Life In Borneo

Posted by Daniel on January 1st, 2009 in Events

As the year 2008 came to a close, we at Lifeinborneo.com decided to take this opportunity to look back at some of the events of last year that the crew covered and share it with all our readers.

January to March
The year started quietly, as there weren’t a lot of events happening, except for one: the welcoming of the year of the rat. The Chinese community celebrated the Chinese new year in February with enthusiasm. We get to see lion dance performances, as well as the open house tradition happening all over Kota Kinabalu.

February was also the month where citizens of Kota Kinabalu celebrate the anniversary of the city on 2nd February of each year. The city hall organized a street parade at the Promenade Boulevard to commemorate this event.

Kota Kinabalu City Day 2008

April to June
As the first quarter of 2008 passed by, the night life in KK started to pick up. Blue Note started their Generation Y events, which brought in DJs from some of West Malaysia’s hottest club to spin dance tunes for KK’s night owls. Shenanigan’s Fun Pub brought J-Style fashion to KK with there Harajuku Night, where they showed models attired in Japan’s latest and most extreme teen fashion.

Generation Y

Harajuku Night

While the night partied, the morning saw international events on the seas and shores of Sabah. On the 26th of April 2008, Kota Kinabalu held the Freedom of Entry to The City ceremony at Padang Merdeka, where participants from the Royal Malaysian Navy, US Navy, Marine Nationale of France and the Royal Brunei Navy took part in the ancient naval tradition. On the 23rd of April 2008, dragon boats tore through the waters of Likas Bay during the 23rd Sabah Dragon Boat Race 2008, which saw the new-comers and locals from Tuaran beat the reigning champion Brunei for the grand prize.

Freedom of Entry to The City 2008

Sabah Dragonboat Race 2008

But the highlight was definitely in May, when Sabah and Sarawak celebrated the Harvest Festival. In Sabah, May was the time for Sabah Fest, when cultural events took place throughout the month, which ended with the most anticipated event in the Sabah Calendar – The Unduk Ngadau Grand Finals. We also went to Sarawak to experience the Sarawak World Harvest Festival 2008, where we covered their International Cultural Concert, a spectacular theme play based on a local Bidayuh folklore and the grand finals for Miss Fair & Lovely WHF 2008, Sarawak’s own unique ethnic beauty pageant.

Unduk Ngadau Grand Finals 2008

Unduk Ngadau Grand Finals 2008

Unduk Ngadau Grand Finals 2008

Sarawak World Harvest Festival 2008 – Cultural Concert

Sarawak World Harvest Festival 2008 – Panglima Kulow Theme Play

Sarawak World Harvest Festival 2008 – Miss Fair & Lovely WHF 2008

July to September
Things started to slow down after May, but there were events that kept the Lifeinborneo.com crew busy. In July, the Lifeinborneo.com team went to to coastal town of Sipitang to catch the conclusion of the 9th Gambus Festival 2008 – the biggest Gambus festival in Sabah.

Gambus Festival 2008 in Sipitang

In August 2008, we covered more interesting events: the Borneo International Cat Show 2008 at the Sabah Trade Centre and the Sabahan Bloggers Gathering 2008 at Imperial International Hotel. The Borneo International Cat Show was the first international cat show ever to be held in Sabah (and perhaps of Borneo) while the Sabahan Bloggers Gathering invited bloggers from all over Sabah. Also there was the Base Jumping event at the Tun Mustapha Tower.

Borneo International Cat Show 2008

Sabahan Bloggers Gathering 2008

Base Jumping at Tun Mustapha Tower

August and September were also important to everyone in Malaysia. 31st of August 2008 was Merdeka Day for Malaysia, and a Merdeka Day Parade was held at the Kota Kinabalu Waterfront. September 20008 was the fasting month for the Muslim community, known as the Month of Ramadhan. It was also a month which saw multitude of street hawkers selling delicacies that can only be found during the Ramadhan at Food Bazaars.

