Gaya Island: The Story Behind
Gaya island is one of the largest island, located near Kota Kinabalu town which is protected by Tunku Abdul Rahman Park. The only way to get in the island from the main land is by passenger boat. Its consumed approximately 10 minutes to reach there. If you like to traveling for leisure, Gayana Resort is suits you. Its located along Western shores of the island where boasts some beautiful coral and un-spoilt beaches.
We decided to travel the other side of the island, called Lok Urai village, its located at the eastern shores. Our visit was well received by the villagers, there were very friendly and welcoming people. Even though to the outsider or photographer.
- A fascinating view of Lok Urai Village. This shot was taken from the hill side of Gaya Island”
Its over 1000 floating people has dominated by Bajau and Filipino, still live the traditional way of fisherman. As their population grew, new floating houses has been built and spread along the shores. They don’t regard about sanitation. The position of their houses is approximately 3 – 5 meter distance to each neighbor. All is linked together by a series of wooden walkways. Imagine from the top view, you’ll see the network bridge scattered above the sea shores whereas their houses were placed in between. That’s why each family is well recognized each other, every of them. This things are unique for me and introduce you to the local and custom culture.
- A boy pass through on wooden walkways as he heading to playing area.
- Their houses has connected each other by the series of wooden walkways, forming a huge network bridge scattered around
Facilities And Lifestyles..
According to the villagers, there are only a few basic amenities such as well water supply system, schools, nurseries, mosques, retail stores and grocery. For those who needed medical treatment, they had to fetch to the main land. Most houses are well-equipped with television, set sofa and kitchen. Like the old times, this village has no electricity facilities. In order to powering up their electrical utilities, they had invested some small generators.
- The villagers power up their electrical utilities using small generator as seen at the right hand side
Most of them as fisherman. Some of them work in the city, while their wife becoming a housewives. There are also unemployed, especially of young people and youth. For speedboat owner, seems they are kept busy ferrying schoolchildren, then they traders, then housewives who would like to get some goods and daily needs at the market in town. That things happened in the whole day.
- A women who preparing “Kue-Tiaw” soup to her customer. The price for a bowl of soup is RM1
- A 70 year old women spending time with her grandchildren at balcony
For the children who don’t attend school, usually spend their daily lives together with playing the classic outdoor games, playing soccer on the other dry land area and always actively swimming regardless of time of day. Taking shower with seawater is normal and fun for them, that’s why they became a good swimmer as young as 4 years old. Either for unemployed youth, they also spend time together with playing “pool”, “pukas” and guitar. They seem to live in peace and harmony as no worries to the outside world.
- A couple of boy shows his action during taking shower in the morning
- A couple of children and youth are playing “Pukas”. One of the main local games in the Gaya Island
- One of they favorite entertainment is cock fighting. Two boys seems happy control his rooster by holding tight to its tail as seen above
- A youth shows his performance by aiming a pieces carrom using cue. The game known as “pool”. Consists with 4 hole, they just follow the number that appeared on the card to accomplish one complete game
- A couple of children are playing small portable “Pool” on the dry land area where a tons of garbage lying on the ground
- A thick smoke comes out from the bamboo cannon as his blow into the firing hole. Once the air and kerosene fuel mixture up, he would be pass the lit stick over the firing hole to make an explosion
- A couple of children are playing cards on wooden walkway. The boy seen patted to the floor in order to blow card away
PhotoStory: Gaya Street (Sunday Market), Kota Kinabalu
- Old coins for sale where displayed on the ceramic tray
old money for sale
- local handicrafts
pet is ready for sale
rubbish bin are provided along the pathway
We Learn, We Teach
The following are some interesting scenes of our recent activities at the college on October 1 to October 10, 2010.
