And totally swamped with 'catchuping'....am getting some of the pictures to put up but my camera died on the trip. Had to buy a new one...Nikon, 8.1 mega pixels WITH memory card, not even 300.00. Good place for it to die!!!!
Sabah (Borneo) is an exquisite place!!!! I loved it!!! OK...so here are a few pics to hold you together....heh heh
This one is of Mount Kota Kinabalu...largest mountain in SE Asia...a World Heritage Site...dripping with Nepenthes, Melastomas, Orchids and climbers... view is taken in the car crossing a bridge!!!!
I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak
WELCOME BACK! :) Can't wait for more pics! :)
Glad your back...I'll go next time...if there's one.
Wow!!! Great pics!! I can't wait to hear all about it and I would be interested in the story you are gonna write up. :~)
Hello!!!! Welcome Back :*)
Can't wait to hear it all.
Now that is a knock out flower for sure. I want to hear all about the trip and see more pictures. I've never been anywhere and I am just drooling over what you've posted so far.
And a big Welcome home to you. Glad you made it back safe and sound.
Selamat kembali!!
Okay...pulling chair to the front...paying close attention...
Wowie....
Welcom back, Carol.
Glad the trip went well and you're home safe and sound, albeit wet.
katiebear
Selamat kembali What?
I want one of everything, including the butterfly. That jungle is awesome. Kind of like Jurrasic Park, that had to be the coolest trip.
Robyn, "Selamat Kembali" ...welcome back in the Malay language.
Thank you, I thought it was the name of the butterfly till I tried to google it and couldn't understand anything it said. lol
I had bought some mangosteens a week back! They were rotten!! You can't tell cause the skins are hard with no blemishes!
Did you eat any durians??
Welcome back, Carol! Great shots! That's a great camera! Can't wait to see more. I'd like a copy of your story!!!!
Heavens...No...sorry to say that Durians and I are not close friends!!!! I cannot get past the smell.
P.S. Durians are an exquisite fruit to some...which have a horrible smell - forbidden on buses and public transport - and I can't get past it. Others eat it and it is so wonderful they can do something to their smellers to ignore it. I can't.
We did have the most wonderful bananas (only about 5" long) and incredible papaya and tangerines!!! Malay food is really good....and their hot sauce is more flavorful than spicey!!!"Nasi Goreng" is Fried Rice and 'whatever', Mee Goreng is Noodles and 'whatever'....many a breakfast of Mee Goreng with a fried egg....tons of spices and vegies and maybe meat. The 'overtone' is Muslim, so no Pork is served unless you go to a Chinese Restaurant and no beer either...unless a Chinese or Caucasian restaurant....
Salamat Jurang (sp.?)
Oh Carol, what adventures you've had! The pictures are wonderful!
Kel says durian tastes like an over ripe avocado! If you could ignore the smell!
Carol, I like to bottle my own 'sambal' whenever fresh chillies are available. Seems that you'd soon be continuing that Malay culinary adventure perhaps at an Indonesian restaurant or thru' a cookbook!!
Shall reserve my seat here...and I bid you all Sweet Ones,
Selamat Malam
Good Night
Edited to add: Carol, brilliant!!! You certainly pick up Malay so easily! Warms my heart to read Malay written by another!
This message was edited Feb 9, 2008 1:35 AM
What an amazing trip and so much more to come. The veggie market is beautiful. So happy that it was a successful and happy adventure. Can't wait to hear about it from you.
C
Heavens...how do you make your Sambal...I would love to try it!!! I ate it on everything - scrambled eggs, even!!! And we get a lot of chiles here....lots of ethnic mixtures on the islands!!!
Here is a photo of our 'gang': Left to right: Rahim, our companion/driver for the 12 days. Then his new wife and newer baby girl, and Sofie...the daughter of the owner of the B&B and a terrific lady. Her son is in front of them.
I found an incredibly wonderful book in KK....called IN BRUNEI FORESTS. It is small, light and not expensive...and so full of information about growing tropical plants, tropical rainforests etc....i hightly recommend it!!! You can get it from www.borneobooks.com .
Aloha
I had forgotten how the mothers there apply mittens to their newborn kids, so they won't scratch their faces!!
It's like "coming home" looking at all these wonderful pictures, especially of the plants in their native environment. Thank you for letting us visit the tropical rainforest through you!
How about I dmail you a couple Malay recipes?
Seat still here.....☺
*sigh*
I live to do things like that! Love the pictures.
RJ, you should plan ONE trip to the rainforest in this lifetime.
Indeed, I had planned on this one, but times changed and my passport expired.
I lived in Liberia and made many of forrray into Liberias equatorial rainforrests, and to tell the truth I would have been a happy national geographic photographer sitting at the top of a tree for hours swatting bitting insects to get that perfect shot!
Lolol..or the leeches on the ground!!!
YES...we had close encounters with leeches! One was walking (?) up my walking stick...didn't get any in my shoes...didn't go into too many really wet areas as it hadn't rained for a while....
Randy...you would have gone berserk!!!! The bush were mostly Melastomes...Nepenthes all over the place....the birds are magnificent (I actually saw a Trogon up close in the wild!!!!)...sigh.
Jaye...would love recipes...nothing complicated...especially for Sambal. And Mee Goreng... sigh.
Carol
Mount Kota Kinabalu early in the a.m. from hotel lanai...before the clouds came to hide it.
Edited to say that the hills are covered with Medinilla Magnifica....just covered. And mixed in with them is the brightest dark blue morning glory I have ever seen. A friend is sending me the photos HE took, so I can post more!!!
This message was edited Feb 9, 2008 4:39 PM
Jaye post the recipe for Simbal for all of us, I would love to try it. It will probably be as close as I'll ever get to Malay
Belachan 101:--
The primary ingredients are fresh red chillies and belachan or trasi (shrimp paste) pounded together in a mortar and pestle. You can use a blender. The ratio should be to every tsp. of roasted belachan, 10 fresh chillies are used.
Belachan is made of fermented shrimp mostly sold in Asian supermarkets that carry Malaysian or Indonesian foods. BTW, belachan has a very pungent smell, but once roasted, the aroma's "improved". A substitute would be finely ground dry shrimp. You can find this bottled, on the Mexican food aisle.
There's no liquid added, so the paste will be thick. Add freshly squeezed lime juice to it, before serving. Sambal is primarily used as a relish or dip.
Then from this "master" sambal, one can add shallots, garlic or onions to it, poundred together. Then saute the mixture with heated peanut oil in the wok and add veges or seafood to make into delicious main dishes. Or do like me, just saute, once the shallots and garlic are cooked, I store it in a container, and refrigerate. Good luck Robyn! Warning, you'd get addicted to it!
Sorry Carol....taking your space here...
OK....placing chair back in the corner!
Selamat Malam Sweet Ones!