Merdeka Day Parade

Ramadhan Food Bazaar

October to December
As the Muslim community celebrated Aidilfitri, events in Kota Kinabalu started picking up again. First, there was the Borneo International Marathon 2008 – the first of its kind to be held – which brought in participants from all over the world. Then we have the Tattoo and Art Exhibition at the Monsopiad Cultural Village (a part of a month-long arts event). After that we went to Kota Belud to cover the Annual Traditional Open-Air Market, where we brought you the Tamu Kota Belud – the biggest open-air market in Sabah – the horsemanship of the Bajau people.

Borneo International Marathon 2008

Tattoo Art Exhibition at Monsopiad Cultural Village

The traditional Tamu Besar Kota Belud

In November 2008, we attended the ‘Bear Necessities’ Fundraising Event which was held at Shangri-La Tanjung Aru Resort and Spa. It was the biggest fundraising event we’ve covered so far. The event successfully raised a total amount of RM1.3 million, which will kick-start the construction of the biggest Sun Bear conservation centre in Borneo.

BSBCC Fundraiser Event

As the Christmas season filled the air in December, we covered clickstartplay.com’s HobbyCon 2008, the biggest hobby convention in KK yet. Then we covered the last sports event of 2008 in KK, the F2 World Cup Powerboat Race 2008. We end our December (and our event-coverage spree of 2008) with Red Bull Female Driver Search 2008, which was held at 1Borneo.

HobbyCon 2008

F2 World Cup Powerboat Race 2008

Red Bull Female Driver Search 2008

It has been a good year for Lifeinborneo.com. We hope that all our readers had a good year as well, and wished you all will have a better year in the new year. We look forward to experiencing the life in Borneo in 2009 with all our readers.

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Posted by Raz on December 25th, 2008 in Events, Sports

This part of the search was held at 1Borneo on Saturday 20th December. Kota Kinabalu was the final stop for the RBFDS 2008. The Red Bull Female Driver Search is held to find the best female drivers in Malaysia to join the Red Bull Rookies.

Excerpt from their website:
“The Red Bull Rookies is Malaysia’s first all-female amatuer racing team. For year 2007, four lucky young ladies were handpicked from over 600 hopefuls nationwide. The gutsy girls who made the cut are Puteri Ayu Jasmin and Leona Chin, who went on to compete in the 2008 Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race under the tutelage of Team Manager Kenvin Low, who is also the Chief Trainer at the Asia Advanced Driving Academy. Kenvin himself has finished on the podium at the Merdeka Millennium Endurance Race, making him the perfect mentor for the girls. True enough the Rookies managed to finish 6th in their class, beating out 13 professional race teams, nearly half of which didnt even finish the race!”

RBFDS’s Road Shows Nationwide:

• Kuching, Boulevard Mall – October 25 2008
• Ipoh, Dataran MBI- 8th November
• Malacca, Dataran Pahlawan – 15th November
• Penang, Autocity Juru – 22nd November
• Johor Bahru, Sutera Mall, Skudai – 6th December
• Kuala Lumpur, Republic @ Sunway Pyramid -13th December
• Kota Kinabalu, 1Borneo – 20th December

Here are some pics from that day:

Some of the participants being briefed and waiting for their turn.

A participant about to start their time attack, readied by a trainer

Another trainer from the Asia Advanced Driving Academy

Leona Chin and her Domokun

Leona demonstrates to us how it’s done.

We also experienced her driving first hand. To say that I was impressed would be an understatement. She is simply phenomenal.

This year, over 1400 participants were recruited online and later on had around 600 more participants so far (not yet included with Kota Kinabalu at the point of this writing). Red Bull will be announcing the Top 30 finalists nationwide in January 2009.

Info source: http://www.redbull.com.my/rbfds/index.html
Also check out: http://www.redbullmsia-happenings.blogspot.com/

Photos by Zie

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Posted by Raz on December 25th, 2008 in Announcement, Festivals

We here at lifeinborneo.com would like to wish all our Christian readers Merry Christmas 2008. May you and your loved ones be joyous this festive season.

