Frankincense - A Family Cafe

I went for lunch at Frankincense. It is located at No. 17, Ground Floor, Block H, Lot 3, Sri Kepayan Commercial Centre. It in the older shoplots. You can't miss the new ones by the main road (Jalan Pintas). They are all very "orangey" in colour.



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The cafe served Nyonya & Kadazan dishes. The cafe is run by a couple; husband a Baba and wife a Kadazan local. Due to the varying tastes of the customers, such ethnic dishes are "buried" amongst the usual fried rice and stuff.

Nyonyas (females) and Babas (males) are those chinese, who had adopted a lot of the local malay culture (language, dress, cuisine), mainly from the old Straits Settlements of Malacca and Penang.

They had some old photographs on the walls. On one side were old photos of motorcars / motorcyclists in Malacca circa 1920s (the husband's father) and on the other side were photos of her father (a policeman) and views of Jesselton (now Kota Kinabalu).


One had a view of Jesselton in 1953. The white building at the left (just on-shore) looked very familiar to me. I realised it's the old post office, now the Sabah Tourism Board's office (see my posting of 7 February 2010). Those in Kota Kinabalu will know how far away from the sea the building is now!

The area next to the post office is now the Menara Jubilee. The next building (under construction in the above photo) would be the Hotel Jesselton (opened for business in 1954). The current view of the hotel was also in my posting of 7 February 2010.

There was one of Jesselton after its destruction in World War II.

There was an oil painting (copy? print?) of Jesselton in 1911. It should be noted that the British North Borneo Company started with its first township on Pulau Gaya, called Gantian. How many of us in KK know this?

I myself was educated on this fact by my cousin. He is a collector of philatelic postmarks. Here's one of his posting on the "rare" Gantian postmark he managed to obtain.

The Gantian township was abandoned (some said it was lack of fresh water & facilities on the island, while others said it was destroyed by our infamous Mat Salleh) and a new township built in 1899, on the mainland across from Gaya Island, called Jesselton (Jessel Town after Sir Charles Jessel, then the Vice Chairman of the British North Borneo Co.)

This ends the History lesson for the day. If you are interested, do search the WWW for more info.

Going totally off-thread, across from the cafe were the residential houses in Austral Park. See the Malaysia Custom of renovating your half of the semi-detached, with no regard to what the "whole" will look like!

In the next block of shops to the cafe, there was a very good cake-shop (Avena Cake Shop, if I remember correctly). Highly recommended for their Durian Cream Swissroll and Butter Cake. Unfortunately it was raining cats and dogs after lunch, so I forgot to take a photo of the place.

megaLong

Went to MegaLong Mall in Donggongon last Thursday. I wanted to visit the weekly Tamu (just behind where I took the photo above). Unfortunately it rained heavily and the pretty dull afternoon made the inside of the covered market (Tamu) too dark for good photos. So the Tamu on another day.

The mall was called Megalong, not because of the big Alongs! (Along = local slang for a loanshark), but because the mall claimed to be the longest mall in Sabah! From this end (Pizzahut), I couldn't see the other end.

At full zoom, I could make out the anchor tenant at the other end, Giant Hypermarket.

The lobby was in the center of the block. Don't bother to visit the mall yet, as only very few of the ground floor lots were in operation (1st and 2nd floors were inaccessible). Perhaps August or September would be a better time to visit this mall.

Looking out, I saw ...

A square with a statue.

It's was a statue of Datuk Peter Mojuntin.

He was a young, up and coming Kadazan leader who was killed in the 1976 plane crash (see posting of 6 June 2010).

Dragon Boat Race Kota Kinabalu 2010

Likas Bay (this morning) in Kota Kinabalu, where the finals of the Dragon Boat Race 2010 was held.

Nowadays, it's blue skies and sunshine in the mornings, and thunderstorms in the afternoons (even flash floods!)

The state mosque at Likas is just across from the event site.


The starting line was on the right of the bay and the finish line was in the distance on the left.


The dragon boat teams started out from the beach at the "Finish Line" going to the starting line. Each boat had a drummer seated upfront providing the beat.


