2010 Moon Festival

2010 Moon Festival on 18th September 2010

18th September 2010 6:30 to 9:30 PM Tawau Buddhist Temple

普照寺慈悲人間迎月會

This festival falls on Chinese Calendar's  8th moon, 15th day that is 22nd September 2010.

The Tawau Buddhist Temple celebrate the festival on 18th September 2010 Saturday.

The Mooncake Festival (Lantern Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival) is believed to have originated from the ancient ceremony of Sacrificing to the Moon Goddess for the year's end harvest. This is when families return to celebrate and give thanks for the year's bounty. 

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festivity for both the Han Chinese and minority nationalities inChina.

The custom of worshipping the moon can be traced back as far as the Xia and Shang Dynasties (2000B.C.-1066B.C.). In the Zhou Dynasty(1066B.C.-221B.C.), villagers held ceremonies in preparation for the arrival of winter and to celebrate the beauty of the new moon. In the later dynasties, mooncakes were baked and sent to relatives as gifts of family reunion.Traditionally, thirteen moon cakes were stacked into a pyramid to symbolise the thirteen moons of a "complete year," that is, twelve moons plus one intercalary moon.

Tonight, we went to a Mooncake celebration in Tawau Buddhist Temple. There are dancing, singing, lucky draw, body lantern costume competition, creative lantern competition and most of all, the one-hundred dishes meal. We can eat all we can as long as we don't waste. We are encouraged to bring home leftover foods or to give to the homeless.

There are enough chairs for all of us. Early birds can take the front seat. The tables in front the stage are for the VIPs.

The Malaysian Astro Champion Miss Little Ant 小蚂蚁(her nickname) came and sing a few songs.

Such a lovely pond by the road side

We drove our car around Kota Kinabatangan on our second day of the trip. We drove pass Hospital Kota Kinabatangan and along the straight clean road we saw a lovely pond . We couldn't resist the beauty of the pond and reversed to return to that spot.  It is such a lovely pond just by the road side:

There are 9 lovely wild ducks lining up and floating on the pond. Kinabatangan is well known for its wild life. The wildlife of the Lower Kinabatangan River is acknowledged by experts to be the most varied and easily accessible in all of Southeast Asia. Such as this green lake beside the Kota Kinabatangan Road.

Travelers can't come to Borneo and not visit the jungles. Visitors can't pass by Kota Kinabatangan and not visit such a lovely pond.

Photo Above : Nine Lesser Whistling Ducks or Mandarin duck ?, resting at the natural pond behind Hospital Kota Kinabatangan.

Among our hopes is placed on the Government. Hope that this pond can gain the Government's protection from developers.

Seeing ducks resting naturally in waters in towns are quite rare in Sabah.

Try to save this place of heaven!

Try to save this place of heaven! The Lower Kinabatangang River.

Above pencil sketch by Jonathan of Belgium, 2010. With following remark in his drawing:

TRY TO SAVE THIS PLACE OF HEAVEN! SAY NO TO PALM TREE PLANTATIONS! JONATHAN-BELGIUM-2010

This is SUKAU BED & BREAKFAST, the homestay accommodation we spent the 2 nights here in Sukau.

Cave Spider : A caring mother Psechrus of Gomantong

Photo above :  A Female Psechrus carrying her egg-sac in her chelicerae.

We found this female spider in Gomantong Cave during our visit on 11th September 2010. This Psechrus spider belong to Psechridae family. This species might possibly be a Psechrus curvipalpus.

With body lengths of up to 2 cm and funnel webs more than 1 m in diameter, they are the biggest cribellate spiders.

Female Psechrus carry their egg-sac in the chelicerae. They feature several characteristics normally found in ecribellate spiders, for example brood care behavior, and a colulus with no apparent function.

Psechurus is a cave dwelling spiders construct horizontal webs on the cave's ceiling and move below it. They have greatly elongated legs, with the last element being very flexible.

This Psechridae family are found around the Pacific such as in China, Myanmar, the Philippines and Thailand and  Borneo Island.

How many eyes does a spider usually has ?

Spiders have 8 eyes. Some species have only 6 eyes. Some other species have eyes but are blind.

Photo above : Psechurus spider has 8 eyes in two rows. Both rows of eyes almost straight.

Photo Above : A close up look at the pattern of this female Psechrus we found in Gomantong Caves. We can only identify it to the Family Psechridae. No further clue to which species it belong.

This species of spider can also be found in Madai Caves. Scientists found them in Batu Caves too.


This is another cave spider of the same species that I found on my first time in Gumantong Cave.


It is feeding on a captured moth.



More about Psechrus Spiders  : http://en.wikipeodia.org/wiki/Psechridae

White Cave Cockroach in Gomantong

Visited Gumantong Caves few months ago.

I was excited at first because it looks like an albino. 

But What's that Bug told me it is just a ordinary cockroach who had just sheded it's old exoskeleton.