Kampung Warisan (Heritage Village), Muzium Sabah

I would say that if you only have time to visit ONE heritage site at Kota Kinabalu, Muzium Sabah would be the place to go.

Built in 1985, the museum complex is cited where the then British North Borneo Governor's Istana was once located. The Museum consists of the Main Building, Science and Education Centre, Heritage Village, Sabah Art Gallery and Museum of Islamic Civilization.

You are not allowed to take pictures inside the museum galery. I was stopped by the guard the moment I went into the building since I had the typical tourist posture with the camera hanging over my neck.

Personally, the most interesting part of the museum is the Heritage Village (in which I shall be blogging today).

At the Heritage Village, one can sample the various type of traditional houses of the various indigenous groups of Sabah.

I must say that as you walk along the footpath, one can't help but be amazed by the serenity of the park and its surroundings.

One of my favourite of the whole village. A man made lake surrounded by heritage buildings

Same place but different angle

Another different angle of the same place

Guess you are getting bored of the same scene huh? :P

Self Explanatory

Rungus Longhouse or "vinatang" (in Rungus Language)

As the name suggest, the Rungus Longhouse is indigenous to the Rungus people. They are a subgroup of the KadazanDusun community.

Each Rungus Longhouse (vinatang) measures 3 meters by 15 meters and comprises a long gallery or corridor (langsang sid apad), where socializing and community activities takes place, as well as several family 'apartments' (valai) each with own sleeping unit (tingkang sid ongkob), areas for cooking and working (langsang sid ongkob) and an attic (abai sid ongkob) and (abai sid apad). each family has its own valai. A typical longhouse has about ten valai, but larger ones may have fifteen or more.

Rumah Cina (Chinese Farm House)

Sulap Bangkawan (Skull Hut)

Another interesting place to visit is the Skull Hut which was a culture left behind when headhunters still roamed Borneo.

A "Bangkawan" hanging at the ceiling of the hut

A bangkawan is a collection of human skulls which is used to be suspended from the rafters of a Kadazandusun house in the old days. Sometimes sea-shells and animal boned were added to it.

This is a relic of the headhunting days, when the owners believed that hanging the skulls in the house would bring good fortune to the household.

A feast called magang would be held every five years to appease the spirits of the skulls. The ceremony carried out by bobohizans or priestesses involved invocations to drive away evil spirits and would last for seven days.

Brunei House

Can't remember what this house is called but i love the observatory tower.

So if you are visiting Kota Kinabalu for the first time, do not forget to give this place a visit.

The 11th Hour

The 11th Hour is a feature film documentary on the state of our current environment. Narrated and produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, the documentary depicts the grave problems faced by mother nature in current times. This documentary pulls in prominent speakers such as physicist Stephen Hawking, former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev among others and talks about threats to the environment such as global warming, deforestation, extinction of species and ultimately the extinction of mankind.

Watching the movie, I can't help thinking that humans are not destroying the environment but destroying themselves. Even if humans are destroyed by global warming and its aftermath and 99.99% of life die, nature will eventually heal itself and return to its former glory. Nature has all the time in the world but humankind don't.

Another scary fact from the film - Humans contribute to 55,000 extinctions every year

But besides the grim picture portrayed, the film also touched on potential solutions to the current problem.

To those that have watched "An Unconventional Truth" narrated by Al Gore, 11th Hour although not as good as the former is a good watch and serves as a clear reminder that we are the generation that could change the perception of this world that is facing extinction. If the people of our generation do not tackle the problem of global warming now, the next generation may not have a chance to do so.

Maxis Message Plus

Maxis recently launched a very unique sms service called Message Plus. With just RM1 per month, maxis users can control, personalize and automate their short message service.

This service consist of 3 key features namely Sms Blacklist, SMS Auto-Reply and SMS Copy.

The SMS Blacklist in my opinion is a god sent. Maxis claim that this anti-spam or blacklist feature is the first to be offered by a mobile operator in the world.

With this new feature we can now block all those annoying spams as well as block desperate ex-boyfriends/girlfriends, annoying friends, stalkers and other pests from sms'ing us rubbish and pollute our phone with unwanted reading material. Nevertheless, you better pray hard that these pest uses Maxis operator since you can only block people using maxis line (i.e 012, 0142 and 017). To the pest out there, go change to Digi if you want to stalk your prey. If you are like totally famous or infamous with 100's of pest down your throat, then you may be out of luck as well since you are only allowed to block 100 numbers.

Its also worth to note that, blacklisted numbers will not know that they are blacklisted.

To activate this feature, follow the steps as shown from the diagram below.


Next is the SMS Auto-Reply.

Just say you are abroad or in a meeting and can't reply your sms'es, this nifty feature allows you to set a standard or personalized auto-reply message to attend to all your incoming messages. So useful if your in the toilet and having constipation, this feature can totally help you out while you concentrate your full attention to expunged unwanted waste from your body.

To activate this feature, follow the steps as shown from the diagram below.

Finally we got the SMS Copy.

If you are using a crappy phone with no color screen then this may be a feature for you. Why? crappy phone without color screen surely won't have sms forwarding feature right? Then again I might be wrong so shoot me.

Anyways, this feature allow you to automatically copy everyone the message that you wish to share. You can customize who and to whom the message will be forwarded to. In short, forward messaging service lah.

