Tse Yuen has left for KL ( T_T ), I'm living alone in my Mesilau house, which I shall hereby refer to as, my 'house'. I've developed a habit of spontaneous night time house-cleaning, like an sudden, impulsive urge to just get the broom from outside the chalet to clean spiderwebs that irk me or dead insects around the kitchen that just need to be disposed of. I thank God for deciding to leave this place to spend a day in KK with Tse Yuen - took things off my head a bit so I could reorganize my thoughts/brain. Something nasty happened in KK - I shan't write about it.. YET.

Some random pictures I've taken (haven't been in shutter bug mode for a while now) I've taken here over the last few days. This is partially due to the good phone camera in my Xperia x10 mini, which I've been using to take pictures (yes, these to follow too). But of course, the main reason there hasn't been pictures is because I'm just plain lazy I've been busy with my leaves (project). Here:

So cute =p

Partially disemboweled moth caterpillar, I suspect. Looks really nasty. Easily up to 7-8 cm long. Saw this guy being attacked by ants as I walked about in Mesilau looking for the ranger. I've also found a similar one.. in my 'house', right outside the toilet =_=
A lil local cheap alcohol that I advise you not to take on an empty stomach, lest you fall prey to it like one man (no, not me). RM 10 per bottle - still got it here, as much as the photo shows. Any takers? Come visit me! By the way, 'one man' was the one who drank the whole almost all of what's gone, hence his unflattering end.This! I am greatly excited about! Yes the box looks small because there's no scale, but the big box is easily ~70-80 cm long, and weighs about 18kg. It was hell to carry the big boy up to my 'house', since it requires walking a lotta stairs.

See what I mean? That's the stair-ey part, very uneven/long steps. I stay all the way up at the top left chalet of the picture. This does not include the rest of the path I/Tse Yuen needed to carry the box.

Glad it came anyway, couriered from campus and delivered by a Kangaroo that hopped all the way from West Malaysia. Took it a good 5-6 days though. Well done *pats super-buffed kangaroo*

A treat in Kundasang, the town nearest to where I'm staying =) Teh Tarik Madras/Masala (I forgot which), tasted good. Hot drinks are so, so precious here, where it's just too cold for my Malaysian body. My 'house' is probably about 14 degrees Celcius downstairs (because of the ding-dong cold stone/cement floor), but it takes you a few minutes of sitting down before you feel the chill gettin to your bones - because the air is still. No need for fans/aircon here - still too cold.

If you play Monopoly cards, you'd understand. What a weird hand to begin with.

My dinner earlier (which I cooked myself). Chef Turtle is limited in many ways. My stove is powered by butane gas cartridges (yes, those as huge as your average spray paint cans) that run out pretty quickly. My oil requires defrosting before use (below).

Dish 1(left): Finely (well, not really) sliced carrots and broccoli stir-fried in margarine (because we couldn't find butter), some garlic and onions.

Main Problem -> The frying pan was too small and I cut too much, so things keep falling out and the vege does not get that well saturated with oily margarine.

Dish 2 (right): Carrot cubes fried with onions, leftover corned beef and egg and a little garlic. And soy sauce. This turned out pretty well. The carrot cubes cover the overly-starchy corned beef (cheap brand maybe) texture and makes it palatable. No problems here for me.

Dish 3 (bottom): Reheated, leftover rice that was way too hard. Not nice.

Taken in my 'house' kitchen as well, but this was during Mindy's time, when it was known as Mindy's 'house'. I was visiting and this was her oil. Same story, too cold. We used to have a proper stove back then - it's been taken back by the authorities (probably to provide for the new ranger in town).

TEASER

Picture by: Tajang

Location: Near the summit of Mt. Kinabalu

Date: November 2010

Mood: Constipated

Day 5

Day 3 was a chillaxed day as I returned to Mesilau (my 'house' is here) with sore legs after the hike up to ~3000 m a.s.l. of Mt. Kinabalu. Tse Yuen is proving to be a very useful housemate as he tends to all the groceries/food/cooking - good stuff, the house is well-stocked for another week at least. He cooks, I eat - no complains (I get away with this because I'm a bad cook and he's a guy whose food you CANNOT mess with).