Artwork by ZieDesign

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Posted by Daniel on December 15th, 2008 in Events, Sports

The F2 World Cup Powerboat Race 2008 was held at the Kota Kinabalu Waterfront from 12th to 14th of December 2008. It was the final race of this year’s World Cup Powerboat series, and also the event’s second consecutive time being held on the shores of Sabah.

The fastest Powerboat on the South China Sea

There were 18 participants in the F2000 World Cup Powerboat Race, but the spotlight was mainly on two racers – the reigning world champion Colin Jelf and the rising star from Italy, Alex Carella. There was no doubt that Colin had already won the F2 World Cup title from the points accumulated, so all eyes were on who was going to win the Malaysian leg of the F2000 World Cup Series race.

The talented young Italian clocked impressive lap times through the Free Practice and Timed Trials. He continued on to win both the Speed Record and Match Race on the second day of the race.

Colin and Alex met in the final match race on Sunday, but Alex powered through to the finish line just slightly ahead of the Briton to win the Grand Prix race. Colin Jelf won Second place, while Jean Baptiste Thomas won Third.

Here is the race result for the Sabah 2008 F2000 World Cup Powerboat Race:

For more race results, head to http://www.powersportevents.com.my.

Congratulations to Alex Carella and the Steeltrade Racing Team for a superb win, and to Colin Jelf and his team Jelf Racing for winning the overall F2 World Cup Series. We give our hands to the organizers of the event, Powersports Events Sdn. Bhd. for succesfully hosting the F2 World Cup Powerboat Race for the second consecutive year.

Overall Standing Championship Points :

45 points – Colin Jelf
29 points – Jonas Andersson
27 points – Owen Jelf
21 points – Ugis Gross
20 points – Alex Carella
20 points – Jean Baptiste Thomas
19 points – Rick Haakonsen
16 points – Yousef Al Robayan
12 points – Michael Nylund
10 points – Johan Coenradi
06 points – Sven Janson
05 points – Nick Bisterfeld
03 points – Gianni Manici
01 points – Maritns Bergholcs

Information Sources:
http://www.formula2boat.com/index.html
http://www.powersportevents.com.my/
http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=61493

Photos by Eshark and Zie

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Posted by Daniel on December 13th, 2008 in Events

HobbyCon 2008 was held last weekend (6 & 7 December). Games, figurines and costumes were the main attractions at the main event floor of Asia City Complex, KK. Organized by members of the ClickStartPlay.com forum, HobbyCon 2008 was a showcase of hobbies and activities that the modern generation of Sabah are into right now.

Bringing hobby to the public

HobbyCon (short for ‘Hobby Convention’) stem from the web-based forum known as ClickStartPlay.com, a community website based in Sabah that gathers hobbyists from around the state to share their favourite past-time activities with one another. The members, lead by the founders Mr. Hanafi Light and Mr. Lim Tzyy Shyong, came up with the idea of holding an event to enlighten the public about the hobbies that Sabahan youngsters are into. The idea then turned into a serious discussion, which then turned into a community effort. Finally, in December 2007, the first HobbyCon (dubbed HobbyCon 2007) was organized. The event was so successful, the organizers decided to turn it into a yearly event. The rest was history.

Welcome to HobbyCon 2008

HobbyCon 2008 is quite possibly the largest (and only) hobby convention in Kota Kinabalu, and perhaps all of Sabah. There were boardgames, cardgames and computer games on display, figurines at 1/6 scales and a maid cafe, where waitresses attired in Victorian maid costume served the visitors with homemade cakes and cookies.

One particular booth had a team of artist that sketched portraits for visitors. They also produce their own comic book titled The Da Dinci Code – A Party Parody, made especially for (and only available on) HobbyCon 2008.

There were also competitions held during the two day event. One of them was Magic: The Gathering cardgame tournament which was held on both days. A second one (and arguably the most attention-grabbing) was the competition for the ‘Best Cosplayer Award’, held on the second day. More than a dozen cosplay participants were involved, displaying their costumes inspired from video games, animes and mangas.

