Friday, October 05, 2012

ATAS Auto Fair 2012

I dropped by The Sabah Trade Center this afternoon ...


... to have a look at the ATAS Auto Fair 2012.


The hall was brightly lit, with a red car right in front of the main entrance ...


... a Toyota 86; very sporty looking.


There was also one in white at the Toyota stand. The showgirl was already tired? What's funny was that there were two guys standing outside the car while there were two women inside the car! I don't know if they were together; but I hope it did not mean that the Toyota 86 is a "girly" car?


Toyota brought along the Prius ...


... and the Prius C.


The Lexus stand was next door ...


... with a nice lady handing out balloons?


The Lexus RX350 ...


... CT200H (a hybrid) ...


... and the GS250


The Honda stand was in the middle ...


... where the CR-Z was the "star" ...


... with the new Civic.


The Hyundai stand had the very pretty Elantra ...


... and the bigger Sonata.


The new Mazda BT-50 twin cab (much prettier than the new Ford Ranger - the same chassis) ...


... the Mazda 2 ...


... the Mazda 3 ...


... the Mazda 6 ...


The latest Range Rover and Discovery ...


... the workhorse Land Rover ...


 ... the new Range Rover Evogue (front view) ...


... and the back three-quarter view.


The Ford Fiesta ...


... another Fiesta but with a colourful paint job ...


... and the new Ford Ranger ...


Ford had The Focus.


Isuzu only had The D-Max.


Nissan had the new Almera ...


... with the Sylphy ...


... and the Teana.


The last stand was Volkswagen; with the CC (front view) ...


... CC (back view) ...


... the big MPV Sharan ...


 ... the big SUV Toureg ...


... and the small Polo (sedan) ...


... and the much more interesting Scirocco ...


... and the iconic Beetle (front view) ...


... The Beetle (rear view).


Although not a motor show as such, not all brands were present, and not all models of cars present; it was an opportunity for the people in Kota Kinabalu to see and touch many of the cars, available for sale in Kota Kinabalu, altogether under one roof. A visit is recommended.


Meanwhile, all the boys selling the big trucks, lorries and prime mover were out there in the car park under the hot sun ...


When its too big to go under the tent ...


... it must be a big prime mover (sold by Nissan) ...


... you can be about 8 feet off the ground (looking down on those in the SUVs!).











Monday, October 01, 2012

USS John C Stennis - Kota Kinabalu

I dropped by the port to have a look at the USS John C Stennis, the US aircraft carrier that had stopped by in Kota Kinabalu for 3 days.

 
I parked properly at the layby near the port. There were some workers digging a cable trench, two fishing enthusiasts ...


... other curious people in vehicles stopped beside the main road.


The two guys were more interested in the fishing than the aircraft carrier ...

 
... they used live shrimps as bait.


Its been real hazy the past month. Visibility was noticeably affected. But no fires in Borneo or Indonesia mentioned in the news. With the haze persisting despite the heavy rains in the recent weeks, perhaps the fine particles are from all the volcanoes eruptions around the world (especially those in Indonesia and Philippines). Anyway, it made photography difficult ...


... though these two parasailing were not bothered by the haze!


Back to the ships ... This carrier is a very big ship ...

 
The USS John C Stennis is over 97,000 tonnes and over 1,000 feet long. It had a crew of over 5,000.


Its nuclear powered ...


The Air Wing (CVW-9) on board had various aircraft including the E-2C Hawkeye (the one with the round dome on top of the fuselage - it carries many antennaes inside the rotating dome) ...


... and F/A -18 Hornets ...
... recognisable by the twin tail vertical stabilisers.


I noted some new land development activities on Pulau Gaya; behind and above the water village. A new resort development?