Jenna O’Grady Donley, 25, of Sydney had completed her 7-year study in veterinary science at the University of Sydney, and was due to graduate with first-class honours next week.

Off her Facebook account, taken in Africa several years ago

But before that, she decided to come to Tabin Wildlife Reserve, Sabah with a friend, Ashley Kelly, to celebrate the end of her studies. The place is about 100km from Tawau town.

By all accounts, she knew what she was in for, but what happened next can be deemed proof that anything can indeed happen, even if everything has been prepared as precisely as an inside micrometer set could help to.

On 7th December 2011, around 6.30am, she, Ashley and a local guide were making they way back to the resort after visiting a mud volcano. They then went off the trail when they spotted a pygmy elephant, believed to be a single bull. They inched closer to it, then started to take photos from 10m away. The recommended safe distance from wild elephants is at least 50m away.

Pygmy elephants can grow to 2.5 metres (8.2 feet) tall, are unique to Borneo and is an endangered species, with about 2,000 left in Sabah’s forests. The one that attacked Jenna is believed to be almost fully grown.

Single bull elephants are usually solitary and their behaviour is unpredictable.

Camera noise and light from their torches apparently agitated the animal, which then charged at Jenna who happened to be standing closest to it. The short distance between her and the elephant made it impossible for her to escape. The animal then gored her in the stomach, killing her.

Ashley and the guide escaped unhurt.

The elephant then took off and has not been seen since.

Her remains have been sent to Lahad Datu District Hospital for a post-mortem.

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The white water flows rather fast, and looks rather tempting.

But look everywhere in or around it, there’s nobody having a picnic near it, let alone bathing in the river.

Right next to the river stands the answer:

Such a pity, such a waste. I wonder whether it will ever be safe to dive in or to have motorhome insurance if one decides to bring one’s mobile home anywhere near it.

You’ll have to go over the polluted river when you visit Poring Hot Springs, Ranau, Sabah.

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Sometime in September 2011.

The bunting did not even bother to mention the month of September, it simply assumes that the reader would understand that “30″ means “30 September” and not “30 October”, thus saving precious space while keeping the letters big so as to be easily visible.

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More often than not, it will become like the following a few months after being stuck onto the underside of my windshield.

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As far as I know, it’s not an offence in Malaysia to do so, i.e. you’re not breaking any laws of the country.

Some examples:

Sometime in September 2011 in Kota Kinabalu

On 21st June 2009 in Kota Kinabalu, during the Sabah Dragon Boat Race

There are also T-shirts emblazoned with Nazi Party’s swastika sold openly.

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He wrote probably the most beautiful love song to have ever come out of Sabah – Sinar Matamu (1979?), which was hugely popular and endlessly copied then, down to every clash of the cymbals.

The original version, vocalist: Rudy Ahmad

The updated version

Apart from that he also wrote perennial karaoke favourites Bertunang, the hard-driving Siapa Gerangan and Ibu.

Bertunang (original version)

Siapa Gerangan (updated version)

Sandakan-born and bred Rashid started on music at 5 and despite formal music training, was proficient with guitars, drums, keyboards, accordion and trombone.

Of course his greatest talent was in songwriting – his songs became well-known nationwide.

He founded and was leader of D’Atomic Power (later known as simply Atomic Power), which, at one time, was one of the top groups in the country.

He passed away 27th October 2011 in Negri Sembilan at the age of 59.

RIP

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Bernama reported on 15th October 2011 that the Sultan of Kedah, Sultan Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah ibni Almarhum Sultan Badlishah, 83 will be the 14th Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King of Malaysia) for 5 years starting 13th December 2011.

Hence, he becomes the only ruler in history to be Malaysia’s King for more than once.

He was King from 21st September 1970 to 20th September 1975.

He will succeed Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin, the Sultan of Terengganu.

Sultan Abdul Halim (born 1927), who became Sultan of Kedah on 14th July 1958 attended Wadham College, Oxford for his social science and public admin bachelor’s degree.

