So I spent Christmas and welcomed the new year in the seaside city of
Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah and one of the biggest cities in Borneo. It's a really relaxed place, and I am particularly fond of the noticeable lack of taxi and merchant touts present in most other parts of south-east Asia. This post will be a collection of images I've taken over the course of over a week or so in Borneo. It's a little different to my usual posts in that this will be less people and photojournalism oriented, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.
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Kota Kinabalu's waterfront is where it all happens, and there's always a nice breeze present to relieve you from the tropical heat. Every day hundreds of boats make the short trip between the waterfront and the islands to deliver supplies, and fishing boats return in the evening to lay out their catch in the markets. The best part is that all the seafood can be cooked for you on the spot!
Climbing
Mt. Kinabalu was easily the highlight of my trip. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, and I struggled with slight altitude sickness near the top. It was 2 days of solid, almost non-stop (3 hours sleep overnight) hiking. However it was well worth the effort in the end.
Wild raspberries (edible) on the way up
Pendant hut - our accommodation for the night, 3280m in the sky
Mountain guide with St. John's peak (2nd highest point) in the back. Taken just below the highest point (Low's Peak). My brother reached the top first - here's his pretty nifty certificate for the achievement.
The
Kinabatangan river is renown in Borneo for it's abundance of wildlife. I've never really attempted any serious wildlife photography, so this was quite new to me. My equipment was a little limited (300mm max) so birds were out of the question. Technical limitations aside, I ended up with a few images I liked. These monkeys are long-tailed macaques:
A jungle nursery next to the Kinabatangan
My attempt at the 'blurred-forest' technique. Basically, set a slow shutter speed and pull the camera down while the shutter is open. It took a decent amount of experimentation to get a shot I liked.
A lantern bug. Borneo was chock full of the weirdest bugs I have ever seen in my life (it also holds the record for the
longest bug in the world).
The entrance to 'Clearwater Cave'. I struggled a little to take photos in some of the caves for two reasons - one, I didn't have a tripod with me - two, some of the caves were so large, I wasn't able to capture the immensity with my 17-55mm.
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All in all I really enjoyed my time here. We ate well and the people were very friendly. However it was a little frustrating having to photograph on such a short amount of time, as I would have loved to have spent longer in some locations (I could photograph the monkeys at Kinabatangan all day long).
Anyway, Hong Kong is next, a place I've visited a few times. I will be focusing a little more on the Buddhist/Taoist temples dotted throughout the city this time. Once again, thanks for taking the time to have a look!