On the way to the start. The ship in the background was waiting; either to enter the KK port or spending Sunday at anchor before sailing tomorrow.


At the starting line, with the Yayasan Sabah Building in the background.


The Race was On!


Onwards to the Finish!


A good crowd, having a good time.


No F1 Red Bull here, but there was a mini cooper Red Bull!


A good reminder that while we were enjoying ourselves, others were still working.

Best (?) Locksmith in Kota Kinabalu.

This is reputed to be the best locksmith in KK (Kampung Air actually). If you need keys (especially car keys) copied, this is the place to go. I went there on 12 June to have some extra car keys made.

My PC power supply failed the next day and I couldn't do any posting for more than a week. That's the problem when the PC (an Acer M7720) manufacturer has the parts store in KL! I had to pay for the replacement power supply unit as it was 2 weeks past the 1 year warranty!!


The locksmith is the nice gentleman at the back. The young boy (perhaps his son?) was being taught by him on locksmithing.

6 June 2010

Passing by, I noticed that the Gallery was to be officially declared open in the morning. After buying some breakfast, I grabbed my camera and paid a visit.


If you carry a camera (Not a compact point and shoot lah!), no one will stop you wandering around at these official functions! Most probably they assumed you were with the official media of photographers/journalists. Anyway I don't cause any trouble or get in the way, so no one gets upset, and I get my photos.


As the tragedy claimed the life of her husband, Tun Fuad Stephens(Fifth Chief Minister of Sabah), and also her son who was on the plane, Toh Puan Rahimah Stephens was the one to declare open the Gallery. The Mayor of Kota Kinabalu, Datuk Iliyas Ibrahim, was on her right.

Also present was Datuk Harris Salleh, the successor Chief Minister after the tragedy. He was on the second plane with Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah (the then Finance Minister of Malaysia).

The Reception Counter.

Most of the exhibits were photographs. Other exhibits included videos, books and documents. The air-conditioning was excellent!

There were some interesting photos of Malaysia Day (16 September 1963) at Padang Merdeka Kota Kinabalu.

Datuk Harris thinking about "Them Old Days"?

A replica of the Oath Stone (said to be at Keningau - put up there in 1974). The oath covered the promises of the Government on religion, land and culture in Sabah.

It seemed that the exhibits came from private collections, government departments, and the newspapers archives.

Obviously the monument was bedecked with wreaths and flowers. KK seems to have bright and beautiful mornings.

Looking closely at the plaque, I wondered why didn't they list those individuals who perished, instead of the rather anonymous "several Sabah leaders"?

Double Six Gallery at Grace Point

Grace Point Kota Kinabalu; a memorial to the "Double Six" Tragedy (center), a food court, a jogging track, and a new building (left of photo).


The memorial to the plane crash site. In 1976, this spot was in the sea (just off the shore). Progress is in reclamation!


That new building had been constructed last year. I noticed some activity in the past week and saw the curtains installed yesterday. This morning, a cleaning crew was at work inside and outside.


I saw it was named "The Double Six Gallery".


The very "Artistic" poster at the front. I have heard some locals calling Grace Point "666" instead of Double Six. I suppose they included the third six from "1976"!


It seems that the place is by DBKK (KK City Council). They expect visitors (adults) to pay RM2 each. I would expect mostly tourists to visit!

I have no idea when it will officially open. But since tomorrow is 6 June 2010, it should be the right date for the official opening. If true, then the lack of publicity is a sad reflection.

Daytime Moon

I have always been intrigued by seeing the moon in the daytime. Even after so often, and understanding the science that we see the moon because of the reflected sunlight (so it can be seen day and night), it somehow still triggers a response.

The view outside the balcony @ 7.37am yesterday. Putting my FZ35 on a tripod, disabling the Image Stabilization, sacrificing the resolution to 3 megapixels in order to get the optical zoom to 38X (949mm equivalent in 35mm SLR term), I was able to get the following:

In order to minimise any camera shake, the shot was taken using the self-timer, rather than pressing the shutter button. Of course the digital "noise" (the grainy look and color artifacts) in the photo was unavoidable due to the small sensor in the FZ35 (much smaller than those in the DSLRs).