Then

and more recently

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Dubbed “The world’s toughest mountain race”, runners run up and down the mountain, a total distance of 21 km. Starting 2012, runners will follow a new route which is longer by 2km and the event will be known as Mount Kinabalu International Climbathon: Adventure Series.

Record: Marco De Gasperi (Italy), 2010: 2:33.56. Time to summit: 1:35.29

2011 (22-23 October)
Men’s Open
1 Kílian Jornet Burgada (Spain), 23: 2:37.04
Note: prizemoney: USD4,500. He’d won the Climbathon twice before in 2007 and 2009.

2 Marco De Gasperi (Italy), 2:37:48
Note: De Gasperi first to reach the summit, clocking 1:37.49

3 Luis Alberto Hernando (Spain), 2:42.36

Best local performance: Safrey Sumping who finished 6th. He finished 5th in 2010.

Women’s Open
1 Danny Kuilin Gongot (Sabah/Malaysia), 44: 3:41.29
Note: this is her 4th win, after 1997, 1998 and 2003. She finished 5th in 2010. No Malaysian woman had won the race since 2003. Having trained for just 2 weeks, she was second to summit in 2:20.17 behind Brandy Erholtz (USA) who clocked 2:11.19. For the win, she received USD4,500. And of course she wore the RM8 Adidas Kampung.

2 Anna Frost (New Zealand): 3:50.38
Note: Frost also placed second in 2010

3 Brandy Erholtz (USA): 3:52.21s

I guess it’s safe to say that you’d never see these guys and gals dress plus size.

2010
Men’s Open
1 Marco De Gasperi (Italy), 2:33:56 (summit: 1:35.29)

2 Sudip Kulung (Nepal), 2:46.14 (summit: 1:48.04)

3 Tofol Castaner (Spain), 2:58.09 (summit: 1:50:20)

Best local performance: Safrey Sumping (5th): 3:02.47 (summit: 1:59.24)

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The following photo was taken last night around 11.30pm in Penampang, Sabah.

Conditions were perfect – good cloudless weather and the full moon was almost directly above.

No stars were visible – these 2 were the only 2 objects illuminating the sky.

Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and is located between 600+ and 900+ million km away from earth. It’s so far away that light takes around half an hour to travel from Big Jupe to us.

According to space.com:

This year’s apparition of Jupiter is an exceptionally good one. Although “Big Jupe” comes to opposition every 13 months (every time the Earth sweeps between it and the sun), 2011 is also Jupiter’s year of perihelion. This is when it is closest to the sun in its 12-year orbit, so it’s also particularly close to the Earth.

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As I blogged before, some Asian buildings do not have a floor bearing the number 4, due to the number disliked by some Chinese. So there’s no 4th, 14th, 24th floor and so on. In some buildings, there’s no 13th floor either.

So when we went to Taiwan recently, I was not surprised that most of the hotels we stayed in did not have a fourth floor, even though the tallest hotel we entered went no higher than the eighth storey.

So when we went up the Taipei 101 skyscraper (so called because it has 101 floors above ground), I was rather surprised to note that it indeed does have a fourth floor.

This is more remarkable considering that Taiwan is not only predominantly Chinese, and Taipei 101 was the world’s tallest from 2004 until Dubai’s Burj Khalifa overtook it in 2010, but also due to the fact that Taiwan has typhoons and earthquakes, yet it’s not afraid to have the dreaded fourth floor.

According to the infoboard at Taipei 101′s indoor observatory on the 89th floor, Taipei 101 is the 2nd tallest building in the world, taller than Malaysia’s Petronas Twin Towers by 50+ metres (ranked 5th tallest).

Note: you might be wondering why the lift only goes up to 5th floor. Well, everyone’s free to roam the building up to that floor (for shopping etc), then on the 5th floor you’ll find the ticket counters to go up the special lift to the 89th floor – costs NT400 per pax (about RM40 each).

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