Cosplay Winners List

• 5th Place: Kenny cosplayed as Ichigo from the anime Bleach.
• 4th Place: Cheryl Lo cosplayed as Al Azif from the anime Demonbane.
• 3rd Place: Fara cosplayed as Death the Kid from the anime Soul Eater.
• 2nd Place: Melody Fung cosplayed as Rokudo Mukuro from the anime Katekyo Hitman Reborn.
• 1st Place: Kelvin Kok cosplayed as Reno from the hit video game Final Fantasy 7.

Hobby makes the world go round

HobbyCon 2008 is the biggest and the most successful event ever organized by ClickStartPlay.com so far. It’s fun, it’s entertaining and it’s informative on the ever-changing social lifestyles of Sabahans both young and the young at heart. We hope to see HobbyCon to grow even bigger and better next year. See you in HobbyCon 2009!

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Posted by Xander on December 9th, 2008 in Foods, Promotionals

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (sometimes shortened to simply “The Coffee Bean”) is a Los Angeles, California-based coffee chain, owned and operated by International Coffee & Tea, LLC. Since it was founded back in 1963 it has grown to be one of the largest coffee chains in the world.

With coffeehouse chains all across the globe and in a competitive bid with other companies, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf has come up with promotional items throughout the year for each of its chains. With Christmas just around the corner the lifeinborneo.com crew was invited for a sampling of their latest items especially for this festive season.

This Christmas promotion is not the only promo by The Coffee Bean, in fact new products are introduced every 2 months within a year. Most items are usually introduced and it revolves a particular festive season or holiday, some are even reintroduced due to popular demand from their loyal patrons.

New products are brought in from the United States’ every bi-monthly and sampled by the franchisee’ to determine whether it is acceptable to the locals. As Asians usually having differing tastes than the Americans or Europeans it is understandable to do so as some products such as herbal teas might not be as acceptable to them as it is for us here in Asia.

These items that were sampled are some of the new products that came from United States for the month of December, being the month of Christmas carols and mistletoe; some favorites includes the thick and wholesome Double Chocolate Ice Blended and the sweet Peppermint Vanilla/Chocolate Ice Blended which you must try out if you happen to be in any Coffee Bean chains in Malaysia.

Given this opportunity we also sampled other items on the list such as the hot yet minty Peppermint Latte, though maybe due to its warm nature the mint taste seems to be attenuated slightly. As staying true to the spirit of Christmas, one item did pique the interest of all that attended the sampling that night which was the Marshmallow Double Hot Chocolate. Nothing like drinking thick chocolate with the melting chunks of marshmallows to keep you warm on these cold rainy nights in Kota Kinabalu.

Coffee bean caters to the middle-class/working community more due to their mid-priced range of products making it more affordable to the public. With such a repertoire of selections its’ a waste not to enjoy these wonderful drinks and foods whenever you have the chance. Though these items are available for December, with high demands from customers they might include it in their menus indefinitely.

Foods are always up to the franchisee and it is encouraged by the franchiser to sell quality food items and always up to the discretion of the franchisee of its chains. One of the favorites that night and definitely a favorite among their customers, the Chicken Lasagna which is to me very rare for a coffeehouse chain to have in its menu. And that is probably why they have it and it was simply appetizing for its generous portion of cheese and it’s rich taste, you can’t help but savior every bite you take.

For the health-conscious, Coffee Bean also caters to their needs and customers always have the option as to how they want their beverage served. Some prefers different type of milk in their drinks and one could always opt for soya milk or skim milk, if that double hot chocolate not chocolaty enough for you then you could even ask for a thicker portion of cocoa to be added. These are just some examples as to how they can always satisfy their customers, they certainly always do.

So for the festive season of Christmas, simply drop by at your nearest Coffee Bean and enjoy their new drinks and foods; all in good company of friends and family to make for a very relaxing evening.

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