The Almost Strongest Man Contest - May 2012

I went down to Hone Place (rugby ground near the Tanjung Aru Beach) to check out the OKS (Sabah Strongest Man) Contest. It was billed as the "Junior" event for those enthusiasts who wish to experience the Strongman contest (only three types of challenges and the weights used were lower).

But there seemed to be too many tents and even a water truck from the Jabatan Air ...

... ah, an official event at the Tanjung Aru Multi-purpose Hall ...

... the Tadau Kaamatan (Harvest Festival Celebration) organised by UPKO.

The heavy rain last night seemed to have flooded the ground ...

... instant drains by DBKK (I don't think the rubgy players will like that?).

One of the many bands (some inside the hall and others in the stalls). No music no fun.

The OKS Land Cruiser! A mobile billboard!

The giant tyre (for the tyre flip) and the rack and stones (for the Atlas Lift).

The Penampang stall had the gong gang and the Sumazau dancers.

The Tawau-Silam stall had my old friend Basari ...

... with a very colourful and flowerry pattern on his traditional costume.

Some of the other very nice ...

... and colourful ...

... patterns I saw.

But back to the OKS; here's the 100kg river stone (covered by the rubber mats to stop it from getting too hot from the sun).

The challenge is to carry it as far as possible in 90 seconds.

You can carry it like this ...

... or like this ...

... or else like this ...

... even like this ...

... until either you give up or the 90 seconds are up.

I took time out to watch the Murut dancers ...

... and went for a haircut at an old shop in Tanjung Aru.

He was a professional hairdresser, but now only "cut hair" for his old clients on the weekends.

The shop still had those old "thingies" to set the hair?

Anyway, I went back to the OKS event, where the Atlas lift was starting ...

... the stones were 90 kg each ...

... but with a bit of encouragement ...

... You Can Do It!

Hey, this event seemed unfair to the "height-challenged"!

FOUR MORE STONES? You must be JOKING!!!

Perdana Park At Night

The park was really crowded this evening. I guess there were many wanting to enjoy walking around the park on a sunday and to enjoy the musical fountain.

Showtime is 7.00 to 9.00pm.

The Lumix FZ35 I was using was known not to perform well at night (small sensor, compromised aperture due to large zoom range).

I tried a mixture of increasing the ISO (noisier photo) and long exposure (using Image Stabiliser and self-timer to reduce camera shake).

Zooming in gave a different viewpoint for a different pattern.

A very long exposure gave a "ghostly" image,

There weren't that many variations, so the show rapidly lost its novelty. It was one of those "seen it, done it, been there" kind of thing.

There seemed to be a lot of lights at the park. It was good for the users' safety, but I hope that solar-power was one of the sources.

Perdana Park At Hone Place

I paid a visit to the new Perdana Park At Hone Place this morning. Hone Place is the area surrounding the old (original) airport site which has a rugby field and previously had the government quarters. It is very near the beach at Tanjung Aru.

Perdana Park is the latest public park (with jogging track and makan stalls). It was launched by the Prime Minister on 28 January 2011. But "Don't Pray, Pray", this park had RULES!!

The Main Lobby and the "stalls". Not in operation yet, perhaps the management is still deciding. Check out the speed hump on the bottom right ...

... NOT the usual cement ones.

Around the boundary was an asphalt road (this showed the front side) ...

... the side ...

... and the back, with the morning glory growing on the fence ...

... and the BIG Bumble bees buzzing around.

Moving inside the park, there was a rubberised undulating jogging track.

It looked very nice. I will try it out another day.

There were rest huts at the far ends of the park.

Hopefully, the CCTV will reduce the possibility of vandalism and provide good safety for the public using the park.

Further in towards the middle, there was a pebbled walk surrounding the pond in the middle ...

... the outside edge with bigger pebbles providing a nice foot massage if you walked barefoot.

The pond in the middle held the musical fountains (only runs at night).

The Water Station offering free drinking water ...

... actually filtered water from the central pond.

I noticed a container-type trailer thingy. One of the stickers on it seemed to indicate it was a mobile stage ...

... what was interesting was; it had a Quebec License Plate! "Je me souviens" is the motto of Quebec City and it means "I remember".

All in all, a very nice addition to the public facilities in Kota Kinabalu. It also preserved a part of the Historical Hone Place from commercial development.