Niah Cave Trails (Video)
- The Mouth Of Great Cave
The journey consumed about 1 hr and 30 min drove from Miri Airport to Niah National Park Headquarters. Accommodation facilities is quite comfortable, it consist of chalets units and hostel-style rooms, all with electricity and piped water. It took approximately 4 hrs on average to spent you time visiting caves, it depends on the how many caves that you wish to visit. In total you may spending about 7 hours including travel time for trekking about 3.5 km from Niah River to The Great Cave.
- Niah Cave Map
[Image/map via Sarawak Forestry]
I never seen this kind of cave before. Like the other people said, It’s very huge cave and can fit a few aircraft (Boeing 747) inside it. Have a look the video about our trail to Niah Cave on day 2. More incoming pictures inside the cave soon..stay tuned and enjoy!..
When The Sun Goes Down
Layangan Beach, Labuan.
As a sun goes down, the fascinating golden ray finally came out between the clouds right this moment. Enjoy
Exposure: 1/125 sec
ISO Speed: 100
Aperture : f/20
The World Is Mine
I managed to capture four wheel drive vehicle conquered the Merinding road, Labuan. I’d love to see that reflection shown on this vehicle due to morning sunshine.
Exposure: 1/640 sec
ISO Speed: 100
Aperture : f/2.8
Focal Length : 200 mm
Weaver Ants
Weaver Ants, Kuala Perlis
Weaver ant is one of an aggressive ants in their family. Also known by the name of Oecophylla smaragdina. They make nests in trees made of leaves stitched together using the silk produced by their larvae. In Malaysia they are sometimes mis-called “Semut Api or Fire Ants”. According to the villagers, another name is “Kerengga”.
Heron
Heron, Tanjung Aru Lake
As i passing by, a heron resting right in front of me, i simply aim and shot using my camera. So with unexpected subject, we have to survive using available tools at this moment.
KML’s Teacher’s Day Celebration
Congratulation!..Kolej Matrikulasi Labuan has finally succeed to manage Teacher’s Day with the lively one. There is various activities were carried out for two days starting on 18-19 June 2010. Here i attached several photos of those activities to my readers..Happy Teacher’s Day!..
My Greatest Wish
As your love each other, hope this frozen moment that I captured will be remembered until the last, forever. May God bless you both.
Inspiration!
It’s been a long enough to see the combination of gadget with the nature. It has become real when my friend just left her photography tools lying on the grass. Talking about photography, one of the must-have equipments are camera and lens. Why don’t you grab one and freeze the moment.
The Side Lighting & Lizard
Lighting is common thing when doing a photography, three types of famous lighting are front, side and back lighting. As seen photo above, I’m managing the second type of lighting where the lizard as a subject is located in front of me and sun lights was becoming from my right hand side. Just would like to share with, you should consider this three lighting in order to get the glamorous photo.
According to National Geography, here there is several fact about lizard family.
They spend most of their lives in the trees, but descend occasionally to feed on ants and small lizards. Other menu items include spiders, cicadas, termites, and small mammals. They vary in color and size from region to region. On average, the larger adults reach about 3 feet (0.9 meters) from head to tail and weigh up to 1.1 pounds (0.5 kilograms).
Green, or common, iguanas are among the largest lizards in the Americas, averaging around 6.5 feet (2 meters) long and weighing about 11 pounds (5 kilograms). They are also among the most popular reptile pets in the United States, despite being quite difficult to care for properly.
[Sources: National Geography]
Enter To The Small World
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To convert the world of the small things into the picture is very difficult as I thought. When I do macro photography and looking for a bugs as a subject. There is nothing I could get only for the blurry images due to slight movement. With extreme magnification of the image, I have to do several adjustments in shallow or deep depth of field to get sharp images. Then I realized, it’s very hard and too challenging just for one picture of macro photography.
Lastly, I found a tiny snake lying on the grass and started taking pictures. According to the villagers, they called it as “Ular Sawa Burung”. As seen picture above, its display threatening posture.
The Traffic (Time Lapse Video)(Vol. 3)
Each shot was taken every 1 seconds interval within 1 hour exposure.
Read more here for tips on how to create time lapse video.