To activate this feature, follow the steps as shown from the diagram below.

All this for a whopping RM1. Nice feature to have get right?

So get your lazy fingers moving and subscribe to the service by typing "MENU" and send to 21000, then reply with "1".

That's all folks.

P.S Maxis didn't pay me to do advert for them but this service is something pretty useful. I am playing around with the blacklist now. Haha

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 Review

Do you ever act as if your a tourist in your own country? Well, ever since I bought the Lumix DMC-FZ18, I've been doing just that.

The DMC-FZ18 is my first DSLR experience. Previously, I've been using the Olympus u850 which is a simple dummy camera with waterproof features.

The FZ18 is Panasonic's latest "super zoom" camera that comes pack with x18 optical zoom and 8.1 megapixel resolution. One thing i liked about this camera is the Leica lens comes together with this model. Leica is a well knows German camera manufacturer that is famous for its quality lenses.

At the moment, there is only 2 other camera that matches the specification of the FZ18. The two are Olympus 560UZ and Fuji's Finepix s8000fd. However most reviews that I read pointed FZ18 to be more superior then the other 2.

The FZ18 also comes with a generous 2.5" LCD and for the first time introduced their Intelligent Auto Mode which integrates face and scene recognition, image stabilization, intelligent ISO control and continuous AF in an easy to use auto mode.

Battery, battery charger (that plugs directly into the wall), USB cable, AV cable, CD-ROM, shoulder strap, lens cap, lens cap string, lens hood, and lens hood adapter are bundled together with the camera.

The highlight of the FZ18 would definitely be the x18 optical zoom with a 35mm equivalent focal length of 28-504mm. The FZ18 is fitted with optical image stabilization, which, at an 18x zoom, is an absolute necessity. The result can be seen from the below 2 picture's I took.

1x zoom

x18 (telephoto) of the dome

This camera is ideal if you do not want to spend a lot of money and still want to play around with a DSLR camera (Cost me RM1500). Its ideal for beginners too since you can still point and shoot with the camera and then review what kind of aperture size, shutter speed and ISO exposure used by the camera. With time you can then experiment with your own settings and see what you get.

Ubudiah Mosque, Kuala Kangsar

Using the camera for the last week or two have been a pleasure. Its a great outdoor camera and you can happily shoot away and get pretty decent pictures even while using its Intelligent Auto mode. The casual photographers will definitely enjoy this. Nevertheless, if you are taking non-stationary images, I would suggest the P mode since the continuous AF is not fast enough.

Istana Kenangan, Kuala Kangsar

The only downside of this camera would be night and indoor shots. If you are taking pictures in a dimly lit area and the camera needs ISO 400 and above, the shots looses a lot of detail (significant digital noise) and its simply frustrates me sometimes. So I won't really bother using this camera for a party at night.

In conclusion, if you are looking for a "super zoom" camera that is not that expensive, comes with full feature set (manual exposure mode etc) and like to take outdoor pictures then its worth putting the FZ18 in your short list.

MP Restaurant, Ipoh

Had the urge for steamboat last Friday so we decided to go to MP Restaurant at Ipoh. This is actually the 3rd time coming here but I have never had the chance to blog about it.

The price here are pretty reasonable and charges are based on your height. I like their policy of a special discount for the senior citizen. Not many restaurants i see gives a special rate for the "Golden Aged" citizens.

The ambiance here is pretty nice. Its also worth to note that this is a Halal restaurant and they serve beef here. So do take that in mind when you come.

This is our spot that was booked before hand. If your coming on a Saturday night, its wise to book before hand as many people would have done so as well. Saves the hassle of coming in and realize there is no table available.

Here's some random pictures of the buffet area.

Veggie and noodle area

Prawns, muscles, shells, clams

This is he main square

Dessert and salad bar

There is also an area for cooked food but i didn't take any picture of that. They serve things like lamb chops, beef steaks, fried chicken, noodles among others.

You can chose a variety of soup from the normal tomyam, herbal, curry to porridge as well

So if you are in Ipoh and wish to have something filling to eat then I would definitely suggest you coming to MP Restaurant. For RM24.80 (weekdays) and RM26.80 (weekends) its pretty much value for money having your meal here.

Address : 12A, Jalan Chin Choon Sam, Greentown, Ipoh
Tel : 05-2412218 & 05-2413218
Website : www.movenpeak.com.my

One Piece Anime Review

Recently I have been watching a very interesting anime series called One Piece.

One Piece is set during the time where pirates ruled the seas. A pirate named Gold Roger also known as the Pirate King was executed but before he died, he revealed his last words about the legendary treasure named "One Piece" which was hidden in the Grand Line. 22 years after his death, a pirate (the leading character of this anime) named Monkey D Luffy appeared and has only one goal which is to be the next Pirate King and find the treasure "One Piece". In the story, Luffy after eating the Devil's Fruit, turns into a rubber man. This ability enables any part of his body to be stretched and he uses this ability to battle against other pirates that he encounters.


The storyline is simple but engaging and be prepared to have some good laughs as you go through the series. The characters featured are also not complex with each of his companion striving to achieve their individual dreams. The fighting scene are also exciting and I really like the slapsticks that they slip in between fights.

I am on episode 67 out of the 349 episodes out right now. It has really drawn me in so far and I am looking forward to watching more of it.

A definite recommendation for anime lovers out there.