Night time came and it was Monopoly card game time - I lost, and lost, and lost. Had a few shots of whiskey to warm ourselves up and we dozed off (not before brushing my teeth).

Day 4, I woke up about 12 pm because of how tired I was, how cold it was and how sore my legs were - just didn't want to move. My body's retaliating against this rampant abuse of legs. Wait till I get as fit as the locals. So then it was lunchtime..

What is it...? Yam?

There is never a more apt time to have LUNCHeon meat than LUNCH time. Why did the meat look so gross?

Because of a lousily opened can...

..opened using a rudimentary, rusty tool..

??

Stupid fancy-looking plastic can-openers, I'll never trust them ever. That's the second one that's failed to open a single can and broke on their virgin... can-opening ceremony. Lousy The result - pretty good despite the slightly under-cooked pasta. Fusili + luncheon meat + Maggi bolognaise seasoning + vege. Yum.

That aside, I bought a bunch of wrong-sized plastic bags, re-dried bunches of old leaf litter samples that needed it and sorted 5 bags of leaves into their different leaf species so I'd know what leaves are dominant in the litter in that particular site. Not an easy task. I slept at 2 am or so. Tse Yuen began his bbq fantasy today and tried looking for a grill for that.

Day 5 is ongoing. It's been pretty productive thus far with us going to the Kinabalu Park Herbarium (which is by the way, a plant-geek's wet dream) to identify some of those litter species I sorted last night. Bingo! Identified two of the main species that I'm interested in. More sorting after this for another site before I finalize things. Hooha. Tse Yuen's bbq fantasy continues. He also bought a bottle of 'Mountain Chivas' - some local branded alcohol to try. What an alcoholic.. Some interesting things we saw on the way out to Kinabalu Park:

Hmmm?

It's a house-on-wheels!Silver-butt spider with my notebook as background

I've decided to go down to KK for a day before he leaves with him to get supplies/have some fun. Whee.

Day 2 - Reporting from Layang-layang Quarters

The day started fine, but I lost a member of the supposed 3 man squad (to thesis work). Mr. Lim decided to opt out, wilco leaves my herbarium staff assistant, Handry. Not very eventful hike on itself but I totally forgot how flying it is to hike up Mesilau trail with a heavy (~13-15 kg) bag. 5.5h to reach our quarters midway of the summit route. I now sit in front Handry and another Dusun man (it's the majority race here in the mountain, often mentioned off hand as the country-Kadazan folk because they are really similar in culture, appearance. They also share a common language, but with certain words pronounced differently). They question me about possible research of traditional herbs used for medicinal purposes here and I let out what I know (which isn't much). Time to relax. The adventure resumes tomorrow. Some pictures in the mean time.

Layang-Layang Quarters from the outside. Nope, not grand. From the inside, you could really hear the zinc walls vibrating and humming when the wind blows crazily at night. Whew, cold memories.

Little pleasures in cold places.

Rare picture of author in the bottom bunk of a double-decker bed.

The man Handry from the herbarium - extremely helpful and friendly.

The 'Bas Berhenti-henti' (Eng: Stopping bus/Stop-stop bus) that supposedly takes people around Kinabalu Park - I never rode it.
Looking back on the things I've done

Turtle in Kota Kinabalu

And I'll be here for about three weeks. Gotta go!

Day 1
Interesting stuff that happened: Tse Yuen's backpack strap snapping ether moment we got off our cab to board our morning flight.
Us having mcds breakfast and having to run to our plane to avoid missing it.
Us (mostly me) spendin >400 bucks on groceries

Don't mean to gun you down...

but if you say "hi" without leaving your name in the cbox to the right, I really won't know who you are. If you use a nickname or say it to me in person (if I could see your face/hear your voice/your rhythm and intensity of breathing), I have a chance of guessing. Otherwise, it's just as good as SPAM =p Beep beep!

I am planning to write about Mt. Kinabalu, the first trip up the peak. Because I've got the full set of photos!